Yesterday, NOT in the Instant Pot, I made a variation on African Peanut Chicken stew using chicken thighs, Rancho Gordo beans and their cooking water, butternut squash, sweet potato, peanut butter, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, garlic and some spices.
The 8 Qt (non IP) saucepan was brimming full on the stovetop and I decided to let the liquid reduce by long cook over medium heat (without the pot lid). This is a method I have read about (many times) for increasing the viscosity of cooking liquid in the Instant Pot—a method I'm increasingly relying on the Instant Pot to do. In this case, however, it resulted in a thick burned crust on the bottom of the pot.
So, I'm wondering what my brain is conflating. There was no added sugar (peanut butter without sugar) which could burn. IP and gas stovetop have fundamentally different methods of heating? Don't use the "boil away" method to reduce something with tomatoes or tomato paste? Go back to only using low heat to thicken stews? Something else?
Edited "cooking water" to "cooking liquid" to make it clear that I'm not talking about pasta.
Edited to make clear that my question is about the principles of stovetop cooking vs Instant Pot sauté cycle cooking. I.e. the pot on the stove had nothing to do with the IP.
