Instant Pot Zero Minute Chicken
Want to cook juicy, tender chicken that is zero effort? Then the Zero Minute Method is the Instant Pot method for you
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 chicken (NOT frozen) - 1.7 kg is a really good weight if you have a 5.7 litre / 6 quart Instant Pot. Any bigger and the method might not work great unless you have the 8. it's worth untrussing it (removing the string) if it's very tightly trussed
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 heaped teaspoon turmeric
- 2 bay leaves
- A couple of celery stalks cut into 3
- 1 heaped tablespoon of mixed herbs
- 1 tablespoon of my vegetable stock paste concentrate
- Water cold from the tap, up to the ⅔ line (or 4 litre mark if you have an older inner pot)
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in the inner pot in the order mentioned, fill with the water up to the ⅔ line (or 4 litre mark if you have an older inner pot). Basically at least 90% of the chicken needs to be covered in water.
- Press down on the sealing ring to make sure it’s in place properly in its rack.
- Lid on. Steam release handle pointing to Sealing.
- Press the Pressure Cook or Manual button and use the - and + buttons to programme zero minutes.
- At the end let it do a full natural pressure release. In the case of the 1.7 kg chicken a natural release takes about 22 minutes.
- Check the temperature with a meat thermometer, it should be at least 75ºC.
Got an Air Fryer Lid? Use it to crisp it up
- Cook the chicken as per the instructions, reserve the stock for risottos and soups and clean and dry the inner pot quickly.
- place the chicken on a trivet if you have one (preferably with long handles and sturdy), lower the chicken into the inner pot.
- Air fryer lid on, maximum temperature until the skin is crispy. Keep an eye on it as you don't want your chicken to dry out. Start with 5 minutes.Of course, you can also move it to an air fryer to crisp up if it fits.
Video
Notes
Play with the flavours, have fun!
Want crispy skin?
If you want you can place it in a very hot oven to crisp up but I personally don’t. I like to keep it simple. To me this Zero Minute Chicken is Zero Effort Chicken.
My Vegetable Stock Paste recipe find it here
Making Stock after cooking Instant Pot Zero Minute Chicken
Reserve the poaching liquid to cook risottos or soups. Optionally, you can place the carcass (once you’ve removed the meat) in the poaching liquid with some apple cider vinegar (which helps and pressure cook for 2 hours on high pressure with a natural pressure release for a more flavoursome stock. You can even roast the bones before adding them to the poaching liquid to do this.
Want to use the Instant Pot Duo Crisp Air Fryer lid?
Cook the chicken as per the instructions, as the Duo Crisp is an 8 litre you can get away with a larger chicken, I've done a 2.1 kg chicken that worked great!
At the end, I moved the chicken to the long-handled silicone trivet and lowered it into a clean spare inner pot (make sure you empty your stock into a different container if you only have one inner pot so that there's no liquid left in your inner pot) and then crisped up on Broil (which is set at 204ºC).
Natural Pressure Release (NPR) means letting the float valve pop back down of its own accord, so basically you don’t need to do anything at the end and can keep your feet up. If it takes over 15 minutes, you're ok to release the rest of the steam (by turning the steam release handle to Venting) that may be left in order to unlock and open the lid. In the case of the Zero Minute Chicken it's important that you do a full NPR and let the float valve drop back down on its own.
Tried this recipe?Mention @feistytapas or tag #feistytapas!
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