Well, well, well – LONG TIME NO CHAT! A lot has been going on this last month – I’ve been MIA and I feel terrible that I haven’t posted anything for you all to make. I moved at the end of April in preparation to build my house, I had a wedding I traveled for, and just general work busyness. I finally had some time to share my recent food adventures, let alone COOK something. I’ve taken a real liking to my Instant Pot, recently. I don’t know about you guys, but crockpot chicken is the best. I’m talking fall-apart-on-your-fork, melt-in-your-mouth chicken made from 8 hours of slow simmering in some juice.

Well… imagine my dismay when I actually used my Instant Pot for something easy, like chicken simmering in chicken broth? Life-changing…. Yes. Sometimes overlooking the simplest things is where we go wrong.

So I decided to throw a bunch of chicken breast in there, set it to cook for 35 minutes, and I was not disappointed. I let it cool and it took MOMENTS to shred with my fork for this recipe, and that is so satisfying. Literally. It is the best thing. I hate shredding chicken because it’s always clumpy. No more clumpy chicken, now! It’s the little things in life.

You could really take this in any direction… a local health food store has something similar, which inspired me to add my own twist to it. I’ll keep this short so y’all can get to eating… yum.

Curried Chicken Salad (Paleo!)

Prep time: 20 min

Cook time: 35 min

Serves 6-8 as an app, or 4-5 with sandwiches

Ingredients

• 3 chicken breasts, trimmed (no one likes that rubbery part. Take that off, yikes)
• 2 tbsp golden raisins
• 1 green Apple, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
• Handful of roasted cashews, to taste
• 3 tbsp red onion, minced
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tbsp red curry paste, or 1 tbsp curry powder
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp coriander
• ½ to 1 tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• 1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• A dash of apple cider vinegar (approx 1 tsp)
• 1-2 scallions, sliced thin, for garnish
• 2 tbsp soy free Vegenaise (or other paleo mayo brand), plus more if needed
• 1 ½ to 2 cups vegetable or chicken broth, low sodium
• 1-2 stalks of celery, sliced thin (OPTIONAL – I hate celery and would never include it.. but I realize that I’m the weirdo for that)

Directions

1. Place your chicken breast in your Instant Pot and add your broth until chicken breasts are just about covered. Secure your lid set to high (or Meat setting) for 15 minutes, lock your vent, and start.
2. While your chicken is cooking, mix together your mayo, cumin, curry, turmeric, garlic, coriander, chili powder, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl. One thing to remember is that the chicken tends to absorb a lot of the sodium in things like this – I usually err on the heavier side of salting my sauce so that once the flavors meld, it’s the right taste. Set aside once mixed.
3. Once your chicken is done and you’ve released the steam from your Instant Pot, carefully remove with a slotted spoon so as to not bring much juice over with it and place in a large bowl. Discard broth (or save for your puppy like I did 😊) Shred with a fork to desired consistency, or allow to cook further and dice/roughly chop into small, bite sized pieces.
4. Next, add your mayo mixture to your chicken. If you feel the chicken is too dry, feel free to add a tbsp more mayo, followed by an additional sprinkle of curry.
5. Gently fold in your cashews, apples, onion, cilantro and raisins and mix thoroughly (as well as your celery, if using). Garnish with pinch of scallions and serve.

Enjoy!

-S