Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken

Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken is an easy recipe with chicken breasts in a delicious savory sauce. Perfect for busy weeknights! Add broccoli and serve with rice for a complete meal your whole family will love!

No need to order out for Chinese food when you can whip up this quick dinner in your pressure cooker! Honey garlic chicken is an easy Instant Pot recipe that you can make with little effort and just a handful of ingredients.

This chicken recipe is an easy weeknight dinner that’s ideal for busy weeknights. It’s budget friendly, too!

My family loves my baked honey garlic chicken recipe — one of our favorite chicken recipes! But this Instant Pot honey garlic chicken recipe is the perfect way to cook chicken when you don’t want to use your oven.

Ingredients

You only need a few simple ingredients for this easy chicken recipe — most of them are for the delicious homemade honey garlic sauce. You can find them in your local grocery store or online:

• Olive oil or vegetable oil — prevents sticking
• Chicken breasts — about 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts. Use chicken thighs if you prefer
• Honey — adds sweetness
• Garlic — both cloves and granulated for extra flavor
• Soy sauce — I use low sodium soy sauce
• Ketchup — adds flavor and color
• Rice vinegar — cuts the sweetness, but regular vinegar is fine
• Sea salt — you may not need it if you use regular soy sauce
• Cornstarch — for the corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce
• Broccoli — optional, but good for you!

How to Make Honey Garlic Chicken Breasts in the Instant Pot

First, make the homemade honey garlic sauce. Roughly chop up 3 to 4 garlic cloves, and set aside. Add the honey, soy sauce and rice vinegar to a small bowl, and whisk until well combined.

Then, stir in the chopped garlic, and set the sauce ingredients aside while you prepare the chicken.

I like to add the ketchup over the chicken instead of mixing it into the sauce, just to prevent it from getting too thick. This will help you avoid the burn notice.

Next, pour a little bit of olive oil or vegetable oil into the bottom of the instant pot. Then, place the boneless skinless chicken breasts into the pot.

Note – I always get thin or split chicken breasts because they cook faster and more evenly. If you can only find thicker ones, that’s fine, but they’ll take longer to cook.

Sprinkle the sea salt and garlic powder over the chicken. Then, pour the sauce over the chicken and add the ketchup.

Cook Time

For thin chicken breasts, cook for 6 to 8 minutes with a 6 to 8 minute natural pressure release followed by a quick release. For thick chicken breasts, the cooking time is 10 minutes with a 10 minute slow release, then quick release.

I always cook on high pressure when pressure cooking.

If you want to make this delicious recipe with frozen chicken breasts, cook them for 20 minutes if they’re very thick. Cook thinner pieces for 12 to 15 minutes and a 10 minute natural pressure release.

Always check the internal temperature of your chicken with a meat thermometer. For safety, the chicken should be at least 165 degrees fahrenheit.

How to Thicken the Sauce

Remove chicken to a clean platter, and shred or slice. Cover the chicken with foil to keep warm.

The best way to thicken this delicious sauce is to add a cornstarch slurry. A slurry is just a mixture of cornstarch and thin liquid.

In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and soy sauce until smooth. You can use cold water if you want, but soy sauce adds extra flavor. And, we don’t want to water down this delicious sauce!

Turn on the sauté function. When it starts to bubble, slowly whisk in the slurry. Let the sauce simmer for a minute to thicken. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon or serving spoon. Then, stir in your chopped broccoli, if using.

Hit Cancel to turn the saute function off. Then, stir the chicken back into that delicious, sticky sauce!

You’re going to love this super flavorful, delicious tender chicken! And the sauce?

Seriously, I can’t say enough about the savory sweet honey garlic sauce! Next time, I may even make a little extra sticky honey garlic sauce!

What to Serve with Honey Garlic Chicken

We love to serve honey garlic chicken with broccoli and Instant Pot Jasmine rice. White rice or Brown rice is perfect for absorbing that yummy sauce!

If you don’t want broccoli, green beans are delicious with this quick meal. For more easy sides, check out my side dishes archives.

Recipe Variations

For more flavor, stir in a little sriracha sauce or red pepper flakes for extra heat. Add a teaspoon of brown sugar for extra sweetness.

Or top the chicken with sesame seeds and green onions for added crunch.

You can substitute chicken thighs for the chicken breasts. Instead of jasmine rice, use cauliflower rice.

You can also use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce.

No Instant Pot? Make crock pot honey garlic chicken. Just add everything to your slow cooker and cook!

How to Store and Reheat

Store any leftover chicken and rice in a covered airtight container in your refrigerator. It should keep for 3 to 4 days. You can also freeze leftovers in a freezer bag or freezer safe container for later — great for meal prep!

Reheat leftovers in the microwave or on the stove top. If you have a lot of chicken and extra sauce left over, you can even reheat them in your Instant Pot on the Sauté setting.

Pressure cooker honey garlic chicken is one of our favorite Instant Pot chicken recipes! I hope you enjoy this delicious dinner as much as my family does.

We think it’s even better than Chinese takeout!

Please leave a comment and or star rating if you enjoy this easy meal as much as we do.

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