Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken
Anyone who reads this site regularly knows there are two things that I absolutely love. The first is my new Instant Pot. I’ve only had it about a year, but I’ve already used it to make shredded chicken, beef stew, steamed artichokes, and a bunch of pasta dishes – and the list just keeps growing.
The other thing I really love is honey garlic sauce. I use it for meatballs, cocktail weenies, shrimp lo mein…even carrots. No matter what you put it on, it’s delicious.
So it was only a matter of time before I decided to put these two wonderful things together. And sure enough, wonderful plus wonderful adds up to REALLY wonderful. This Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken is a Chinese-style dish bursting with honey-garlic flavor. And because you make it in the Instant Pot, it’s also really quick to make.
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Step one, mix up the sauce, pour it over the meat, and cook for 20 minutes. Step two, take out the meat and thicken the sauce. And step three, cut up the meat and toss it with the sauce. Boom, done. Served over rice with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and green onions, it’s a super-flavorful Chinese meal that takes less time than ordering takeout.
Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken
Ingredients:
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup water
Sesame seeds & green onion for topping
Rice for serving
Directions:
1. Start by placing your chicken in the bottom of the Instant Pot. Season well with salt and pepper.
2. In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, and garlic. Pour the mixture over chicken and put your Instant Pot Lid on and set to seal.
3. Cook on the Meat setting (or on HIGH pressure for non IP) for 15 minutes and then quick release once the 15 minutes is up. Remove chicken from pot, leave the sauce in the pot.
4. Dissolve 3 teaspoons of cornstarch in 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl and pour into your Instant Pot. Stir to combine with sauce. Push the Saute button and cook sauce for about 5 minutes or until slightly thickened.
5. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce before serving. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions, and serve over rice.
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Corey, Darryl, Big D & Little D
Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken
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Ingredients
- 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup onion, diced
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup water
- Sesame seeds & green onion for topping
- Rice for serving
Instructions
- Start by placing your chicken in the bottom of the Instant Pot. Season well with salt and pepper.
- In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, and garlic. Pour the mixture over chicken and put your Instant Pot Lid on and set to seal.
- Cook on the Meat setting (or on HIGH pressure for non IP) for 15 minutes and then quick release once the 15 minutes is up. Remove chicken from pot, leave the sauce in the pot.
- Dissolve 3 teaspoons of cornstarch in 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl and pour into your Instant Pot. Stir to combine with sauce. Push the Saute button and cook sauce for about 5 minutes or until slightly thickened.
- Cut the chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce before serving. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions, and serve over rice.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer: Family Fresh Meals is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
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Is this possible to do with frozen chicken? How would you adjust?
I just made it with frozen chicken and didn’t adjust the time, turned out great. The only problem I had was the valve wouldn’t rise so I added an extra 1/4 of water and it worked fine after that.
Just made this and it’s so good I hope there is some left by the time my husband gets home!
Loved it!
For frozen chicken, add 3 minutes to the cook time.
The sauce was delish but my 6 quart Instant Pot turned the chicken into dried out mess at twenty minutes with instant pressure release. I think the manual recommends 10 -12 minutes? Going to try again because the sauce is a winner!
My go to (because quick releasing meat just dries it out!) is to cook less time and allow to natural release for 10-15 minutes. I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but when I do I will cook for 8-10 minutes and then let NR for minimum of 10 minutes.
This was just OK. Definitely missing some flavor. Chicken was tender. Served with rice and roasted broccoli. Doubt I’d make it again.
My family of 5 loved this recipe. It was a big hit with my 9 year old twins and my 11 y/o. Any suggestions for cooking time if I made it with boneless pork chops instead?
I love the idea of trying this with pork chops! I haven’t tried this recipe with pork chops, so I can’t say for sure…. but if you give it a try, please come back and let us know 🙂
I actually came here looking for a chicken recipe bc I tried a honey garlic pork chop recipe! Very much the same but the cook time was only 1 minute + natural release (I forgot how long). Very good. This recipe is very similar to the one for pork chops.
Could I make this without an instat pot?
