How Long For Chicken In Instant Pot

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What To Serve With Chicken Breast

How to Cook a Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot

Chicken is so universal. You can pair it with almost anything, which is why this recipe is great! It can be served as is or accompanied by your favourite side dishes. You can use these chicken breasts in a variety of different recipes such as quesadillas, casseroles, pastas, and more! Here are some side dishes that I love to pair with these instant pot chicken breasts:

Pressure Cook At High Pressure 0 Minute

Yes! You can pressure cook at 0 minute!

Were setting the pressure cooking time to 0 minute because were using the heat generated during the up to pressure AND depressurizing stages to cook the chicken breast.

Every time, make sure you measure the chickens internal temperature with an accurate Food Thermometer, and the thickest part needs to reach at least 165°F after resting.

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How Long Does It Take To Cook A Whole Chicken In The Instant Pot

Thanks to the Miracle Pot , you can enjoy fall-off-the-bone-tender chicken with only 20-30 minutes of pressure cooking. Amazing isnt it!?

Yesss! Instant Pot Whole Chicken is pretty fabulous!

The length of cooking time for whole chickens will vary based on size of your chicken. The rule of thumb for whole chicken in the Instant Pot is that each pound of chicken requires 6 minutes of pressure cooking. And therefore, for each half-pound of chicken you need 3 minutes of pressure cooking.

Heres a quick reference for you when figuring out cook times

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For Fresh Chicken Breast

  • Place all the ingredients in the instant pot, add the water and lock the lid. Make sure the valve is on seal.
  • Press the pressure cook button and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. It will take about 10 minutes for the instant pot to come to pressure.
  • Do a natural release for 5 minutes and then do a quick release.

How To Cook Frozen Chicken In The Instant Pot

How to Cook a Whole Chicken in an Instant Pot

By cooking frozen chicken breast in Instant Pot, you will never be stuck wondering what is for dinner because you forgot to thaw chicken in the morning! Easy, healthy and juicy chicken breast in 25 minutes. Instant Pot Frozen Chicken Breast is one of the best features of an electric pressure cooker. The result is always amazing juicy, tender and flavorful chicken that can be used for a variety of dishes.

Every Instant Pot owner needs to have this frozen chicken breast recipe in their back pocket. Got fresh ones? See our Instant Pot fresh chicken breast recipe or if you have a whole frozen chicken, follow the recipe for Instant Pot frozen whole chicken.

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Cooking Chicken Breast In Advance

Whether you are in a fitness industry or a busy mom who likes to be prepared, this Instant Pot frozen chicken breast recipe is perfect for meal prep. You can buy quite a few lbs of chicken breasts and cook them in 2-3 batches while prepping other ingredients or just relaxing.

A gal can never have too many Instant Pots especially perfect for meal prep! I have 2 Instant Pots 8 quart Duo and 6 quart LUX. In fact 3 one is Cosori.

The key is to let chicken cool first, then shred or slice, and refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze in portions for up to 3 months. I would not worry about any seasonings especially for a meal prep because you will use meat in other dishes.

Does Cook Time Change If I Have A Smaller Or Larger Instant Pot

  • No matter which size model Instant Pot you have, the number of minutes you select on the Instant Pot remains the same.

The capacity of each Instant Pot and the amount of time the differently sized pots take to come to pressure will vary, but youll always set it for the same number of minutes, regardless of its size.

If you have a different brand other than Instant Pot and are wondering how long to cook chicken in a pressure cooker, the times listed above should still be accurate for other electric pressure cooker models.

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Instant Pot Whole Chicken From Frozen

  • You can safely cook a whole frozen chicken in your Instant Pot. I have included full instructions for cooking a frozen chicken in the recipe below. I prefer to cook my chicken from fresh, but in a pinch this method works well.
  • You will need to skip the step of browning the chicken, since you cant sear frozen meat.
  • You will only need half of the amount of spice rub called for in the recipe.
  • Pressure cook a frozen chicken for 13 minutes per pound at high pressure, plus 15 minutes natural release.
  • A 4 pound frozen chicken will take 52 minutes, a 4.5 pound frozen chicken will take 59 minutes and a 5 pound frozen chicken will take 65 minutes.
  • Check that the chicken has reached a safe internal temperature of at least 165 degrees F in the thickest part of the leg, not touching the bone.

Instant Pot Chicken Leg

How to Cook a Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot – The Right Way!

The whole leg or just thighs and drumsticks are a lot easier to cook. AND, they taste amazing pressure cooked. Not like the breasts. They become super tender and delicious!

There is a much higher margin for success. Where breasts shouldnt be overcooked or they become mega dry, all the bone-in parts are way more forgiving and actually benefit from overcooking because the longer they cook the softer they get and the easier they are to pull apart from the bone. Of course, there is an upper time-limit but its REALLY high.

