Instant Pot Chicken Chow Mein–a fast and easy, dump and go chow mein recipe with chicken and vegetables.

Instant Pot Chicken Chow Mein
This is a yummy one pot meal that doesn’t take a ton of time or effort. Once you get the vegetables cut up it’s smooth sailing! For this recipe you’ll use pre-cooked chicken and pre-cooked udon noodles. That means there is hardly any cooking time at all. If you wanted to cut up the vegetables the night before this meal would come together in just a few minutes! The sauce is super savory and delicious and this meal was just overall very satisfying. I think you’ll love it too!
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Chicken broth–or water and Better than Bouillon Chicken Base
- Cabbage–I used almost a whole small head of green cabbage. It looks like a lot but it shrinks down so much
- Carrots
- Celery
- Minced garlic–fresh or jarred
- Ginger–buy this in the produce section at your grocery store and then store in foil in the freezer. It is so easy to grate when it is frozen. I use a very small grater or microplane. You don’t even need to peel it.
- Low sodium soy sauce–so it isn’t too salty
- Oyster sauce–or fish sauce
- Sesame oil
- Brown sugar
- Udon stir fry noodles–I found these in the Asian section of the grocery store. They were the KAME brand and had two 7.1 ounce pouches inside. They are fresh cooked noodles that are ready to be heated and served.
- Cooked, chopped chicken–rotisserie works well or you can make this basic shredded chicken in your Instant Pot
- Green onions
Steps
- Prepare all your vegetables. This will help everything go faster.
- Add ingredients into pot: Pour broth into Instant Pot. Layer in the cabbage, carrots, celery, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and brown sugar (don’t stir).
- Zero minute pressure cook: Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to zero minutes. Believe it or not a zero minute pressure cook time is perfect for cooking the vegetables. When time is up move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Stir in cooked noodles and chicken: Stir in the noodles and chicken. Use a spoon to break up the clumps of noodles. Replace the lid. Let the pot sit on KEEP WARM setting for 5 minutes. The noodles and chicken are already cooked so really they just need to warm through and absorb some of the yummy sauce.
- Serve: Stir in green onions and serve.
Notes/Tips
- Feel free to add in extra vegetables that you like. For example, cauliflower florets, peppers, snow peas, water chestnuts, broccoli would all be good additions. You can pressure cook them with the cabbage.
- Can I make this with uncooked chicken? Yes you can. The way that I would do this is cut the chicken into chunks, cubes or strips. Then add a little oil the Instant Pot and sauté until cooked through. Move them out of the pot and move onto step 1 of the recipe.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in your 8 quart pot. The cabbage is too bulky for the 3 quart pot.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Other recipes you can make with oyster sauce are Instant Pot Chicken Broccoli Rice Bowl, Instant Pot Hoisin Beef Noodles, Instant Pot Black Pepper Beef, Instant Pot Panda Express Chow Mein.

More Recipes You’ll Love…
- Instant Pot Hibachi Fried Rice
- Instant Pot Honey Cashew Chicken
- Instant Pot Mongolian Chicken
- Instant Pot Better Than Takeout Chicken Lo Mein
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 Chicken Chow Mein
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
A fast and easy chow mein recipe with chicken and vegetables.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 4–5 cups thinly sliced cabbage
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 1 rib of celery, diced
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 2 tsp minced ginger
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1 (14.2 oz) package udon stir fry noodles
- 3–4 cups cooked, chopped chicken (rotisserie works well or this recipe)
- 3 green onions, diced
Instructions
- Prepare all your vegetables.
- Pour broth into Instant Pot. Layer in the cabbage, carrots, celery, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and brown sugar (don’t stir).
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to zero minutes. When time is up move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Stir in the noodles and chicken. Use a spoon to break up the clumps of noodles. Replace the lid. Let the pot sit on KEEP WARM setting for 5 minutes.
- Stir in green onions and serve.
- 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.
The recipe says zero minutes…..
The recipe doesn’t say how long to cook for. How many minutes?
Figured it out, but I found it to be very bland
Can you use raw chicken sliced thin and can you make this a freezer meal to cook later?
Yes I think you could do that…as long as it was sliced thin. I haven’t tried it as a freezer meal but I think it would work!
Maybe ill try spaghetti instead of noodles.
Think that would work?
Yes you could try that. Will they be pre-cooked and then stirred in at the end?
Yes 🙂
Thank you Karen!
What can you use in place of the cabbage ,husband can’t hav cabbage.
Maybe try a package of stir fry vegetables in the frozen vegetables section at the grocery store. It has a good com inaction of snow peas and other stir fry vegetables.
What can I substitute if I don’t have oyster or fish sauce?? I have hoisin sauce. It’s a long way to grocery store from where I live so if oyster/fish sauce is necessary, I’ll have to wait to make until next trip into town.
You can try hoisin! I bet it would be yummy!
It was delicious! Made it a few days ago and am making it again tonight because I lost the fight for the leftovers.
Do you think it’d be OK if I brown a lb of hamburger & scoop it out of the pot, then continue with the recipe using beef broth…then add the noodles & hamburger in at the end??
We just loved all the cabbage & carrots in this recipe. Yum! Yum!
★★★★★
yes I bet that would be great!