Pressure Cooker Herbed Chicken and Shrimp -- The Dish That Brought Mama Home

Columbus Day, now Indigenous Peoples' Day at the library — the change I championed years ago and that has, with the passage of time and the shift of public consciousness, become less controversial and more obvious, the way all correct things become obvious in retrospect. The library display features Louise Erdrich and Tommy Orange and the particular literature of people whose land we stand on and whose food we eat and whose history we have been slow to honor but are, slowly, learning to see.

Mama has been agitated at night. Three nights this week she was up, wandering, looking for things she cannot name in rooms she does not recognize. Ruth found her on Monday morning standing at the front door in her nightgown, holding her purse, as if she were going somewhere. "Where are you going, Mrs. Simmons?" Ruth asked. Mama said, "Home." The word was a knife. Home is here. Home has been here for three years. But Mama's home is Beaufort, is the parsonage, is the kitchen where Reverend James ate breakfast and Joy drew pictures and the morning light came through a different window — and the longing for that home is not nostalgia but navigation, the disease stripping away the present until the oldest home is the only one visible.

I drove to Beaufort on Saturday — alone, without explanation, because the explanation would have been "I need to see the parsonage," and the need would have required more context than I was willing to provide. The parsonage is still there. The new pastor's family lives in it. The kitchen window is the same. The herb garden is different — different herbs, different hands — but the dirt is the same dirt, and the standing on it was the standing on Mama's history, and the standing was enough. I did not knock on the door. I stood on the sidewalk and I looked at the window and I said, quietly, to no one: "She wants to come home." And the no one heard me, and the hearing was the visit, and the visit was the pilgrimage.

I made shrimp bog — the Lowcountry rice dish that Mama made in Beaufort, in the parsonage kitchen, with the shrimp that came from the creek and the rice that came from the fields and the love that came from the woman who stood at the stove and fed her family without once considering that the feeding was remarkable. It was not remarkable to her. It was the day. And the day was the life. And the life was the food.

The shrimp bog I made Saturday was Mama’s recipe, not mine to share here — it belongs to her hands and her kitchen and the parsonage on that street in Beaufort where the morning light came through a particular window. But the longing it stirred sent me back to my own stove, and this pressure cooker herbed chicken and shrimp is what I made the next evening: a different dish, same spirit — shrimp and warmth and the kind of one-pot simplicity that doesn’t ask to be admired, just eaten. It is the food of people who feed without once considering that the feeding is remarkable.

Pressure Cooker Herbed Chicken and Shrimp

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3/4 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving

Instructions

1. Sauté aromatics. Set the pressure cooker to the sauté function and heat olive oil. Add the onion and cook for 3 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
2. Season the chicken. Add the chicken pieces to the pot. Sprinkle with thyme, oregano, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Stir to coat and cook for 2–3 minutes until lightly browned on the outside.
3. Add liquid and tomatoes. Pour in the chicken broth and diced tomatoes. Stir to combine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
4. Pressure cook. Secure the lid and set the valve to sealing. Cook on high pressure for 8 minutes. When the cycle ends, perform a quick pressure release.
5. Add the shrimp. Open the lid and stir in the shrimp. Set the pot back to sauté and cook, uncovered, for 3–4 minutes until the shrimp are pink and cooked through. Do not overcook.
6. Finish and serve. Taste and adjust seasoning. Ladle into bowls, scatter with fresh parsley, and serve with lemon wedges alongside crusty bread or over white rice.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 9g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 620mg