How to cook a whole frozen chicken in your Instant Pot–If you love getting those whole rotisserie chickens at your grocery store, you’ll love this recipe for pressure cooker whole seasoned chicken. The chicken is cooked in minutes in your Instant Pot (my chicken was actually totally frozen) and then stuck under the broiler to crisp up the skin. Slice the chicken up to eat plain or use it in any recipes that call for cooked chicken.
Don’t have an Instant Pot? How to cook a whole chicken in your SLOW COOKER
How to cook a whole frozen chicken in your Instant Pot
Let’s get real. Who has time to defrost? Or who actually plans ahead that far in advance? Not me, not me! I am infamous for throwing frozen meats in my pressure cooker or my slow cooker (don’t tell the food police). Even though I’m a food blogger I really don’t have my mealing planning together…at all. Most of the time I just come up with something at 4 pm.
That’s why I was so excited to meet the Instant Pot. It allows me to think of something to make for dinner at 4:00 pm and have it on the table by 5:30…even if it’s a whole frozen chicken. Yes! It’s true. I know that’s hard to believe. But miracles do happen. I threw a 5 lb frozen chicken in the Instant Pot and it set the timer for 50 minutes. It took about 15 minutes to come to pressure and then I let the pressure come down for about 15 minutes before opening the pot. So about an hour and 20 minutes total time. The chicken was perfectly tender and we ate some of it plain that night with a salad and then saved the rest for wraps and sandwiches.
One thing I did notice was that I had to really work to get my 5 lb chicken to fit in my Instant Pot. It was placed on the trivet and I had to maneuver it around a bit. So next time I’ll probably choose a 4 lb chicken, which would actually take a few less minutes to cook, as well as fit better.
If you’re a fan of the crispy skin on a chicken then you’ll probably want to take the extra step of placing the chicken under the broiler after it cooks. I just stuck my chicken on a cookie sheet and put it under a broiler set on high for about 5 minutes. That way my daughter and husband, who live for the skin, can be happy.
Other frozen chicken pressure cooker recipes…
Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Breasts from Frozen from Or Whatever You Do
Pressure Cooker Chicken Taco Filling from Pressure Cooking Today
Instant Pot Chicken Gyros with Frozen Chicken
Ultimate Whole Chicken in Slow Cooker from All Free Slow Cooker Recipes
What Instant Pot Did You Use?
To cook this frozen chicken I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1 for this recipe. I also own the 6 quart Instant Pot IP-LUX60 V3 Programmable Electric Pressure Cooker. They are both great pressure cookers! The first one I mentioned has a yogurt making function but other than that they are fairly similar. The price difference between the two is about $20.
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How to cook a whole frozen chicken in your Instant Pot
Prep Time: 30- Cook Time: 50
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
Method: Instant Pot
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Pin RecipeDescription
If you love getting those whole rotisserie chickens at your grocery store, you’ll love this recipe for pressure cooker whole seasoned chicken. The chicken is cooked in minutes in your Instant Pot (my chicken was actually totally frozen) and then stuck under the broiler to crisp up the skin. Slice the chicken up to eat plain or use it in any recipes that call for cooked chicken.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken (mine was 5 lbs and almost too big to fit in my IP. So I’d recommend a 4 lb chicken)
- 1 cup water
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 Tbsp melted butter
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp dried sage
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 Tbsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Remove packaging from frozen chicken. Run a little hot water over the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. (During this whole process I like to wear disposable gloves.)
- Add 1 cup of water to the bottom of the Instant Pot and put the bay leaf in there too. Place the trivet in the bottom.
- In a little bowl combine the butter, rosemary, sage, thyme, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Use your fingers to run this mixture all over the chicken. Place the chicken, breast side up, on the trivet.
- Cover the Instant Pot and set the timer on manual for 50 minutes. Make sure valve is set to “sealing.” When the timer beeps let some of the pressure release naturally for 15 minutes and then switch the valve to “venting” and release the rest of the pressure.
- Use a thermometer to check the temperature of the meatiest portion of the chicken. It should read 165° F. If it’s not up to temperature then you’ll want to cover the pot and cook on manual setting for 5 more minutes.
- Optional: Place the chicken on a cookie sheet and put under the broiler for 5 minutes to crisp up the skin.
- Slice chicken and serve. Season to taste. We like to save the leftovers to use in other recipes or make sandwiches and wraps with it.
Notes
Don’t have an Instant Pot? How to cook a whole chicken in your SLOW COOKER
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I love the idea a cooking a frozen chicken from start to finish in about an hour! I have a question though. Most of the time the chickens I buy come with giblets inside the cavity. Did you remove the giblets before you froze the chicken?
Thanks!
didn’t remove them! I just took them out afterwards. Hopefully this was okay!
I guess it only matters a lot if they are in plastic or butcher’s paper and stuffed back inside.
I have a 5.67lb chicken cooking in my Duo right now. Thankfully, it wasn’t all that hard to squeeze in laying flat, not end to end. Maybe it’s stouter and not very tall. Like me. 🙂
It’s been marinating in the actual insert overnight in a mixture of soy sauce, honey and ginger (plus bits of other things). I was here wondering what time length you cooked your chicken but mine is not frozen and a bit larger so I’ll subtract a couple of minutes from your recipe and see what happens.
hope it turned out great!
So disappointed! 50 minutes was not nearly enough! Only half my chicken got cooked. This recipe is wgat I bought the instant pot to do, and it didn’t do it! Off to town to spend $70 to feed my family now. The chicken will have to wait for another night.
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This is disappointing! What size was your chicken?
Mine was 120 degrees after 50 minutes.
All you had to do was put the lid on and set it for more time. By the time you got to town and back spending your $70, the chicken would have been done long before then.
After the 10 minutes to pressurize, 50 minutes to cook, anothe 15 to release, then find out still raw in middle…. then put back in, pressize another 10 minutes, cook another 15, quick release, broil, cut, serve…. 2+ hours…… I’m in this boat now…. ugh. Should’ve just thawed or used oven…. =/
sorry to hear this! I’m not sure the difference between why my chicken was cooked and yours wasn’t. I will have to do more experimenting.
I cook whole frozen chickens in my Instant Pot regularly (at least once a week) and they always come out perfectly. The reason people have been having issues with this recipe is that the chicken MUST be submerged in water. One cup of water is not nearly enough. You cannot steam a fully frozen chicken if the goal is saving time – it must be boiled.
My method is to put the frozen chicken into the liner (I don’t bother with the trivet). Cover with water so that the chicken is fully submerged – or you can leave an inch or so of breast sticking out of the top of the water if you like. Add whatever seasonings you like to the water. I tend to use some dried herbs, salt and pepper, and maybe an onion. You can even throw in some bouillon or a stock cube if you like. But none of that is even necessary. I then pressure cook for around 35-40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken. After this time, my chicken is normally falling apart. Do a quick release, pop the lid and check for doneness.
Carefully remove to a board (draining the liquid from the cavity as you lift the bird) and then shred. I sometimes put it under the grill (broiler? Am not American…) to crisp the skin but, most of the time, I can’t be bothered…
This really is an incredibly easy and efficient way to cook a whole chicken, but the problem is the slightly duff recipe…
You can also keep the cooking liquid, which will be a light stock.
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I just made this exactly like you posted and it came out perfect! Thank you!
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good to hear, Milly!!
I followed this recipe to a “T” and it was delicious and came out perfect! Thank you for the great recipe!
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Great to hear!