lemon garlic chicken with water or wine
and garlic-tahini-yogurt sauce on the side (no pressure cooker)

How many people actually know somebody who has been present at a pressure cooker explosion? A rare event indeed. Fortunately. But a possibility that still keeps some of you (not us!) from taking advantage of its wonderfully quick cooking power. The new generation of multiple backup pressure release safeguarded super cookers has made it virtually impossible to have such an exciting event occur (unless you really try hard of course). bob got his first super cooker at a home show and—not knowing anything about the product—was taken to the cleaners by unscrupulous venders just trying to make a living on the move who can blame them? To compound the damage, bob returned the same week, paid a second admission into the home show and bought a second one for his about-to-be sister-in-law's wedding shower. First generation Magefesa, imported from Spain where they were clearly ahead of us in this line of technology way back in 1991.

Meanwhile bob accumulated a few Lorna Sass pressure cooker cookbooks. She apparently rode the wave of increasing renewed interest in this kitchen device in America in the nineties. Mid-decade some lame excuse inspired bob to give one to another sister-in-law, perhaps triggered by a food magazine article by Lorna Sass, yeah that was it ... and bob wrote to Lorna and asked her advice. She actually responded, singing praises of the Magefesa II, the second generation successor. Ordered by phone and well received by the recipient. Much cheaper than the first pair. Come to think of it the first Lorna Sass cookbook was picked up to accompany that later gift, but after years of neglect and absolutely unused, bob repossessed it from its chance home in yet another sister-in-law's house shortly before our very own mother-in-law pressure cooker event, making a grand total of three Sass books acquired in the intervening years and neatly shelved in the cooking library. Regretfully having seen little use. Our fault entirely.

As the indisputable first year of the new millennium began, Isgouhi's old-fashioned jiggle top pressure cooker that always seemed to cook faster than bob's Magefesa (I), screwing up her dictated recipes when executed in her daughter's kitchen, after seeing regular devoted use for over 30 years, found itself just a little too full of malanga soup at the wrong time and while she stepped out of the kitchen for a moment, it redecorated the walls and ceiling with a shockingly loud and absolutely unexpected quick pressure release. Whose lasting mark on the stove hood remained after the tedious cleanup activity as a reminder about not overfilling any future pressure cookers at that location.

This time bob wasted no time in going right to the Magefesa website where numerous food mag review excerpts hyped the supercooker II as the best choice on the market. bob eagerly bought their line and courtesy of e-commerce, days later it arrived. Even Lorna Sass came along in the 13 minute video promoting the product. But a couple of key O-rings in the lid central pressure release mechanism did not. Come along. Requiring intervention with customer service to get the replacement parts. No installation video this time, but paper instructions. Even bob could have handled the job. Especially since the O-rings turned out to actually be there but the top had not been properly assembled, all of which Barkev fixed on his own without bob's intervention. This little anecdote has nothing to do with this recipe, however.

A few nights after the exciting explosion, ani volunteers to do the chicken breasts at the scene of the crime. Having failed to bring along the leftover grilled chicken from the previous night cookout (in February? global warming?) that Isgouhi was expecting, the dinner was missing an entree and ani took responsibility to fill the gap. She was thinking lemon garlic with white wine but there was no corker remover for the wine so it became lemon garlic with water. The result was so moist and tasty and appealing to the eye, bob had to write it up for repeat business. We tried it with wine soon afterward. Even better. And really simple. In fact so simple, can we convince anybody we should actually be writing this down? Do we care?

ingredients

marinate?
1 lb chicken breasts
salt and pepper
flour it
flour
touch of salt, pepper, paprika
saute it
2 T olive oil
moisten it
 
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1/3 - 1/2 c white wine or water
1 lemon, juice of

instructions

  1. Salt and pepper the breasts (ani and her mom always clean and rinse them first in the sink and pat them dry) and let sit awhile (preferably overnight).
  2. Add a touch of paprika, salt and pepper to some flour and flour the breasts.
  3. Brown the breasts in olive oil until a golden brown color is reached.
  4. Add the garlic and wine or water. If wine, evaporate a bit before adding the lemon juice. If water, no need to wait.
  5. Cover and cook on low heat 10–15 minutes.
  6. Serve with yogurt-garlic sauce on the side.

yogurt-garlic sauce

1 c plain yogurt
1 t tahini
2 cloves garlic, pressed
action:
Mix up the stuff and serve on the side. Real garlic lovers can increase the garlic component.

notes

  1. Be careful not to burn the chicken when aiming for that attractive golden brown coloring. bob nagged ani a few times on this point. Unnecessarily of course, but he had to contribute something...
  2. We repeated this five years later, but ani decided to spruce it up a bit colorwise as well as add a little flavor kick with some chopped fresh parsley and capers, making this a lemon-caper sauce, a combination that is not unusual to find associated with chicken. No garlic sauce this time since we had some left over pesto penne with green beans on the side, next to which the green-flecked chicken looked like it was right at home. This is really quick and delicious, something our heroine 30-minute-meal master Rachel Ray would certainly approve.
  3. Illustration available.
lgcw3npc.htm: 16-aug-2006 [what, ME cook? © 1984 dr bob enterprises]