Pressure cooker chicken stew is the perfect comfort food with bacon, potatoes, carrots and peas for flavour. This traditional chicken stew comes together instantly in a pressure cooker. This post is sponsored by Hamilton Beach.
Is there anything better than a stew in the winter? Well how about a stew that doesn't take hours on the stove or in the slow cooker? Enter the pressure cooker.
It took me a while to get on the pressure cooker train, but I am on board! A melt in your mouth chicken stew with potatoes, carrots and peas that comes together in under an hour is a true, weeknight winter treat. What more do you need?
The truth is, I found the pressure cooker to be a little scary, I didn't love the idea of turning a valve to then have a ton of hot steam pouring out. That's why I am in love with the Hamilton Beach Multi-function Pressure Cooker-it has a unique steam release button, that keeps your hands safely away from the valve when releasing pressure.
The multi-function pressure cooker is obviously used as a pressure cooker, but it can also be used as a slow cooker and has 11 preset cooking programs.
They key to making a good stew, of any kind, is to brown the meat first. Don't skip this step! It adds a ton of flavour and I actually find this really easy in the pressure cooker, because you can use the "brown/sauté function" to brown the meat right in the same pot.
When I started working on this recipe, I found that there weren't as many pressure cooker chicken recipes as I thought there would be. Chicken breast can easily overcook in the pressure cooker, but in a stew, it ends up falling apart and it's perfect.
When making stew in the pressure cooker, always thicken at the end.
The key to making a stew in the pressure cooker is to add the thickeners at the end, after it's done cooking. Thickeners can make it difficult for the liquid to boil and generate the steam required for pressure cooking.
How to thicken a stew with a slurry?
Create a slurry by dissolving equal parts cornstarch and lukewarm water in a small bowl, then add it back to the stew, heating gently and stirring carefully so that you don't end up with any lumps.
Pressure Cooker Chicken Stew
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 slices bacon, cut into 1”4 slices
- 1 teaspoon salt, divided
- 4 chicken breasts, cut into 1” chunks
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ¾ cup white wine
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 4 yellow or white potatoes, peeled and cut into eighths
- 2 carrots, cut into 1” chunks
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoon lukewarm water
Instructions
- Set pressure cooker to “brown/saute”, add olive oil and bacon. Cook until bacon is cooked and lightly crisp, about 4 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside.
- Season chicken with ½ teaspoon salt, sear chicken in batches, for 2 minutes per side, until lightly browned, a total of 4 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside, continue with the remaining chicken. You will likely have three batches to brown.
- Add onions, garlic and remaining salt. Cook for 3 minutes until lightly browned and golden. Stir in tomato paste, stir and caramelize tomato paste for about a minute until it is a deep red. Add white wine and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, return chicken and bacon to pot, add potatoes, carrots, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves.
- Press cancel, and cover and seal with the lid. Ensure valve is closed and set to sealing position. Select high pressure and cook for 12 minutes.
- Once pressure cooker has reached pressure and cooked for 12 minutes, allow to natural release for five minutes, before carefully releasing all of the pressure.
- Open the lid, and select “brown/saute”. In a small bowl, whisk cornstarch with water, add slurry to stew. Stirring carefully, heat stew to thicken.
Waldemar
The pressure cooker chicken stew should have been called a chicken soup. The chicken broth should be greatly reduced so that the end result is a stew.
I doubled the cornstarch to try and make it thicker but it was still like a soup.
I am grateful I tried this recipe before I invited friends to enjoy it with me, I would have been very embarrassed.
Louisa Clements
Hi Waldemar, so sorry you had problems with this recipe and didn’t find the stew thick enough to your liking. I have made it many times and always test my recipe so I’m not sure what happened! Perhaps you prefer your stews thicker than this, as you can see from the photos the viscosity of the liquid.
Adrian
The recipe was teriffic. Thanks
Louisa Clements
So glad you enjoyed, Adrian!
