I am late to the Instant Pot game due, in part, to what my husband understands as my excessive frugalness....or something like that. So for Christmas, my love bought me what he knows I would never buy for myself. The glorious Instant Pot. What you don't yet know about me, is that I love to cook. I would do it as a profession except, as noted previously, I am practical and short of being Guy Fieri, it doesn't pay well and the hours are not great. That aside, I am not too bad of a home cook and love to expand upon recipes I find and even make up a few myself. Another source of amusement for my hubby is the fact that I rarely stick to any particular recipe and instead have to immediately make it my own. Tonight, to christen my lovely IP, I made Chicken Enchilada Soup. It was loosely based on a recipe from the site SkinnyTaste (thank you very much) which made me happy because I am a bit of a health food aficionado. I, in my standard way, changed many things around, but love that they incorporated a slow cooker section AND an IP section. Very handy for the uninitated user! Once it was complete (a mere 20 minutes in my IP), I shredded the chicken and added it back, keeping it on to warm. Then I cut up radishes (hubby loves them), green onions, and avocados along with sour cream (hubby again) , cheese, and crushed tortilla chips. It was DELICIOUS! I even squeezed a little lime in to give it a bit of a fresh twist. As a girl from Arizona I can say its not authentic, but it could very well be as a nice alternative to traditional enchiladas. The other benefit was, thanks to the IP, it really did only take about 30 minutes from preparation to serving.
For nights when we have a ton going on (and lets face it, that's most nights), the notion that I can shove a bunch of stuff (including raw chicken!) into a pot and push a few buttons is truly amazing. If I hadn't been so lazy, I would have had plenty of time to fit in a Peloton ride (I used the " need to watch it because it was the first time I've used it " excuse...not a great plan).
It comes with a great (but small) book of recipes and hubs thankfully bought me a couple of other recipe books which I can't wait to try. Of course he gets great food out of it, but I get the satisfaction of great food during the week without expending a lot of time and energy I dont usually have. Oh to have a personal chef. Another benefit is the Bluetooth capability with the app allowing me to turn on, monitor, and track progress with my IP...amazing!
All in all, I would give this recipe and the Instant Pot 5 stars for now until I can figure out what symbol works for me. I should deduct half a point for the calories I got from adding chips and cheese, but dang it it was too good not to add! I didn't pair any wine with it and wasn't feeling like beer, but I think either a delicious Negra Modela, a spicy margarita, or a good crisp white like a Sauvignon Blanc would be amazing. I actually paired the other white....milk...and that was good too.
The recipe can be found on skinnytaste.com. Huge kudos to my hubby for consistently buying me fun toys and for being the ever-patient guinea pig.
I'm going to keep searching....but for now, this one will be hard to beat!
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