How To Make Shredded Chicken In The Instant Pot

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How To Make Instant Pot Shredded Chicken

EASY Shredded Chicken In the Instant Pot | Episode 064

We place the raw chicken right in the Instant Pot pressure cooker before seasoning with salt and pepper, and then shred the cooked chicken in the Instant Pot before serving any way you like.

Instant Pot shredded chicken couldnt be easier and more convenient and its super tender. The trick was figuring out a perfect cook time to pressure cook and weve done it. Check out all of our tips for shredded chicken breast recipes in the Instant Pot below!

Well also walk you through how to make Instant Pot shredded chicken with both fresh and frozen chicken breasts.

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.

Ingredients For Instant Pot Shredded Chicken:

To make instant pot shredded chicken youll need:

It came out so good on the first try, that I wound up making it almost every week to use in different recipes. It goes with/in anything! Plus, it literally takes under 20 minutes, and makes the most perfect, juicy shredded chicken. You gotta try it!

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Should I Use Fresh Or Frozen Chicken

Either way!! We typically toss it in fresh and then we can freeze it after and pull it out for meals throughout the month. This is a huge benefit. We love doing a giant batch, cooking it once and then we have shredded chicken to toss into last minute meals all month long.

The neat thing about the Instant Pot is that you can cook frozen chicken in a short amount of time, with almost zero effort. If you forgot to pull out frozen chicken and need it for dinner, you can easily toss it into the Instant Pot and still get dinner on the table within the hour.

Why This Shredded Chicken In Instant Pot Works

How to make Shredded Chicken in an Instant Pot
  • SO SO easy and basically hands-off.
  • The chicken ends up perfectly cooked every time.
  • Juicy, tender, and flavourful chicken ready to be used in all kinds of recipes.
  • Fantastic for meal prep. Make a lot and use it throughout the week.
  • Freezer friendly which means you can make a big batch and freeze some for later.
  • Such a versatile ingredient used in so many ways from soups, salads, casseroles, and wraps.

Read Also: Can I Put Instant Pot Lid In Dishwasher

Can You Freeze Shredded Chicken

Yes! This is a great meal planning hack shred your chicken ahead of time and freeze for the week ahead. Pro tip: portion out your chicken rather than putting a whole bunch in one freezer container, that way you can just take out the container or ziplock and add the meat as you need it to your soup, skillet or sauce.

How Long Does It Keep

This recipe will make enough for eight servings and its a great option for meal prep. The cooked chicken will keep well in the fridge for up to 4 days and you can also freeze it for up to 4 months.

Take care to only reheat the shredded chicken once and if freezing, fully defrost before use and use within 1 day.

Recommended Reading: What To Do With Burn Notice On Instant Pot

How To Make Shredded Chicken In A Pressure Cooker

If youre on the fence about pressure cooking chicken, now is the time to try it. This Instant Pot chicken breast recipe is probably the easiest and most versatile one to start with. It requires just three ingredients, plus salt and pepper to your liking. It doesnt get any easier than that! Its the fastest, best way to make shredded chicken.

Place all the ingredients in your pressure cooker, push a couple buttons, and youre all set. Ten minutes later, youll have perfectly juicy chicken breast. Shred it with two forks, or one of the other methods below. Voila!

Quick and easy pressure cooker chicken breast.

Feel free to customize the spices in this Instant Pot shredded chicken recipe to your liking. There are really two main ingredients chicken and chicken broth. But, I find that adding Italian seasoning as the third ingredient makes it so much better.

You can get as creative as you like with the spices. I like to keep it simple, so that the chicken can be used in a variety of recipes later. Italian seasoning works with pretty much anything.

One thing I do recommend is to make sure you use chicken broth and not water. Some people make shredded chicken with water, but you get a lot more flavor using chicken broth. This makes the biggest difference when the chicken itself is white meat, like chicken breast.

This is also the reason that this pressure cooker chicken breast recipe doesnt call for much salt. The chicken broth already adds most of the sodium needed.

How To Make Bbq Chicken In The Instant Pot

Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Thighs

This recipe comes together in 30 minutes from start to finish. It is definitely a no fuss no frills dinner. Just add everything to the Instant Pot, turn it on, let the pressure release and voila. Dinner is served. We like to serve it classic style on a bun, stuff it in sweet potatoes, put in tortillas for a fun taco night or add on top of a salad. Heres how to make it:

Add Ingredients: To your Instant Pot add chicken breast, chicken thighs, garlic powder, smoked paprika, ancho chili powder, cinnamon, thyme, salt, pepper, onions, bbq sauce and chicken bone broth.

