Ready for the most delicious Instant Pot Chicken Thighs recipe on the internet? Say hello to these sticky, sweet Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs.
These Instant Pot Chicken Thighs are seared to perfection, slathered with honey garlic sauce, and then pressure-cooked in your Instant Pot to make them juicy as can be.
Most Popular Instant Pot Chicken Thighs!
This is one of our most popular Instant Pot Chicken Thigh recipes! So many of you have made this and rated it 5-stars and rightfully so. The sauce is incredible and your Instant Pot chicken thighs come out perfectly juicy every time.
Think takeout meets chicken thighs meets Instant Pot! We’ve started to get ultra-creative with our Instant Pot Chicken thigh 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. Plus, IP Chicken is our all-time favorite method for cooking chicken.
PS: check out our Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken for a similar recipe made in the Crockpot!
What Kind of Chicken Thighs should I use for Instant Pot Chicken Thighs?
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
If you’re wondering what kind of thighs we prefer, it’s hands-down bone-in with the skin on. However, boneless skinless chicken thighs are also pretty dang delish.
How to Flavor Instant Pot Chicken Thighs
There are two ways that you can flavor chicken thighs Instant Pot – a dry rub or a marinade.
Dry rubs are going to leave you with a crunchy, crusty skin and need to be cooked on the trivet. A chicken marinade will leave your thighs moist and perfect for shredding and don’t need to the trivet.
Dry Rubs
Use around 1-2 tablespoons of dry rub per lb. of chicken.
- Chicken Dry Rub
- Chicken Seasoning
- Everything Bagel Seasoning
- Homemade Fajita Seasoning
- Moroccan Spice Mix
Marinades/Sauces
Use around 1/2 cup of marinade or sauce per lb. of chicken
- Honey Garlic Sauce (see recipe card)
- Teriyaki Chicken Marinade
- Lemon Chicken Marinade
- Balsamic Chicken Marinade
- Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
- BBQ Sauce
- Enchilada Sauce
#1 Tip for Instant Pot Chicken Thighs
Our #1 tip for perfect IP Chicken Thighs is 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.
Plus, it will actually help preheat your Instant Pot, cutting the pressurizing time almost in half. Whatever you do, do not skip this step.
How long to cook chicken thighs in Instant Pot
From frozen: cook frozen chicken thighs and sauce (or water) for 15 minutes on high pressure with a quick release.
From thawed: sear chicken thighs for 2-3 minutes on both sides. Then, cook chicken thighs with sauce in your pressure cooker on high for 5 minutes.
here’s a tip
Chicken thighs can vary greatly in size and thickness. The goal is to get the internal temperature of the chicken to be 165ºF. So, if you have larger thighs, you may need to cook a bit longer to reach a safe temperature.
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 to make literally the best Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken:
- Honey – you can always sub maple syrup instead of honey, but it is HONEY garlic chicken, after all.
- Minced garlic – use pre-minced or freshly minced. Either works.
- Soy Sauce – feel free to sub tamari for a gluten-free option
- Chili Garlic Sauce – adds a little kick of heat! Feel free to use sriracha instead.
- Cornstarch – Cornstarch is used as a sauce thickener.
Is honey garlic sauce spicy? Our honey garlic sauce is about a 4/10 spice-wise. If you like it super spicy, feel free to add more chili garlic sauce.
do I have to use cornstarch?
The sauce is then thickened with a little bit of cornstarch, but you always have the option to skip that step. If you don’t have cornstarch, feel free to use tapioca starch instead.
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.
How to 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.
Chicken Thighs Instant Pot Q&A
You can absolutely stack chicken thighs in your Instant Pot, however, we only recommend doing this if you plan to shred the chicken.
Stacking your thighs is going to reduce the crunchiness of the skin, which makes it perfect for shredding. However, if you want each thigh to have an amazing texture, make sure you do NOT stack them.
To get the most perfect chicken thigh Instant Pot recipe with sauce, first, saute your thighs in olive oil on both sides for about 2-3 minutes. Then, add your sauce and close the Instant Pot. Turn the valve to seal and cook on high for 5 minutes. Once the timer goes off, do a quick release.
Cooking frozen thighs in the Instant Pot is rather easy. Add frozen thighs to the Instant Pot and then add in your sauce (or you can sub with water). Then, cook on high for around 15 minutes.
Technically, you do not HAVE to use the trivet when cooking chicken thighs in the Instant Pot. However, it is helpful for preventing the burn notice from appearing.
All Instant Pot’s are different. Our older Instant Pot is much less finicky when it comes to trivets and we usually don’t use one when making Instant Pot Chicken Thighs. However, our new one almost always gets the burn notice, so a trivet is a must!
Make this recipe with chicken breasts!
We suggest doing a shredded honey garlic chicken breast with this recipe. Instead of sauteing the chicken, just add it to your pressure cooker and then top it with the sauce.
Mix to combine. Seal the Instant Pot and cook on high for 8 minutes. Do a quick release and then shred the chicken breasts. Thicken the sauce as directed.
Check out our Instant Pot Chicken Breast recipe.
Serving Suggestions
Make your honey garlic chicken Instant Pot recipe a complete meal by serving it with a grain and your favorite veggie. Here are some ideas:
Fried Rice: Whip up our Instant Pot Fried Rice for a veggie-packed side. Or, try our:
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 steamed broccoli, sauteed green beans, peppers, onions, etc.
