Life, with Clotted Cream
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Instant Pot Chicken Laksa
There are very few things in the world that soothes the soul. Like sitting by a crackling fire whilst the wind sweeps eerily outside or a steaming bowl of soup that gently warms you from the inside out.
One such soup is the warming notes of a Chicken Laksa Soup. I’ve scoured the internet in search of a good recipe of this fabulous Malaysian/Thai curry soup, however, the one I present to you is a combination of many. I avoided anything shellfishy since I’m super allergic and I couldn’t believe it when I found a vegan red thai curry paste in my local supermarket – I just had to buy it. Not that I’m vegan, but because it didn’t contain any fish products. Plus, I decided to use my Instant Pot so already felt like this was going to be an accomplished dish! Winner, winner, chicken dinner…
The method
The first thing I do is take my Instant Pot’s liner out and place it right next to me where I’m chopping the vegetables. I then put the lid loosely on the IP unit as I’ve read so many times where people place their ingredients straight into the Instant Pot and then realise the liner is not in place…
I chopped the peppers and onion fairly finely as I’m not going to cook it long enough to break down into a pulp. I also minced the garlic with the back of a knife and a touch of sea salt to help the grinding process. The result is a very smooth flavourful paste.
I stir-fried this along with chicken breast cut into bitesized chunks in my Instant Pot on the sauté function until it was just browned, but not cooked. I then added the paste and chilli and cooked a little while longer.
Next I added cold water and the stock pot before letting the IP magic happen – 5 minutes on the soup setting. Because I used cold water, the pot took a while to come to pressure but I think it added to the flavour as the soup had a little more time to develop its richness as it warmed up.
From what I have seen (and read) on the Facebook Group I’ve joined, is that most people have struggled whenever milk (plant-based or dairy), pasta and tomatoes were added too soon as this often results in a burn notice. I therefore decided to only add the coconut milk once I’ve depressurised the pot. I added the milk and noodles and then put the pot into Sauté mode. This made my life tonnes easier!
I hope you like it!
Instant Pot Chicken Laksa
A rich, Thai-inspired noodle soup perfect to warm you up on a cold winter's night.
Ingredients
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 bunch spring onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked dried chipotle chilli flakes
- 1 lime, juiced and zested
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 vegetable stock pot
- 1/2 litre water
- 1 ready-made red thai curry paste
- 400ml (1 tin) coconut milk
- 1 tbsp dried coriander leaves
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 2 nests medium egg noodles
- salt to taste
Directions
- Chop the pepper and spring onions (reserve some of the green tops). Mince the garlic and chop the chicken into bitesize pieces.
- Put your Instant Pot on the Saute function (High for 10 minutes), add a dash of oil to your inner pot, add your chopped ingredients, curry paste and dried chilli flakes and saute for 10 minutes until softened.
- Once your veggies has softened and the chicken is cooked halfway, deglaze your inner pot with half of the water before adding the stock pot and the remainder of the water. Season with salt.
- Close the Instant Pot lid, put the vent on and set the pot to Soup/Broth setting for 5 minutes.
- Once the 5 minutes is up, allow the pot to release pressure naturally for 3 or so minutes, before doing a controlled release.
- When the pin is down, take the lid off and add the coconut milk, honey, soy sauce, coriander and noodles to the soup.
- Saute again for 8 minutes until noodles are cooked through.
- Once cooked, squeeze over the lime and add the zest.
Nutrition
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