Healthy Buffalo Chicken - Instant Pot, Low Carb, Keto, 21 Day Fix

Life happens. We all get busy and overwhelmed, including me. Recently, things have been so hectic, I haven't even had the time to go food shopping. But my family still needs to eat, so I had to get creative.

There's some regular staples that are always present in my freezer and pantry. These are mainstays like hot sauce, plenty of seasonings, chicken, and frozen veggies. I absolutely adore hot wings, but if you've ever bought kosher chicken wings, they're kind of weird. They need to be plucked, which is not only time-consuming, but a really difficult job. So I wanted to make something similar with what I had in the house. Enter the buffalo chicken.

Since we were so busy, no one took the chicken out of the freezer, and there was nothing defrosted for dinner. This is where the Instant Pot comes in handy. I was able to cook the frozen chicken in about half an hour and have a gourmet tasting meal on the table with a minimum of effort and basically no hands-on cooking. After trying this out for the first time, it wound up being on the menu three times in one week, which is INSANE since my family and I love variety.

I personally do not love chicken breasts, and much prefer to eat chicken thighs. I recently found chicken thigh cutlets in a local kosher supermarket, which was a welcome change. They were boneless and skinless, and worked perfectly in this recipe. However, I get that dark meat isn't everyone's jam. If you have chicken breasts, that works well in this recipe too. Just make sure it's boneless and skinless.

While I used frozen chicken, you can defrost yours first (or use fresh). The cooking time won't change, but it may take less time to come to pressure if your chicken isn't frozen. Using frozen chicken takes about 12 minutes to come to pressure.

For this recipe, I used two spice mixes - Sazon and Adobo. Both can be found in the ethnic aisle of your local supermarket, in the Spanish section. Sazon is a seasoning that includes saffron, imparting a vibrant color along with flavor. Adobo is a blend of common seasonings, including garlic, salt, cumin, turmeric, oregano, and pepper. I personally use adobo to season everything, including scrambled eggs. It's just easier than using a bunch of different spices, since it's already combined.

As written above, this recipe will count as:

• 1 red container
• 1 green container
• 1 teaspoon (if you use chicken thighs)

Don't forget to count anything else that you add. I've listed some ideas below.

This is a great recipe to include variations on, since it's very versatile and works with a lot of different additions. Here's what I came up with:

• Carbohydrates. This recipe works really well with brown rice. It gives it a little more substance and will help to keep you full.
• Vegetables. If you're sticking with low-carb, this is perfect with cauliflower rice. Just add it to the Instant Pot with the veggies at the end to soak up some of the flavors from the chicken broth and seasonings. Instead of broccoli and cauliflower, you could serve this with any other vegetables. Green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, and onions are some that I think would work well. You could also serve it with some carrot and celery sticks on the side.
• Toppings. The mildly spicy flavors of this always make me think of how amazing it would taste with some avocado or guacamole. Diced up tomatoes would also be a nice compliment to the flavors of this dinner. Add a sprinkling of green onions or cilantro to give it a little pop of color and flavor.
• Seasonings. Even with a half a cup of hot sauce in this, it isn't too spicy. I use Cholula hot sauce, because it has a nice flavor with a touch of heat. I've also make this using a tablespoon of chili paste and a teaspoon of chili powder with similar results. If you want it to be more spicy, add more hot sauce, a little chili powder, or a bit of the chili paste to the recipe if you're brave, or just add some hot sauce on top after serving.

The possibilities are truly endless. Let me know if there's anything you'd add to this that wasn't listed above!