Honey Garlic Instant Pot Chicken Breasts

September 19, 2018 4 Comments »

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.

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.

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.

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

• Easy Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
• Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
• Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

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!

Print Recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Honey Garlic Instant Pot Chicken Breasts

Prep:10 mins

Cook:10 mins

Total:30 mins

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!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup water, 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

Directions:

1. Combine water or broth, soy sauce, honey, garlic and pepper in Instant Pot. Stir.
2. Add the chicken breasts to the Instant Pot.
3. Seal the lid and turn the steam valve to the sealing position.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Wait for the steam to escape and the pin to drop down. Then, carefully remove the lid.
8. 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.
9. Remove chicken to a clean plate or cutting board.
10. 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.
11. Slice the chicken and stir it back into the sauce in the pot. Serve with rice and vegetables, or as desired.

To cook in the slow cooker:

1. Stir together water or broth, soy sauce, honey, garlic and pepper in slow cooker insert. Add the chicken.
2. 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.
3. Remove chicken to a clean plate or cutting board. Turn slow cooker to high setting.
4. 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.
5. 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:

1. Add water or broth, soy sauce, honey, garlic, pepper and chicken to a heavy duty zip top freezer bag.
2. Freeze flat for up to 3 months.
3. When ready to cook, thaw in cool water just until sauce is thawed. Transfer to Instant Pot and cook as directed above.

Note:

Nutrition information was calculated using an online calculator and is meant to be an estimate only. The exact numbers will vary based on quantities, ingredients and brands used.

Nutrition Information

Yield: 4 servings, Serving Size: 1/4 recipe

• Amount Per Serving:
• Calories: 285 Calories
• Total Fat: 5g
• Saturated Fat: 1g
• Cholesterol: 124mg
• Sodium: 651mg
• Carbohydrates: 20g
• Sugar: 18g
• Protein: 40g

All images and text ©Kristine for Kristine's Kitchen

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