I made it last night on the stove in a skillet, because I had diced chicken breasts, and it turned out great! After I cooked the chicken, I removed it from the skillet and then cooked the sauce in the same skillet. Once it was done, I added the chicken back to toss it in the sauce and warm back up.
This was a really good recipe. The family asked what smelled so good. My daughter asked me to add some broccoli in after I had finished cooking it so I started it back up for 2 minutes and it came out great! Served with rice.
This was incredible. Hubs said WOW when he took the first bite. I added a little more honey at the end because I wanted it sweeter. I also added about a half tsp of toasted sesame oil, but other than that, I stuck to the recipe. Next time I’ll add cashews or water chestnuts. Yum!
I baked in oven with veggies and it was awesome!
I did! Turned out great!
How would this work if I cut up the chicken first?
I did, and frankly I think that’s the easier way to go. I thickened the sauce with the chicken still in ithe pot, too. Five stars!
Does cutting it up change the cooking time?
Absolutely love this recipe but for some reason I can never get the sauce to thicken a little.
Works well..
Best one I’ve tried yet! Used 3lbs of frozen chicken breast cut into roughly 1in cubes, quadrupled the sauce (extra honey) and threw in some hoisin sauce too. Next time will add fresh mushrooms and some broccoli.
I cut up the chicken the first time, The other time and cooked it whole. I prefer the chicken cooked whole. Its moister
This was simple and delicious! Thank you! Will make again.
My chicken came out really dry.
I used natural release (always for meat) because quick release often makes meat dry or rubbery.
This is seriously the best! Used 1/2 tsp sesame oil to finish the sauce and paired with baked spiralized carrots instead of rice. My chicken was perfect … About 2# chicken breast.
Has anyone ever added rice to the instant pot with this recipe?? Would it work ? 🤔
I wanted to make rice with it too and found these stackable inserts for instant pot on amazon! I’m making rice separate tonight but ordering those bad boys for future use making this and rice at the same time.
I want to make this this week! My husband and I love Chinese food, and this seems similar. But I am a little confused by the instructions. It says cook on meat setting or high pressure for non Instant Pot. I thought high pressure WAS an Instant Pot thing. Is that not the instructions for the Instant Pot then? Would love to hear back from you! Thanks!
Thank you!!! Legit smelled like I entered a Chinese restaurant as we opened the valve! My husband loved comes food but a couple of us in the house have Celiac Disease so can’t have anything with gluten and thus Chinese take out (his favorite option) is something we can never do.
However this very easy recipe cooks itself in the instapot and can be made Gluten-free!!! Our entire family enjoyed this! Thank you!!!
The chicken I used was still partially frozen in the center so I googled how to adjust cook time (they suggested adding 4min to frozen but mine was Abbie half frozen so I added 2min extra for a total of 17 min cook time plus I did 10min natural release- it was overcooked so next time I’ll start with fresh or I’ll just do the NR and no extra time). While my choice to overcook it did make it chewy, it was such a good flavor that we all ate seconds!!!
I used a generous Amy if seasoning on the chicken then added the sauce and cooked. Love that you don’t have to do any prep work for this. Just add ingredients and start!!
I’d add some pineapple chunks next time for a fun seeet bonus and different texture. I like the suggestions of broccoli (I’ll consider) and cashews (definitely cashews and pineapple could be added together to this dish)!!!
We will make this again for sure!!!
That was meant for other brands of pressure cookers. For instance, I have a crockpot brand instant pot. They don’t always have the same setting buttons.
If I wanted to double the recipe, do I need to add minutes? And how long?
You might just need to add on a couple minutes, but no more than that.
Hi! When did you add the sesame oil?
I just made this for the first time and all I can say is wow!! I followed the recipe exactly and it is delicious. Very simple to make but so flavorful! This will become a regular in our dinner rotation. Thank you!
OMG! My family LOVED this dish. I added some water chestnuts and bean sprouts at the end during the “sauté” to thicken process. My son asked me if I could put it on next week’s dinner list! Thanks for the recipe!
Sorry far to sweet for me.
I’m slightly confused do I use 1/4 c water to dissolve corn starch as the ingredients section says or 1/2 c water as it says in the directions section?