When you want stew but it's summer and standing over a hot stove for an hour just doesn't sound appealing...
Get out that instant pot!
You'll have a satisfyingly delicious stew in about 30 minutes without heating up the whole house. (Sometimes, I even plug my instant pot outside in the backyard to ensure the house doesn't heat up. ha ha)
This stew is simple, but really flavorful, with the classic combination of onions, carrots, and celery, and plenty of garlic-- like 6 whole cloves of chopped garlic and some dried granulated garlic to boot! The resulting sauce is so good, you're gonna want to mop up every last drop of the sauce on your plate with some crusty bread.
By the way, this recipe makes a lot, so share! As pictured above, I split the dish into two tupperwares so that I can give one to my sister!
Some tips:
If you have time, pre-marinate the chicken legs with salt so the salt penetrates the chicken. It'll taste better, and the sauce will be less salty. But if you are tight on time, this step isn't absolutely necessary.
I also tend to brown my chicken legs on a large nonstick pan rather than using the sauté function of the instant pot, primarily because every time I brown in the instant pot, I have to add a lot of oil to prevent the chicken from sticking to the pot. Plus with that many chicken legs, I have to brown in two batches in the instant pot, and dirty a plate to hold the first browned batch. So why not just brown them all in one batch on a nonstick pan to cut back on some oil and time? But if you want to brown the chicken directly in the instant pot, that's totally fine too! Go for it! The key is to make sure to brown the chicken for an extra tasty stew.
And finally, the dried granulated garlic and dried onions are needed even though you already have fresh garlic and onions because the stew is cooked in the instant pot, where the flavors don't have as long to mingle together as stewed on the stove top. So I add in these dried spices to make up for that.
Yields 6 servings
Ingredients:
- 4 lbs chicken legs (about 12 to 13 chicken legs)
- 1 ½ t salt
- 1 yellow onion, diced (about 1.5 cups)
- 1 large carrot, diced (about ¾ cups)
- 2 celery stalks, diced (about ¾ cups)
- 6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 t granulated garlic
- 1 T dried chopped onions
- 1 t Italian seasonings (mix of dried oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, sage)
- ½ t sugar
- ½ t black pepper
- 1 ½ c chicken broth
- cornstarch slurry (2 T cornstarch, ¼ c water)
Procedures:
1. Marinate chicken legs with salt for a few hours or overnight.
2. Brown chicken legs on both sides in a nonstick pan (or brown chicken in several batches in the instant pot using the saute function and a few tablespoons of oil) and transfer the browned chicken to the instant pot.
3. Sauté the chopped onions, carrots, celery and garlic in the pan with a pinch of salt for a few minutes and transfer the cooked veggies to the instant pot. (Or if sautéing veggies in the instant pot, I would brown the chicken first in batches and leave the chicken on the plate. Then sauté veggies, and then add the browned chicken to the veggies in the instant pot.)
4. Add chicken broth, granulated garlic, dried onions, italian seasonings, sugar, and pepper to the instant pot.
6. Give everything a good stir to mix. Close lid to instant pot, and place vent to seal. Set the instant pot to pressure cook for 7 minutes, with natural release for 5 minutes.
7. After the timer is up, release pressure. Carefully open the lid, and with tongs, remove the chicken pieces to a serving tray.
8. Set the instant pot to saute. Make a slurry with 2 T cornstarch and ¼ c water. When the sauce is boiling, add in cornstarch slurry and stir. Allow sauce to continue to boil for about 5 minutes to thicken while stirring intermittently. Taste sauce and adjust seasonings as needed (ie if you like more salty, add a bit more salt. If you like more spicy, add more pepper. But do this only after you have thickened the sauce because the sauce will reduce a bit as you stir and thicken.)
9. Pour sauce over chicken and serve with crusty bread.