This Instant Pot Chicken is such an easy and delicious way to make shredded chicken for all sorts of different meals. If you meal prep, you need this instant pot chicken recipe. With only about five minutes of prep time and 30 minutes in the instant pot, this instant pot chicken breast recipe is perfect.
Hello friends! In an effort to not complain to you about winter and to make you (and me) smile, I wanted to tell you that Piper drew me a Ninja Unicorn Fox the other day. Head of a unicorn, body of a fox, horn made out of pipe cleaners and ready for anything a ninja might encounter, it is exactly as awesome as you might think. I’ll have to share it on my Instagram Stories.
INSTANT POT CHICKEN RECIPE
Okay! Now that you are smiling, let’s talk about Instant Pot Chicken! Very often when I make a recipe that calls for cooked chicken, what you would ideally use is rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. It is moist, it is delicious, and it is perfect in recipes. However. My life is never that well planned and what I always end up using is boiled chicken. Guys, I kind of loathe boiling chicken. Something about it just makes me feel blah. So! Today I have for you this delicious, moist, flavorful shredded chicken that you make in your instant pot. Start to finish was are talking about 35 minutes and it is moist and perfect. This is a lot like my Instant Pot Chicken Tacos, but without the taco seasoning.
I know I have come at you with a ton of instant pot recipes lately (super excited about my Instant Pot Beef Stew and my Instant Pot Quinoa). If you don’t have one, I will have a non-instant pot recipe for you on Friday. That said, I really do recommend buying one. I’m finding that I am using mine more and more. I love how hands off it makes dinner.
HOW DO YOU MAKE INSTANT POT CHICKEN?
This instant pot shredded chicken recipe could not be more simple.
- Season your chicken breasts with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
- Add water to the bottom of your instant pot.
- Insert the steamer rack that came with your instant pot.
- Place the chicken on top.
- Close the instant pot and make sure that the pressure release valve is set to sealing.
- Set the instant pot to manual, and 12 minutes. Allow it to come to pressure and then it will begin to count down.
- When the time is up, manually release the pressure by turning the pressure release valve to venting. When the float valve drops, open your instant pot and shred your chicken!
CAN I DO FROZEN CHICKEN BREASTS IN THE INSTANT POT?
YES! You can very easily grab a frozen chicken breast out of the freezer and pop it in the instant pot. The only thing that changes is the timing and the seasoning.
- Skip the oil, salt and pepper and just seasoning after cooking however you like.
- Increase the time from 12 minutes to 20.
- Do everything else exactly the same.
THIS INSTANT POT CHICKEN WOULD BE GREAT IN
- CHICKEN NOODLE CASSEROLE
- ONE POT SOUTHWESTERN ALFREDO PASTA
- SPINACH ARTICHOKE CHICKEN ALFREDO LASAGANA
- MARSALA CHICKEN NOODLE CASSEROLE
- FRENCH SPAGHETTI
- BUFFALO BAKED TACOS
Instant Pot Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 pound chicken breasts
- 3 cups water
Instructions
- Rub the chicken breasts with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
- Place three cups of water in the bottom of the instant pot.
- Add the steamer insert that came with your instant pot. Place the chicken breasts on top of it.
- Close the instant pot and make sure that the pressure release valve is set to sealing. Set the instant pot to manual (HIGH), and the timer to 12 minutes.
- The Instant pot will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure, then it will count down the 12 minutes cook time.
- After the timer ends, turn the pressure release valve to venting. Allow the float valve to fall (the little sliver part near the pressure release valve). Once it has, open your Instant Pot, remove your chicken and shred it.
did you make this
Instant Pot Chicken Recipe
Other great Instant Pot Recipes
Instant Pot Meatballs and Pasta Recipe
Honey BBQ Instant Pot Cocktail Meatballs
Sharon says
Is the timing the same if I’m using chicken tenders instead of breasts ?
You definitely will need less time with chicken tenders. With my Instant Pot Taco Chicken I use tenders and only set it for 5 minutes, but the tenders are fully submerged. I would try it with 5 minutes and see it goes – I would rather they be a little undercooked for you and you could boil them for a minute, then try it for 7 minutes and get dry over done chicken.
Irene says
What’s your recommendation if you want to cook more than 1lb of chicken? This recipe is perfect for my fiancé, but he likes to cook a lot in one sitting and then have leftovers for the week.
I would have to play with it before I could recommend cooking more than 1 pound. The more full the instant pot, the quicker it comes to pressure, so the cooking times would need to be different and I just haven’t tested more than a pound yet.
Nathan says
I’m sure the recipe is great after reading some of the comments. I only added a cup of water as I am wanting to keep it incorporated with the shredded chicken once cooked. With this the 12 minutes was not enough time and chicken was not quite ready to shred. I recommend if using less liquid to go with a 15 minute cook time (as stated in another recipe I used yesterday for shredded, 10 for sliced or cubed as I needed it for) and even leave some natural release time. I have never had dried out chicken come out of my instant pot. I suppose its possible but the whole idea of pressure cooking is that it is keeping all of the moisture in the pot. I’m not saying you couldn’t overcook it by any means but I don’t know about drying it out. Got to this recipe from a link on your chicken enchilada bake recipe. I did add a packet of taco seasoning as well. Anyway hope this makes sense and is helpful for someone. Thank you