Chicken Leg Quarters in the Instant Pot

Hey Y'all,

I'm sorry i haven't been posting.  I have been very busy sewing face masks for healthcare and essential workers.  I've been lucky enough to donate over 300 reusable masks!  Woohoo!  My family has been very understanding (because I haven't been cooking much haha!).  All I do is is sew!  But, thank the Lord, this virus seems to be slowing a little and so has the need for masks.  Let's pray it goes away altogether.

Now, about the Instant Pot.  They are all the rage.  I actually bought one for my Mama for Christmas because she has always loved pressure cookers.  But, she said it was "too fancy" and gave it back! (That's my Mama, folks haha).  So, I have been using and loving it!  I like to use it for meal prep and that's what I did yesterday.  I pressure cooked 4 leg quarters, deboned them, bagged up some of the shredded chicken, then used the rest in a quick recipe.  Bonus, it makes great broth in the process!

Here's how I did it:

CHICKEN LEG QUARTERS IN THE INSTANT POT

4 leg quarters
1 1/2 cups water
salt/pepper
a small piece each onion, celery, carrot (optional)

Season the chicken well with salt and pepper (If you like a little spice also use some creole seasoning). 

Pour the 1 1/2 cups water into the bottom of the pot.   You must have water to pressure cook but it also helps to make a delicious broth. 

To flavor the broth a little more I like to add a few small pieces of onion, celery and carrot.  This is optional but it's worth it in my opinion. 

Then, put the steamer rack in place.

Place the seasoned chicken on top of the rack.

Plug the instant pot in and press the pressure cook button. 

The time you cook the chicken really depends on the size of the leg quarters. 
If they are small, 20 minutes is plenty to cook them and make the meat tender and fall off the bone. 
If they are big, like mine were, go for 25 minutes. 

*Note, if you have bone-in thighs instead of leg quarters, cook for 10 minutes.

Once the time is up, let the steam naturally release for 5 minutes, then carefully open the valve for quick release of the steam.

When the steam has finished releasing you can open the pot and remove the chicken to a platter to let cool.

Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, you can easily pull the meat from the bone. 
You get a lot of chicken!  Plus broth!

I let the broth cool, then pour it through a strainer.  It gives great flavor to anything you're cooking!

Of course you could just eat the chicken right now. Believe me, I wanted to.  But I was meal prepping.

I made skillet chicken pot pie with a biscuit topping using the shredded chicken and broth.  It came together so fast thanks to the shredded chicken I had on hand.  Plus I still have more in the fridge for later!

If you have an Instant Pot, give this a try.  It's simple and can save you a lot of time when supper rolls around.