Quick and Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Stew Recipe (2024)

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Black beans are stewed in the pressure cooker with spicy Hatch chiles, smoky andouille sausage, and fall-off-the-bone tender chicken legs.

By

J. Kenji López-Alt

Quick and Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Stew Recipe (1)

J. Kenji López-Alt

Culinary Consultant

Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.

Learn about Serious Eats'Editorial Process

Updated September 14, 2023

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Quick and Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Stew Recipe (2)

Why It Works

  • A pressure cooker will get your chicken fall-off-the-bone tender in just about the same time as it takes to cook the black beans.
  • Minimal ingredients and only a few steps make for an easy, one-pot, ready-in-under-an-hour meal packed with flavor.

My wife has taught me many things, but few as mind-blowing and useful asthis five ingredient, one pot, 30-minutes Colombian chicken stew with potatoes and tomatoes. It works like this: Add chicken, potatoes, fresh tomatoes, sliced onion, and bay leaves to a pressure cooker. Seal the lid and heat it. As the tomatoes and chicken heat, they give off liquid which in turn cooks the potatoes while the onions add flavor to the whole thing. Because the high heat of a pressure cooker cooks so efficiently, you end up with spoon-tender chicken and potatoes in an intensely flavored broth all in 30 minutes or less. How do you like that!

The concept of using minimal, but carefully selected ingredients and relying on the pressure cooker to extract flavor while cooking them was an intriguing one, so I decided to try my hand at coming up with a few more one-pot meals in a similar style, this time using a combination of chicken and various legumes. It providesdinner for four with inexpensive ingredients, a few minutes of actual labor, one pot on the stove, and all in about one hour start to finish.

Quick and Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Stew Recipe (3)

This dish is a variation on a common theme: beans and smoked pork. As Idiscovered last year, black beans actually benefit fromnotsoaking, which makes them an ideal candidate for a fast recipe like this. I start by sautéing some sliced smoked andouille sausage in olive oil in my pressure cooker before adding some chopped onions and a big dash of cumin. Next, I add a can of diced Hatch chiles (regular diced green chiles will work fine if you can't find Hatch), my black beans, my chicken, somehomemadeor store-bought low-sodium chicken stock, and the stems from a small bunch of cilantro.

I seal it all up and bring it to high pressure. Since we're starting from raw dried beans, it takes a bit longer than thelentil versionI developed. About 40 minutes on high pressure does the trick. The chicken in this version ends up cooking to the point where it pretty much falls off the bone no matter what you do with it, so rather than trying to keep it in larger pieces, I decided to shred it before stirring it back into the finished pot.

Quick and Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Stew Recipe (4)

A handful of chopped cilantro, some lime wedges, and a dollop of sour cream and you've got yourself one heck of a stew.

January 2015

This recipe was cross-tested in 2023 and lightly edited to ensure best results.

Recipe Details

Quick and Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Stew Recipe

Prep10 mins

Cook90 mins

Active15 mins

Resting Time15 mins

Total115 mins

Serves4to 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon (15ml) vegetable or other neutral oil

  • 8 ounces smoked sausage (227g), such as andouille or kielbasa, sliced into 1/4-inch disks (1 2/3 cups)

  • 1 medium onion (8 ounces; 227g), diced (about 1 cup)

  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin

  • Two 4-ounce cans diced green chiles (preferably Hatch)

  • 8 ounces (227g) dried black beans (1 heaping cup)

  • 12 sprigs cilantro, leaves roughly chopped (1/2 cup), stems tied together with a piece of kitchen twine, divided

  • 1 quart (950ml) homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock

  • 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, plus more to taste; for table salt, use half as much by volume

  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

  • 4 chicken legs, divided into thighs and drumsticks (about 2 pounds; 900g)

  • Sour cream, for serving

  • Lime wedges, for serving

Directions

  1. In a pressure cooker, heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add sausage and cook until starting to crisp around edges, about 2 minutes. Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes longer. Add cumin and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add chiles, dried black beans, cilantro stems, and stock. Season with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Seal pressure cooker and bring to high pressure. Cook for 30 minutes. Cool pressure cooker under a cold running tap (if using an electric cooker, use the quick release valve), and open.

  2. Add chicken pieces to pressure cooker. Seal pressure cooker and bring to high pressure. Cook for 10 minutes. Cool pressure cooker under a cold running tap (if using an electric cooker, use the quick release valve), and open. Using tongs, transfer chicken pieces to a medium bowl. Discard cilantro stems. Return beans in pressure cooker to high heat and continue cooking, stirring, until reduced to a thick, stew-like consistency, about 10 minutes.

    Quick and Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Stew Recipe (5)

  3. Meanwhile, shred chicken and discard skin and bones. Stir chicken into beans, season to taste with salt and pepper, and stir in half of chopped cilantro leaves. Serve with sour cream, lime wedges, and remaining cilantro at the table.

