This PRESSURE COOKER LEMON CHICKEN is a quick and easy dinner with lots of bold, bright flavors!
Have you ever used a pressure cooker? It’s kind of like a slow cooker on super fast forward. You put your ingredients in the pot, fasten the lid on tight, and wait. The pressure cooker heats up and the trapped steam increases the internal pressure and allows the temperature to rise. Braising meats normally takes hours of low, slow cooking. With a pressure cooker, you can get the same results way faster! I’ve been experimenting with some of my favorite recipes and so far I’m loving the results. I can come home from work, throw everything together in the pressure cooker and have dinner finished and on the table within an hour. I love it!
Today’s recipe is for braised lemon chicken. Usually, it would take me a couple of hours to make this by browning the meat and then braising it in the oven. With my pressure cooker, it was ready in just about 30 minutes. Pretty cool, right? Just like a slow cooker you do need to brown your meat to give it a little color and crisp the skin.
I started by sprinkling a little salt and pepper over my chicken and the browning it. You can brown your meat right in your pressure cooker so you don’t have to dirty a second pan. Once my chicken was browned I set it aside and added my onions and white wine to the pressure cooker. I cooked it for 2-3 minutes until it was reduced by 1/2 then I added my broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon slices, and olives. I placed my chicken back in the pressure cooker and it was time for the magic to begin. Now, I use an electric pressure cooker. In general, these are a little less powerful than a stovetop pressure cooker. An electric pressure cooker usually reaches about 9 PSI (pressure per square inch) on high and a stovetop pressure cooker usually reaches about 15 PSI on high. I cooked my chicken for 20 minutes on high and when the time was up I did a quick release to let the steam out. If you’re using a stovetop pressure cooker you can adjust the recipe to cook for less time, somewhere around 10 minutes on high.
The chicken came out moist and tender and bursting with bright flavors. The tangy lemon and the salty olives pair perfectly together! I served mine over rice with some of the juices poured over it and it was amazing!
Ingredients
- 4 - 6 chicken thighs and/or legs
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 Tbsp Butter unsalted
- 1 Tbsp Olive oil
- ½ Onion minced
- ¼ c White wine
- ½ c Chicken broth
- 1 ½ tsp Lemon zest
- ¼ c Lemon juice
- 1 Lemon thinly sliced
- 1 c Kalamata Olives
Instructions
- Salt and pepper the chicken.
- Add olive oil and one tbsp of butter to the pressure cooker and brown the meat in batches, cooking it for 2-3 minutes per side.
- Once the chicken is browned set it aside and add 2 tbsp of butter, the onions and white wine to the pressure cooker. Cooked it for 2-3 minutes until it is reduced by ½.
- Add the chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon slices, and olives to the pressure cooker and then place the chicken back in the pressure cooker.
- Cook on high for 20 minutes (electric pressure cooker) and the do a quick release to let the steam out.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
If you’re looking for more quick and easy chicken recipes try these!
Xavier says
What about the butter?? You either added that extra ingredient or missed it in the recip LOL.
Aubrey Cota says
The recipe has been updated to reflect where the butter fits in. Sorry about that!