Recipes By Sarah Digregorio
132 recipes found
Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken
This spicy, saucy chicken takes almost no time to prep in the morning and only 5 minutes to finish before eating. At its simplest, the recipe is a meal-in-a-bowl stew, and the toppings are key to making it feel special. You could serve the chicken over rice or a whole grain, or use it as a taco or enchilada filling (use a slotted spoon to serve the chicken, if it is very saucy). You can also add 1 cup of frozen or fresh corn, or a drained 15-ounce can of black beans or pinto beans; just add them at the end along with the fresh cilantro and scallions. The level of heat in jarred salsas can vary, so taste yours first to ensure it is to your liking. If you want more spice, leave some of the jalapeño seeds in, or use hot canned green chiles instead of mild ones.
Slow-Cooker Chicken Ragù With Herbed Ricotta
This recipe has a comforting lasagna vibe, as the spicy chicken-and-tomato sauce mingles with the rich, herby ricotta. Make the sauce as hot as you like: Begin with 1 1/2 teaspoons red-pepper flakes for a fairly mild spice level, then add more at the end if you want more heat. You’ll notice there isn’t much liquid when the chicken and vegetables go into the slow cooker, but have faith: The juices released during cooking end up making a not-too-thick ragù that is perfect for saucing pasta. In fact, because some chicken has more moisture than others, you may end up with more liquid than you’d like. If that happens, turn off the heat so the sauce cools a bit and is not bubbling, then vigorously stir in two egg yolks before you add the pasta. This adds glossy thickening power, just like it does in carbonara.
Green Masala Chicken
One of the first things I learned about Dr. Jyotsna Mhatre, my mother-in-law and a psychiatrist from Mumbai who moved to the United States in 1974, was that she is an astonishingly good cook. The first time I went to her house, she put out a giant platter of herbaceous lamb kebabs with chutneys for dipping. The platter was meant to be overgenerous and welcoming, but my cousin and I gobbled up every single bite. Dr. Mhatre, whom I call Aai (Marathi for mother), came up with this quick, saucy stir-fry inspired by the bright flavors of kharouni, a sour-spicy-sweet shrimp and unripe mango dish she grew up eating. Many Indian American home cooks use jarred ginger and garlic pastes because they’re convenient, and they incorporate nicely for a smooth sauce. You can find them, as well the chutneys called for here, at any South Asian market, as well as online. Marinating tenderizes the chicken and rounds out the flavors, but it’s entirely optional. Aai sometimes swaps in peeled shrimp for the chicken, and tofu or chickpeas work well as vegetarian options.
Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore With Mushrooms and Bacon
Cacciatore means “hunter style” in Italian, and this is a slow cooker riff on that classic Italian braise, which usually features chicken or rabbit with lots of peppers, tomatoes and wine. In this recipe, the mushrooms, bacon and wine give the finished dish a deep and delicious savoriness. The bacon does triple duty: It provides most of the fat in the recipe, it suffuses the dish with smoky flavor, and its little crispy bits hold up nicely over the long simmer. As the dish cooks, the vegetables release their juices, which don’t evaporate in the slow cooker, so this may be a more stew-like cacciatore. This makes it delicious served over pasta or polenta or in a bowl served with a hunk of crusty bread to sop up the juices. To serve it as a hoagie or submarine sandwich, use a slotted spoon to scoop the chicken and sauce onto the rolls.
Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili
This tangy, mildly spicy white-bean chili is as warming and comforting as a traditional chili, but in a lighter, brighter form. Plenty of green chiles — fresh and canned — provide kick while creamy white beans mellow it all out. To decrease the heat level, remove and discard the seeds from the jalapeño before you mince it. A large handful of chopped cilantro added at the end brings freshness, but if you don’t care for cilantro, pass it at the table along with the other toppings or omit it entirely. Continuing the spirit of customizing your chili, you can make this in the slow cooker or on the stovetop. Use 3 cups chicken stock in the slow cooker and 4 cups on the stovetop, where liquid is more likely to evaporate.
