Use your pressure cooker and food writer Catherine Phipps’s recipes to make easy dinners that are ready in under an hour
Chicken stew & dumplings
The general rule about cooking suet dumplings in the pressure cooker has always been: don’t. However, it can be done. My method results in soft, pillowy dumplings that steam in the same time it takes the stew to cook underneath. They can then be dropped into the liquid at the end to take on some flavour. This stew is great for any root veg and leftovers – I’ve added roast potatoes, stuffing and sausagemeat before. Try cooked chicken and stock from your Sunday roast chicken carcass. If using less robust greens (green beans, shredded cabbage, broccoli or sprouting broccoli), add them in with the leeks.
SERVES 4 PREP 20 mins COOK 20 mins EASY
1 tbsp olive oil 4 chicken thigh fillets, skin-on, cut into large pieces, or 300g cooked chicken, pulled into large pieces 1 onion, thickly sliced 3 celery sticks, thickly sliced 600g root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, turnips, celeriac or celery root, potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, swede or rutabaga, but not sweet potato or squash, which will disintegrate in the cooker) bouquet garni of 2 bay leaves, 1 large thyme sprig, 2 flat-leaf parsley sprigs, 1 tarragon sprig 1 litre well-flavoured chicken stock 150g kale or chard, roughly torn or chopped 2 leeks, cut into chunks
For the dumplings
150g self-raising flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp dried herbes de Provence small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped (optional) 50g suet or butter
1 For the dumplings, put all the ingredients in a bowl and add just enough water to bind them into a fairly dry, slightly sticky dough. Divide into eight balls and set aside.
2 Heat the olive oil in the pressure cooker and sear the chicken fillets skin-side down until crisp and well browned. Remove and roughly cut up.
3 Add the onion, celery and root veg to the pressure cooker. Stir, then add the bouquet garni and season. Pour over the stock and add the kale or chard, then the chicken, skin-side up, pushing it under the liquid.
4 Put the trivet on top of the stew, then the steamer basket with the dumplings on top of that. Close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Cook for 5 mins, then allow the pressure to drop naturally. Remove the dumplings, steamer basket and trivet. If using cooked chicken, add it now along with the leeks, pushing them well into the broth. Remove the dumplings from the steamer basket and rest them on top of the leeks. Bring up to high pressure once more and, as soon as pressure is reached, fast release. Serve piping h
