Chicken Afritada is a Filipino stew cooked in a tomato based sauce. It’s a Spanish influenced dish and similar to caldereta, which is made with beef.

I’ve been craving a stew with the weather so chilly here in California in the evenings and mornings and this was perfect.

In this recipe I used chicken breast but it can be made with any kind of chicken.

First, chop all your ingredients. I used 2 carrots, about 3 yellow potatoes, 1 tomato and 1 yellow bell pepper. Russet potato will also work just fine, as well as red or green bell pepper.

Mince 4 cloves of garlic and chop 1 onion. I used 1/2 a yellow onion since mine were quite large.

Set Instant Pot on sauté mode an allow to warm up. Add 2 tbsp butter, garlic and onion and continue cooking until onion is translucent.

Add chicken and brown a bit on all sides.

Add all of the vegetables except for the peas.

Add all other  ingredients (except peas)– 10 oz tomato sauce, 1 cup chicken broth, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 2 bay leaves.

Close Instant Pot and set to sealing. Cook on high / manual for 5 minutes. Allow to natural release for 10 minutes.

After naturally releasing, open lid and stir in the peas. You can use either defrosted frozen peas or canned.

I had this with rice, of course, but I actually ended up eating the leftovers alone. Good either way!