Instant Pot Honey Bourbon Chicken Noodle Bowls–tender bites of chicken thighs are cooked in a honey-soy-garlic sauce and then served over ramen-style noodles with stir fried vegetables. This chicken is just as good as what you’d order in a restaurant.
Get the SLOW COOKER version of the recipe here
Instant Pot Honey Bourbon Chicken Noodle Bowls
Ok so I just have to say that this chicken was spot on. We only wished that we would have made more! I’ve seen recipes around for honey bourbon chicken and I always assumed that they would have bourbon in them. Nope! The name Bourbon Chicken comes from Bourbon Street in New Orleans, which it’s named after. This is good because I don’t use alcohol in my recipes.
I love the bourbon chicken that you can order at the food court in the mall, although it has been many years since I’ve eaten at the food court in the mall! Do malls even exist anymore???
I chose to serve my chicken over ramen-style noodles and stir fry vegetables. You can serve this chicken over rice instead, if you prefer. I loved the pop of color that the vegetables gave the dish and the texture of the crunchy snap peas with the soft noodles and tender bites of chicken. You can grab a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables to make it easy on yourself or you can grab whatever veggies you have in your fridge and use them. I grabbed spinach, a red pepper, snap peas and carrots. It didn’t take me long to cut the vegetables and I just stir fried them on the stove in a few minutes while the chicken was cooking in the Instant Pot. I suppose you could stir the vegetables into the Instant Pot after the chicken has finished cooking but I didn’t try that method so I can’t say for sure how that would turn out.
All in all this was a delicious balanced meal that we all loved at my house. I think you’ll really like these Instant Pot honey bourbon chicken noodle bowls! Try it for dinner this week!
More Instant Pot recipes you’ll love
Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Country Ribs
Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken Wings from Pressure Cooking Today
Instant Pot General Tso’s Pork Stir Fry from What’s Cookin’ Chicago
What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Honey Bourbon Chicken Noodle Bowls 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.
Print
Instant Pot Honey Bourbon Chicken Noodle Bowls
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes plus 10 minute NPR
- Total Time: 5 minute
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Tender bites of chicken thighs are cooked in a honey-soy-garlic sauce and then served over ramen-style noodles with stir fried vegetables. This chicken is just as good as what you’d order in a restaurant. The name Bourbon Chicken comes from Bourbon Street in New Orleans, which it’s named after.
Ingredients
For the chicken:
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat and cut into bite size pieces (I cut mine up when they were partially frozen, it’s easier that way)
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
- Cornstarch, optional
For the vegetables:
- 1 bag of frozen stir fry vegetables OR a variety of vegetables such as carrots, red peppers, snap peas, spinach, cut and prepared for a stir fry
- 2 tsp vegetable oil
For the noodles
- 2 packages of ramen noodles (bouillon flavoring discarded)
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot to the saute function. When the display says HOT add in the vegetable oil and then the onion. Saute the onion for about 4-5 minutes. Turn off the saute function.
- Add in the chicken, honey, soy sauce, ketchup, garlic cloves and crushed red pepper. Stir, until the sauce is combined and the chicken is coated with the sauce.
- Cover the Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to “sealing.” Set the manual/pressure cook button to 5 minutes.
- Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes and then remove the lid. Stir.
- If you want to thicken the sauce you can with a cornstarch slurry. Turn the Instant Pot to the saute function. In a small bowl combine 2 Tbsp of cornstarch with 3 Tbsp of water and stir until smooth. Stir the mixture into the pot. When it thickens turn the Instant Pot to the Keep Warm setting.
- Stir fry your vegetables on the stove in vegetable oil. I like to heat my oil up first and then add in the carrots. Stir fry for 2 minutes. Then add in remaining vegetables, besides spinach. Stir fry for another 2 minutes. Finally add in spinach and stir fry just until wilted. Set the vegetables aside.
- Boil the ramen noodles according to package directions (except don’t add in the bouillon flavoring package). Drain the noodles.
- Construct your noodle bowls. Noodles, vegetables, chicken and sauce. If you want you can sprinkle a few sesame seeds on top. Enjoy!
Notes
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*.
To get the authentic taste of chicken that you’d order at a restaurant you’ll want to use the chicken thighs. But I know many of you don’t cook with chicken thighs or can’t readily find them at the store (I like to buy mine in a big bag at Costco). If you want you can use chicken breasts. Follow the directions above but only cook for 4 minutes instead of 5.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot
Send Me Free Recipes
Get all my new recipes delivered to your email inbox by signing up below.
