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The Instant Pot has become a bit of a craze here at Mediterranean Living. We are creating many of our lunches and dinners in it, because it hits three of our sweet spots: 1) It is super fast. The Instant Pot has all the benefits of a crockpot, but it creates a “slow cooked” meal in less than half an hour. Meat, chicken and beans come out tender and moist and the vegetables and broth comes out fantastic. 2) It is easy. Chop up some veggies, add meat or beans, some herbs and a liquid and the prep is done. Cover, come back in 15-20 minutes to a delicious meal. 3) The food is amazing. One of the tenets of the Mediterranean Diet is slow cooking, but with the Instant Pot you get the benefits of slow cooking in a fraction of the time. I think it would be hard for most people to tell the difference between a slow cooked meal and an Instant Pot meal. This is certainly true of this Instant Pot chicken recipe.

This Paprika Chicken recipe is adapted from an old Moroccan recipe. It uses three traditional warming spices: Ginger, Cumin and Smoked Paprika. All of these herbs have healing properties from benefiting eye health (paprika) to being a potent anti-inflammatory (ginger) to acting as a digestive aid (cumin). They also create a soothing broth that feels healing from the very first sip.

I usually make this dish with polenta (as a porridge). I add a scoop of cooked polenta right in with each bowl of steaming instant pot chicken and it’s broth which is the gluten free equivalent of sopping up the juices with bread. The super flavorful broth absorbs into the polenta creating rich spoonfuls of yumminess. A simple salad along with cooked greens are a perfect compliment to Paprika chicken. I often will serve it with Sautéed Swiss Chard with Garlic which I prepare and cook while the chicken is cooking in the Instant Pot. Enjoy!

Purchasing an Instant Pot

The Instant Pot we use is the 6 quart version. It is just right for recipes that serve 4 all the way up to 8 servings. For us, it seems to be the perfect size. Below is the one we purchased from Amazon. I highly recommend it!