Instant Pot Cheese Chicken–savory cheese sauce with broccoli and chicken that tastes amazing ladled over rice.
Instant Pot Cheese Chicken
This dish reminds me of my popular broccoli cheese soup. It’s a cheesy sauce with chunks of chicken and broccoli that’s ladled over rice (or whatever else you like!). Lots of flavor but not a lot of work! You can even make rice at the same time in the same pot, if you’d like.
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Chicken broth–or water and Better than Bouillon Chicken Base
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts–or thighs
- Kosher salt–or sea salt
- Pepper
- Olive oil
- Italian seasoning–or make your own
- Butter
- Flour
- Milk–or evaporated milk or half and half
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Ground mustard
- Hot sauce–I used Frank’s hot sauce
- Sharp cheddar cheese–or another cheese that you like. I prefer to grate off the block instead of buying pre-shredded cheese which doesn’t melt as well.
- Frozen broccoli–you can also use fresh broccoli that has been steamed
Steps to make broccoli cheddar chicken
- Cook the chicken: Pour broth into Instant Pot. Place chicken into bottom of pot. Sprinkle the chicken with kosher salt, pepper, olive oil and Italian seasoning. Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 10 minutes for fresh chicken or 12 minutes for frozen chicken. When time is up let the pressure release naturally (I let it release naturally completely and it turned out much more juicy and tender than normal. If you have time to let it release naturally that is the best way. If you don’t have time then move valve to venting after a 10 minute natural pressure release). Remove the lid.
- Chop the chicken: Move chicken to a cutting board* and shred or chop.
- Make the sauce: Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. In a small bowl whisk together* the butter and flour until smooth and creamy. Stir the mixture into the Instant Pot with the broth. Once it starts to thicken slowly whisk in the milk. Then whisk in the garlic powder, onion powder, ground mustard and hot sauce. Let the mixture bubble and thicken.
- Stir in the broccoli and continue stirring until it is heated through.
- Add in cheese: Turn off Instant Pot. Stir in the cheddar and let it melt. Stir in the chicken.
- Serve the chicken, broccoli and sauce over rice, baked potatoes, cauliflower rice or egg noodles.
Notes/Tips
- Ways to serve cheese chicken: Serve the cheesy chicken and sauce over rice, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, quinoa, riced cauliflower, egg noodles, etc.
- How to make rice at the same time: You can make pot-in-pot rice at the same time. Place a tall trivet* in the pot around the chicken. Then add a pan that has rice and water in it on top of the trivet. The water to rice ratio should be 1 cup rice to 1.5 cups water for long grain white rice. I like to cover the pan with a lid or foil, but you don’t have to cover it.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot. You can also make this in your 3 or 8 quart pot. You can halve the recipe or double the recipe by changing the amount of ingredients but keeping the cooking time the same.
- If you have leftovers store them in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Reheat in the microwave or in the Instant Pot with the pot in pot method.
More Broccoli and Chicken Instant Pot Recipes…
- Instant Pot Chicken Broccoli Rice Bowl
- Instant Pot Broccoli Chicken Mac And Cheese
- Instant Pot Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
- Instant Pot Chicken Curry Broccoli Casserole
- Instant Pot Garlic Chicken Alfredo with Broccoli
- Instant Pot Cheesy Broccoli Rice
Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for.
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Instant Pot Cheese Chicken
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Savory cheese sauce with broccoli and chicken that tastes amazing ladled over rice.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 cup warmed milk
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp ground mustard
- 2 tsp hot sauce
- 8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 (12 ounce) bag frozen broccoli
Instructions
- Pour broth into Instant Pot. Place chicken into bottom of pot. Sprinkle the chicken with kosher salt, pepper, olive oil and Italian seasoning.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 10 minutes for fresh chicken or 12 minutes for frozen chicken. When time is up let the pressure release naturally. Remove the lid.
- Move chicken to a cutting board and shred or chop.
- Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. In a small bowl stir together the butter and flour until smooth and creamy. Stir the mixture into the Instant Pot with the broth. Once it starts to thicken slowly whisk in the milk. Then whisk in the garlic powder, onion powder, ground mustard and hot sauce. Let the mixture bubble and thicken.
- Stir in the broccoli and continue stirring until it is heated through.
- Turn off Instant Pot. Stir in the cheddar and let it melt. Stir in the chicken.
- Serve the chicken, broccoli and sauce over rice, baked potatoes, cauliflower rice or egg noodles.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot
*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.
My husband commented that this one is another “for sure do over.” I made the rice in the instant pot with the chicken as directed and then stirred it in the pot with the chicken at the end as I thought the sauce could have been a bit thicker. Next time I’ll use a bit less milk or more cheese. I have an old recipe for a very similar casserole but that one requires 3 cooking pans so I appreciate the 1 pot simplicity. It was delicious and we’re looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow. By the way, I made another of your recipes last night and that one was labeled “for sure do over” too!
★★★★★
I am so glad to hear it. I do agree with you that the one pot recipes are the best!
Karen, can I still cook it for 10 min (so I can do the pot-in-pot rice) if I use fresh, bite-sized pieces of chicken thighs? Or would I need to reduce the the time to 5 min.?
thighs are pretty good at holding up. should be fine!
Can we do pot in pot rice with this recipe? Would the 10 min cooking time cook the rice? I’m assuming we would remove the pot in pot rice when we take the chicken out. Thanks for you help on this. I love pretty much all of your recipes – keep up the good work!
Yes you can! 10 minutes works!
How to make rice at the same time: You can make pot-in-pot rice at the same time. Place a tall trivet* in the pot around the chicken. Then add a pan that has rice and water in it on top of the trivet. The water to rice ratio should be 1 cup rice to 1.5 cups water for long grain white rice. I like to cover the pan with a lid or foil, but you don’t have to cover it.