Instant Pot Creamy Salsa Chicken—tender bites of chicken with an amazing sauce of just 3 ingredients: salsa, lime juice, and sour cream. This chicken and sauce tastes great over rice or rolled up in a tortilla. Plus it’s so fast and easy to make, you can even use frozen chicken.
Instant Pot Creamy Salsa Chicken
I love it when the fastest, easiest recipes taste the best. That is the case with this Instant Pot creamy salsa chicken. I threw my chicken in the pot frozen, came back to shreddable chicken and then created a quick and easy sauce. I loved the sauce so much that I wanted to serve it over rice so it could really soak into the rice and let me enjoy every bite. Next time I make this I will use the pot-in-pot method to make the rice. WINNING.
A few ingredient notes:
- I used frozen chicken breasts. You can also use thawed chicken, bone-in chicken or boneless thighs. Just note the time changes in the recipe card below.
- Fresh lime juice is a game changer. Don’t use the stuff from a bottle. I like to buy a big bag of limes and juice them all. Then I freeze the juice into ice cube trays and put them in a ziploc bag in the freezer. They come in handy for recipes like this one!
- I always have a big container of Pace Picante sauce in my fridge so that is what I used and what I prefer. You can also use regular jarred salsa.
- I stirred in sour cream to make it creamy and so tasty. You can use greek yogurt in the place of sour cream.
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What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Creamy Salsa Chicken I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
Instant Pot Creamy Salsa Chicken
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Pin RecipeDescription
Tender bites of chicken with an amazing sauce of just 3 ingredients: salsa, lime juice, and sour cream. This chicken and sauce tastes great over rice or rolled up in a tortilla. Plus it’s so fast and easy to make, you can even use frozen chicken.
Ingredients
- ½ cup water or broth
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup picante sauce
- ¼ cup lime juice
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- Optional: grated cheddar and chopped cilatro
Instructions
- Add water into Instant Pot. Place chicken into the pot. Pour the picante sauce over the top of the chicken.
- Cover and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 15 minutes for thawed chicken or 18 minutes for frozen chicken (or go by this more precise method). When time is up let the pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move the valve to venting.
- Remove the lid. Shred up the chicken. Stir in the sour cream and lime juice. If the sauce needs to be thickened turn on the saute setting and add in a lump-free mixture of 2 Tbsp cornstarch and 2 Tbsp cold water. Stir until thickened.
- Serve chicken and sauce with rice over tortillas with cheddar and cilantro if desired.
Notes
You can also use bone-in chicken (18 minutes) or boneless thighs (same as breast, can be frozen or thawed).
*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.
Linda says
June 17, 2019 at 4:43 amMade this almost exactly as recommended except I didn’t have any Picante sauce so I used salsa. It was great. We love the lime juice! You have made cooking fun again. Thank you so much!
★★★★★
Sharon says
June 15, 2019 at 4:22 pmFor us, this was a bit bland as made per the directions. After it was cooked, I added some homemade taco seasoning mix and it tasted much better. It was good over rice with tortillas served on the side. We also topped it with diced avocado, and will try it with green onions next time. The leftovers were great.
Brenda Bates says
June 14, 2019 at 7:07 amLime juice tip – brilliant!
Karen says
June 15, 2019 at 7:18 amThanks I learned it from a friend so I can’t take the credit.
Erlyne says
June 13, 2019 at 8:36 pmThis sounds delicious. Would the measurement be the same if I substitute plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream?
Karen says
June 13, 2019 at 9:19 pmyes
mindy goldberg says
June 13, 2019 at 2:50 pmsounds delicious–would also like to make in crockpot
Karen says
June 13, 2019 at 9:22 pmCrockpot instructions:
Add chicken, broth and salsa to crockpot. Low for 4-6 hours. Shred chicken and add in lime juice and sour cream. EASY!
LR says
June 13, 2019 at 1:33 pmHow could I make this recipe in the slow cooker ?
Karen says
June 13, 2019 at 9:22 pmCrockpot instructions:
Add chicken, broth and salsa to crockpot. Low for 4-6 hours. Shred chicken and add in lime juice and sour cream. EASY!
Michelle says
June 14, 2019 at 9:39 amIf the chicken is frozen, would you say low for 8 hours?
Karen says
June 15, 2019 at 7:18 amyes I would