Sweet and Sour Chicken (or Pork) - A New-to-Me Vintage Recipe

One of my friends posted a recipe on her blog, and it sounded so delicious I just had to try it!  I used a dutch oven, but a wok would be better.  I even have one, but I didn't think about it when I made the recipe.

She says she found this recipe years and years ago on the back of a can of Dole pineapple.  Sometimes recipes on food packages aren't all that good.  Not this one!  YUM!  The original recipe called for 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, but so many times I've followed a recipe to the letter and the soy sauce seemed to overpower the dish, so I made the executive decision to halve the amount of soy sauce, which made it just about perfect (to me).

I actually doubled the recipe the first time I made it because I only had a 28-oz can of pineapple!  It worked just fine.


Sweet and Sour Chicken (or Pork) - from a Dole pineapple label

1 lb chicken breasts or pork tenderloin cut into 1" cubes
1 T canola oil
1 medium onion, quartered
1 clove garlic, minced
2 carrots, sliced
1 medium bell pepper, cut into chunks
1 15-oz can pineapple chunks, undrained
1/4 c vinegar
3 T brown sugar
3 T catsup
1 1/2 T lite soy sauce
1 T cornstarch
1 t ground ginger

In a large skillet or wok, heat the oil and brown the chicken.  Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent.  Add the carrots and bell pepper and cook until the carrots are tender.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, then add to the cooked chicken and vegetables in the wok and bring to a simmer.  Cook about 10 minutes until the sauce has thickened and become translucent.

Serve with rice.

Toys in the Kitchen - Part 3

Here it is!  This is the
8-quart model, and it is BIG.

Because I'm spending more time at home, I've been cooking more often, so I've gotten interested in alternative cooking methods and different kitchen gadgets and equipment.

After reading reviews and recipes and blogs, I finally took the leap and bought an Instant Pot.  I've only used it a VERY few times, so I'm still learning what it can do.  

Everyone raves about how easy and convenient the Instant Pot is.  I'm all about ease and convenience!  I'd tried ribs early on, using a recipe that used the Instant Pot for every step - searing the meat, browning onions, cooking the meat, then finishing it off with sauce.  The problem was you had to put the ribs in and out of the Instant Pot more than once.  To me, that's not convenient.  And what a mess!

Once again, I was rooting around in The Magic Box and came across three packages of ribs, frozen hard as stone.  It was the early afternoon, and I didn't want to deal with trying to thaw the meat, so, sort of remembering seeing something about cooking meat from the frozen state in the Instant Pot, I searched for "bbq frozen ribs in instant pot."  Voila!  Google to the rescue!

Quick and easy, and with the delay timer on the machine, I stacked the ribs in the Instant Pot at 2:00, pressed the button for the meat program, checked the cooking time, and set the delay for two hours.  We had delicious ribs at 6:00, and I spent the intervening time doing just about anything besides messing about in the kitchen!

So here's the procedure - I can hardly call it a recipe because there are only three ingredients other than the barbecue sauce!  So many recipes call for a spicy rub, but it really wasn't necessary, because the sauce I used was plenty spicy.


Instant Pot Barbecued Ribs

Ribs (your favorite kind), about 4 pounds (however many you can fit in your Instant Pot below the pressure cooking maximum fill line)
2 c chicken broth or apple juice
1/2 t Liquid Smoke (I used hickory)
Barbecue sauce of your choice (I used Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet 'n Spicy)

Set a silicone trivet or metal rack in the bottom of the inner pot so the meat doesn't sit in the liquid.  Add the broth or juice and Liquid Smoke.  Stack the ribs on the trivet up to the maximum fill line (or if they aren't frozen, you can curl them around the side of the inner pot in kind of a spiral). 

Close the lid, close the pressure valve.  Press either the meat program button or the pressure cook/manual button. make sure the pressure is set to high, the mode to more, and the time to 45 minutes.  It doesn't matter whether the meat is frozen or thawed; the cooking time remains the same.  It will just take longer for the temperature and pressure to reach the point where the cooking time will start if the meat is frozen.

When the cooking time is finished, either open the pressure valve after 20 minutes or just let it release naturally.

After the pop-up valve has dropped, open the Instant Pot, remove the ribs and place on a broiling pan that has been coated with non-stick spray.  Spoon barbecue sauce over each rib and spread it around a little to cover.  Place under the oven broiler with the top of the meat about 4 - 5 inches below the broiler and cook 4 - 5 minutes  If it starts to smoke, it's done! 

Take it out!  Serve it up!  Eat it up!!!