The Paleo community puts a strong emphasis on taking care of oneself through sleep and rest. As it has become more and more challenging for me to get through the demands of my day job and take care of my home and the paleo kitties, well, I have sought to become as efficient as possible at doing the things that have to be done. Cooking has to be done. I bought an Instant Pot a while back and for months it sat in my closet as I used it once for broth making and I just wasn't as happy as I typically am with my stove top pressure cooker.
Slowly, I've been giving it a chance to earn a place on the countertop of my small kitchen. As small as my kitchen is, I have to love an appliance and use it often to give it countertop space. I love love love Chicken Tikka Masala. If I go out for Indian food, this is what I order, so I was excited to see a recipe that could be make in the instant pot from The Kitchn.
What? A plated final dish picture first? As I get back into the swing of blogging, I'm going to experiment with the length/style of these reviews. Today's variation, no prep or cooking pictures except for one. Why this one? After chopping the onions and grating the ginger, the cooking and measuring was so quick, there really wasn't time to pause and take pictures without potentially burning the dish. And really, unlike most any other food blog out there, this blog is not about photography and I doubt any of you stop by for the pictures. If you do, let me know in the comments. Seriously.
I finally gave this ceramic ginger grater I bought at Sur La Table a try and I enjoyed it. I liked grating the ginger without worrying about taking my fingers off with the microplane grater.
Accessibility & Cost of Ingredients: You should be able to find everything you need for this recipe at your big box grocery store. I used my homemade chicken broth. I suggest you make your own broth.
Preparation and Cooking Time: From start to finish this recipe took me just under 45 minutes total.
Clean Up: Clean up was super easy. Everything I used except for the Instant Pot when into the dishwasher. I've bought a silicone lid to fit the inner pot which makes clean up super easy as I don't need to dirty any Pyrex for food storage.
The Paleo Review: Thumbs Up! While this recipe wasn't as creamy or tomatoey as I'm used to with Chicken Tikka Masala, it was quite tasty. This is the kind of dish you can experiment with to suit your tastes and likely not end up with something that isn't edible. For example, I need to get a different garam masala spice blend as the one I used added a bit too much cinnamon flavor for me. Also, the next time I make this I'm going to try adding some tomato paste to give it more of the tomato flavor and color that I'm looking for. I'll update the post if it improves it (or not).
And yes, that's white rice. I decided to treat myself with a small portion of yummy gluten free white rice. Russ Crandall is a bad (or really good) influence on me.
For the Instant Pot curious, I actually bought the the 7 in 1 model, but I think really, unless you really intend on making yogurt, it's not necessary. You can get away with the less expensive 6 in 1 model. I've been using it for my chicken broth with good results. I've been trying and even making up a few recipes of my own with it and its growing on me. It's certainly worth the $80 or less, if Amazon is having a sale, that you can get one for. Since I've been using it for broth making, I almost wish I got the larger model. The number of programs and buttons are intimidating. Finding recipes to use helps. Perhaps a full review is in order.
For those who have an Instant Pot, what's your favorite paleo recipe?