Instant Pot Creamy Tomato Spinach Chicken—chunks of chicken smothered in a flavorful cream cheese and tomato sauce and then served over noodles, potatoes or rice.
Get the SLOW COOKER Creamy Tomato Spinach Chicken recipe here
Instant Pot Creamy Tomato Spinach Chicken
Talk about comfort food! The flavor of the sauce was so delicious. I am a big fan of tomatoes and I am a big fan of cream cheese so the two of them together was a match made in heaven. I loved using chicken thighs for this recipe. The reason? They stay so moist and tender and have so much flavor. After they are pressure cooked they break apart really easily with a fork. I know many of you will want to use chicken breasts and that is okay. I would use a 12 minute cooking time for fresh or a 15 minute cooking time for frozen chicken breasts.
This recipe might be a fit for your low carb diet. The two ingredients that have carbs are the tomatoes and cornstarch. You can easily leave out the cornstarch and thicken with a keto-friendly thickener. As far as the tomatoes go, I wouldn’t leave them out because I am a huge fan and they add to the taste of the entire dish. However, if you must, you can leave them out and have a creamy white sauce with chicken.
Instant Pot Tip: While the Instant Pot is pressure cooking the chicken you may want to set the block of cream cheese on top of the Instant Pot lid. The cream cheese softens in no time! My cream cheese got soft in about 5 minutes and then I turned it over to the other side for another 5 minutes. I shared this tip on the 365 Days of Instant Pot Recipes FB group. Please join us over there if you love your Instant Pot!
My first time trying cauliflower rice! I bought a package of riced cauliflower in the frozen veggies section of my grocery store. I chose to steam the cauliflower in its bag in the microwave. All I did was stick the bag in the microwave for 4 minutes. Then I let the bag sit for 1 additional minute. The “rice” was steamed perfectly. The entire bag is only 100 calories and a GREAT choice for someone who is trying to eat a low-carb diet, cut calories or include more veggies in their diet. I will definitely be using riced cauliflower again. The taste is definitely not the same as rice but the texture is good and the taste is good in its own way.
More Creamy Chicken Recipes You’ll Love…
Instant Pot Creamy Tortellini, Spinach and Chicken Soup
Instant Pot White Chicken Enchilada Bowls
Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
Instant Pot Garlic Parmesan Bacon Chicken
What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Creamy Tomato Spinach 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 Tomato Spinach Chicken
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Chunks of chicken smothered in a flavorful cream cheese and tomato sauce and then served over noodles, potatoes or rice.
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup minced onion
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (frozen is okay)
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 (14.5 oz) can petite diced tomatoes
- 1 (8 oz) brick of cream cheese, softened
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 2 cups coarsely chopped, loosely packed spinach
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot to the saute setting. When the display says HOT add in the butter and swirl it around until it is melted. Add in the onion and saute for about 4 minutes. Add in the garlic and saute for 20 seconds. Then add in the chicken broth and deglaze the pot. Turn off the saute setting.
- Nestle the chicken into the bottom of the pot. Sprinkle the kosher salt, pepper and basil over the top of the chicken. Dump the tomatoes on top of the chicken.
- Cover the Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure the valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 13 minutes for fresh chicken or 15 minutes for frozen chicken. When the time is up let the pot release the pressure naturally for 10 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Stir in the softened cream cheese until it is melted. Turn on the saute setting. In a small bowl stir together 3 Tbsp cornstarch and 3 Tbsp water until smooth. Stir the mixture into the pot. The sauce will thicken up quickly. If desired, cut the chicken into pieces. I just used two forks and broke up the chicken into chunks. Stir in the chopped spinach. Salt and pepper to taste. Turn off the saute setting.
- Serve the chicken and sauce over mashed potatoes, rice, cauliflower rice or 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 family loves this recipe, so I always make a double (2x) batch. After the kids go off to college at the end of the summer, I make the first part (2x amounts) and then put half in the freezer before I add the cream cheese, spinach, and cornstarch (1x amounts). Re-heating what I put in the freezer and adding the last few ingredients makes for an easy meal in the future.
Thanks for all the excellent recipes!
Great tip Kelly! Thanks!
I have an over abundance of cherry tomatoes from my garden. Could I use those instead of the canned ones?
I bet that would be tasty!
I would give this more than 5 stars if I could! It beat out my previous favorite from your site–Smothered Chicken. I followed the recipe exactly. The sauce was fantastic. The only problem I had was it didn’t “thicken up quickly.” I ended up adding more slurry when I reheated it in the IP on slow cook mode. I used your tip for softening the cream cheese–what a great idea. I also served it on the cauliflower rice you mentioned. Easy and good!
★★★★★
I should have mentioned that it was almost better when I reheated it. It seemed that all the flavors really came together.
So happy to hear that you loved it! Thanks for the review and the 5 stars!
Absolutely delicious 😋
★★★★★
Glad you liked it Wayne! 😊
Is there a video for this recipe? I really want to try this one.
Sorry, no video for this one. Hopefully you will still make it using the recipe above because it is so tasty!
Thanks for such a quick response. I’m am definitely going to make it. It looks so good I can’t resist it!!!!
Omg….I made this today in my instant Pot. It was so delicious. I even used the cauliflower rice and I loved it. 💖💖💖💖
★★★★★
Yay!!
Made this, it was delicious! I also think it would be good with shrimp instead of chicken and over grits instead of rice. What do yo think and what would be the time for frozen shrimp?
Shrimp cooks super fast in the Instant Pot. Like a 0 minute or 1 minute pressure cook time is sufficient for shrimp.
Hi Karen,
I’d like to cook jasmine rice at the same time in the pot in pot method. If i cut my chicken thighs in bite size, can i reduce the time to 5 minutes high and 10 min NPR?
Thank you for your response. I love this recipe, it Will be our second time!
Chantal
Yes I think that is a brilliant idea!!
Thank you, Karen, for all your work! This was delicious! I also changed it up a bit by using Italian seasoning since I didn’t have any basil. I appreciate the others sharing also. Your site is my go-to for instant pot recipes!
★★★★★
Thanks for being here Alyce!
Can I use Chicken Breasts?
yes
What would the time be if I use chicken tenders frozen?
I’d use the same time listed.
It was good, but felt it could use a bit more flavor. Next time will add some garlic powder, oregano, parsley and mushrooms. It was good served over pasta with fresh parmesan and hot pepper flakes.
★★★★
I love all those ideas!
Tried the recipe again with the changes indicated (added oregano, parsley, garlic powder and sliced mushrooms). Also added a few grape tomatoes. It really bumped up the flavor. Served it over spaghetti with parmesan cheese. Yum.
★★★★★
Looks delicious. Could it be made with low fat cream cheese to cut down on calories?
yes you can