Storage
Let chicken thighs cool completely. Then, store IP chicken thighs in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-5 days.
Freezer Instructions
After Cooked: Let Instant Pot Chicken Thighs cool completely. Then, transfer them to a freezer-safe gallon-size bag and remove as much air as possible. Seal and freeze for up to 3 months.
Before Cooked: Place all raw ingredients (minus the cornstarch and sesame seeds) into a freezer-safe gallon-size bag. Remove as much air as possible and seal. Freeze for up to 3 months.
When you are ready for cooking, transfer the frozen contents of the bag directly into your Instant Pot. Then, seal Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes with a quick release. Thicken sauce as directed in recipe card.
Best Instant Pot Chicken Thighs with Honey Garlic Sauce
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
- optional: cornstarch slurry 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch and 1 tablespoon warm water
- 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. Add olive oil and then 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. If your Instant Pot easily gets the burn notice often, feel free to use your trivet for your chicken. We have never gotten the burn notice when making this recipe, but feel free to use the trivet just in case.
- 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.
- Option to serve immediately and pour the sauce over the chicken thighs. Or, you have the option to thicken your sauce with a cornstarch slurry. To thicken, turn on the Instant Pot's saute feature (you need the heat to ignite the thickening agent). Then, whisk together cornstarch and water until the cornstarch dissolves to create a cornstarch slurry. Pour the slurry into the sauce and whisk until the sauce thickens.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve with sesame seeds and your favorite grain and veggies.
Tips & Notes
- Type of chicken thighs: We tested bone-in with skin AND boneless, skinless and they both work!
- From Frozen Directions: Place frozen chicken thighs and the rest of the sauce ingredients minus the cornstarch and sesame seeds into your Instant Pot. Seal and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes with a quick release. If you plan to use this method, we recommend boneless, skinless thighs and shredding your chicken at the end. Follow directions to thicken the sauce above.
- Nutrition was calculated using boneless chicken thighs and includes only the chicken.
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This recipe was amaaaaazing. Sooo fast, so easy, so good! I can’t get over how it’s just 3 ingredients, but so much flavor. I did add the cornstarch slurry, and that made the sauce perfectly thick to coat the chicken. My 2 year old son who has entered the “picky eater stage”, loved it, cleaned his plate, and even ate seconds. This recipe went right into my recipe binder! Thank you for sharing with us.
Hooray for picky eater approval! We love to hear that 😀
These Instant Pot Chicken Thighs are tender and juicy because they are first seared, then coated in honey garlic sauce, and last cooked under pressure in the Instant Pot.
Super yummy! Tastes even better on the second day. I just used regular minced garlic and chilli powder though. Tasted great with brown rice and sweet potato the next day. Thank you!!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Florence!
Hugh hit with the family. Cut the amount of soy sauce and added teriyaki into the mix. Also added in peppers, onions and mushrooms towards the end. Side of rice and this was a complete meal .
These Instant Pot Chicken Thighs are tender and juicy because they are first seared, then coated in honey garlic sauce, and last cooked under pressure in the Instant Pot.
Sounds amazing, thanks for sharing:)
I followed exact directs. Used frozen, boneless, skinless chicken thighs. After the 15 min & quick release, the chicken was still very raw. I finished cooked it in the oven. The sauce was tasty. I served it over coconut rice made also in the instant pot.
I usually cook chicken for 8 min, (10-12 if frozen), so I was reluctant to only cook for 5 and mine too didn’t fully cook. Flavor wise good recipe.
Very easy to make and Delicious. Will definitely make again 😊
Yum!
This was so tasty, so simple and I think the leftovers were even better! I’ll make this one many times!
I love this recipe as leftovers too!
So good as is! Do you freeze the chicken thighs and the sauce in one big bag or two separate small ones if you are prepping it before cooking as a freezer meal?
Thanks For Sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope they will like it.
I’m making this with chicken breast right now and I’m really hoping it works. I put for 10 mins instead of 5, and I’m hoping that’s enough time. Fingers crossed
Amazing! I had defrosted chicken and didn’t know what to make tonight. This was so simple and fast to prepare. My whole family enjoyed-even the 2 year old! Paired it with green beans and rice!
Excellent!! So easy to make and really good.
Made
Great recipe, I’ll make it soon
This was so delicious and easy to make. I followed the directions and it came out perfectly. I did add green onions at the end too. My whole family enjoyed it.
This was such a good, easy recipe! I used the air fryer attachment lid for 8 minutes on broil after the chicken was done cooking in the pressure cooker, and it gave it the most wonderful crispy skin. My sauce was very watery, I think from the chicken juice, so I didn’t use it. But the chicken itself had a great flavor just from being cooked in the sauce.
Really good sauce and the slurry method thickened really well but chicken thighs were a little under-done and I did have 4 thighs right at 2 lbs. next time I’m going to either increase time or use the slow release. Also instructions should say to sauté in oil. I knew to do this but maybe some cooks are new to cooking.
Good catch on the oil! Just made that note in the recipe card!
This has to be the best recipe I’ve ever made in my instant pot. I’ve only had it for a year. But this recipe is incredible!
Oh wow! So glad you love this!!