I was so excited to discover The Great Big Pressure Cooker Book: 500 Easy Recipes for Every Machine, Both Stovetop and Electric by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarborough that when I found out about it, I wrote them immediately for a copy to review!
Please note that even though this dish was made in a pressure cooker you can make this on your stovetop. Just follow the recipe and let it simmer for 40-60 minutes, until the chicken is tender.
The Cookbook & Cooking Class
I signed up for their class Make The Most Of Your Pressure Cooker at Craftsy for my birthday. I really want to take my Instant Pot as far as I can and they even BAKE with pressure cookers!
Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarborough are a great cooking team and I love that they take moments in the class to stop, talk and taste test together. I also appreciate that they discuss not only the quality of food but how much it costs to get to that level of flavour and is it worth the financial investment.
The cookbook arrived and I immediately became completely immersed in it, trying to find the best first recipe to put through my test kitchen. Last Saturday night I shared the process live via Instagram and what a hit this recipe from their cookbook was!
The Recipe
You will need 1 tbsp packed Thai Curry paste, 1 tbsp tomato paste (I was a little generous with mine, LOL), 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger, 1 tbsp smoked paprika, 3 tbsp canola or veggie oil, 2 medium red onions halved and sliced into thin half-moons, 2 1/2 lb boneless, skinless trimmed chicken thighs, 3/4 cup chicken broth and 1 1/2 tbsp packed light brown sugar.
Use a fork to mash the red curry paste, tomato paste, ginger and smoked paprika in a small bowl until you have a thick paste.
Heat oil on the sauté setting and add the onions. Cook, stirring often, until softened. About 5 minutes.
I made the sauce as directed but only had half the meat. I was wary of cooking all that chicken in case we did not like it. Also, I decided to season the meat directly since there was no seasoning mentioned in the recipe.
Add the spice paste and cook for one minute, stirring constantly.
Add the chicken.
Stir until well coated.
Pour in broth and stir well.
Lock lid onto pot. I selected the poultry setting for 15 minutes.
Use the quick-release method to bring pressure back to normal.
Transfer chicken to a plate.
Put the sauté setting back on and add the brown sugar. Bring to a simmer. Stir often until sauce is reduced by half. This only took four minutes.
Pour sauce on top of chicken.
Foodie Results
Delicious! Absolutely wonderful. The meat was so tender. Reg, who normally does not like chicken thighs, loved this dish too. Tasty, saucy and so easy… I will make this again!
I had lots of sauce left over so if I did make it with the whole 2 1/2 lbs of chicken thighs there would have been enough which gets extra kudos from me. Nothing worse than not enough sauce!
Thank you Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarborough! I can not wait to explore more of your cookbook and your Craftsy class!
I give this recipe four out a half out of five wooden spoons.
Wow, that DOES look good! I too hate recipes that are chintzy with the sauce so nice to see this one isn’t!
Oh I know, nothing worse than not enough sauce! This one is extremely generous which rocks.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I simply love it. And I’m glad you do, too.
Thank you so much for the cookbook and inspiration Mark! 🙂
This looks like something I will have to try in my IP. I’ve really been interested in learning more about curries and Indian dishes. A pressure cooking class sounds like such a neat way to learn. I recently discovered Facebook’s Instant Pot Community and have learned so much. I just attempted my first desert last week in the IP and made an amazing key lime pie. Looking forward to trying this Smokey Red Curry recipe. Did you use a particular brand of red curry paste or could recommend one?
Sounds like this recipe is right up your alley! I was part of that group too Heidi but it was so busy it filled up my inbox so I had to let it go. How did the key lime pie turn out? I used Patak’s Curry Paste but you could use whatever you want or even make your own if you feel like it.
I appreciate all the hard work you do for these posts, Suzie.
Well done.
Thank you so much my friend!
Can’t wait to try this in the Ip. Just got it yesterday. Quick question, garlic is listed in the ingredients but ginger ls mentioned in the directions. Do you use garlic or ginger? Or both?
Congrats on getting your Instant Pot NP! Good point. It is supposed to be ginger, not garlic. I will update the post. Have fun pressure cooking!