So the least amount of time whole legs seem to need to get to the safe 165F is 18 minutes but its hard to remove the meat from the bone after such a short time. The longer you cook it the more tender it becomes and more fall-off-the bone. Ive cooked it at 22 and even 30 minutes and at around the 22-minute mark it becomes really tender and still at 30 minutes they were great. So Id say 22 minutes is great if youre cooking them alone but you can go all the way to 30 minutes if youre cooking them with whole sweet potatoes that need that long or wild rice for example.

22-30 minutes High Pressure + 5 or more minutes Natural Pressure Release

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Instant Pot Whole Chicken Time

As mentioned above the instant pot whole chicken time is 6 minutes per pound. We experimented with four different sized chickens.

Above is the picture of the four chickens we bought and below they are close up with their weights.

They weighed the following:

Then if you follow the 6 minute rule the cook time is as follows:

  • Small = 1.4kg = 3lbs = 19 Minutes
  • Medium = 1.48kg = 3.2lbs = 20 Minutes
  • Large = 1.76kg = 3.89lbs = 23 Minutes
  • Extra Large = 2.15kg = 4.7lbs = 29 Minutes

As the instant pot doesnt do half a minute, any that were in between were rounded off to the next minute.

For example, the small whole chicken was 18.5 minutes and we rounded it off to 19 minutes.

We then cooked each of the chickens in a similar way, under high pressure, seasoned and with the instant pot deglazed and plenty of flavour added.

And guess what?

Each of the chickens were perfectly cooked. They were perfect. You couldnt get any more perfect if you tried.

I am so glad I tried it and now I can buy different sized whole chickens and know that they will be perfectly cooked.

You also know that an instant pot 5 pound whole chicken will take 30 minutes, an instant pot 6 pound whole chicken will be 36 minutes and so on.

I should also mention this rule also applies to other bone in poultry such as our instant pot whole duck.

How To Cook Chicken From Frozen In The Instant Pot

Cooking times are based on 1-2 pounds of frozen medium-sized boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

We found frozen chicken breasts are at a safe cooking temperature at 15-20 minutes using a quick release method. We always use the manual function . When cooking food from frozen in the Instant Pot, we recommend starting at the shorter end of the time range and then adding more minutes if its not done.

The only variation to this cooking time is when chicken is in a soup. We found that because it takes so much longer for the Instant Pot to come to pressure, the chicken takes LESS time to cook. Likely 5-6 minutes. It feels a bit counter intuitive since there is more in the pot when cooking a soup recipe but we consistently found that chicken was done quicker this way.

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Lessons Learnt From Our Instant Pot Chicken Experiment

There were a few things that we noticed when cooking whole chicken in the instant pot.

The first was how silly it looked. We cooked it breast side down and the trivet left a big mark on it where it had rested.

Next was not tying up the legs of the whole chicken. If you dont not only will the chicken not be compact during the cooking process, but the meat is likely to fall off the chicken more.

The most tender whole chicken is achieved with a 15 minute natural pressure release. I cant believe the difference with or without it.

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Ways To Use Cooked Chicken

How To Cook a Whole Chicken in an Instant Pot

The cooked chicken can be used in any recipe that calls for precooked chicken. Shred, slice, or cube it as needed, then use it however you like!

Tuck a few slices of chicken into a sourdough sandwich, or top a salad to make a light lunch. Toss cubed chicken into a soup or pasta dish. Mix shredded chicken with BBQ sauce or hot sauce for sliders or tacos.

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How Long To Cook Instant Pot Chicken Breast:

  • Dont overcook overcooked chicken breast is not anyones favorite thing, but is somewhat difficult to do in the Instant Pot because the steam provides such a moist environment for the chicken to cook in.
  • Dont undercook undercooked chicken breast is just plain dangerous! Be sure to check the internal temperature of the chicken to ensure its at least 165 degrees F.
  • The exact cook time is going to depend on a variety of things, including the size and shape , and also the model of Instant Pot you have, as some run hotter or cooler. My recipes are tested in the 6 quart model with Bluetooth. Its important to take these these factors into consideration but I find a cook time of 8-10 minutes is always perfect and juicy for the chicken

How Long Do You Pressure Cook A Whole Chicken

A 4lb chicken can be pressure cooked cooked in about 26 minutes, and a 7lb chicken will take a little longer at around 44 minutes. I have a table below with average cook times.

I know some others have done it, but I do not recommend pressure cooking a frozen whole chicken as you risk having the center still frozen even with added cook time. You can cook chicken pieces such as chicken breast and chicken thighs from frozen in a pressure cooker but a whole frozen chicken is more tricky to cook through because of the size.

Cook times are approximate and can vary depending on the thickness of the meat, they also assume a fully defrosted chicken.

If you are unsure if your chicken is fully cooked then check it with a digital thermometer, it should be at a minimum temperature of 165°F.

