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March 15, 2021

Instant Pot Garlic Butter Chicken

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Instant Pot Garlic Butter Chicken—tender chicken bites coated in a garlic butter sauce. Only 8 ingredients and your Instant Pot make this recipe fast and easy!

Pin this recipe for later!

Note: the SLOW COOKER instructions are listed in recipe below

Instant Pot Garlic Butter Chicken

Instant Pot Garlic Butter Chicken

Another easy chicken recipe?! Yes, we do need another one. Who can have too many yummy chicken recipes?

This recipe only has 8 ingredients and it’s *almost* a dump and go recipe, besides the step of sautéing some garlic. It’s also gluten free and keto-friendly, for those of you how care about that.

I like Instant Pot garlic butter chicken with moist and tender bites of chicken thighs. It’s a personal preference. However, I wrote notes in the recipe card if you’d rather try making it with chicken breasts.

I always find a big bag of frozen chicken thighs at Costco or Sam’s Club. I also have luck finding thighs at Winco. Other stores can be hit or miss.

What should I serve with Instant Pot garlic butter chicken? I served my chicken with Instant Pot Bacon Parmesan Smashed Potatoes (made in a separate Instant Pot) and steamed asparagus. You can also serve this chicken and sauce with rice, noodles or cauliflower rice.

More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes…

Instant Pot Chicken and Biscuits

Instant Pot Southern Sunday Chicken

Instant Pot Huli Huli Chicken

Instant Pot No Time To Cook Chicken

  • Chicken and Biscuits
  • Southern Sunday Chicken
  • Huli Huli Chicken
  • No Time to Cook Chicken

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Instant Pot Garlic Butter Chicken
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Instant Pot Garlic Butter Chicken


★★★★★

5 from 7 reviews

  • Author: 365 Days of Slow and Pressure Cooking
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR)
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x
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Description

Tender chicken bites coated in a garlic butter sauce. Only 8 ingredients and your Instant Pot make this recipe fast and easy!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • 2 Tbsp minced garlic
  • 3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (see note)
  • 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 2–4 Tbsp cornstarch

Instructions

Instant Pot Instructions: 

  1. Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. Add in the butter and let it melt. Add in the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Turn off Instant Pot. 
  2. Add chicken into Instant Pot. Add in Italian seasoning, salt and cayenne pepper. Toss well to coat chicken. Pour in broth.
  3. Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 15 minutes for whole chicken thighs (frozen or fresh) or 5 minutes for chicken thigh chunks. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid. 
  4. Place chicken on a platter.
  5. Thicken sauce with a cornstarch slurry. Turn your Instant Pot to the sauté setting. In a small bowl stir together 2-4 Tbsp of cornstarch with 4 Tbsp of water, until smooth. Then pour the mixture into the Instant Pot. The cornstarch mixture will thicken up contents of pot quickly.
  6. Serve chicken drizzled with sauce.

Slow Cooker Instructions: 

  1. Add chicken, butter, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and cayenne pepper into slow cooker. Toss to coat chicken with seasonings. Pour in the broth.
  2. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours. 
  3. In a small bowl stir together 2-4 Tbsp of cornstarch with 4 Tbsp of water, until smooth. Then pour the mixture into the slow cooker. Turn slow cooker to high and cook with the lid off for 20-30 minutes, or until sauce has thickened. 
  4. Serve chicken drizzled with sauce. 

Notes

Chicken thighs: I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs for this recipe. One option is to serve them as whole pieces. Another idea is to cut each chicken thigh into 4-5 pieces. The cooking time will be shorter in this case. Each piece will be coated well with the sauce (more surface area for deliciousness to coat). You can use frozen thighs for this recipe. Keep the same cooking time. The pot will take longer to come to pressure.

Chicken breasts: Try making this with chicken breast bite-size chunks. Only pressure cook for 3 minutes with a 5 minute natural pressure release. For full chicken breasts cook for 15 minutes. 

  • Category: Chicken
  • Method: Instant Pot or Slow Cooker

Did you make this recipe?

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*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.

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33 Comments Filed Under: All Recipes, Chicken, Gluten Free, Instant Pot, Low Carb, Slow Cooker Tagged With: 10 ingredients or less

Recommendations

Comments

  1. Kim B. says

    March 22, 2022 at 2:28 pm

    Was so EZ and so very delicious! Served over farro. I thought my husband was going to lick the bowl. And he asked for the left-overs to be served tomorrow night with some naan to dip with. I don’t think this is going to be the only time I make this one! HaHa

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Karen says

      March 22, 2022 at 5:08 pm

      So glad he liked it! And the naan sounds fantastic.

      Reply
  2. Ellie says

    November 3, 2021 at 7:02 pm

    This recipe was simple and fantastic. The whole family enjoyed. The cayenne was perfect for elevating the flavor without overly spicing up the dish. It was such an effective flavor enhancer that next time I may add slightly less salt.
    Thank you for this wonderful recipe and for this site!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Karen says

      November 4, 2021 at 2:32 pm

      Thanks so much Ellie for the 5 stars!

      Reply
  3. Tee says

    September 28, 2021 at 1:57 pm

    If you don’t have corn-starch on hand, can you use flour instead?

    Reply
    • Karen says

      September 29, 2021 at 12:35 pm

      Sure!

      Reply
  4. Michelle says

    April 29, 2021 at 10:24 am

    I love all your recipes! Thanks for sharing. On this Garlic Butter Chicken, could I cook pasta at the same time? If so, how much extra water/broth/liquid would I need for a cup of pasta. I really like cooking in one pot. I know I would have to cut up the meat into bite sized pieces so the pasta won’t overcook.

