Chicken Fricot

Ingredients

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken pieces (thighs or breast)
• 6 medium potatoes
• 2 onions
• 2 carrots
• 1 cup spinach
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 7 cups water
• ground pepper to taste
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning (thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp flour
• Bay Leaf
• Salt to taste (I usually let people add their own)

For dumplings:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup cold water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder

This makes 8 tbsp dumplings.

Directions

Add olive oil to pot, select Saute.  When oil is hot, add the defrosted or raw chicken pieces to brown.  While chicken is browning, cut up the potatoes, carrots and onions.

When the chicken is browned, remove from the pot.  Add a little water to the pot and deglaze the bottom.  Add the chopped onion to soften.  While the onion is softening, cut up the chicken pieces and remove any bones.

Once the onions are done, deglaze the bottom again if necessary, then sprinkle the 1 tbsp of flour over the top.  Turn off the pot.

Add the vegetables, spices, meat, broth and water.  I used the Soup button with 25 minutes setting (same as Manual for 25 minutes).  NPR for about 5 minutes.

When ready to release the steam, make the dumplings.  Drop them into the pot changing the setting to Saute.  Put the lid on to keep the steam in.  Let cook for about 10 minutes until the dumplings are done and serve.

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This recipe is an adaptation from the February page of the 2018 Buy New Brunswick calendar.  I cut down the amount of chicken and water, and added a green vegetable.  I like this recipe because it’s simple which means you can add all sorts of things to it to adapt to your taste.  My thoughts are:  celery, something spicy, corn, okra, paprika, peas, turnip…Maybe not all at the same time but you get the idea.

Note:  Yes, I put the Instant Pot on the stove.  I don’t have anywhere else to put it, but I make sure nothing else is going on the stove (except maybe the 3 qt Instant Pot) so that the burner doesn’t accidentally get turned on.  If you’re in this situation and need to use a burner on the other side I’d recommend removing the burner if you can (like my stove) or using a fireproof cover over the burner on a glass top stove.  I wouldn’t do this at all if I were using a gas stove.  In that case I’d probably break down and buy a stand on wheels or something 🙂