Slow-Cooker Dijon Chicken With Barley and Mushrooms
This glossy, risottolike dish is inspired by the French bistro classic of chicken in tarragon-mustard sauce. Here, those flavors are transformed into a whole-grain, one-pot weeknight meal: The barley, mushrooms and chicken cook together first, then just before eating, finish with a bag of frozen peas and a tangy mixture of crème fraîche (or sour cream) and Dijon. Make the dish vegetarian by omitting the chicken and using your favorite vegetable broth, but add about ½ cup more liquid, to substitute for the chicken juices.
Pressure Cooker Chipotle Chicken Pozole
A pressure cooker is the perfect tool for making a quick pozole that tastes like it has simmered for a long time. Traditional red pozole usually requires toasting and puréeing dried chiles for a flavorful broth, but this one relies on canned chipotles for smoky complexity. Chipotles can be fiery, so feel free to use fewer peppers if you’re concerned about the heat, but don’t skimp on the adobo sauce: It’s milder than the peppers and is packed with loads of smoky, garlicky flavor. Serve the soup in bowls with plenty of crumbled cheese, diced avocado and crushed chips, for topping. The slow-cooker version of this dish uses bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, carrots and celery, is available here.
Buffalo White Beans
This spicy-tangy vegetarian skillet comes together quickly, helped along by pantry ingredients and a few hardy vegetables. Don’t skimp on the butter! Classic Buffalo flavor depends on not just the vinegary hot sauce but also a rich butter base. Celery leaves make a fresh herbal topping; if your stalks don’t have leaves, grab some extras from the middle of the bunch.
White Bean Primavera
Pasta primavera, the creamy, vegetable-heavy pasta dish popularized in the 1980s at Le Cirque, in New York, is a little too fussy for a busy weeknight, but this reimagined white bean version comes together in less than a half-hour. The simple beans and vegetables feel fancy in their robe of cream, Parmesan, lemon juice and mustard. The dish is best with fresh spring vegetables, and it’s also very flexible: Substitute spinach for the peas, a handful of halved cherry tomatoes for the carrot, and sugar snap peas for the asparagus. Drained jarred artichoke hearts wouldn’t be out of place, either.
Vegan Pressure Cooker Red Beans and Rice
Here’s a vegan version of the classic New Orleans dish that uses smoked paprika, miso paste and soy sauce to add a savory notes. Pressure cookers are ideal for preparing dried beans; even unsoaked beans cook quickly and evenly, so that the beans become creamy but still keep their shape (though we’ve got instructions for a slow cooker approach, too). Here, you want the beans to be very tender, so that the stew is thick — with a few beans that have slightly broken down — and not soupy. This vegan version of “Monday red beans” is not as creamy as the one made with pork, so smashing a few beans against the side of the pot at the end of cooking is particularly important. Louisiana-style hot sauce is key as well.
Pressure Cooker Pot Roast
This is a classic, comforting pot roast, rich with red wine and onions. A pressure cooker works wonders on tough cuts of meat like the chuck roast called for here; the roast is braised to tenderness in a fraction of the time it would take in the oven. The trick to this perfectly cooked meal is timing: Pop the vegetables into the pressure cooker just for the last few minutes of cooking, so they are tender but not overly softened. The optional quick-pickled onions give the mellow beef and sweet vegetables an appealing tangy pop. If you’re short on time, you don’t need to thicken the cooking liquid to make a gravy; just drizzle some pan juice over the top and call it a day.
