Let me begin by saying that I was not raised by a mom that used a pressure cooker.  She actually had a fear of pressure cookers, which I easily adopted.  So, although I love to cook, and am not daunted by any new technique or recipe, I never considered using a pressure cooker.

While shopping at my local big box store, I found one on sale.  A lady at work often would volunteer to pressure cook the chickens (I think our recipe calls for 20) for our Hopkins County stew we make each year. Intrigued that she had never had an injury, I decided to buy the pressure cooker.

After reading the directions from top to bottom several times, I finally decided to give it a try.  I loved it.  Even on work nights when I am running late, I can still pull off a fabulous dinner.

My pressure cooker is the old-fashioned kind, and it is aluminum.  I am not sure how you all feel about cooking with aluminum, but I try to avoid it.  So, I decided I would find a new stainless one.

After much searching and review reading, I decided on the Breville Fast Slow Pro.  It is a combo pressure cooker and slow cooker, all electronic with pre-set and customizable settings.  I have had it a couple of weeks, but haven’t taken the leap until this week.

I have seared two chicken breasts for an herb chicken recipe that was included with the cooker.  Now the chicken is cooking in the pressure cooker mode for 20 minutes.  The controls were easy to use.  In just a few minutes I will be able to tell you the results.

So far, the only drawback that I see is I am having a difficult time opening and closing the locking lid.  So much so that when I first took the cooker out of the box, I couldn’t get it opened.  It took two days before it opened.  And today I had the same problem closing it.

I do wish Breville would include a few more basic recipes with the cooker, just to get my inspiration kick-started (are you reading Breville?), but I think by cooking the recipes they include, you will be able to learn how to apply the concept to your pressure cooker recipes or regular recipes.

Whether you try an expensive machine or an easily affordable old-fashioned pressure cooker, I think you will be happy with the time savings, not to mention the moist, tender results you will have.  Just be sure to read and follow all the directions.

Happy cooking!  Can’t wait to try the slow cooking function.

UPDATE:  The chicken was fabulous!  After the chicken finished cooking, I reduced the cooking liquid in the cooker.  This cooker does it all!  It even automatically released the steam.  That is easy breezy!