Name: Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4-6
Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients: 2 lbs. chicken thighs, skin-on*; 1.5 tablespoons olive oil; 1 tablespoon minced garlic; 1/3 cup honey; 2 tablespoon soy sauce (or tamari); 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce; 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch (optional); 1 teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)

Hello delicious Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs! Serve these sticky Instant Pot chicken thighs with your favorite veggie and grain for a quick weeknight meal.

Think takeout meets chicken thighs meets Instant Pot! We’ve started to get ultra-creative with our Instant Pot Chicken recipes and that’s because the world is our oyster!

Cooking chicken thighs in Instant Pot is rather simple and creates juicy, tender meat in no time.

What Kind of Chicken Thighs Should You Use?

The good news for you is that we tested this recipe many times and with all different kinds of chicken thighs! Love skin-on chicken thighs? Or boneless chicken thighs? Both work! So feel free to use around 2 lbs. of the following:

Bone-In
Boneless
Skin-On
Skinless

#1 Top for IP Chicken Thighs

Our #1 tip for perfect Instant Pot Chicken Thighs to sear BEFORE you pressure cook! This will give your chicken thighs gorgeous color and the texture of seared chicken thighs without having to use your stovetop.

Best Honey Garlic Sauce

If you’ve ever had our Crock Pot Honey Garlic Chicken, you know how delicious our honey garlic sauce is. This is a slightly modified version of that sauce, but equally as delicious. Here’s what you need:

Honey
Minced garlic
Soy Sauce (feel free to sub tamari for a gluten-free option)
Chili Garlic Sauce (adds a little kick of heat!)

The sauce is then thickened with a little bit of cornstarch, but you always have the option to skip that step!

How to Thicken Sauce in the Instant Pot

Most of the time when thickening any kind of sauce, you need a thickening agent such as cornstarch. This is exactly what we used in this recipe.

The easiest way to thicken a sauce in the Instant Pot is to use the handy dandy saute feature. You can either sprinkle the cornstarch right into the sauce in your Instant Pot and whisk it until thick OR create a cornstarch slurry.

To create a cornstarch slurry, remove around 1/4 cup of sauce and then whisk the cornstarch into that small amount of sauce. Then, pour the slurry back into the Instant Pot and whisk over the saute feature until thickened.

Both options work, so do whatever you’re most comfortable with.

honey garlic chicken thighs in Instant Pot

Serving Suggestions

Fried Rice: Whip up our Instant Pot Fried Rice for a veggie-packed side.
Coconut Rice: Coconut rice is sweet and sticky and would be a perfect grain for this chicken.
Quinoa: Keep things basic with Instant Pot Quinoa so that you get all the flavors from the honey garlic chicken!
Veggies: Serve these honey garlic chicken thighs next to your favorite steamed or sauteed veggies such as broccoli, green beans, peppers, onions, etc.

More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes

Recipe

Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs

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Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Author: Linley Richter

Yield: 4-6 1x

Category: Main Meal

Method: Instant Pot

Cuisine: Asian

Ingredients

2 lbs. chicken thighs, skin-on*
1.5 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoon soy sauce (or tamari)
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)
1 teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)

Instructions

First, use a few pieces of paper towel to remove as much moisture as possible from your chicken thighs.
Next, turn on the Instant Pot’s sauté feature. Sear both sides of each chicken thigh for 2-3 minutes to give them a nice brown.
While the chicken thighs are sauteing, prepare the honey garlic sauce. Mix together minced garlic, honey, soy sauce, and chili garlic sauce.
Once the chicken thighs are done browning, turn off the sauté function and then pour on the honey garlic sauce.
Close your Instant Pot and turn the valve to seal. Turn your Instant Pot to manual > high pressure > and set the timer for 5 minutes. It will take around 10 minutes for the pressure to build before it starts counting down from 5 minutes.
When the timer goes off, quick release your Instant Pot by opening the valve.
Remove the lid and then remove chicken thighs.
Pour the sauce over the chicken thighs or you have the option to thicken your sauce with cornstarch. To thicken turn on the Instant Pot’s saute feature (you need the heat to ignite the thickening agent) and then sprinkle in cornstarch. Whisk until the sauce thickens.
Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve with sesame seeds and your favorite grain and veggies.

Notes

We tested bone-in with skin AND boneless, skinless and they both work!
Nutrition was calculated using boneless chicken thighs and includes only the chicken.