This is a free service! Try it out. You’ll eat better and be more inspired to make family dinner happen at your house.
*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.
How is this honey bourbon chicken when there is no bourbon in it? I’m confused 😕
Have you ever tried freezing and reheating just the chicken and the sauce portion? I think it would make for an easy lunch to heat up on days I work from home.
I haven’t tried that but I bet you are right!
Is there enough liquid in this recipe? I thought we needed 1 1/2 cup of liquid Worried about the burn
The chicken puts off a lot of liquid which helps the pot come to pressure. If nervous add in a 1/2 cup of chicken broth.
If you use frozen stir fry vegetables, do you stir fry them or microwave them
I microwave them usually!
Delicious! We used only 1/4 tsp. of red
pepper and it was plenty spicy enough for us. Will definitely make again.
★★★★★
Glad you liked it Ellen!
I made this for dinner tonight and it’s always hit or miss with my husband and new recipes. He kept stopping and looking at his plate with a perplexed expression. When he looked up at me, mid-poke, and asked if I’d made this myself I was pretty sure it was going in the “maybe don’t make this again” pile. Wrong! His next exclamation was, “this is amazing!” To be clear, my husband isn’t picky, he’s an Asian food snob. It was quite a compliment. Thank you for providing such a great recipe. I used a bag of frozen Asian veggies and added a bag of frozen broccoli florets and some fresh, sauteed mushrooms.
★★★★★
Wow this was so fun for me to read! Thanks for sharing!
I bought my mother-in-law an instant pot for Mother’s day and sent her links to your site and some recipes I know she’ll like, including yogurt making and rice tips. She’s excited.
★★★★★
Nice! Thanks for sharing the love Robin.
Thank You So Much For This Awesome Sharing 🙂 By the way, Your Also Best Photographer
★★★★★
It looks yummy!
Thank you for sharing.
WIll definitely try.
★★★★★
Delicious recipe. I made it tonight. My Husband loved it. We will definitely be making it again.
Love your website and recipes.
★★★★★
Thanks Jan!
I want to use boneless skinless chicken breasts, which is 4 minutes cook time for thawed. How long do I need to cook it for frozen? Can’t wait to try this!!!
will they be whole breasts or cut into pieces? If they are whole you’ll need to cook for 12 minutes. If they are frozen pieces then keep the 4 minutes.
Hi! I’m so excited to try this! I’m starting to feel comfortable with my instant pot because of you 🙂 I only have chicken breasts. I know I cut them up but how many chicken breasts for this recipe? And what size chicken breast (weight wise) I hope that makes sense as I realllly want to make this
I bet 2 pounds of chicken breasts would be perfect. I would use 3 chicken breasts.
I just made the recipe using frozen chicken breasts and I am beyond impressed! I added some ginger paste and apple juice and didn’t use the full amount of honey. Rice is cooking on the stove right now. Can’t wait to dig in!
★★★★
So happy you liked it!
If we double the recipe, would we still double the honey, soy sauce, and ketchup? That sounds like it would be a lot of honey. Any tips? I’ve made it before and it’s great, but I want to double it this time. Thanks!
I bet you could just double the chicken part and keep the rest the same. Give it a shot and let me know!
YUMMY! It’s one of the best meals I’ve made in the IP. Will share the recipes with my daughter and daughter in law. I know they’re going to enjoy it too!
Glad you liked it!
Not happy. Followed the recipe to a T. Will not make again .
I made this for dinner. It was awesome and my kids even ate vegetables. I threw the vegetables into the yummy sauce with the chicken. Thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
All I have are bone-in thighs. Would I need to adjust the cooking time? Thanks!
Hi Carrie, I would remove the skin before you cook the thighs. Then I would set the manual pressure cook button to 15 minutes on high pressure. Allow for at least 10 minutes of natural pressure release before moving the valve to venting. I bet they’ll be amazing.
Frozen, thawed or cooked chicken in the instant pot?
My chicken was thawed and cut into bite size pieces.
Do I also follow the recipe directions using frozen vegetables? Or do I defrost the vegetables?
No need to defrost the vegetables!
Made this for dinner last night. It was superb! Followed the directions exactly and it was so easy and tasted so good. Even the leftovers were great. Thanks for the spot-on directions. Just got my Instant Pot a few weeks ago and your site is fantastic. Love your tips and tricks. I check regularly for new recipes. Thanks!
★★★★★
Awesome Marcia! Don’t you just love your Instant Pot????
I made this yesterday it was very good
So glad you liked it Jackie!
Do you put the chicken in the instant pot frozen, thawed or cooked?