Special Equipment

Electric or stovetop pressure cooker

Read More

  • Chicken Chile Verde Pressure Cooker
  • Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken and Chickpea Masala
  • 30-Minute Pressure Cooker Chicken With Chickpeas, Tomatoes, and Chorizo
  • Better Pressure Cooker Butter Chicken
  • Soups
  • Pressure Cooked Stews
  • Black Beans
  • Chicken Legs
  • Quick Dinners
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
468Calories
22g Fat
31g Carbs
39g Protein

×

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4to 6
Amount per serving
Calories468
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 22g28%
Saturated Fat 7g33%
Cholesterol 144mg48%
Sodium 1303mg57%
Total Carbohydrate 31g11%
Dietary Fiber 7g26%
Total Sugars 3g
Protein 39g
Vitamin C 24mg118%
Calcium 116mg9%
Iron 5mg26%
Potassium 1170mg25%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Quick and Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken and Black Bean Stew Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Does chicken cook faster in pressure cooker? ›

Pressure cookers save you time by cooking foods TWO to TEN times faster than other cooking methods. They are the fastest way to cook delicious meals: beef roasts, chicken, rice, dry beans, you name it.

Why is my pressure cooker chicken tough? ›

Chicken can get a rubbery texture in the instant pot when over cooked. To avoid this, try not to over cook your chicken. Storing the chicken in chicken broth can help rehydrate the chicken and make it less rubbery.

Do you need to soak black beans before making soup? ›

In the course of his testing, Yonan found that soaking only cut down cooking time by 25 to 30%, and it also had real drawbacks. "You lose a lot of flavors when you soak them," Yonan says. "I've never had a pot of black beans as good soaking as when I don't soak them.

Does chicken need to be submerged in a pressure cooker? ›

Chicken breasts, thighs or drumsticks

By placing cooking liquid in the bottom of the pressure cooker and placing the chicken in the steamer basket above the liquid, you are guaranteed tender, moist chicken every time. However, you can also use the cooker to make a sauce and cook your chicken submerged in flavour.

How long do you cook 2 lb of meat in a pressure cooker? ›

Cooking time: When cooking a pot roast in an Instant Pot, allow 20 minutes for every pound of meat.

Can you overcook chicken in a pressure cooker? ›

Because chicken breast is so lean, just a couple of extra minutes of cook time turns them from juicy to overcooked and dry. Thighs, on the other hand, are a fattier cut, and not prone to dry out as quickly even after an extra minute or two of cooking.

Can you pressure cook chicken too long? ›

They cook quickly in the Instant Pot, but if you don't cook them long enough they get a weird, rubber-like texture that's nearly impossible to chew, and if you cook them too long, their texture gets dry.

Should I slow cook or pressure cook chicken? ›

Ultimately, slow cooking allowed our chicken to be perfectly seasoned without compromising the meat texture, a luxury pressure cooking can't afford.

Do I drain canned black beans for soup? ›

"It's fine to add the bean liquid to many recipes, but if you want to reduce the amount of sodium, it's best to drain and rinse canned beans," the website states. "A 2009 study conducted at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, showed that draining beans removes, on average, 36 percent of the sodium in canned beans.

Should I rinse canned beans for bean soup? ›

If you don't want to rinse, consider at least draining them first. Draining alone will “reduce the sodium by a third,” says Reinagel. Bottom line: If you're watching your sodium intake for your health, it won't hurt to drain and rinse your can of beans before using them.

What happens if you don't rinse black beans? ›

"If you rinse your beans thoroughly, you will have a consistently flavored product, but if you do not rinse them, different amounts of salt will remain in the dish each time you cook it, and it will be hard to cook consistently," he says.

Is it better to pressure cook or slow cook chicken? ›

So can a Crock-Pot cook better chicken than an Instant Pot? Well, it really depends on what you're making. The Instant Pot cooks chicken much faster than its non-pressure counterparts, but the resulting texture isn't going to be the same as what you'd get with a slow cooker or Dutch oven.

Does food cook faster in a pressure cooker? ›

Food cooks faster in a pressure cooker. Its because the pressure increases inside the cooker, which also increases the boiling point of water. ​So, more heat is required to reach the boiling point and is sufficient to cook food in a reduced time.

Does pressure cooker cook meat faster? ›

Because of the high-pressure environment created inside the cooker, meat (like everything else you may want to throw into your pressure cooker) can cook extremely quickly relative to other methods.

Does a pressure cooker speed up cooking? ›

“And the pressure cooker traps that hot air and moisture with the food, which expedites the cooking process. “In other words, the moisture surrounding the food itself reaches higher temperatures than it would without the pressure, which speeds up the chemical processes involved in cooking.

References

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