Pressure Cooker Chicken With 40 Cloves of Garlic

By Sarah DiGregorio

Updated January 29, 2020

  • Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
45 minutes
Rating
4(430)
Comments
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Typically, chicken with 40 cloves of garlic needs to cook for a long time to mellow out all that garlicky sharpness, but in this recipe, a pressure cooker softens and sweetens the garlic in record time. Still, 40 cloves is for the most dedicated garlic lovers, so feel free to reduce the quantity if you like; the recipe will work all the same. The addition of beans to the classic dish makes it a one-pot meal. The chicken skin won’t be crisp at the end of cooking, so if that bothers you, discard it afterward — it will have done its duty, imparting deep chicken flavor to the dish — or you could place the thighs on a baking sheet and set them under the broiler to brown just before serving.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

  • 2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 4 to 6 large thighs)

  • Kosher salt and black pepper

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

  • 40 garlic cloves (3 to 4 heads of garlic), smashed

  • ½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes

  • ½ cup white wine

  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

  • 1 (28-ounce) can or 2 (14-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained

  • 2 fresh thyme sprigs or ½ teaspoon dried thyme

  • ½ lemon, juiced (about 1 tablespoon)

  • 2 scallions, white and light green parts thinly sliced

  • ½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

56 grams carbs; 296 milligrams cholesterol; 1034 calories; 26 grams monosaturated fat; 12 grams polyunsaturated fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 58 grams fat; 11 grams fiber; 1374 milligrams sodium; 67 grams protein; 2 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Season the chicken generously all over with salt and pepper. Turn on the sauté setting of a 6- to 8-quart electric pressure cooker and warm the oil. Add the chicken, skin-side down, and sear until the skin is browned and releases easily from the pot, 6 to 8 minutes. (If you have more than 4 thighs, you may need to do this in two batches.) Using tongs, remove the chicken.

  2. Step 2

    Add the garlic and sauté, stirring constantly, until just softened, about 2 minutes. Add the red-pepper flakes, and toast, stirring constantly, about 30 seconds, then add the white wine and vinegar. Stir well, scraping up all the browned bits. Turn off the sauté setting.

  3. Step 3

    Stir in the beans and thyme. Season lightly with salt and generously with pepper. Nestle the chicken thighs on top, skin-side up. Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Allow the pressure to reduce naturally for 10 minutes, then release the remaining pressure manually. Squeeze in the lemon juice and fold in the scallions and parsley. Serve the beans and chicken in shallow bowls.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
430 user ratings
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Comments

Pamela

At the end, put the chicken on a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil and place under a broiler. I did a minute under high, 5 min at low, and then another minute on high -- but my stove is old and finnicky. Aim for a nice golden brown skin.

Madison Cook

Gale (3 weeks ago) said it needed a little something so I melted 1-1/2 anchovy filets into the oil and garlic in step 2. Bingo. Also, I skinned the chicken and started at step 2. The dish doesn’t need all that fat and neither do the diners. It was amazing. The leftover beans and their liquid were a wonderful soup the next day with just a splash of stock thinner. Thanks everyone!

Gale

This was delicious! I made it as instructed with no modifications. Everyone loved it, and my husband said it is now his favorite of all the Times recipes we’ve tried. I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5 because I felt it needed something else—not sure what—to give the flavor just a bit more oomph. BTW, if you’ve ever made this dish via the stove and oven, the pressure cooker will be a revelation. Cleanup was a breeze, and this version calls for far less oil than the traditional version.

Kim

Maybe one day try adding prunes to this, they will disintegrate and add a little mysterious something-something to the dish, balancing the yum of garlic.. I sprinkled some good Spanish paprika as well.. and blanched almonds with parsley on top.

Joyce

I made this with a whole cut up chicken which I browned according to instructions. I used dried beans which I pre-boiled in the instant pot for 5 minutes and then removed. I think dried beans are so much more economical than canned beans and since you ´ re using the instant pot anyway, it hardly adds any time and the same pot is used for the chicken afterward. The chicken was wonderfully moist and easily pulled off the bone, the beans savory and delicious.

cornnut

This was great. I followed the suggestion to add carrots and the invitation to use less garlic (I think I used about 28 cloves in a mix of sizes) and it was great. I ended up using boneless, skinless breasts because that’s what we had on hand, and I liked how easy it was to chop/shred the chicken at the end to make a kind of wonderful stew. I’m a bean guy (and only really started cooking chicken under duress from kids), so next time I’ll add twice the beans and even consider halving the amount of chicken. But this was a real win. Lots of parsley not optional!

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