Easiest Instant Pot City Chicken
Assorted cubes of meat, are placed on a skewer, coated with a thin breading, and cooked in an electric Instant Pot pressure cooker.
The meat cubes on the mini kabobs brown, as it sears, locking in the tender juices, resulting in fork-tender, succulent, meat dripping with flavor, but none of that greasy fat from the frying pan!
Why You’ll Love City Chicken From Your Instant Pot
There are a lot of reasons to love this recipe for Instant Pot City Chicken so here are just a few:
- you’ll find minimalist ingredients that combine to create fork-tender meat
- the ingredients are super easy to find
- there are no right or wrong choices when it comes to cuts of meat to make this pressure cooker city chicken recipe
- using the Instant Pot (or any pressure cooker) eliminates the need to fry the skewered meat cubes in loads of oil
- you can use the provided wooden skewers in the meat packages marked ‘city chicken’ or you can eliminate the wood skewers altogether.
- there are multiple city chicken coating options that you can use and it is eggless!
What Equipment Do You Need to Make This Updated Classic Recipe For City Chicken
Instant Pot City Chicken is something I might not ever have encountered had my family never transferred from Illinois because it is definitely a Pittsburgh thing, as well as a few other states, but no Illinois!
- electric pressure cooker (or an Instant Pot)
- large mixing bowl
- a fork,
- wood skewers (optional and often come with the city chicken meat cubes)
Ingredients For The Instant Pot City Chicken Recipe
You are probably wondering what ingredients it takes to make this updated classic recipe for city chicken right?
No worries, here is a quick overview of the ingredients:
- City Chicken Meat cubes (or a package called City Chicken)
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper
- Breadcrumbs ( or flour)
- Gravy Master
- Water
How To Make Instant Pot City Chicken
This recipe for city chicken is easy peasy, I promise!
Step 1 for my updated classic recipe for city chicken
You’ll start off using the wooden skewers in the meat package (if they came with the meat), and you’ll place about 3-4 cubes of meat per skewer, and you will repeat this process until all of the cubes are used.
As an alternative method (and I’ve done this plenty) you can eliminate the wood skewers and just cook the cubes of city chicken meat sins the skewers.
Step 2: City Chicken Coating Options
All you have to do is dip the prepared skewered meat into one of the optional coatings.
I use breading not lots, just enough, but you can dredge the skewered meat in flour, really your choice.
Step3 is all about quickly searing all the sides of your skewed meat cubes in the pressure cooker.
Place the oil in the pressure cooker, sear each side, turn and repeat until all of the city chicken mini kebabs are seared.
Step 4 is your more than halfway point, which means you are just going to replace all of the city chicken on wood skewers to the well of the pot, and add both water and the game-changing ingredient.
Drumroll, please…
Gravy master!
Step 5 is the best part because all you have to do is seal the lid on, turn the pressure cooker to meat/stew and cook!
What Do You Pair Instant Pot City Chicken With?
I will make a few suggestions for you, but ultimately this is all about what you think tastes great with this fabulous update classic recipe for city chicken, not what I think!
- Mashed potatoes
- Buttered Elbow noodles
- Scalloped Potatoes
- Mac and Cheese
- Egg Noodles and sauteed onions
- Sweet Potato Fries
How To Reheat & Store Instant Pot City Chicken Leftovers
Let’s get this wrapped up because leftovers are awesome!
Best Way To Store Leftover City Chicken in an Instant Pot
Make sure to place the leftover meat cubes in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
How Long Will The Instant Pot City Chicken Last?
When packaged properly, this entree will last up to 5 days in your refrigerator.
Can I Freeze City Chicken? YES!
If you are not planning on eating the leftovers within 5 days you should place the meat inside a plastic zipper bag and you can store it in the freezer for up to 6 months!
When it is time to reheat it from the refrigerator, I suggest taking the meat off the skewer and then heating it up in the microwave according to your ‘heat’ preferences.
If you are taking this out of the freezer, you will want to place it in the refrigerator 6-8 hours before to allow it to properly defrost and use the microwave to heat up your leftovers, again off the skewers. ‘
FAQ’S City Chicken In An Instant Pot
Are There Things Should I Know About Instant Pot City Chicken Before I Make it?
YES! Just as with any recipe, before you make it, you need to learn about it, so you know what you can expect as the end result and achieve such!
Can I Buy The City Chicken Meat That Is Already On Skewers?
YES! Absolutely you can shortcut and buy the meat already on skewers, thereby eliminating a step in the prep work!
Do I have to put the city chicken meat on skewers?
NO! That’s the beauty of this recipe, there is no right or wrong way to do this. While you will see most recipes sharing that they use skewers, I’ll tell you that if I cut my own cubed meat, I don’t take the time to skewer it!
Does it matter what type of breadcrumbs I use?
No is the short answer.
The bread crumbs can be seasoned, or plain, this is all preference, however, AVOID Panko when making City Chicken (it becomes soggy with this recipe!)
Is there chicken in this recipe?
No. You won’t find any chicken in this recipe, but you can form the meat together to look like a chicken leg that has been fried.
Instead, most city chicken skewers are made with pork, veal, and beef cubes.
That’s the beauty of City Chicken, it’s a combination of many types of meat, not just one.
A Chicago Girl’s Reaction to City Chicken
My parents were from Pittsburgh and transferred to Chicago and back. Gramma Stella, my mom’s mom, prepared City Chicken, however, it was fried.
