Ginger Chicken Part I of 2

This has been the best pot of ginger chicken I have ever made. The first post of ginger chicken you read about here was a variation of my usual due to the mass quantities of lime and basil we had. This pot was my traditional form. Keeping it to the basics is what makes this dish grand and twice as grand the second time around in the Impervious' Chicken soup.

As you can see in the photos, this was a keep it simple meal... okay simple for me since I have a tendency to spend long moments just mixing spices and looking for that blend that goes with the mood and ingredients. My ginger chicken is usually this give or take an adjustment to seasonings available:
curry,
black peppercorns,
tarragon,
toasted cumin seeds (easily toasted at home),
celery seed,
chipotle Chile pepper,
red pepper,
vegetable bouillon cube and
Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base.


1. Now, with my handy-dandy mortar and broken pestle, I first crush a bit of celery seed (be easy with these, do not underestimate their power for a little bit of seed goes a LONG way), then crush into the celery seed about 1/4 tsp of the toasted cumin seed and add about 20 peppercorns into the whole mix. Set that aside.

2. Next, take your ginger and skin it. I usually skin ginger by scraping a spoon over it. The skin just peels away, but I was in a hurry and had lots of ginger to kill--it wasn't exactly the freshest stuff in my fridge by time I cooked it so I really needed to cull the herd. Sliced off the skin and tossed the unsavory sections and in the end I had about three cups of the stuff. The picture is misleading because I added more after I took that picture of the sliced ginger pieces.
Once the ginger was all sliced up, I sliced up a small red onion and two large garlic cloves.

3. Now time to grab the pot. Normally I cook this either stovetop or in the oven. If I have time, I cook it covered in the oven especially if the chicken is still frozen; however if I have no time and the chicken is relatively thawed (and when I say relatively--well, those of you who personally know me... the term "thawed" is a loose guideline... as long as your eating a good meal... really? You should be happy I even cooked.), I will cook it on the stovetop.
This time I did something different, I cooked this meal in my brand new pressure cooker--a happy birthday to me gift. I was under pressure to have dinner on the table. I refused to go out to eat (definitely sick of eating out and buying prepared frozen food early into being nauseous) since I finally feel better and CrazyOne had been hounding me to make ginger chicken for the past three months and that is what I had planed for dinner. I got tripped up by a bad bout of being nauseous all day again and finally felt better by the lat after noon. I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer days ago, so it sitting in the fridge from 08:00 till 15:00 was not going to help. I had it sitting on the metal counter top till I started dinner at 17:30. No time to cook in the oven or stovetop... cue three week old 8 quart pressure cooker. Well, it said I could cook frozen meat... (in voice of back in the day World Wrestling Federation announcer) "Lets get ready to rumble!"

4. I drizzled canola oil and a little bit of extra virgin olive oil into the bottom of the pot, I added a dash of grey sea salt and preheated the pot for sautéing the garlic and onion. Once the onions were a starting to turn glassy, I added the ginger and about 3/4C hot water that the chicken base and vegetable bouillon cube were added to. I dumped about 1/4th of the seasoning I crushed up to the pot with a healthy dose of curry, few shakes of the tarragon and a dash of the red pepper and chipotle pepper.




5. It is time battle the chicken. I took off my rings, got the wrapping off the four pounds of frozen chicken thighs and muscled those puppies apart, with the help of running warm water. I placed them into the pot and put the rest of the crushed seasoning on the thighs along with another round of tarragon and pepper, and a pinch more of sea salt. No I didn't add more curry, I was very good with the first well doused round of it.
I added about a 1 1/2C of more hot water (remember--keep a pot of subtlety boiling water on the stove) to the pot then happily covered the pot and placed the valve on the lid, turn the eye on medium high and wait till I hear that steam valve going: about 20min. I turned it down and waited another 20min while it happily steamed away. 20 minutes later I turned the eye off on the stove and let the pot cool down on its own till the rubber steam-thingie was no longer standing up. I opened up the pot and oh... it was... (begin playing The Drifters: This Magic Moment) Every face in that kitchen was eagerly turned up with their noses as high as possible just in hailing the wonder of it all and need I mention each of the Unfortunates had their bowls ready.
Dinner was fabulous! I don't think I will ever cook my ginger chicken in the conventional way again. The chicken was perfect and throughly saturated with the ginger and added other flavors. The broth was beautiful and yes, I did put the chicken in without taking off the skin. That is because we use the left overs after they sit in the fridge for about a week, in the next phase of their purpose in gastric happiness: Chicken soup.
Save EVERYTHING that came out of the pot, except of course the stuff you ate... ew. Separate the chicken from the stock that is in the pot. After putting that away in the fridge, then pour the entire contents of the stock--everything--into its own container. Put the top on it and throw that in the fridge then forget about it for no longer than a week.
I will be back tomorrow with part 2 of 2 in Ginger Chicken.