Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken–a super fast and easy, 5-ingredient, dump and go Instant Pot recipe of slightly sweet chicken and pineapples. Serve this chicken on Hawaiian rolls or over rice.
Get the SLOW COOKER Hawaiian Chicken recipe here
Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken
This recipe for Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken is light and tangy and can be served over rice or on sweet Hawaiian rolls. The fact that it takes 3 minutes of prep time to get started makes it a perfect recipe for a busy weeknight.
You can easily use the keep warm setting to keep the chicken warm in the Instant Pot until your family is ready to eat. You can even serve your family in shifts if needed. Just keep the buns handy and each person can serve themselves when they get home from work/school/activities.
If you prefer to serve this chicken and sauce over rice then you can easily make pot-in-pot rice. If you want to know how to do that you can see the video/article here.
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What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Hawaiian 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 Hawaiian Chicken
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
A super fast and easy, 5-ingredient, dump and go Instant Pot recipe of slightly sweet chicken and pineapples. Serve this chicken on Hawaiian rolls or over rice.
Ingredients
- 1 cup chicken broth or water
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (frozen is okay)
- 1 (15 oz) bottle Hawaiian BBQ sauce (King’s Hawaiian and Sweet Baby Ray’s are good brands)
- Salt and pepper
- 1 (1 pound 4 ounce) can sliced pineapple, drained
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
- Hawaiian rolls or hot cooked rice (see note), for serving
Instructions
- Pour chicken broth into bottom of Instant Pot. Place trivet in the pot. Stack the chicken breasts cross ways on top of the trivet (see this video). Baste about 1/4 cup of the bbq sauce over the chicken (save rest of sauce for later). Lightly salt and pepper 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 12 minutes for fresh chicken or 15 minutes for frozen chicken.
- When the time is up let the pot sit there for 5 minutes (display will say L0:05). Move the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Place the chicken on a cutting board and shred*. Discard the liquid in the pot. Place chicken back into the pot. Turn the Instant Pot to the saute setting. Add in the rest of the bbq sauce, the pineapple and the cilantro. Stir and heat through for 2-3 minutes. Turn off your Instant Pot.
- Scoop chicken onto rolls/buns or rice. Enjoy!
Notes
This is a perfect recipe to make with pot-in-pot rice.
Slow cooker version of this recipe
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. You can easily make this recipe in an 8 quart pot or a 3 quart pot. Keep the cooking time the same.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Hawaiian
*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.
Can I double this in a 6qt duo? Would the times change?
yes you can and no you don’t need to change the time!
This was a slam dunk. I had never made chicken breasts in the instant pot, and was pleasantly surprised at how easily it shred at the end of the cook time! It definitely needed the help of the bbq sauce to be moist, and i splashed a little pineapple juice in there too since I couldnt find hawaiian bbq sauce, only regular bbq sauce. The pineapple chunks were delightful in it, husband-approved and definitely will be added to our rotation!
This time we served it over white sticky rice with steamed broccoli — next time i will try the rolls! Fun, summer recipe, thank you so much!
★★★★★
I love the idea of sticky rice! Do you make it in the Instant Pot?
Hi Karen,
This is one of our favorites of your wonderful recipes. I had difficulty finding Sweet Baby Rays Hawaiian BBQ Sauce. When I found it several months ago, I bought several bottles. Now I cannot fine it anywhere. Can you suggest a substitute BBQ sauce. We love the combination of the flavors in this recipe.
Thank you for all your recipes,
Nancy
Darn! Don’t you hate that? I found this hawaiian bbq sauce recipe online that you could make. It looks tasty: https://ifoodreal.com/hawaiian-bbq-sauce/
After you put everything back into InstaPot and put it on saute setting, how long do you leave it? If just left like that, doesn’t it overcook? Should it be switched to warm setting if it is going to be left in pot for a while? BTW, I love your website and all the useful info. I got a 3 qt. Duo InstaPot for Christmas and have already upgraded to a 6 qt. Duo Plus and now use both. I especially love making Cold Start yogurt in my InstaPot which I strain (using coffee filters) making Greek Yogurt. It could not be easier.