If its not properly cooked simply put the lid back on and cook for a further 6 minutes

4lb chicken
44 minutes

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How To Make Perfect Instant Pot Chicken Breast

Though making shredded chicken in the Instant Pot is super simple, if this is your first time , youll want to keep a few things in mind:

  • Dont forget to add water its really important to add water to the Instant Pot before securing the lid and setting it to cook. The water is what actually causes the Instant Pot to pressurize, so if you forget to add it, youll likely get a burn notice from your Instant Pot, and will need to open it back up and add water/broth at that point.
  • Account for the Instant Pot coming to pressure+ the natural release while this recipe calls for cooking the chicken for 20 minutes at high pressure, dont forget to account for the 10-15 minutes that itll take to get the Instant Pot up to pressure + the 10ish minutes itll take for the Instant Pot to release its pressure naturally. In other words, if you need dinner ready at 6:00, dont put your chicken in at 5:40 and expect it to be totally done in time!
  • Use fresh chicken while you can absolutely cook chicken from frozen in the Instant Pot, this recipe is written for fresh chicken. We have all kinds of really great instructions for cooking chicken in the Instant Pot from frozen here if youd rather go that route!
  • Keep it simple we recommend keeping your Instant Pot shredded chicken really simple so that you can use it for a variety of meals and flavor profiles. If you season it with something really distinct while cooking, you may feel limited in what you can use it in.

How Long Do You Cook A Whole Chicken In The Instant Pot

How to cook frozen chicken in the Instant Pot–Instant Pot Tips

How long to cook Instant Pot chicken:

  • 3lb whole chicken in the Instant Pot: 18 minutes at high pressure
  • 3½ lb whole chicken in the Instant Pot: 21 minutes at high pressure
  • 4lb whole chicken in the Instant Pot: 24 minutes at high pressure
  • 4½ lb chicken in the Instant Pot: 27 minutes at high pressure
  • 5lb chicken in the Instant Pot: 30 minutes at high pressure
  • 5½ lb chicken in the Instant Pot: 33 minutes at high pressure
  • 6 lb chicken in the Instant Pot: 36 minutes at high pressure
  • 6½ lb chicken in the Instant Pot: 39 minutes at high pressure

Honestly, a 6½ lb chicken is pretty big and it will fill a 6 quart Instant Pot almost to the top of the inner pot. Usually this is a no-no since youre only supposed to fill the pot 2/3 full when pressure cooking. But this is an exception to that rule.

Heres why: The IP shouldnt be filled near the top for liquids that take up the entire area within the pot like soups, stews and stocks. The same is true for foods that will be fairly solid or will expand, like rice or beans.

Foods like whole chickens have open areas so they arent considered solid, and therefore are acceptable to be above the 2/3 full line.

The largest whole chicken Ive made in my IP is a 6½ pounder. I seared it first for 5 minutes per side, then pressure cooked it for 39 minutes with a 15 minute natural pressure release. It was literally falling off the bone.

Heres my method

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How To Achieve Crispy Skin

When cooking whole chickens in the pressure cooker, the chicken skin will not have a chance to crisp up. For me, that is not a problem because I remove the skin before eating the chicken or use it in recipes that call for pre-cooked chicken. BUT if you would like crispy skin on this chicken, you can either opt to broil your chicken or use an air fryer lid to crisp up the skin.

  • Broiling Option: Cook the chicken as directed in your pressure cooker. After removing the chicken from your instant pot, transfer it to a baking sheet. Brush with oil and place under broiler for 2-4 minutes, watching closely as to not burn the chicken.
  • Air Fryer Lid Option: After pressure cooking, use an air fryer lid on your pressure cooker to crisp up the skin. Set to 400 degrees and air fry for 3-4 minutes or until the skin is crispy.

How Do You Cook A Whole Chicken In The Pressure Cooker

Rough chop 3 celery stalks and 1 large onion. Smash 6 large garlic cloves and rinse/dry 8 rosemary sprigs/stems and 10 parsley stems.

Make two bundles of 4 rosemary stems and 5 parsley stems, then tie them off in little bunches with kitchen twine.

Now its time to assemble. Take your whole chicken and remove any organs that are down inside, and pat it dry on the outside with paper towel. Sprinkle salt and pepper down into the cavity of the bird, then add some celery, onion, smashed garlic, and one of the herb bundles.

Next, lay the chicken on its back and tie the legs together with kitchen twine. This will keep all those veggies and herbs inside, and it will make the presentation a little prettier.

Finally, sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Add 1 cup of chicken stock to the bottom of the IP inner pot. I use a 6-Quart Duo Instant Pot but if youre not sure which one is right for you, read this Instant Pot Reviewbefore you buy one.

Moving on Add the rest of the veggies and herbs.

Then put in the IP trivet and add the chicken to the pot.

Now seal and pressure cook according to the times specified for your size of bird. . At this point make sure your oven rack is in the middle and preheat the oven to 500 degrees. .

When pressure cooking is complete, allow the IP to naturally release pressure for 15 minutes. Then manually release the rest of the pressure and remove the lid.

Gently remove the chicken from the pot and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

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