Prepare Instant Pot: Close lid and secure, making sure pressure valve is turned in the correct direction.

Set Mode: Turn your Instant Pot to Pressure Cooker mode, on High for 14 minutes. Start.

Release: Once done, do a natural release for 15 minutes then press the pressure valve to do a manual release for the remaining pressure.

Shred it: Shred the chicken to your desired texture with two forks, a stand mixer or a hand mixer.

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Meal Prep Tools For This Recipe

How To Make Shredded Chicken Instant Pot

As simple as it may sound, taking care of few things make sure you get the best result. The recipe calls for Chicken breast, but I have also included instructions for Chicken thighs in the post.

  • Start with adding Chicken to the pot. Add liquid to the pot. Make sure there is enough liquid to cook chicken. For every pound of chicken ½ Cup of liquid. If the recipe calls for any other liquid ingredients like sauce, salsa, then the amount of stock needs to adjust accordingly. While adding the stock, it might look less, but once it is done, you would find there just enough liquid for the Chicken to absorb.
  • Flavouring – The basic version needs just a good quality chicken stock, salt, and chicken. Make sure you have seasoned it well before cooking. underseasoned chicken tastes BLAH!!!
  • Size Of Chicken matters – The size and thickness of chicken vary, so is the time of cooking depending on it. Usually, Chicken breast weighs roughly around ½ pound. Where I live, 1 pound of chicken has around 2 – 3 Chicken breasts. For cooking, it is not the weight that matters. What matters is the thickness. If the chicken is unusually thick, then increase the cooking time by 2-3 more minutes on the prescribed timing.
  • Shredding chicken – Using two forks and shredding it right inside the inner pot.
  • Honey Mustard Chicken

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    How Much Instant Pot Chicken Can You Make

    In general, I recommend making no more than four pounds at once, and definitely no more than five.

    Five pounds of pressure cooker chicken breast was really pushing it, as it fills up the Instant Pot and it takes a long time to reach pressure. Besides, the chicken starts to cook unevenly if you put in too much, since the pieces sit on top of each other.

    Stick with one to four pounds if possible, but if you really want to make five, that will still work just consider it the limit.

    When you arrange the chicken in the Instant Pot, try to do so in one layer if possible. If youre making a lot of pressure cooker shredded chicken and cant get the raw chicken in one layer, just disperse it as evenly as you can. This will help it cook more evenly.

    Can You Overcook Chicken In Instant Pot

    Instant Pot Shredded Chicken

    Interestingly enough, we actually find it really difficult to overcook shredded chicken in the Instant Pot. In fact, the more time that the chicken has to sit in its own juices and break down with pressure, the more tender and shreddable it becomes. Granted, you dont want your chicken to pressure cook for double the time that we recommend in hopes of it becoming ultra-shreddable, but do know that overcooking it is actually more difficult than it may seem.

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    Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Video

    Im not going to lie the instant pot scared me for a while. I got it as a gift and left it in the box for a few weeks because I was too nervous to break it open.

    I dont know if its the high pressure, or the fact that you cant really see whats going on in the pot but it is intimidating!

    When I finally got the courage to fire up the instant pot, I figured Id ease into it with something simple like shredded chicken. Cant mess that up, right? Especially when you only need 4 ingredients!

    How To Store Shredded Chicken

    You can store the chicken in a number of ways:

    • Fridge â if you want to use the chicken within a day or two you can store it in the fridge. Cover it in an airtight container that you can close so the chicken will not dry out
    • Freezer â put the shredded chicken in a ziplock bag or a freezer-friendly container.

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    Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Cuts Down Meal Prep

    Tossing chicken into the Instant Pot has become a monthly routine as part of our meal prep. If you arent totally into the meal prep thing, picture this

    You come home from the grocery store after stocking up on some of your essentials . You immediately want to start putting away your groceries and need to decide where to store them. If youve been following along, you know we are huge fans of the freezer to keep foods fresh until its time to use them.

    As youre putting food away, pull out the Instant Pot and get the chicken cooking. The crazy thing about the Instant Pot by the time the rest of the groceries are put away, your chicken is cooked and ready to be shredded and put away, too!

    Not only that, but you just saved yourself a bunch of time for meal prep in the coming weeks. BAM! That sounds pretty freakin fabulous to us!

    Now you might have had some bad experiences with cooking chicken in large batches, its hard to get it perfectly moist! But this method is pretty fool-proof.