Hi Gloria, I just edited the recipe to answer your question and make it more clear 😊
can this be made in the instant pot duo 6 quart?
Yes!
I used a turkey tenderloin WoW my family loved it
Yum that sounds so good!
I didn’t have bbq sauce on hand so I used a bottle of teriyaki sauce instead. Turned out great!
That sounds awesome. I love teriyaki!
Can you use chicken that is cut into chunks?
Yes but I would use a 4-5 minute pressure cooking time.
This recipe just did not have enough flavor for us. Fortunately I saved the juice from the pineapple . After dinner I tried to infuse more flavor by adding the pineapple juice which I had thickened with cornstarch. Hope this adds some flavor when we have it tomorrow.
★★
Could you use fresh pineapple in place of the canned pineapple? For some recipes that is a no-no but I have one in the fridge I would like to use.
Hi Lynn, I bet that would be great. You just stir it in after the chicken has pressure cooked so it should be fine.
Why not just use water as the liquid if the chicken is on the trivet? Does it make a difference?
It doesn’t make a huge difference. You can do that!
I don’t have a trivet. Do I have to use one?
Abby you don’t have to. You can just place the chicken in the bottom of the pot. You could also use jar lids as a homemade trivet.
I do appreciate all that you make available for us – without a doubt. This recipe is definitely easy and doesn’t take much time which is great. My caution would be to be sure to taste your sauce prior to cooking and serving. I used the Sweet Baby Ray’s Hawaiian BBQ sauce and my husband I were definitely not fans. The flavors were not good for us. I was able to add some jalapeños to mine but that was not an option for him. Lesson learned on my part. Thanks again.
★★★
Good tip!
Do you need to use the IP trivet if the chicken is frozen?
You really could do it either way.
If I were doing this in a 3qt pot, would I cut the recipe in 1/2. It keep the same cooking time?
It will fit in a 3 quart as stated. You could halve it though if you wanted: https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/how-to-halve-instant-pot-recipes/
My kids actually loved this and they pretty much only like hot dogs and mac and cheese, so a winner at my house! It was a little sweeter than hubby and I prefer, so next time we might try pairing with pepperoncini or something to add a little kick to our portions. Thanks!
★★★★★
Pepperocinis would be great I bet!
When I first read the title I wondered if was going to be a recipe I used to make on the grill. It’s similar. I like idea of putting on sandwich!
I just wanted to toss and idea in there that comes from the recipe I’ve used. It had thin slices of onion and red pepper. Really have it a great taste and a texture too. Mine was a rice dish. But I still think it could be tasty with this recipe. Looking forward to trying it’
Yum the red pepper sounds amazing! I’ll have to try that 🙂
My boys and I really enjoyed it.. super easy to prepare. They told me that I’m allowed to make It again ..
★★★★
Ha! Those boys!
KAREN.I JUST THINK YOU ARE SO GREAT. BUT HAVE A QUESTION NO CAN ANSWER. I JUST GOT A SILICONE SLING CAN I PUT MY ROAST ON TOP OF THAT WITH MY BROTH AND WINE ONIONS ETC UNDER IT AND JUST LIFT OUT MY ROAST IN THE SLING. OR DOES THE SLING HAVE TO BE ON TOP OF THE TRIVET? I AM MAKING MY ROAST TOMORROW. HELP THANKS SUNNY
You can use just the sling, don’t worry about the trivet.
Awesome! My mouth had a huge smile.
★★★★★
Glad you liked it Gail!
My family only likes chicken thighs, would the cooking time be the same or would have to add a few extra minutes. Thank you
I would add a few extra minutes for chicken thighs. I love them as well! I’d add 3 to 5 minutes.
This looks delicious! Should I change any parts of the recipe if I am substituting 2lbs of jackfruit (instead of chicken?)
Hi Alex, I’m not familiar with jackfruit and how it would cook in the Instant Pot. I’m assuming it wouldn’t need so much pressure cooking time but I really don’t know.