Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken

Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken was an immedaite hit when I made it for dinner last week. Not only was it a five ingredient recipe that took me literally less than 3 minutes to throw into the Instant Pot, it tasted amazing and we were all licking up the sauce from our plates.

I have had an Instant Pot for about six months now but to be honest, it has taken me some time to really come around and start using it. For the first six months, outside of a few beef recipes, I pretty much used it to make boiled eggs. And even though it makes amazing boiled eggs, I definitely wasn’t taking advantage of all this little pot has to offer. Recently after lots of prodding from readers and family members who love it, I have finally busted it out and unsurprisingly am loving it. As someone who loves slow cooked dishes but sometimes need something quick, this is the perfect solution. I can make all my favorite slow cooker dishes in about a tenth of the time it would normally take.

Now let’s talk about this dish. There are so many versions of honey garlic chicken out there and they are all delicious. The only problem is that most have so much honey, that it unfortunately isn’t the healthiest dish, having more sugar than many desserts. This lightened up version has just enough sweetness from three tablespoons of honey but isn’t overly sticky sweet. I promise you won’t miss all the extra honey. Paired with the soy sauce and ketchup, it creates this amazingly delicious sauce that is flecked with garlic. So good.

When making this Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken, you can make the following adjustments:

• Spice things up by adding some Sriracha or Asian garlic chili paste to the mix. Red pepper flakes also work, but I love adding an Asian hot sauce since it pairs perfectly with the other flavors in the recipe.
• I like to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs for the recipe since they stay nice and moist. However you can use virtually any cut of boneless or bone-in chicken for the recipe and could even use pork tenderloin or a lean pork roast. If you use skin on chicken, consider throwing it under the broiler for a couple of minutes to crisp up the skin.
• If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can make this on the stove top or in the slow cooker. For the slow cooker, just add everything and cook on low for 4 hours. For a stove-top version, just simmer the chicken in the sauce, covered, for about 30-40 minutes until it is tender. You may have to add more water or broth if the sauce thickens too much.
• Chicken can vary greatly when it comes to water content, which can cause quite a range when it comes to the sauce. Look for chicken without water or broth added if you can. Either way, if you end up with a thin sauce, you can thicken it up with cornstarch. You could also toss the chicken with a touch of flour and brown it in the Instant Pot. This will also thicken up the sauce.
• For a gluten-free or Paleo version, make the recipe using coconut aminos and a Paleo friendly ketchup.
• Meal Prep: This is an awesome recipe for meal prep. Make up a batch on the weekend and pair it with rice and veggies for quick lunches during the week. It’s also delicious in lettuce wraps, tortillas for an Asian taco, and big green salads.

Looking for more Instant Pot recipes?

Here are some of the products and tools I used to cook this recipe:

• Instant Pot: There are a few different models of the Instant Pot depending on how many features you want. I have this one and have been really happy with it.