Yet, another one of my aunts, prepared the stack of meat cubes in a simple baking dish rather than frying it.
Oil and a frying pan are not the norms, but I do have an incredible Fried Chicken recipe you should try if you love fried eats!
Rolling with our new lifestyles and technology, the Instant Pot provides the perfect way to upgrade, and update this meal!
This fantastic meat entree is crispy and full of flavor, and it’s said that City Chicken has its roots in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Michigan, and New York during the Great Depression!
City Chicken is assorted cubes of meat placed on a skewer and it can be made to resemble a chicken leg, generally fried in oil.
However, my version of Instant Pot City Chicken is not fried, making it a healthier alternative to the original recipes that circulate.
I know that this is Easiest Instant Pot City Chicken Recipe: Yummy Simplified!
For those who have experienced City Chicken, you just can’t help falling in love with the taste of each bite.
As mentioned, I’ve given this recipe a revamp, because cooking with oil is just so yesterday!
Instead of frying, I converted the recipe to an easy, no-spatter mess, with a healthier twist.
Get ready for a simple city chicken recipe that offers fast gratification, small messes, and simple ingredients resulting in meat cooked right.
Translation: the Instant Pot City Chicken recipe creates meat that just falls off the wooden skewer.
This simple to recreate recipe is worth its weight in gold.
Rather than baking and producing the tougher meat that often resulted in the scraps of meat pulled together as a series of meat cubes on a wood skewer, you’ll find my city chicken recipe to be easier, tastier, and a healthier alternative.
By my cooking standards, I’ve kept it simple, savory, and authentic, without wasting time from pot to plate!
Never worry that this won’t turn out moist and delicious just worry about making enough!
When using an Instant Pot or other brands of electric pressure cookers, you can rest assured the meat will be moist as the juice is sealed in!
That’s right, the savory cubes of City Chicken meat will be one of your signature dishes. Since it is so tasty, most will consume more than a portion.
Enjoy Your Delicious City Chicken – Tips!
Instant Pot city chicken is fast and fabulous and you will be using a light dash of some sort of oil in the liner to ‘sear and seal’ the skewers but not anywhere NEAR what you would use if you were frying.
If you don’t use the oil, the meat and breading WILL stick to the Instant Pot liner and that causes other chaos (let’s just say I already tried this for you! )
Next, do not overfill the water with this recipe, instead just enough like a level or slightly less than level with the meat. More is not better it is just more.
Your secret to success is in this bottle and trust me it will do its thing and the meat will be super tender and taste amazing.
Don’t Forget To Come Back and Let Me Know How Your Instant Pot City Chicken Turned Out
Instant Pot City Chicken
City Chicken is comfort food and now you can prepare it faster and juicier than ever using this Instant Pot recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 C Bread Crumbs
- 3 Tablespoons Gravy Master
- 4 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1/2 C Water - 3/4 Water no more
- 12 Skewers of City Chicken Meat, 3 Cubes Each 6"
- 2 pounds of meat approximately, your choice, chicken or pork
- Dash of fresh pepper is optional
- *Optional Eggs for Breading - for those that want to use an egg for breading, you can.
- Simply whisk an egg, and dunk the meat into that first, then the breadcrumb mixture.
Instructions
- Skew Meat Cubes - about 3 healthy cubes per skewer.
- Fill a bowl with the bread crumbs.
- Next, use tongs and pick up a skewer of meat, turning meat and coating as you turn.
- When you are done you will have a platter stacked and waiting to prepared.
- Don't worry the Instant Pot can take this task on easily, you will be doing this in segments.
- This is the part that takes the most time and really it's about 5 minutes total to get these all turned and seared, that's it!
- Remove each coated piece to a platter. Continue to coat all skewers and return to the plate. It's now about to be all about the Instant Pot.
- The breading takes just minutes, and do make sure to shake off any excess, that is why I use tongs, not fingers, it is quicker and cleaner.
- Alternatively, you could use a baggie to bread (do be mindful the skewer could poke a hole in the baggie!)
- Turn Instant Pot On to Saute and put Olive Oil in the liner.
- Now, transfer about 6 skewers at a time into the Instant Pot. You are going to saute these, sealing in the juices, turn to all 4 sides, just quickly sauteing.
- Remove the first batch of six and place it on a platter.
- Next, and you may need to add more olive oil (add 2 more tablespoons if necessary).
- Once all the skewers have been seared/sauteed, transfer from the plate and replace all into the Instant Pot.
- Now it is time to do an 'S' formation across the meat with the Gravy Master.
- This just means, start at the to of the meat in the pot and go to the bottom, working right to left, creating a design of an 'S' across the meat with the gravy master.
- It evenly distributes it this way.
- *** Alternatively, just put the Gravy Master into the pot between the meat.
- Either way, add in the water.
- Turn off the mode from Saute.
- Place lid atop Instant Pot.
- Seal.
- Last, choose Meat/Stew and use the minutes that show as 24 minutes. That is all you have to do.
- When the meat is done cooking, you can choose to use the Natural Release Method, or force release with a wet washcloth covering release so steam does not spew everywhere.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
You can replace breading and instead dredge through flour, very much a personal choice.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 1021Total Fat: 54gSaturated Fat: 16gUnsaturated Fat: 33gCholesterol: 407mgSodium: 707mgCarbohydrates: 41gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 88g
