What To Do With Chicken That Was Cooked Too Long In An Instant Pot

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Of the countless tasty Instant Pot recipes that exist, chicken is certainly a common protein. We'd even make the case for cooking a whole chicken in an Instant Pot. While the appliance has settings and guardrails in place to cook anything you put into it just right, the risk for overcooking remains. In an interview with Coco Morante, recipe developer and author of "The Instant Kitchen Meal Prep Cookbook," she assures us that using an Instant Pot is fairly foolproof, stating that chicken will cook perfectly as long as you "follow the recommended cook time that you see in either a well-tested recipe, or in the manual that comes with your appliance."

That said, common mistakes with Instant Pots like choosing the wrong settings or even overfilling the pot can result in overcooked chicken. "Cooking chicken for longer than needed will result in a stringy, shreddable texture — at that point, you'll want to toss it in some sauce or make a chicken salad, something that adds moisture back to the meat." It can also produce less than ideal textures that are rubbery or even mushy, so shredding is your best remedy. Fortunately, we have many chicken salad recipes to transform stringy chicken into a rich, creamy, and flavorful lunch. If you're not in the mood for a cold salad, consider shredding the meat and sauteeing it with onions in a chipotle and tomato sauce for a zesty chicken tinga recipe.

Since using the wrong setting might result in overcooked chicken, we wanted to know what the right setting to cook chicken in the Instant Pot would be. We asked Morante, and she said, "Honestly, I use the basic 'Pressure Cook' setting for just about everything, including chicken." But, the settings aren't the only determinant of perfectly cooked Instant Pot chicken; timing and ingredients also matter.

According to Morante, "One really foolproof preparation is salsa chicken, which is in my book "The Ultimate Instant Pot Cookbook". The chicken cooks in its own sauce, which is essentially just jarred salsa, some liquid, and spices." This method ensures great flavors and textures, and is easy to customize, meaning you can swap a red salsa for a green salsa, for example. You can even switch the cuisines altogether by using an umami-rich and aromatic Asian sauce blend of hoisin, soy, honey, and rice vinegar for a Chinese takeout-style meal.

Despite its name, the Instant Pot isn't as quick as you'd think. So, a useful hack to preheat the Instant Pot and speed up the cooking process is to employ the "saute" function. Turn on the appliance's saute setting as you prepare the sauce and chicken, or even use the preheated pot to actually saute aromatics or other seasonings, before adding your chicken and sauce. If you want to make a complete meal, you can cook two different dishes at once in your Instant Pot by placing the chicken on the bottom, and rice or veggies on top, separated by a trivet or steamer basket.