Instant Pot Apple Juice Chicken–a simple 2-ingredient recipe that will quickly become a family favorite. A good recipe to have up your sleeve on a busy day!

Instant Pot Apple Juice Chicken
With just a couple ingredients this recipe comes together so quickly. Kids and adults both love this chicken. It’s slightly sweet but not overly sweet. The chicken can be served in whole pieces or shredded. It tastes great with a rice pilaf and steamed vegetables. If you have a jug of apple juice or cider in your fridge give this easy recipe a try!
- Make as much chicken as you need! With more people you may want more sauce so add more apple juice too.
- The apple juice doesn’t get thick, it just gets more flavorful and concentrated as it’s simmered down. If you want to thicken it like a sauce you can stir in a cornstarch slurry.
- I prefer dark meat in this recipe. It has lots of flavor! If you’d rather use breasts you can. I would shred them and stir them in with the apple juice after they pressure cook. This will encoat them with the sauce and make them more flavorful. Use the same cooking time for chicken breasts. For chicken tenders use a 5 minute pressure cook time.
- I used frozen boneless thighs and cooked for a 12 minute pressure cooking time. You can use thawed or fresh and use the same 12 minute pressure cook time.
- Serve Instant Pot apple juice chicken with rice or potatoes and steamed veggies.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. You can make this with no changes in the 3 or 8 quart pot.
More EASY Recipes…
Instant Pot Chicken Adobo—an easy 6-ingredient recipe!
Instant Pot Coca Cola Chicken–a delicious and simple dump and go 4-ingredient chicken recipe!
Instant Pot No Time To Cook Chicken—too busy to cook? This easy 5 ingredient chicken recipe takes 5 minutes of prep and only 15 minutes to pressure cook.

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Instant Pot Apple Juice Chicken
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR and 10 minute simmer time)
- Total Time: 17 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 pieces of chicken 1x
Description
A simple 2-ingredient recipe that will quickly become a family favorite. A good recipe to have up your sleeve on a busy day!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups apple juice
- 4–6 pieces of chicken (boneless thighs, bone-in thighs, bone-in drumsticks)
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Add apple juice and chicken into Instant Pot. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook time to 12 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Place chicken on a platter and cover with foil.
- Turn Instant Pot to saute (more) setting. Let the apple juice simmer and reduce down for about 10-15 minutes. The apple juice will get more concentrated.
- Add the chicken back into the pot and spoon sauce over the top. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve chicken and enjoy!
Slow Cooker Instructions:
- Add apple juice and chicken into slow cooker. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Cover and cook on low for 3 hours. Remove the lid and cook on high for another 60-90 minutes. Turn the chicken over every 20 minutes or so for the last hour.
- Salt and pepper to taste. Serve chicken and enjoy!
Notes
You can easily double this recipe. Double ingredients, keep the cooking time the same.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot or Slow Cooker

*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Yummy
★★★★★
Thanks for the 5 stars!
Everyone loves this and so easy to make. I added some minced onions and alittle bit of apple cider powder to ours. Perfect for the holiday season.
Thanks a bunch
★★★★★
Thanks so much for the 5 stars!
This has become a weekly staple for us!
★★★★★
So glad! It’s so easy too! Love that.
alot of your stuff calls for things like Pot in Pot and other goodies to put in Pot. Where do I get these Goodies?
By the way, all I have made from here has been GREAT.
Hi Bill, I buy them on Amazon. Usually I will link to the products that I use. Hope this helps!!
Could you use apple cider instead?
Yes!
Was the sauce supposed to thicken up? It never did so the chicken never really had a strong apple flavor. They were tasty and moist but pretty plain…I was expecting more of an apple punch and a thicker sauce once boiling it for as long as I did
Any ideas?
So delicious. I cut my apple juice with a little apple sauce and added a little shredded carrot and onion. When I separated my chicken I added a cornstarch slurry to thicken it. We used tenders and served over white rice. No leftovers!
★★★★★
Sounds so great!!! Thanks for the 5 stars!