This Instant Pot Chicken Adobo is a delicious take on the Filipino dish that comes together in half the time thanks to your pressure cooker!
Ingredients and substitutions
- Olive oil – or any other neutral cooking oil like avocado or grapeseed oil.
- Yellow onion – white onion or shallots would provide a similar flavour.
- Garlic cloves – make sure you don’t skimp out on the garlic! Freshly minced garlic is best but jarred minced garlic will work in a pinch.
- Chicken thighs – you can try making it with chicken breasts but it won’t taste as authentic.
- Vinegar – white vinegar is best but apple cider vinegar would also work.
- Soy sauce – coconut aminos or tamari are the best substitutes for soy sauce.
- Brown sugar – make your own brown sugar by mixing together white sugar and molasses.
- Bay leaves – if you don’t have any bay leaves, add in some dried oregano or thyme.
- Salt & pepper – to taste.
- Red pepper – use any colour bell pepper of your choice like yellow or green bell pepper.
- Green onions – scallions would also be good here.
- White rice – swap out for another kind of rice like brown rice or eat this dish on it’s own for a lower carb option.
How to make chicken adobo in the Instant Pot
- Add everything but the pepper, green onions and rice to the Instant Pot in order.
- Place the chicken thighs on top of the trivet.
- Cook on high pressure for 4 minutes.
- Make the rice.
- Do a quick release of the pressure.
- Remove the chicken and bay leaves.
- Simmer the sauce on sauté mode.
- Stir in the red pepper.
- Serve over rice, garnish with green onions and enjoy.
What to serve with chicken adobo
Chicken adobo is traditionally served over white rice, but you could serve it over brown rice, cauliflower rice, quinoa or mashed potatoes. If you’re looking for more side dish ideas, here are some options:
Frequently Asked Questions
I like using boneless skinless chicken thighs for this Instant Pot chicken adobo recipe. You can use boneless skinless chicken breasts, but you’ll need to cut them in half and the cooking time may vary.
You can use frozen chicken thighs for this recipe, but you’ll need to increase the cooking time to 8 minutes.
The adobo sauce is already pretty thick, but if you want it to be even thicker, remove the chicken from the pot after cooking and turn on sauté mode. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes until it reaches the desired thickness, then add the chicken back to the pot along with the red peppers.
This chicken adobo Instant Pot recipe is a bit spicy thanks to the black pepper, but it’s a mostly savoury dish with balanced flavours that are similar to a stir fry.
There are different variations of adobo around the world including Puerto Rican adobo and Mexican adobo which offer their own spin on the delicious recipe. This recipe was based on traditional Filipino adobo chicken.
Storing and reheating
This fact may surprise you, but many Filipino cooks store adobo at room temperature for a few days. Seriously, without any refrigeration! Apparently, vinegar and soy sauce in the marinade act as preservatives. This allows the dish to keep well at room temperature for up to 4 days.
However, I would recommend you store this dish in the fridge. If refrigerated, Instant Pot chicken adobo will stay good for 5 to 6 days so it’s perfect for your weekly meal prep. When you’re ready to eat it, microwave it for 1-2 minutes until heated through.
Can you freeze chicken adobo?
Yes, this chicken adobo Instant Pot recipe freezes very well. After cooking, let it cool completely before transferring to freezer-safe glass meal prep containers or Ziploc bags and freeze for up to 3 months. Let it thaw in the fridge overnight then reheat as normal. If you’re serving your chicken adobo with rice, I suggest freezing the rice separately or even serving it with fresh rice.
More Instant Pot chicken recipes
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on turning the Instant Pot chicken adobo into your weekly lunches.
- I get all my free-range chicken from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen.
Instant Pot Chicken Adobo
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 12 garlic cloves, minced
- 10 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1/3 cup vinegar
- 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 4 green onions, sliced
Rice
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup white rice
- 1 tsp Butter `
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- Add trivet to Instant Pot, then add olive oil, onion, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, bay leaves, pepper and salt to Instant Pot in that order. Add chicken thighs on top of trivet.
- Press the pressure cook button and select the high setting, then set to cook for 4 minutes – Instant Pot will take about 10-15 minutes to preheat then the 4 minutes to pressure cook.
- Meanwhile, cook rice, water and butter in a rice cooker.
- Do a quick release of the pressure by flicking the switch at the top with a spoon, then open lid when safe to do so. Remove chicken thighs in trivet from pot and turn to saute mode. Remove bay leaves from sauce.
- Bring sauce to a boil and let simmer for 2-3 minutes until sauce thickens slightly. Add red pepper and chicken thighs back to pot, then gently stir and cook another 2 minutes.
- Top rice with chicken mixture and garnish with green onions. Serve and enjoy!
