Name: The Best Instant Pot Chicken Thighs
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 1 tbsp sesame oil; 1/4 cup chicken broth; 1/4 cup soy sauce; 2 tbsp honey; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 1 tbsp gingerroot, minced; 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs; sesame seeds, for garnish; 1 tbsp water; 1 tbsp cornstarch; 1 package coleslaw mix; 1 bunch scallions, chopped; 3 tbsp rice vinegar; 1 tbsp soy sauce; 1 tbsp sugar; 1 tsp sesame oil

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The Best Instant Pot Chicken Thighs come together in under 30 minutes with a delicious sticky-sweet honey garlic sauce. Serve with Asian coleslaw for a full meal!

Ingredients in Instant Pot chicken thighs

Chicken thighs with a sticky honey garlic sauce cooked in the Instant Pot requires just a few ingredients. Use boneless skinless chicken thighs so the meat absorbs the flavor of the sauce. Chicken thighs have more fat than breasts so they make a much juicier meal. It is a healthy type of fat though so don’t worry about the extra fat in the meal.

This Instant Pot chicken thigh recipe will make four servings of two thighs each.

Besides the thighs, you will need:

Chicken broth
Soy sauce
Honey
Garlic
Ginger root
Sesame seeds
Cornstarch

A great side dish to go with the chicken thighs is Asian coleslaw. I start with a store bought package of coleslaw and add the following:

Scallions
Rice vinegar
Soy sauce
Sugar
Sesame oil

How to make Instant Pot chicken thighs

In less than 30 minutes, you can have these Instant Pot boneless chicken thighs complete and ready to eat or to divide into meal prep containers.

Add the chicken thighs and seasonings to the Instant Pot.
Cook the chicken for five minutes and do a quick release to stop the cooking process immediately.
When you can open the lid, remove the chicken pieces only.
Switch the Instant Pot to saute mode. Add the cornstarch slurry to the sauce and simmer it for a few minutes until it has thickened.
Pour the sauce over the thighs.

Using frozen chicken thighs

Unlike a crock pot, you can use frozen meat in an Instant Pot. The problem with putting frozen meat in the crock pot is that it takes a long time to heat, and the meat could remain at an unsafe temperature for too long. This will allow bacteria to build in the meat and contaminate it.

An Instant Pot heats quickly so this process can not happen. It will require a slightly longer time to cook though. For boneless skinless chicken thighs, set the Instant Pot to cook for ten minutes.

Sauce substitutions

If you are sensitive to gluten, you need to substitute the soy sauce for tamari or coconut aminos.

I love the flavor of this Asian-inspired sauce. However, this is the method to cook any Instant Pot chicken thighs. To use other sauces, be sure that there is enough liquid in the bottom of the Instant Pot. The liquid creates steam and builds pressure to make the Instant Pot work correctly. If you don’t have enough liquid, your chicken will burn and the Instant Pot will kick off. You usually need at least 1 cup of liquid and some oil on the bottom for the Instant Pot to build pressure and to avoid the burn message.

Other flavors you may want to try on your chicken thighs include:

Garlic sauce
Herbed butter
Creamy lemon sauce
Orange sauce
Peanut sauce

Making the coleslaw

Customizing coleslaw to match the flavor of your dinner is simple. I like to start with bagged coleslaw mix from the store. That way you don’t have to worry about finely slicing the cabbage.

Packaged coleslaw is usually a mix of red and green cabbage to give it a bright color. If you prefer to make your own, you can use just one kind or a combination of different kinds of cabbage. If you are starting with a huge head of cabbage, use a mandolin or the shredding blade on a food processor to cut the cabbage quickly.

Some store bought coleslaw mixes also have shredded carrots or broccoli stems if you want something a little different.

To make the dressing for the coleslaw, mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a jar. Don’t just dump the whole jar on the cabbage. Start with about half to two thirds of the dressing and see how it tastes. If you want more, go ahead and add it.

Storing and reheating

Cooked chicken will last for five days in the refrigerator. That means you can make this meal in advance or use the leftovers for lunch.

Simply divide it into individual portions and refrigerate. Warm the chicken in the microwave before eating. You don’t want to warm the coleslaw though. You could choose to eat the chicken cold as well.

I only like to keep prepared coleslaw for about two days. The longer it sits, the less crunchy it will be.

Can you freeze chicken thighs?

You have several options for freezing these chicken thighs.

You can prepare the sauce and put the raw chicken thighs in the freezer with the sauce. Then when you are ready to prepare it, you would just have to dump everything together into the Instant Pot.

You can also freeze the cooked chicken thighs. They will last for about four months in the freezer. Allow the chicken to thaw in the refrigerator before reheating.

More Instant Pot chicken recipes

Meal prep tools for this recipe

Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on turning this recipe into your weekly lunches.
I get all my free-range chicken from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen.
Use these Ziploc bag holders if you’re marinating the chicken then freezing it
Freeze this recipe in glass microwave-safe bowls up to 3 months

Instant Pot resources

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