Jasmine Rice with Curried Sweet Potato and Chicken
I have a “confession” to make. On Saturdays, I rarely cook anything for the family. Between running errands and dashing from one activity to the other, we usually would just grab some fast food and survive off of that.
Today, however, I decided to do something different and that was to pull together a quick and easy meal with the help of my trusty instant pot.
Man, I love my instant pot.
I bought it a few years back when it was all the rave and I’m happy to say, it was indeed a very good purchase.
Anyways, a while back I came up with a recipe out of the need to “stretch” a meal. Usually, I try to cook everything in my fridge before I go out and buy more food and on this occasion, I didn’t have enough rice, sweet potatoes nor chicken to make a full meal of chicken and rice or chicken and sweet potato. Happily, it came out wonderfully and I’ve been cooking it up ever since for the gang.
Here’s what you’ll need if you want to give it a go:
The flavour of the jasmine rice pairs really well with the sweet and savoury of the sweet potatoes and curry. My family absolutely loves to eat it and it is one that will always be on repeat (with no complaints!) in our household.
And here’s what you’ll get:
First things first – the rice. The ratio for jasmine rice in the instant pot is 1:1. So, if you’re making one cup of jasmine rice, use one cup of water. If you want to make two cups of rice, use two cups of water etc etc. I used two cups of rice in this recipe, added one tablespoon of avocado oil and a pinch of salt. I learned the hard way that you do not use the rice function when making jasmine rice this way or it will be completely soggy when you’re done.
Jasmine Rice
Equipment
- Instant pot
- Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 cups rice jasmine
- 2 cups water
- 1 tbsp oil avocado
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Measure out and rinse the rice until the water runs clear.
- Add all ingredients to the liner of the intant pot and stir.
- Following your pot's instructions, set the time on high pressure for five minutes.
- When the timer goes off, leave the pressure cooker to naturally release after ten minutes. If it has not released, carefully switch the weight to venting (follow your instant pot directions on how to do this).
- Serve warm.
Now for the chicken/ sweet potato component of the dish. You can certainly put in any amount of chicken and sweet potato in the pot, but the key is to make sure the liquid you add is just about covering everything in the pot.
Curried chicken and sweet potato
Equipment
- Instant pot
- Bowls
- Knife
- Vegetable peeler
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken breast cubed
- 1 pount sweet potatoes orange
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 3 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt to taste
- 2 tsp black pepper freshly ground
- 1 tsp chives chopped, for garnish
Instructions
- Follow your pot's direction on how to operate and press the sauté function on your instant pot and pour the olive oil in the liner.
- Peel and dice the sweet potatoes.
- Peel and chop the onions and garlic.
- Add the onions and garlic to the pot and allow to cook for a few minutes until fragrant. Do not allow to burn.
- Add the curry powder and mix well. The mixture may become clumpy but that's okay!
- Add the chicken and allow it to cook for a few moments, stirring often to scrape the curry from the bottom of the liner.
- Add the sweet potato and combine well with the chicken/onion/ garlic mixure until everything is well coated.
- Pour in the can of coconut milk and stir well. If you need to, add some chicken stock or water to make sure that the chicken/ potato mixture is just submerged. We don't want too much nor too little liquid in the pot.
- Add the salt and pepper. Stir well.
- Follow your pot's directions on how to operate and close the lid, turning the weight to sealing. Press the Meat/ Stew button which on my pot will go for about 35 minutes. Allow the pressure to naturally release.
- Once done, adjust the salt and pepper to taste and serve over a bowl of jasmine rice. Garnish with chives if desired.
And there you have it, a quick and easy Saturday meal to replace the fast food or to clean out your fridge.
Happy cooking!