Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken - The Recipe Rebel (2024)

FAQs

Does cooking chicken longer in Instant Pot make it more tender? ›

If your boneless chicken breast winds up with a weird, rubbery texture, it probably means that you need to cook it longer. In general, the Instant Pot does better with longer cook times for meat.

Chicken can get a rubbery texture in the instant pot when over cooked. To avoid this, try not to over cook your chicken.

Why is my Instant Pot shredded chicken rubbery? Rubbery Instant Pot shredded chicken is usually the result of overcooking the meat.

Alternative Sweet and Sour Sauce

1 cup pineapple juice. 1/3 cup water. 3 tablespoons vinegar. 1 tablespoon soy sauce.

By placing cooking liquid in the bottom of the pressure cooker and placing the chicken in the steamer basket above the liquid, you are guaranteed tender, moist chicken every time. However, you can also use the cooker to make a sauce and cook your chicken submerged in flavour.

No, just enough to keep moist while cooking - add more if you need to but usually the meat releases liquid as it cooks and it is not necessary to add more liquid.

Once you're getting 4 “jiggles” per minute, or your dial gauge has come up to pressure, start your timer and process the chicken. If you're canning pint jars, you will process them for 1 hour 15 minutes (75 minutes). If you're using quart jars, you will process for 1 hour 30 minutes (90 minutes).

Open the pot, then use a digital thermometer to check the thickest part of a piece of chicken—it should be at least 165oF. If the chicken is not quite up to temperature, put the lid back on with the vent closed and cook for another minute or two.

So can a Crock-Pot cook better chicken than an Instant Pot? Well, it really depends on what you're making. The Instant Pot cooks chicken much faster than its non-pressure counterparts, but the resulting texture isn't going to be the same as what you'd get with a slow cooker or Dutch oven.

Overcooking might play a role in your chicken's tire-like texture. Leaving chicken in a pan, oven, or grill for just a little too long can suck the moisture right out and leave you with a dry, rubbery bird. Without moisture, the protein fibers in the chicken become elastic.

Why does my chicken get hard after cooking? ›

Overcooking or cooking at too high a temperature can result in tough, dry chicken. Undercooking can leave chicken undercooked and chewy. Proper cooking techniques, such as roasting, grilling, or braising, can help maintain moisture and tenderness.

As mentioned above, overcooked chicken is the most common reason for rubbery chicken because the chicken loses moisture as it cooks. Checking the internal temperature of the chicken is the best way to avoid this.

It's thickened with a cornstarch slurry that brings the whole thing to the thick, gelatinous consistency that's a requirement in my mind.

Mayo is a great sour cream substitute. It can be used as a 1:1 replacement in both baking and dips. You'll lose some of that tang that sour cream offers, but it still does a great job at adding moisture to baked goods. Plus, it's relatively the same texture as sour cream, which makes it a great sub in dips and sauce.

Pressure cooking, like slow cooking, will tenderize tough cuts of meat like beef brisket, beef chuck, pork shoulder and lots of other cheaper, tougher cuts. Pressure cooking (or slow cooking) is not the best approach for cooking expensive, tender steaks or rib roasts.

Unfortunately, once you overcook a piece of meat in the pressure cooker, there's no going back. You'll be left with a pile of dry, crunchy, tasteless fibers and no amount of additional pressure cooking is going to put that moisture back into the meat.

In addition, chicken breast has less fat and can become dry (chewy or rubbery) if cooked for too long.