Tammie
I cooked this for my elderly dad, he didn’t want peas, but did wa t two birds eye chillies. I also included a tspn grated ginger. Wow, how delicious . I’ll be cooking this again.
Katie
I always enjoy your recipes.This sounds delicious. Has anyone tried it in a slow cooker?
If so what timing did you use?
Thank you
Louisa Clements
Hi Katie! You could cook this on low for 6-8 hours in a slow cooker. I also have a slow cooker chicken stew recipe you could try: https://www.livinglou.com/chicken-stew-fresita-sparkling-wine/ happy cooking!
Kim
Made this again with some tweaks after enjoying it the first time as written! No bacon, subbed olive oil. Added chopped fennel with onion. No wine, subbed extra freshly-made chicken broth. Skipped the bay leaves since I’d already used them to make the broth. Upped the potatoes by one, and doubled the thickener (cornstarch & water). What a soul-satisfying meal!
Louisa Clements
Thanks Kim! These are great tweaks and tips for other folks making this recipe. Thanks for letting me know and happy cooking!
Eve
I just recently got my first pressure
Cooker and was looking for easy recipes to start with. This was perfect! I skipped on peas but used everything else. Me and my family loved it. I will definitely be making this one again. It’s a keeper.
Louisa Clements
So glad you enjoyed, Eve! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, it is much appreciated!
Lee
First time I used the pressure cooker and this was the perfect recipe to make with
Very tasty and easy to make
Louisa Clements
So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Lee!
Patricia
It was delicious!
Louisa Clements
So glad you enjoyed, Patricia!
Lesley
Can this dish be frozen
Louisa Clements
Hi Lesley! I’ve never tried it, but I can imagine that this would freeze well. Let me know how it goes!
aMac
So good…. There were no peas on the recipe but I’m going to add them next time. I did use a bit more cornstarch. Can you tell me what the green topping is on the photo? This was so yummy. A big hit! Thank you
Louisa Clements
Hey there! You’re right, there should be peas in the recipe–good catch, I’ll make that fix. It’s a sprinkling of fresh parsley, I like the brightness that it brings to the dish!
Freya
Yum!!!!! 4 stars because if I had followed the recipe and put salt in it would have been too salty! Bacon and stock have enough salt in them already in my opinion so I didn’t add the salt and it came out great! I also didn’t thicken it, it’s great as is. I used vege stock instead of chicken stock. And I replaced peas with celery. Will definitely be making this again!!!
Louisa Clements
So glad you enjoyed it Freya! Yes everyone has different tastes in terms of salt!
Robyn Pryse
Going to try this tonight, looks easy and tasty. Love my pressure cooker!!
Louisa Clements
I hoe you enjoyed it, Robyn! Let me know how it turned out. :)
Anne
We enjoyed this recipe. It wasn’t quite what we were hoping for in terms of interesting flavour but a nice, hearthy and filling meal that was easy and cheap to make. We used bone in chicken to give it some more flavour and fat (and reduce the cost further) and I think that was definitely the way to go!
One tablespoon of cornstarch wasn’t enough to thicken it for us, not sure what went wrong there. We let it cook down for at least 15 minutes and still had to add an additional tablespoon of flour. Even then it didn’t get quite as thick as the picture but it was getting there and good enough for us in our hungry state! I think in future I’d just add some less broth but good to know for others who might want to give this tasty recipe a try.
Louisa Clements
Thank you Anne! Glad you enjoyed it, I’m sorry to hear it didn’t get quite as thick as you were hoping but I’m happy that you were still able to enjoy it.
Laura Corr
This stew is absolutely delicious!! I made it in my pressure cooker that I have had for 40 years. I added frozen peas at the end.
Louisa Clements
Thanks Laura, so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Asma Sheikh
Hi Louisa,
This looks so yummy and healthy. Can I try this recipe with Rice Cooker?
Louisa Clements
Hi Asma, thank you! I’ve never tried this in a rice cooker, but you could definitely do this in a slow cooker as well. Let me know if you have any other questions!