Instant Pot Fesenjan Persian Chicken Stew

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I've made this Persian Fesenjan stew at Simply Recipes.com at least a dozen times over the years and it takes a bit of time, but is uniquely tasty with the rich toasted walnuts paired with the tart pomegranate berry notes. A few years ago, I made this for my Persian friend who had taught me how to make proper tahdig, koobideh, and Persian salad; and he said this recipe was good and authentic.
However, the most time consuming part in the recipe is having to constantly stir the pot over the stove during the 1.5 hours to 2 hours of stewing time, because the ground walnuts tend to sink and stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. Fast forward to today. I have an instant pot!!! So I've adapted this recipe to alleviate standing over the stove stirring for hours.
And it turned out great! So I'm sharing the recipe here so your life will be easier too!

Procedures are below as follows:
Chop 3 onions and saute them in the pan with some olive oil and 1/2 t salt until the onions are translucent and slightly brown. Transfer onions directly to the instant pot.




Remove the skin from 12 chicken drumsticks and brown them in a pan with some olive oil. When browned, transfer them to the instant pot. Deglaze the pan with 3 cups of chicken stock, and add the liquid to the instant pot. Add in all the spices, honey, and pomegranate molasses, and give it a good mix.


My friend said this Sadaf brand of pomegranate molasses is the best.



Toast the walnuts and when cooled, finely grind them, and spoon the ground walnuts on top of the chicken. At this point, do NOT mix, as you don't want the walnuts to sink to the bottom of the instant pot. Just seal the instant pot and pressure cook for 15 minutes with 15 minutes of natural release time, and the chicken will be falling off the bone.








Take out the chicken and turn on the saute function to allow the sauce to simmer and thicken with the lid off. The sauce will also darken in color as it thickens. While the sauce is thickening, remove the bones from the chicken. Pour thickened sauce over the chicken to complete this scrumptious stew.




I hope you give this recipe a try. This stew is perfect to warm you for these chilly winter nights.

NOTE: I did find that because the spices don't have as much time to meld together, I had to increase the amount of turmeric, cinnamon and nutmeg, and use bone-in chicken (removing the bones later), for the stew to taste just as good as cooked on the stove top for hours. Cooking this fesenjan stew with the instant pot is still less labor intensive than the stove top method.

Recipe adapted from simply recipes.com fesenjan


Yields 6 servings

Ingredients:

  • 4 lbs chicken drumsticks, skin removed (12 chicken drumsticks)
  • 3 medium sized yellow onions, diced
  • 3 T olive oil, divided
  • ½ c pomegranate molasses (Sadaf brand found at Persian markets)
  • ¾ lb walnut halves (about 3 cups)
  • 3 c chicken stock
  • 4 T honey
  • 1 T turmeric
  • 1 t cinnamon
  • 1 t nutmeg
  • ½ t black pepper
  • 1 ½ t salt, divided

Procedures:

1. Toast walnuts in a single layer on a sheet pan at 350 F for 8 minutes. Allow to cool, and then process to a fine ground using a food processor. Set aside.

2. Dice onions and saute in a pan with 1 T olive oil and ½ t of salt until translucent and browned. Transfer onions to the instant pot.

3. Brown chicken in a pan with remaining 2 T olive oil. Transfer to instant pot.

4. Deglaze pan with chicken stock and pour into the instant pot with the chicken and onions.

5. Add the pomegranate molasses, honey, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper and remaining 1 t salt. Give everything a good stir to mix well.

6. Add the ground walnuts to the top of the chicken. DO NOT MIX. (This is to prevent the walnut paste from sinking to the bottom and burning.) Close lid to instant pot, and place vent to seal. Set the instant pot to pressure cook for 15 minutes.

7. After the timer is up, wait 15 minutes. Then release and carefully open the lid. Remove the chicken pieces to a serving tray.

8. Set the instant pot to saute, and allow sauce to continue to boil and thicken for about 15 minutes with the lid off while stirring intermittently.

 9. Remove bones from chicken. Pour thickened sauce over chicken. Garnish with parsley or cilantro and serve over rice.