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Cozy, savory, and melt-in-your-mouth tender, Mississippi pot roast is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods. However, this version is made totally from scratch! ♡

Instead of using the traditional au jus and ranch seasoning packets (which often include extra preservatives and artificial flavorings), this recipe relies on a simple blend of beef stock, pepperoncini, butter, and basic seasonings. It only takes a minute or two more to measure everything out, and the flavor is every bit as rich, tangy, and buttery as the original.

Best of all, your slow cooker (or Instant Pot or Dutch oven) does nearly all of the work here. Just add everything in, let it simmer low and slow until the beef is fall-apart tender, then shred it back into that irresistibly flavorful gravy. Serve it over mashed potatoes, polenta, rice, noodles or layered in sandwich rolls for a comforting meal that is guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser. Let’s make some!!

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Last month, our toddler learned all about the life cycle of an apple seed at school. (“And when the seed goes into the dirt, it explodes into a huge apple tree, Mom!”) Apparently the grand finale to the lesson was learning how to make homemade applesauce from scratch. So I’ll give you one guess what we’ve been cooking now at home ever since. 😉

Honestly, we go through so much applesauce lately with a baby and a toddler that it’s been fun to mix things up by making some homemade. Although after making a few batches on the stovetop, I quickly switched us over to the Instant Pot version, which works so much better with a toddler’s limited attention span, lol. The prep itself to make pressure cooker applesauce couldn’t be easier. Just chop up some apples (no need to peel!) and toss them in the Instant Pot with water, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Add in a pinch of cinnamon or — my favorite — pumpkin pie spice for a touch of seasoning. Cover and pressure cook briefly until softened. Then mash to your desired consistency and enjoy!

It’s such a fun way to celebrate apple season for little kids and grown-ups alike. So grab your Instant Pot and let’s make this homemade applesauce recipe together!

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On busy weeknights when you’re craving a flavorful, simple and comforting chicken dinner…

…chicken cacciatore is here for you. ♡

This classic Italian “hunter-style” braised chicken dish, said to date all the way back to the Renaissance period, is one of those brilliantly flexible clean-out-the-crisper-drawer meals that somehow always turns out amazing. It can be made with whatever cut of chicken and selection of veggies that you happen to have on hand, all of which are braised together in a cozy tomato sauce seasoned with lots of red wine, garlic, and herbs. And I also recently tried adding some bacon to my cacciatore after seeing it recommended by the NYTimes and am now officially sold on the smoky depth of flavor that it adds to this dish. Highly recommend!

The good news for all of us is that chicken cacciatore is easy to toss in the Instant Pot, simmer all day in the Crock-Pot, or quickly simmer on the stovetop. And it can be served with pasta, polenta, rice, quinoa, grains, or with a big hunk of crusty bread to mop up that irresistible sauce — up to you! I’m also partial to adding in a jar of olives or capers for an extra briny touch. And I highly recommend topping each serving with a generous sprinkle of fresh basil and Parmesan too.

To be sure, I wouldn’t claim that this recipe is authentic Italian pollo alla cacciatora — it’s more inspired by the Italian-American version I grew up with in the Midwest. But from what I’ve read, cacciatore has historically always been a dish that celebrates making the most of ingredients you happen to have on hand. So roundup whatever veggies happen to be hanging out in your fridge today, and let’s make a big batch of chicken cacciatore together for the week ahead!

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With Cinco de Mayo just around the corner, the holiday celebrating the 1862 Mexican victory over the French in the First Battle of Puebla, I thought it was the perfect time to share my favorite recipe for one of Puebla’s most famous dishes…

…tinga de pollo! ♡

This smoky shredded chicken has long been one of my favorite recipes to make on busy weeknights because it is incredibly quick and easy to whip up and incredibly delicious. If you’re new to tinga, it’s traditionally made with a chipotle tomato sauce that’s seasoned simply with onions, garlic, cumin, oregano and bay leaf. But I also like to add in an extra non-traditional ingredient too…honey! It’s not typically added to the authentic chicken tinga that you would find in Puebla, but I find that its floral sweetness adds a delicious contrast to those smoky and savory flavors in the sauce and highly recommend giving it a try sometime if you’d like.