Pressure Cooker White Bean-Parmesan Soup
A pressure cooker renders dried beans buttery soft in a fraction of the time the stovetop would take. For this recipe, seek out whole wheat berries — not hulled or pearled — because they stand up to the long cook time, developing a pleasant chewiness while maintaining their shape. You can substitute whole farro or spelt, but make sure the farro is not pearled. The key to this soup’s flavor is the Parmesan rind, which infuses the soup with an earthy saltiness. Finally, don’t forget the finishing touches of lemon and parsley: They add brightness and bring other deeper flavors into sharper focus. You can also make this recipe in a slow cooker. Find that recipe here.
Pressure Cooker Sweet Potato-Coconut Curry Soup
This creamy soup makes the most of a few supermarket staples: red curry paste, coconut milk and peanut butter. Since curry pastes vary in heat and salt, be sure to taste this soup at the end and adjust the flavor as you like. The rich soup is quite thick, so if you prefer a looser soup, stir in a little extra water until it reaches your ideal consistency. Chile-lime flavored peanuts, available at some grocery stores, are particularly good for topping, but roasted salted peanuts also work beautifully. Find the slow-cooker version of this recipe here.
Slow-Cooker Curried Sweet Potato Soup With Coconut and Kale
This creamy Thai-inspired soup is all about balance: When the contrasting flavors are in harmony, it is outrageously delicious. (It is also vegan if there’s no fish or shrimp in your curry paste.) Supermarket curry pastes are a great shortcut to flavor for weeknights, but salt and spice levels can vary greatly among brands. So taste at the end, and adjust: You may need to add curry paste, sugar or lime juice to your liking. Chile-lime flavored peanuts, available at some grocery stores, are particularly good for topping — snap them up if you happen to see them. Otherwise, roasted salted peanuts will work beautifully.
Slow Cooker Pasta e Fagioli
This simple stew of long-simmered beans and tiny pasta is one of the world’s great comfort foods. Like many cucina povera classics, it is both affordable and adaptable, designed to use what you have. White beans, such as cannellini, are typically used, but just about any medium-size dried bean, like borlotti (cranberry) beans or even pinto beans will do. Beans have a wide variation in cook times, so start checking at 6 hours if you can, and know that some batches can take up to 10 hours. Fresh or frozen green beans popped in at the end of the cooking time add a welcome texture and sweetness, but feel free to omit them or to use whatever you have: shredded cabbage, broccoli rabe or fresh or frozen spinach would all work beautifully. This recipe feeds a crowd, and if you plan to have leftovers, cook the pasta separately and stir it into each serving, otherwise the pasta will soak up all the broth as it sits and become too soft.
Pressure Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken
This warming, satisfying stew takes about 30 minutes from start to finish, thanks to the pressure cooker, which makes quick work of braising chicken and melding flavors. Use your favorite jarred green salsa as a shortcut: The salsa mingles with the chicken juices to make a thick, tangy sauce that tastes like more than the sum of its parts. (Jarred salsas vary in heat levels, so be sure to taste yours first. Make the dish spicier by leaving some of the jalapeño seeds in.) Serve the chicken over rice or whole grains, which soak up the sauce, or use the chicken in tacos, burritos or enchiladas. You can also add one cup of frozen or fresh corn, or a drained 15-ounce can of black or pinto beans to the cooked chicken and simmer until just warmed through. Pass around toppings like crunchy pepitas, tortilla chips, crumbled queso fresco or avocado, to customize at will.
Instant Pot Dakdori Tang
Dakdori tang, sometimes called dakbokkeum-tang, is an easy-to-make Korean braised chicken stew. It gets its deeply savory flavor and brick-red color from gochugaru, Korean red-pepper flakes, and gochujang, the spicy, pungent and sweet fermented red chile paste. Most traditional recipes call for braising bone-in, skin-on chicken parts without browning them first, resulting in a rich dish with a layer of very delicious chicken fat on top. If you prefer a leaner broth, you can remove the skin from half the chicken parts before starting, or simply ladle some of the fat off the top before serving.
