Never cooked in ours, but I may start now . We have large and use for canning.
Well, my experiment didn't turn out too well.I have some frozen chicken thighs with Jamaican Jerk seasoning. Net weight on each is a little under half a pound.
I've got five of these, but I was going to cook one in the PC tomorrow to experiment. I'm going to put it in the pot still frozen, along with some potatoes, sitting on a steamer basket.
The first time I cooked these, just followed the directions on the package that say to sear both sides in a skillet and then roast it in the oven ... but that method seems time-consuming, labor intensive, and requires clean-up of a lot of cookware. So I thought I'd try cooking them under pressure this time.
how long do you think I should keep it under pressure. Since its starting from frozen, I'm thinking 20 minutes. More? Less? Or do you think that will be too long to cook the potatoes, and I should do them separately?
Well, my experiment didn't turn out too well.
I put the frozen chicken in with some potatoes, boiled it up to pressure and then turned the heat off.
I let it sit for 15 minutes until the pressure went down on its own, and I opened the pot. The potatoes were over-cooked, soft and mushy. I should have just mashed them, but I took them out in their rustic cut form, seasoned them up and ate them.
The chicken was under-cooked. It was still pink and bloody inside, so I put it back in for another 15 minutes while I noshed on the potatoes.
After another 15 minutes, I checked on the chicken. It was now overcooked, the meat looked gray. I tried one bite and it was tough and rubbery, so I threw it out. I'm glad I only experimented with one piece, so there was only about 85cents gone to waste.
I still have four pieces of chicken left in the freezer. In the future, I think I'll go back to the searing and roasting like they recommend on the label.
I've got two Mirro pressure cookers, a 6 quart and a 22 quart. These things get a bad rap because they still use a weight to control the pressure rather than a dial, but I've been using both of these for over 15 years. I cook and can in both of them. My family likes potted meat (chicken and beef) but I absolutely hate the expense, so I make my own. I also can soups and when we fund great sales, fruits and veggies (although they typically don't require the pressure canner.
BTW, the stories about lids blowing off and explosions tend to be of the "I heard from someone who knows someone..." variety. Even the Mirros that I use have multiple / redundant safety features that make over-pressure situations pretty hard to achieve.
Cheers,
Jerry