I’ve read some pretty awful Vice articles recently by broke children who apparently don’t know how to cook and who think Blue Apron, Soylent, and MealSquares are a good deal. Obviously I need to pitch an article on #pressurecookers for #millenials, because apparently no one knows how to do it. Also, there need to be more articles about how to use Costco as a single person, and I’m considering buying a vacuum sealer just so I can write about whether or not it’s worth it to have one in the kitchen.
So, in the spirit of writing more, I’m going to start documenting the meals I’m replicating consistently (bonus: mom can read this post and know that I am feeding myself like a reasonable person)
ingredients: chicken thighs, pasta, jar of pasta sauce, assorted spices, vegetables of your choice
serves: 2
cost: about $5
I’ve been overly pleased with myself for figuring out how to prepare a 20-minute meal for 2 (before Costco changed up their chicken thigh packages, blerg, you used to get a lot more meat in those, I feel). I buy the pre-packaged chicken thighs in the Costco meat section: there are about 8 sealed packs that sell for about $16 as a unit (depending on the weight, I think they charge just under $2/pound). Here’s the deal:
Open the package. Cover chicken with spices (I use a combination of basil, lemon pepper, garlic powder, oregano, whatever, it really doesn’t matter). Put about 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of the pressure cooker then place the trivet on the bottom. Put chicken on top of the trivet. Cover the chicken with the tomato-based pasta sauce of your choice ($2).
Cook for 10 minutes under pressure. Prepare pasta ($1) on stove as chicken cooks. They will finish at the same time. There are only 2 pots to clean, and whatever dishes you use.
You can make the pasta more delicious if time/enthusiasm allow. If you are a civilized person, I recommend using fresh garlic on the chicken in place of the aforementioned garlic powder. You can also add whatever vegetables you want on top of the chicken. Lorna Sass uses wine in her chicken recipes but lately I’ve been scalding wine on the bottom of the pan and that makes for rough cleanup – maybe because I’m cooking on a gas range now instead of the electric stove I had at my old apartment. Also to be avoided: onions on the bottom of the pan.
Recipes will call for you to brown the chicken in oil on the bottom of the pan, and you can totally do that, it does come out wonderfully and adds maybe 5 minutes to the prep time, but I don’t really need a crispy outside and I’ve had the same issue with using oil as I have with wine. The chicken comes out TOTALLY FINE without browning it first.
This is 2 meals for about $5, for those of you keeping track at home (probably less if you buy stuff on sale). I don’t feel like total shit after eating this, so that has to count for something. If, like me, you are bad at eating vegetables, you can put spinach in the pasta and it doesn’t come out too stringy.