Are Instapots worth it?

+ mushroom pad see ew, sweet green salads, & blackened chicken tacos

AuthorAuthor

Keith McBrayer & Ethan Chlebowski
October 16, 2022

Welcome!

Here is your weekly recipe inspiration newsletter. Our goal is to get your cooking juices flowing for tasty meals to try and we’re pretty pumped about this week’s dishes.

As always, a full grocery shopping list in Notion is linked at the end of this email.

In This Week’s Edition

Try Something New 🤯

Throwback Time 🍳

The Leftover Shelf 🥡

Extra Helpings 🍽

Try Something New 🤯

The best thing I ate this week.

Mushroom & Broccolini Pad See Ew

I went meatless! Feel free to substitute mushrooms with (or just add) thinly sliced chicken or pork. Regular broccoli, or even better, Chinese broccoli, work too!

Pad See Ew Components

  • Wide, dried rice noodles (12 oz pack, 350 g)

  • Broccolini, rough chopped (6 oz, 175 g)

  • Mushrooms, any kind, thinly sliced (6 oz, 175 g)

  • 1 whole egg

  • 4 garlic cloves, minced

  • Salt & white pepper, to taste

  • Neutral oil for cooking

Sauce Components

  • 1 tbsp light soy sauce

  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce (optional)*

  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce*

  • 1 tbsp sugar

*Dark soy sauce is primarily for color. For the oyster sauce , you could sub in some fish sauce or even omit it. Dark soy and oyster stay good in the fridge for a long time, so get some to start making legit stir fries!

Instructions

  1. Cook noodles according to package directions, drain, and set aside. Mix all sauce components until the sugar dissolves.

  2. In a bit of oil, sauté mushrooms & broccolini until cooked through and colored.

  3. Push vegetables to the side, add a bit more oil, then crack in the egg and add minced garlic. Lightly scramble and mix in with vegetables. The garlic should be fragrant at this point.

  4. Add in noodles and sauce mixture, and toss until everything is well coated and the sauce has cooked off. Noodles should start sizzling and charring a bit. Season with white pepper and salt, if needed.

Pro Tip - If your pan isn’t big enough, cook each component one by one and empty into a bowl before sautéing the next ingredient. This will let you retain high heat in the pan, which is crucial to getting some color on each component. Then just add everything back at the end and mix.

Throwback Time 🍳

A couple of weeks ago, we recreated Sweet Green salad bowls with a higher protein green goddess dressing. To die for. Did you get a chance to make it?

Making this recipe includes blackened chicken, which is an all-time great for making leftovers that don’t suck.

The Leftover Shelf 🥡

Leftovers are back in style…if you know how to use them.

This week’s move:

Sweet Green Salad Leftovers → Blackened Chicken Tacos

Get a can of beans and some tortillas, and you can easily repurpose the sweet green salad extras into a whole new weeknight meal.

Blackened Chicken Taco Components

  • Tortillas

  • Refried beans (any will do, or Ethan's Version Here)

  • Blackened chicken, leftover

  • Green goddess dressing, leftover

  • Shredded lettuce, leftover

  • (Optional) Pickled onions, leftover, or lime wedges to squeeze

  • (Optional) Queso fresco, or any crumbling cheese

To assemble:

Heat up the tortillas, chicken, and refried beans. Take a hearty tablespoon of refried beans and slather them as a base layer on the tortilla. Pro move. Then cover with some cubed blackened chicken and crumbled queso fresco, if using. Add a layer of the lettuce, optional pickled onions, or lime juice, and finally drizzle over with the green goddess dressing.

Variation: Get large flour tortillas instead and add rice for an easy weeknight burrito!

Extra Helpings 🍽

Reader Q&A 🤔

Q: Should I get an InstaPot? I haven’t seen you use one in a video. I’ve been meaning to get one for a while, but I’m not sure if the cost or counter space is worth it. Thanks! — Ali A.

A: Great Question, Ali. Here are my thoughts. If you consistently are short on time, they can be worth it — cook rice in minutes and braise meats in under an hour. However, if you work from home and/or can plan some meals in advance, a dutch oven can do everything an InstaPot can. If you can plan ahead, a braised meat dish is just as easy in a dutch oven, it’ll just take a few hours longer. Low and slow dutch oven braises actually end up tasting better too, because there’s more time for the Maillard reaction and thus flavor compounds to develop. This is a much bigger rabbit hole, so stay tuned for a future vid!

Dinner Winner! Reader Photo Submission of the Week 🏆

Reply with a picture of the best meal you made this week for a chance to be featured on a future email.

More Yummy Content 🤤

In a Minute or Less: Curry Laksta for Lunch​

What We’re Watching: Brian Lagerstrom on Expensive Gear​

Ready to shop? 🛒

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