Recipe This | Instant Pot Chicken Fajitas (2024)

FAQs

Does cooking chicken longer in Instant Pot make it more tender? ›

If your boneless chicken breast winds up with a weird, rubbery texture, it probably means that you need to cook it longer. In general, the Instant Pot does better with longer cook times for meat.

Fajitas start with the meat: You'll need 1/4 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast, chicken cutlets or skirt steak for each person.

Rubbery Instant Pot shredded chicken is usually the result of overcooking the meat. If you used thinner pieces of chicken or did not adjust the cook time to the correct weight, it can result in dry and chewy chicken. You can salvage your chicken by serving it with a sauce to add moisture and flavor.

This recipe promises to be a one-pan dinner, but to ensure that the chicken's juices don't steam the vegetables — making them soggy — cook the vegetables first. Transfer them to a plate or cutting board, then cook the chicken in the same pan before bringing things together.

I cover meat in my Instant Pot when making soup, stew, or stock. Otherwise I use a minimum amount of liquid, from 1 to 2 cups. A pressure cooker produces steam until a preset pressure is reached and then replaces heat lost from the pot, by boiling more water, producing more steam.

So can a Crock-Pot cook better chicken than an Instant Pot? Well, it really depends on what you're making. The Instant Pot cooks chicken much faster than its non-pressure counterparts, but the resulting texture isn't going to be the same as what you'd get with a slow cooker or Dutch oven.

Fajitas for how many people? Six to eight ounces per person, raw weight, would be a pretty nice portion. Once you include sautéed onions and peppers into the mix, everyone could easily make three to four big fajitas. Three to four big fajitas is plenty of food.

I like to always say it's about one pound per three people...but let's be honest, I can almost eat a whole pound by myself lol.

I cook fajitas for my work (about 30 people) and I try to do 1/2 pound per person. I also do half pound per person. I do one pound of beans per eight people. Beans are cheap, so you can always throw in an extra pound to be safe.

Cooking any meat on high heat (or high pressure) for an extended period will both: denature more the proteins / collagen making the meat more tender; "squeeze" more water out of the meat, making it drier / chalkier in texture.

Why is my pressure cooked chicken chewy? ›

In addition, chicken breast has less fat and can become dry (chewy or rubbery) if cooked for too long. Without moisture, the protein fibers in the chicken become elastic.

Brines and marinades help tenderize the meat by bringing more moisture in the protein. With that extra moisture, you lose less when you cook. The simplest way to do this is with a dry brine — unwrap the chicken breasts, salt them on both sides and let them sit in the fridge for at least an hour.

Definitely! If you're short on time or prefer the convenience, you can use pre-cut chicken strips for fajitas. However, make sure they are fresh and of good quality. Alternatively, you can buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs and cut them into strips yourself.

Skirt steak is the traditional cut used for fajitas. It used to be inexpensive, but now it's not so cheap; oftentimes flank steak costs less. Either will be a good choice.

Because chicken breast is so lean, just a couple of extra minutes of cook time turns them from juicy to overcooked and dry.

For optimal results, it's generally recommended to cook chicken on the low setting in a crockpot. This slower cooking method allows the chicken to become more tender and absorb flavors, resulting in a juicier and more flavorful dish compared to using the high setting.

In addition, chicken breast has less fat and can become dry (chewy or rubbery) if cooked for too long.

Overcooking leads to dry, tough, sawdusty meat with nearly no flavor. High doneness temperature for food safety. Salmonella is the food safety enemy in chicken that dies only at higher temperatures. But cooking chicken breast to an instant thermal-kill doneness temperature will cause it to dry out excessively.