Honey Garlic Instant Pot Chicken Breasts
These Honey Garlic Instant Pot Chicken Breasts are always moist, tender and flavorful! These pressure cooker chicken breasts cook perfectly in minutes from fresh or frozen. Serve your honey garlic instant pot chicken breast with rice or quinoa and veggies for a complete, quick dinner!
The Instant Pot is a dream come true for getting quick, healthy dinners on your table. Once you set your Instant Pot to pressure cook, you can focus on preparing other parts of your meal – or taking care of your kids.
You can saute ingredients and thicken sauces, all right in the Instant Pot. You can even safely cook chicken from frozen.
Are you new to Instant Pot cooking? Read my How to Use an Instant Pot beginner’s guide to get started today!
Instant Pot chicken breasts cook up perfectly and hold their shape for slicing and serving. This honey garlic instant pot chicken breast is great for quick dinners or for meal prep lunches.
Honey Garlic Instant Pot Chicken Breasts
- are made completely in the Instant Pot (electric pressure cooker), even thickening the sauce!
- can be cooked from fresh or frozen! Freezer meal instructions included in the recipe card below.
- are perfectly juicy and tender, never dry!
How to Cook Honey Garlic Instant Pot Chicken Breast
You will need only 5 ingredients and 30 minutes to have this delicious Instant Pot chicken on your table. Combine the sauce ingredients in your Instant Pot, add the chicken and pressure cook. The last step is to thicken the sauce. It’s so quick and easy!
Ingredients for Honey Garlic Instant Pot Chicken Breasts
- water or broth
- honey
- soy sauce
- garlic
- pepper
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- cornstarch
How long do you cook chicken breast in the Instant Pot?
How long to cook chicken in the Instant Pot depends on the size of your chicken breasts.
For fresh, boneless skinless chicken breasts:
- Cook small (7-8 ounces per breast) chicken breasts for 8 minutes.
- Cook medium (10 ounces per breast) chicken breasts for 10 minutes.
- Cook large (12 ounces per breast) chicken breasts for 11 minutes.
How long do you cook frozen chicken breast in the Instant Pot?
Add between 2-4 minutes to the cook times listed above if your chicken breasts are frozen. I find that adding 3 extra minutes is usually perfect for frozen chicken breasts. You will also want to do a 10 minute natural release instead of a quick release for frozen chicken.
Learn more about how to cook frozen chicken breasts in the Instant Pot.
Make sure that your frozen chicken breasts are not all stuck together in one mass, as this will increase the cook time needed. I recommend freezing chicken breasts in a flat layer so that they are easy to separate when adding to your Instant Pot.
You can prep the ingredients for this honey garlic chicken, freeze and then transfer to your Instant Pot frozen. I recommend thawing just slightly in cool water so that you can easily pour the sauce from the freezer bag. You will need the sauce to be liquid for Instant Pot pressure cooking.
This photo shows how I prep this as a chicken freezer meal, using one of these freezer bag holders to easily add ingredients to the freezer bag.
How to Thicken the Sauce in the Instant Pot
Instant Pot saute mode is one of my favorite features of this electric pressure cooker. After the chicken is done, remove it from the pot and turn your Instant Pot to saute mode. Make a cornstarch slurry by stirring together a mixture of cornstarch and water. Cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens. This will take about 2 to 3 minutes.
It will take a few minutes for the heating element to cool down, so I recommend removing the inner pot from the Instant Pot base once the sauce is thickened. You can slice the chicken and stir it into the sauce, or drizzle the sauce on top for serving.
What to Serve with Instant Pot Chicken Breast
We love this chicken served with rice and roasted broccoli. It would also be delicious with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots.
More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
- Best Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
- Easy Instant Pot Chicken Thighs
- Easy Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
- Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup
Tips for making Instant Pot Chicken Breast
- Use an instant read thermometer to check that your chicken is cooked to at least 165 degrees F.
- If your chicken isn’t cooked through after the pressure cook time finishes, turn your Instant Pot to saute mode to finish cooking the chicken.
- After stirring in the cornstarch mixture, you can add a bag of frozen mixed vegetables to the Instant Pot. They will cook while the sauce thickens.
- To make this recipe gluten-free, substitute coconut aminos or gluten-free tamari for the soy sauce.
If you make this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment below and tag a photo on Instagram @kristines_kitchen. I love to see what you are cooking!
Honey Garlic Instant Pot Chicken Breasts
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup water (or vegetable broth or chicken broth)
- ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
Instructions
- Combine water or broth, soy sauce, honey, garlic and pepper in Instant Pot. Stir.
- Add the chicken breasts to the Instant Pot.
- Seal the lid and turn the steam valve to the sealing position.
- Set Instant Pot to pressure cook/manual, high pressure. Set the cook time according to the size of your chicken breasts. For fresh: 8 minutes for small (7-8 ounce) chicken breasts, 10 minutes for medium (10 ounce) chicken breasts, or 11 minutes for large (12 ounce) chicken breasts.
- For frozen chicken breasts, add 3 minutes to the cooking times listed in step 4, and pressure cook (manual) at high pressure. Be sure that your chicken breasts are not stuck together as that will increase the pressure cook time.
