One of the handiest advantages of pressure cooking is being able to prepare an entire meal at one time, in only one pot! By using a cooking rack to keep certain foods out of the cooking liquid, each food -- whether it's an entree, side dish or dessert -- retains its own delicious, individual flavor.
Ideally, you should select foods which require the same cooking time when planning a pressure cooker meal-in-one. To achieve this, it works best to simply adjust the size of the pieces of food you’re cooking. For instance, 1/2-inch slices of potato cook in 3 minutes, while 3/4-inch slices take 5 minutes. So, you can adjust cooking times by cutting your foods into larger or smaller pieces. Refer to your instruction manual to find cooking times for each food.
If the foods you select for your meal-in-one require widely different cooking times, you can easily adapt your cooking sequence to make this work. For example, when your menu features barbecued chicken (8 minutes) with corn-on-the-cob (2 minutes) and green beans (2 minutes), follow this common sense cooking schedule:
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Place chicken in pressure cooker with desired amount of cooking liquid. Close cover securely. Bring cooker to 15 pounds pressure and cook for 6 minutes.
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Cool cooker at once under cold water until pressure is completely reduced. Remove the pressure regulator and then the cover. Place corn and green beans on cooking rack in pressure cooker.
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Close cover securely. Bring pressure cooker back to 15 pounds pressure and cook 2 minutes.
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Cool cooker at once until pressure is completely reduced, remove the regulator and cover and dinner is served!
You can adapt this easy cooking method to dozens of delicious meal-in-one recipes with your pressure cooker.
Be sure to visit our Videos page where Chef Paul Miller shows you how to cook a whole meal in one pot.
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