Pressure Cooker Lentil Soup With Sausage
An electric pressure cooker makes quick work of this Italian-style lentil soup, which tastes like it has simmered away on the stovetop for hours. (If time is on your side, get the slow cooker version of this recipe here.) You could use any brown or black lentils, but beluga lentils are ideal because they get creamy on the inside while retaining their shape. (Other lentils may fall apart, but the soup will be no less delicious.) Determine your leafy green selection by what the market has to offer, keeping in mind that heartier types will retain more bite. Finish the soup with a hit of red-wine vinegar and a sprinkle of fresh basil for bright, fresh flavor.
Pressure Cooker Pork Puttanesca Ragù
Inspired by puttanesca sauce, this braised pork ragù combines rich pork shoulder with the bright flavors of capers, olives and tomato. Those wary of anchovies can relax; the finished dish doesn’t taste overtly fishy. The anchovies dissolve into the sauce, providing a subtly savory note. Tomato-based sauces can trigger the burn warning in some pressure cookers. To avoid that, this recipe calls for more liquid than you would typically need, and finishes with a quick simmer to reduce the sauce to a thicker consistency. Find a slow-cooker version of this recipe here.
Pressure Cooker Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup
This comforting soup tastes long-simmered, but it’s cooked in a pressure cooker, which makes it a weeknight possibility (though you could also make this recipe in a slow cooker). Use any variety of mushrooms you like: Cremini (also called baby bella) are affordable and easy to find and work well, or you can add shiitake or oyster mushrooms for a mix of texture and flavors. Don’t worry about removing small, supple stems, but discard any that are tough or dried-out. Wild rice isn’t a true rice at all but the seed of a grass that’s native to North America. When it’s cooked, it should be pleasantly chewy and nutty, not hard, and most of the grains should be slightly split open to reveal their creamy insides.
Instant Pot Mushroom and Potato Paprikash
An electric pressure cooker is the very best appliance to use when you want deep, long-simmered flavor in very little time. Here, it’s used to make quick work of this comforting, cold-weather stew, a vegetarian adaptation of the classic Hungarian dish chicken paprikash. This version is not at all traditional, though it has mushrooms, which are common in Hungarian cooking. Avoid washing your mushrooms, which makes them less likely to sear. Instead, wipe off any dirt with a damp cloth. Meaty trumpet mushrooms add a wonderful texture to the stew, but you can use any mushrooms you like, including all-purpose creminis. This recipe can also be prepared on the stovetop. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Pressure Cooker Chicken Tagine With Butternut Squash
This warmly spiced stew is inspired by a Moroccan tagine. The word tagine describes both the clay pot traditionally used to cook the dish and the dish itself. This simplified version combines chicken with dates, which mostly disappear into the stew, imparting a honeyed sweetness. Butternut squash wedges steam on top as the chicken cooks, then get stirred in at the end, thickening the sauce. Find a slow-cooker version of this recipe here.
Honey-Soy Braised Pork With Lime and Ginger
This is a wonderfully simple and hands-off way to prepare a flavorful hunk of meat, equally suited to a weeknight or a dinner party. There is no need to brown the pork first because the meat gets appealingly dark and caramelized while braising in the rich combination of soy sauce and honey. Fresh cilantro, scallions and a squeeze of lime added just before serving bring freshness. This meal is flexible: It works over rice or other whole grains, tossed with noodles or wrapped in lettuce leaves.
Pressure Cooker Guinness Beef Stew With Horseradish Cream
The first step of this hearty cold-weather stew is to put together a quick, aromatic roux directly in the pressure cooker. It sounds fussy, but it’s really not, and it ensures that the final stew is thick and rich, not watery. Beef chuck is the ideal choice here because it is a flavorful cut that becomes fall-apart tender when pressure cooked — and it does so in a fraction of the time that it would take to braise in the oven. Espresso and cocoa powders subtly reinforce the dark, toasty flavors in the Guinness gravy. Pass the horseradish cream at the table so everyone can top their own bowls. (Here are slow cooker and oven versions of the recipe.)