    How To Cook Shredded Chicken Breasts To Shred

    Instant Pot Shredded Chicken w/ Special Pro Tip for Easy Shredding ( option for Slow Cooker)

    While my go-to method has become the Instant Pot , Im including directions for slow cooker shredded chicken and classic shredded chicken poached on the stove top so you can make pulled chicken any way youd like!

    For full detailed instructions, scroll down to the recipe card.

    Pressure Cooker Shredded Chicken:

  • Place chicken breasts into the insert of of the liner of the Instant Pot and season. Pour in your chicken broth or water.
  • Cook on high pressure for 18 minutes. Once done. Use the quick release and carefully switch the valve to venting to release the pressure.
  • Open the lid and shred the meat with two forks or transfer to your stand mixer to shred easily.
  • Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken:

  • Place chicken breasts into the insert of of the liner of the slow cooker and season.
  • Cover and cook on high for 3 hours.
  • Remove the chicken and shred with two forks or transfer to your stand mixer to shred easily.
  • Shredded Chickenon the Stove :

  • Place chicken breasts into a pot and pour in enough water to cover the chicken.
  • Place over medium heat, bring to a boil, and simmer until chicken meat is no longer pink, 10 to 12 minutes.
  • Transfer chicken breasts to a bowl, allow to cool slightly, and shred the chicken meat with 2 forks or transfer to your stand mixer to shred easily!
  • Recommended Reading: Instant Pot Burn Message What To Do

    What Size Of Instant Pot Should I Use

    You can cook chicken breasts in whatever size instant pot you have. Just make sure you add at least 1 cup of liquid, and then place the chicken in the pot in a single layer. If you have a smaller instant pot, simply cook your chicken in batches so you can keep it in single layers. If you have a larger instant pot, keep in mind it will take a little longer for your instant pot to come to pressure before cooking begins.

    Pro Tips:

  • Save the liquid at the bottom of your instant pot after cooking for a yummy and flavorful homemade chicken broth!
  • For shredded chicken: Remove the trivet after cooking, and leave about 1/2 cup of liquid at the bottom of your pot. Put your chicken back in the pot with the liquid after it rests, and shred with a handheld mixer. Easy and quick shredded chicken!
  • Storing and Freezing Instructions:

    Shred the chicken with forks or a hand mixer and freeze it in individual bags to easily add to any weeknight dinner. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Or, chop the chicken and refrigerate to add to lunches throughout the week.

    Recipes for leftover cooked chicken:

    Tips For Making Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Breast

    • See my post on how to shred chicken quickly and easily.
    • Chicken shreds easiest when it is warm.
    • Add some of the cooking liquid back to the shredded chicken for moisture and flavor.
    • Freeze extra shredded chicken in 1-2 cup portions so you can easily defrost the amount that you need for a meal or recipe.
    • If you plan to slice your chicken instead of shredding it, I recommend letting it cool and slicing it against the grain right before you plan to use it.
    • If you dont have an Instant Pot, try my Crockpot Shredded Chicken.

    Recommended Reading: How To Use Instant Pot Cook Rice

    Easy Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Is A Meal Prep Staple

    Its versatile recipe that you can enjoy in many different and tasty ways. Salads, soups, stews & more!

    Having cooked shredded chicken on hand makes weekday and weeknight cooking a breeze. Instant Pot Shredded Chicken is delicious, quick to make and can easily be added to soups, stews, salads, stir-fries, casseroles and the list goes on. It truly is one of my weekend meal prep staples and a recipe I include with almost every meal prep. In this post I show you exactly how to make Instant Pot Shredded Chicken with an easy to follow, step-by-step photo tutorial. So if youre one of those who are intimidated by your new Instant Pot and its been in the box ever since the day you purchased it , its time to dust it off and give it a try! For those of you thinking about purchasing on Instant, below is the one that I own and its is the perfect size for families up to 4-5 members.

    How to Easy Make Instant Pot Shredded Chicken

    Full recipe below.

    Place chicken breast in the Instant Pot with broth and a generous amount of seasonings of your choice. I like the Primal Palate Spice Blends such as Garlic & Herb or Adobo. For extra juicy shredded chicken, add a mix of boneless breasts and thighs.

    Once the time is up, turn the Instant Pot to keep warm/cancel and turn the valve on the lid to venting. After the pressure is released entirely, remove the lid and transfer the chicken from the Instant Pot to a large pan.

    Shred the chicken with whatever method you prefer. I use two forks.

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