I also love this recipe because it’s easy to make in the Instant Pot, Crock-Pot, or simply on the stovetop. It’s naturally gluten- and dairy-free. Any leftovers that you might have can also be frozen and reheated easily (and for that reason, I highly recommend making a double batch while you’re at it!). And best of all, this versatile shredded chicken can be used in countless ways. It’s most often traditionally used to make chicken tinga tostadas or chicken tinga tacos. (Stay tuned for my favorite chicken tinga tacos recipe coming later this week!) But you can also use this recipe to make chicken tinga burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas, enchiladas, nachos, taquitos, salads and more.

So if you are looking for a good chicken tinga recipe to try, here is my favorite way to make it!

Chicken Tinga | 1-Minute Video

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Guys, have you tried making homemade birria yet?

This traditional Mexican stew seems to be trending everywhere I look lately, most often in the form of birria tacos or fried birria quesatacos (a.k.a. quesabirria tacos), whose melty cheese pulls and consommé-dunking boomerangs definitely seem to be the fast-rising star on taco menus around the world. Stay tuned here on the blog for more on birria tacos to come later this week.

But first, I wanted to go back to the basics and share a birria recipe served in its original and most simple form…as a cozy stew. ♡

As I explain below, there are endless variations of birria to be found nowadays around different regions in Mexico, made with various kinds of meat, cooking methods, signature blends of seasonings, consistencies of consommés (broths), and more. But the original dish is said to have originated in Jalisco, Mexico, where it is traditionally served as a stew for holidays and special occasions and made with either goat, sheep, or (my preference) beef. The meat is always slow cooked in a richly-flavored adobo (marinade) until it was melt-in-your-mouth tender, then ladled up into bowls along with plenty of its broth, garnished with lots of fresh toppings, and finally served with a side of warm corn tortillas. And as you can imagine, it is delicious.

That said, if you’re new to birria, the absolute magic of this particular Mexican stew is the delicious mix of flavors layered into its amazing broth. Good birria is always made a mixture of savory, sweet, earthy, smoky and spicy seasonings that lend soooo much flavor to every single bite. It’s essential to use some dried chiles here to season the broth, but they are incredibly easy to work with. Then I also highly recommend loading your birria up with lots of creamy avocado and fresh cool toppings (such as cilantro, chopped or pickled onions, radishes, etc), which pair perfectly with the warm stew and make this dish downright irresistible.

I’ve included options in the recipe below for how to make birria either in the Instant Pot, Crock-Pot or on the stovetop, so feel free to choose whichever cooking method you prefer. Granted, all three of these methods still require a few hours to make from start to finish, so be sure to plan ahead. But the birria recipe itself is totally simple to make and totally — as we say in Spanish — “vale la pena” (worth it). So if you have yet to give homemade birria a try, I say it’s time.

Let’s make a batch together!

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So many of you have made and loved my favorite stovetop mashed potatoes recipe. But for those of you looking to put your pressure cookers to work this Thanksgiving (or any day of the year), I’ve been testing out various methods for how to make mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot and have finally landed on a good one to share with you today!

These Instant Pot mashed potatoes are made with the same list of ingredients that I always use to make my mashed potatoes perfectly creamy, fluffy and flavorful — including two types of potatoes (Yukon Golds and Russets, for optimal texture and flavor), cream cheese and milk (to make them extra creamy), a generous amount of butter (because…mashed potatoes), however much garlic you prefer (to make yours more or less garlicky), and sea salt and pepper to season.

But instead of boiling and then draining a huge stockpot full of water to cook your potatoes on the stovetop, the Instant Pot makes it easy by doing everything for us with the push of a few buttons! No draining required! All the potatoes need are 6 minutes of high pressure-cooking, followed by a quick release. Then to eliminate some of the excess water that remains, simply use the “Sauté” function to briefly boil off about half of the remaining liquids, and then mash the potatoes right there in the same pot with all of your favorite creamy mix-ins until they reach your desired level of chunkiness or smoothness.

This method is one-pot cooking at its best and even a step easier than the stovetop version. So if you own a pressure cooker, I highly recommend giving Instant Pot mashed potatoes a try!

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