    Any help would be appreciated. Thanks again!

    Reply
    • Karen says

      April 29, 2021 at 12:54 pm

      You could try it! for every 8 ounces of pasta I do 1 3/4 cups of liquid. And I would cook for 4 minutes with the cut up chicken bites.

      Reply
      • Michelle says

        April 29, 2021 at 1:11 pm

        I am cooking this tomorrow night. I will let you how it goes. Thanks for the quick reply

        Reply
  5. Will says

    April 18, 2021 at 10:48 am

    This was easy enough to make in a lunch hour while working remote. Had leftovers for the rest of the week, microwaves well. Will make again, probably often.

    4 tbsp of cornstarch ended up being a bit much, but the resulting chicken jello was more entertaining than problematic (it returned to liquid form once microwaved).

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Karen says

      April 19, 2021 at 11:33 am

      Thanks! Good to know about the cornstarch!

      Reply
  6. Linda Larson says

    March 23, 2021 at 5:54 am

    I made this last night. My Husband & I loved it! For only the two of us, I cut the chicken to 1.5 lbs but used the other ingredients per recipe. However, I did cut the cayenne to 1/4 teaspoon. Being from Louisiana, I respect cayenne. You can always add additional if you want more heat. I used instant potato mix to thicken the sauce and served as gravy on mashed potatoes/chicken. It was outstanding! I’ll be sharing this recipe with others! Thanks Karen for your excellent recipes! I love 💕 365 website & cookbook!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Karen says

      March 23, 2021 at 1:25 pm

      Ahhh thanks Linda! I liked this line a lot, “Being from Louisiana, I respect cayenne.”

      Reply
  7. Terri says

    March 19, 2021 at 6:34 pm

    I made this tonight and the hubby is in love!! I used two frozen chicken breasts and then cut them afterwards. I put the chicken back in the sauce before I thickened it for a couple minutes & then took it out again so I could thicken the sauce. Absolutely an amazing meal!!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Karen says

      March 20, 2021 at 4:20 pm

      So glad you liked it! Thanks Terri for the nice review.

      Reply
  8. Cote says

    March 15, 2021 at 6:34 pm

    Made it tonight. Very easy, fast and delish! I used what I had, chicken strips. Excellent. I love my instant pot. It’s a wonderful machine. Thanks for the recipe, it’s a keeper.

    Reply
    • Karen says

      March 17, 2021 at 3:30 pm

      Good idea on the chicken strips!

      Reply
  9. Beverly says

    March 15, 2021 at 3:48 pm

    Thank you will be trying this….

    Reply
    • Karen says

      March 17, 2021 at 3:31 pm

      You’re welcome!

      Reply
  10. Allison Cassel says

    March 15, 2021 at 1:55 pm

    If I wanted to use frozen chicken breasts (I never remember to thaw things!), would I also use the same time as for thawed (as noted for the frozen thighs)? This looks terrific and if I can try it without waiting for my chicken to thaw I’ll be very happy!

    Reply
    • Allison Cassel says

      March 16, 2021 at 6:56 pm

      I went ahead and tried it with the same timing after comparing it against another recipe, and it worked great. Really tasty, and the sauce was good over some mashed potatoes on the side too!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Karen says

        March 17, 2021 at 3:15 pm

        Thank you I’m glad to know that it worked!

        Reply
    • Karen says

      March 17, 2021 at 3:31 pm

      Yes that is what I would do!

      Reply
  11. Mary in New Mexico says

    March 15, 2021 at 1:11 pm

    Hi Karen– I love so many of your recipes, although I still do all of it in the slow cooker. After I found your website, I did purchase an Instant Pot. You’ll be happy to know that it is VERY SAFE in it’s box behind the sofa, and I doubt it has a single speck of dust on it as I’ve never even opened the box. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that in your slow cooker recipe for Garlic Butter Chicken, you have the reader putting everything in an Instant Pot….were you trying to trick me into using my Instant Pot? 🤣

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Bonnie S says

      March 15, 2021 at 3:37 pm

      Ha! Mary you’re post made me giggle! One day you should pull out your instant pot and give it a try, you might like it! 🙂

      Reply
      • Mary says

        March 15, 2021 at 10:40 pm

        Hi Bonnie — Thanks for your response; I’m glad that someone saw the humor in my posting. We all need humor to get thru these crazy times! And I will definitely get out that Instant Pot and learn to cook with it one of these days. But if you hear about a huge explosion coming from a house in Albuquerque, New Mexico…..
        😱

        Reply
    • Karen says

      March 17, 2021 at 3:34 pm

      LOL Mary! This gave me a laugh too. I just corrected the recipe!

      Reply
    • Retta (SUSY) Jones says

      March 18, 2021 at 6:55 pm

      Lol.

      Reply
  12. Leah Williams says

    March 15, 2021 at 12:21 pm

    Sorry! I missed that

    Reply
  13. Leah Williams says

    March 15, 2021 at 12:15 pm

    No liquid?

    Reply
    • Mary says

      March 15, 2021 at 12:19 pm

      It says 1 cup of chicken broth in the recipe..

      Reply
    • pam says

      March 15, 2021 at 12:22 pm

      It says one cup chicken broth

      Reply
    • Debbie says

      March 15, 2021 at 12:24 pm

      Yes. 1 cup chicken broth.

      Reply

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Hi, I’m Karen. I know that dinner time can be less than relaxing. Busy schedules and cranky kids and a hundred other things can lead to weariness when it comes to putting dinner on the table. I can help! I make homemade, family-friendly slow cooker and Instant Pot dinners and share the recipes with you.

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