Mike, pressure fried is the patented invention by Harland Sanders at his Corbin, Kentucky, gas station and café about 1940. He used stove top pressure cookers to fry his secret recipe chicken, the beginning of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
He was an exceptional person whom i had the pleasure of meeting a few times as he lived nearby here on the ancestral lands of the Wyandot and Huron Nations and most recently the Mississaugians of the West Credit until nearly the end of his life.
Pressure fried chicken should never be tried in a conventional pressure cooker. Specialized cookers are made for this purpose. Your normal pressure cooker is not designed to cook chicken like Colonel Sanders.
John, please help us understand why you say to never fry chicken in a pressure cooker. What’s the difference from those old Presto’s?
Thank you.
It is funny that you ask this kcwalker, as we just got an IP on Friday. I love it almost as much as my APC. We have used it three times and love it because it cooks hard boiled eggs, wild rice and a beef plov very well. I could not have done that SV. Each has its place. If I had to pick one (which would be hard) , it would be the Anova. Just my opinion.
Why not detail how YOU do it.
The rubber seals in standard home pressure cookers are designed for use with water. There is an increased likelihood of seal failure if you use oil instead of water due to the higher temperatures involved. Most pressure cookers limit the amount of oil to 1/4 of a cup. I think there may be a couple of European models with seals that are rated for oil but I have not looked in a long time. I am not willing to risk a failure with hot oil in my kitchen.
The old Presto type are not the same as used by KFC or other commercial fryers. The process with the Presto was to heat the oil to a frying temperature add the chicken remove the heat source and seal the lid. Many of these were taken off the market for safety reasons years ago.
Commercial pressure fryers start at around $550 and go up from there.
If it’s the seal that is the potential point of failure then a silicone seal should do the trick. Apparently the oil fumes and potential fire hazard associated with them are a bigger issue.
I wonder what kind of pressure cooker the Colonel started with back in 1940? Did he initially think to enhance what he was using or did he just “take a chance”?
Since we have done gone and answered the original Question, very well too, All American pressure cookers do not use a seal and would do oil frying very well. I have a 20qt one that I use for canning and its the best money I ever spent on a PC. It wasn’t cheap.
I have my Grama’s old presto and another from garage sale that I use mostly for making stock from the carcass of whatever and veges for dinner and instant caramelized onions !
kcwalker, I don’t think there are trade offs per se but just different uses.
I do not use SV for anything but steaks, roasts and chuck ,Turkey or chicken breast, meat that benefits in all ways from SV. Then it goes on the grill.
Oh and yogurt, its awsome for culturing.
Pork chops and salmon get wood fired grill as does anything else. That’s more a failure on my part to figure out how to make SV taste better than the grill.
YMMV
I own an Anova and love it but also like the sound of the IP ultra 60 but reading the reviews on Amazon of it and the other IPs I’m a bit leery of it. There are many similar 1 star reviews across them. A quick glance at several of them have about 5-6 % 1 star negative reviews out of about 50,000 reviews. Have you experienced any problems with yours?
Thanks.
I have the Instant Pot Smart 60 and the Instant Pot Duo 80. I absolutely love both of them. If you read the reviews, I have often found that the person is complaining about something that is not an actual issue with the Instant Pot. A couple examples; A review complained that the IP wouldn’t seal because the ring was loose. The ring is meant to be removed and installed. The user cleans this and replaces it. Another received a unit with a dent in it, that’s obviously a shipping company issue. One user complained that it was too heavy, so they gave it a 1 star. One had water on the counter after opening. There is a plastic cup that is supposed to be installed when you use it. Many people never put it on. They think it is a measuring cup or something. It’s a moisture collector for when you open it and drip.
The issues with the IP not sealing after months of use? Clean or replace your silicone ring. A six pack of rings (in pretty colors) is $12 or $14.
I have been using my Instant Pots for well over a year. Never had an issue that wasn’t operator error.
Amazon reviews for many things make interesting reading. Some people make you wonder how they manage to even navigate the interwebs.
@Ember I wonder how some even navigate life.
Reviews are important when making purchasing decisions. I like to write reviews and always read available reviews for things that I want to purchase. Often, I have to really consider the source of the reviewer. How high are they ranked on Amazon as a reviewer? How many reviews have they done? I also look at whether their review is consistent with the other reviews on that product.
A red flag is the reviewers use of language. I have seen a dozen review of a product that misspelled the exact same word. This is someone trying to offset bad reviews for their product. I click report on these.
I use my Anova a lot lately and it’s my go-to tool for almost all things meat and seafood. I bought a pressure cooker a year ago almost exclusively for making broths and stocks from scratch. Typically those take hours when done in open pots whereas a pressure cooker reduces that down to 45-60 minutes. It basically sits in the garage along with my other “occasional” tools until needed. If I had a slow cooker, it would meet with a similar fate. The InstaPot sounds tempting but I don’t have the kitchen real estate to set aside for it for frequent use.
@nestorph I’m with you when it comes to my Anova now being my “go to” for cooking meat! I think for me both the Anova and the Insta Pot have a place (though I’ve yet to purchase an Insta Pot). The insta looks like it can be used for a number of different things, but its true strong point is for “fast” cooks. At least that’s the plan! 