Smoky Barbecue Chicken

So this recipe is from Melissa Clark’s Dinner in an Instant, using an Instant Pot or Slow Cooker.  I realize that you have to have one or the other to make this recipe.  If you are not into another piece of kitchen equipment, I totally understand.  But the Instant Pot is such a good one.  Granted I do store it downstairs in my laundry room because I have no space in my kitchen for it.  But I still think it’s an invaluable tool. I am still learning about it’s many time saving ways: I just made applesauce with it, which was amazing and saved me tons of time.  Anyway, this is one of the recipes from the book with just a few tweeeks (I doubled the sauce ingredients, and used less chipotle chile sauce) and it is soooo good.  A good jumping off point for getting used to your Instant Pot if you are a first time user.  I actually just gave this recipe to someone that had her Instant Pot for awhile and was afraid to get started (me too actually, my daughter held my hand, metaphorically speaking, and I boiled water the first time, hahaha!) and she just reported to me that the recipe was great.  So here goes:

Smoky Barbecue Chicken from Dinner in an Instant by Melissa Clark

2-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup ketchup

2 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar

4 teaspoons molasses

4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon of the sauce from chipotle chile in adobo sauce (try this to start and if not hot enough, chop up some of the chili, add more sauce, according to your heat tolerance, mine happens to be very low)

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

2 garlic gloves, grated on a Microplane or minced

1-1/2 teaspoons sweet(or hot) smoked paprika (I used sweet)

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder

Season the chicken thighs with the salt and a sprinkling of pepper while you prepare the sauce.

Place in the Instant Pot, the ketchup, brown sugar, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, chipotle chile sauce, vinegar, garlic, paprika, pepper and mustard.  Set the Instant Pot to saute function, stir the ingredients together and simmer until mixture is thick (about 2-3 minutes) stirring occasionally.

Add all the chicken and stir together until the chicken is covered in sauce.

Cover and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes.  Let the pressure release naturally.

(Just a tip here about the Instant Pot in general:  getting the pot up to pressure and releasing the pressure takes time.  We ended up eating at 9 pm occasionally because I did not take this into consideration.  Give yourself about an hour and half for this particular recipe.)

Using tongs and then a slotted spoon, remove chicken to a large container (I used a covered glass dish for this).

Set the cooker on the saute function and simmer the sauce until thickened, about 5-10 minutes.

If you like, you can shred the chicken.  Then add some or all of the sauce back into the chicken.  If not putting all the sauce on the chicken you can serve it on the side.

Serve chicken and sauce over rice, on a roll, as is, however you like.

for the slow cooker, Melissa Clark writes this: Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 4 to 5 hours.

Enjoy!

salt and pepper chicken:

sauce ingredients:

add chicken:

pressure cook:

all done:

transfer chicken to dish and add sauce:

.