Making meals in the instant pot (what my mom calls an electric pressure cooker) is a great way to save time on your weekly meal prep.
As usual, I am late to the party and so I discovered the wonder of the 8-quart Instant Pot 9 in 1 (affiliate links) just a few months ago–and I’m hooked.
When you’re really busy, it doesn’t take much time to cook something in an Instant Pot and with four children in many activities, we need all the help we can get!
Using an Instant Pot really is the easiest way to get a quick meal on the table for your family.
My new favorite thing to cook in the instant pot is chicken breast. The chicken cooks quickly and is very tender when you make it in the IP due to the cooking process.
In my opinion, an instant pot gives the chicken a better texture and of course, it reduces the amount of time you spend actually cooking (who doesn’t want a 10-minute cook time on a recipe when they’re busy!).
There are a variety of chicken breast instant pot recipes I’m going to share with you today, from recipes with bite-size pieces of chicken (great for little ones) to just throwing in the entire raw and fresh chicken breast.
You’ll end up with very flavorful chicken breast and a meal that your whole family will enjoy.
There are some important terms to know when you’re cooking these chicken breast recipes in an instant pot:
- Natural release (letting the pressure release slowly) vs. quick release (letting it sit for a shorter time after cooking and then manually releasing the remaining pressure)
- High pressure vs. low pressure
- Pressure valve (what you release during quick release setting)
- Sauté setting
5 Tips for Making Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
- I don’t know if you’d call this a pro tip, but one of the best things I’ve learned about making meals in the pressure cooker is that you want to be sure to follow the recommended cooking time to the T, as this is very important for getting juicy chicken breast every time.
- Be sure to check whether the recipe calls for or offers alterations for using frozen chicken breasts. Use skinless chicken breasts for best results.
- Does the recipe call for small or large chicken breasts? You can test the internal temperature of your chicken after cooking if you’re unsure if it’s ready.
- If your recipe involves sauteing the chicken in olive oil (or any oil) in the pot before cooking, make sure to take a wooden or rubber spatula and scrape any little bit of food off the bottom of the pot once it’s done sauteing. Otherwise, you will burn your food during the pressure cooking process!
- If you are wanting to convert your own best recipe to the Instant Pot, try to look up a similar recipe online for instructions. Always remember that you will need to add at least a cup of water to a recipe that is being converted to a pressure cooker.
Bulk Cooking in the Instant Pot
You can quickly cook whole boneless chicken breasts in the instant pot (use this tutorial as a guide).
Use what you want for a meal that night. Shred up the leftover chicken and store that cooked chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for quick meals all week. My husband likes to take the chicken to work for lunch and can add barbecue sauce and put it on a bun or make it into chicken salad.
Okay, here we are at the best Instant Pot Chicken recipes I recommend.
We’ve tried several of these recipes but some of them are going on the meal plan as a new recipe to try, so I wanted to share 21 easy chicken recipes with you today that make use of the instant pot to give you tender chicken breast every single time!
21 Easy Instant Pot Recipes with Chicken Breast
1. Instant Pot Chicken and Rice from Salt & Lavender
2. Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala from Piping Pot Curry
3. Instant Pot White Chicken Chilli from iFoodreal