- The Instant Pot will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure and then will start counting down the cook time. When it beeps to let you know the cook time has finished, carefully quick release the pressure by using the handle of a long spoon to turn the steam valve to venting. (If your chicken breasts were frozen, do a 10 minute natural release instead of a quick release. Just leave the Instant Pot alone for 10 minutes before turning the steam valve to the venting position.)
- Wait for the steam to escape and the pin to drop down. Then, carefully remove the lid.
- Use an instant read thermometer to test the internal temperature of the chicken. It should be at least 165 degrees F. If the temperature is lower, finish cooking the chicken using the Instant Pot's saute mode.
- Remove chicken to a clean plate or cutting board.
- In a small bowl, stir together the 2 teaspoons cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water. Turn the Instant Pot on saute mode and stir in the cornstarch mixture. Cook, stirring, until the liquid has thickened, 2-3 minutes. Turn off Instant Pot and remove the inner pot to stop the cooking process.
- Slice the chicken and stir it back into the sauce in the pot. Serve with rice and vegetables, or as desired.
Notes
To Cook in a Slow Cooker:
- Stir together water or broth, soy sauce, honey, garlic and pepper in slow cooker insert. Add the chicken.
- Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours or high for 2 hours, until chicken reaches an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees F.
- Remove chicken to a clean plate or cutting board. Turn slow cooker to high setting.
- In a small bowl, stir together 2 teaspoons cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water. Stir this into the liquid in the slow cooker and cook on high until thickened, about 20 minutes.
- Slice or shred the chicken and stir it into the sauce in the slow cooker. Serve with rice and vegetables, or as desired.
To Make as a Freezer Meal:
- Add water or broth, soy sauce, honey, garlic, pepper and chicken to a heavy duty zip top freezer bag.
- Freeze flat for up to 3 months.
- When ready to cook, thaw in cool water just until sauce is thawed. Transfer to Instant Pot and cook as directed above.
Nutrition
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Made this for supper & it was so good & easy! Super quick & easy to make on night u need something simple & fast bc it’s def both & also delicious too. Hubby was raving bout it after he cleaned his plate. Great recipe, thanks for sharing!!
Hi – Any tips on keeping it from sticking to the bottom of the instant pot and triggering the “burn” message? Thanks!
Hi Troy. I haven’t had an issue with the burn message with this recipe. You can read my tips on preventing the Instant Pot burn message here.
Easy & delicious. A recipe to add to the dinner rotation. I very much appreciated Kristine’s thorough instant pot directions! In the future I will add red pepper flakes, a bit more garlic, and cashews or peanuts, just because we like things a bit spicier and love nuts. Thank you for this recipe.
I prepared this exactly as stated. There was plenty Ty of sauce to cover the chicken, however I needed to double the cornstarch and water to get it to even a consistently the world cover the chicken. The sauce was a tiny bit bland, my hubby said he was having trouble tasting the sauce. I tasted a hint of honey and and hit of the pepper. Some salt added to our plates helped a little. If I were to make it again it cut the pepper down and increase the soy sauce & garlic. I might even add some ginger. The cooking time was also a bit off. I had medium breasts that were frozen. So I did 8min + 3. The chicken was not as moist as I would have liked but could be cut with a fork. I’d probably do closer to the 8min unless I had super thick breasts going in. Will definitely try it again.
First time trying this recipe and 1st time using an instant pot. First reaction was the chicken more I ate the more I liked it. I did not have Soy sauce so I substituted Worcestershire sauce. I will also try some cayenne in this. Just need to decide how much to use. My daughter tried putting Parmesan on it.
I made this for our dinner and extra for a meal train family. Outstanding and very easy.
We had this last night and really enjoyed even tho I forgot the cornstarch slurry…. I will definitely make again and add ectra garlic, and for sure try ginger and a few red pepper flakes. May also try to add broccoli and red bell pepper hopefully the 7 minutes won’t make them so soft. I am thinking the sauce would be good on stir-fry
Sounds amazing, I suck at cooking, so much so i was hoping for there to be instructions on how to do the rice and vegetables in the same thing? I am so bad at it sadly.
Never been taught how to cook just for reference, and i get distracted super easily lol.
The recipe tips in the post suggest how to add vegetables: After stirring in the cornstarch mixture, you can add a bag of frozen mixed vegetables to the Instant Pot. They will cook while the sauce thickens. I recommend cooking the rice separately. Here is my how to cook rice recipe. Enjoy!
This was a a easy and delicious recipe. I used 2 (about 1 pound each) bone in chicken breasts. The only changes I made were to cook for 14 minutes and use 1 tablespoon of water and corn starch for the slurry. Sauce was amazing and the perfect consistency. My 4 year old ate it and stole bites from my husband I. She only eats 5 foods so this is going into the weekly rotation for sure!
That your 4 year old ate this is the best compliment! I’m so glad it was enjoyed by all! 🙂
Is the cook time per breast?
No, the cook time is for all of the chicken combined, but as noted in the recipe it will depend on the size of the individual chicken breasts. For example, if you are cooking 3-4 small (8-ounces each) chicken breasts, the pressure cook time is 8 minutes.