Instant Pot Honey Cashew Chicken–chicken, sauce, vegetables and cashews all made in one pot! It’s sweet with a little heat and a perfect dump-and-go weeknight meal.
Note: the SLOW COOKER instructions are listed in the recipe card below
Instant Pot Honey Cashew Chicken
You will definitely love this recipe! The chicken, sauce, cashews and vegetables taste so good served over rice. I love the taste but I also love that this is an easy dump and go recipe and it’s all made in one pot! One pot meals are my fave!
Ingredients you’ll need…
- Water
- Low sodium soy sauce–this will help it be flavorful but not too salty
- Rice vinegar
- Sesame oil
- Sriracha
- Honey
- Boneless skinless chicken thighs–you can also use boneless, skinless chicken breasts although it won’t be as moist and tender.
- Bag of frozen Asian stir fry vegetables–I bought these at Winco but you can find a version at most grocery stores in the freezer aisle.
- Cornstarch
- Roasted or raw cashew nuts
- Long grain white rice (optional: for pot-in-pot rice)
Steps to making honey cashew chicken in the Instant Pot
- Add ingredients: Pour water, soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil into Instant Pot. Stir in the chicken to coat. Dump in the honey and sriracha, don’t stir (this is to prevent the burn error message).
- If making pot-in-pot rice add rice and water into a pot-in-pot dish. Cover the dish with a lid or foil. Add a tall trivet into Instant Pot and place the rice dish on top. (I used a tall trivet* and a stainless steel pan with a lid* for the pot-in-pot rice.)
- Pressure cook: Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Cook vegetables and thicken with cornstarch: Carefully remove rice pan and set aside. Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. Add in the frozen vegetables. Let the sauce start to bubble (this will take a few minutes because the frozen vegetables will bring the temperature of the sauce down) and then make a cornstarch slurry by stirring together the cornstarch and water until smooth. Stir the mixture into the Instant Pot to thicken the sauce.
- Stir in the cashews.
- Serve sauce, chicken and vegetables over rice and garnish with sesame seeds and green onions.
Notes/Tips
- This has a slight bit of heat to it (nothing crazy, I promise) but if you want to play it safe try halving the amount of sriracha.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot. You can also use an 8 quart pot. You can make this in a 3 quart pot if you’re not making the pot-in-pot rice.
- For the pot-in-pot rice I used long grain white rice. You can also use jasmine rice or basmati rice. Brown rice won’t work for this recipe because it takes too long to cook.
- I used a tall trivet* and a stainless steel pan with a lid* for the pot-in-pot rice.
- If you make this in the slow cooker you’ll need to make rice separately.
- You can leave out the vegetables if you prefer to serve them on the side.
- To make this gluten-free use a gluten-free soy sauce.
More Instant Pot Asian Recipes…
- Instant Pot Mongolian Chicken
- Instant Pot Honey Garlic Beef (With Video)
- Instant Pot Chinese Chicken
- Instant Pot Better Than Takeout Chicken Lo Mein
Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for.
Get More Tried And True Instant Pot Recipes!
- Sign up to receive daily Instant Pot recipes (it’s FREE)
- Join the 365 Days of Instant Pot Recipes Facebook group
- Subscribe to my YouTube channel
- Buy the 365 Days of Pressure Cooking Cookbook
Instant Pot Honey Cashew Chicken
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Chicken, sauce, vegetables and cashews all made in one pot! It’s sweet with a little heat and a perfect dump-and-go weeknight meal.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 1 1/2 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 1/2 Tbsp sriracha
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite size cubes
- 1 (16 ounce bag) frozen asian stir fry vegetables
- 2–3 Tbsp cornstarch + 3 Tbsp water
- 1 cup roasted or raw cashew nuts
- For garnish: sliced green onions and sesame seeds
For pot-in-pot rice (optional)
- 2 cups long grain white rice
- 3 cups water
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Pour water, soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil into Instant Pot. Stir in the chicken to coat. Dump in the honey and sriracha, don’t stir.
- If making pot-in-pot rice add rice and water into a pot-in-pot dish. Cover the dish with a lid or foil. Add a tall trivet into Instant Pot and place the rice dish on top.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Carefully remove rice pan and set aside. Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. Add in the frozen vegetables. Let the sauce start to bubble and then make a cornstarch slurry by stirring together the cornstarch and water until smooth. Stir the mixture into the Instant Pot to thicken the sauce.
- Once sauce has thickened turn off Instant Pot. Stir in the cashews.
- Serve sauce, chicken and vegetables over rice and garnish with sesame seeds and green onions.
Slow Cooker Instructions:
- Stir water, soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil, sriracha and honey in slow cooker. Add the chicken in and stir to coat.
- Cover and cook on low for 2 hours.
- Add in the frozen vegetables. Make a cornstarch slurry by stirring together the cornstarch and water until smooth. Stir the mixture into the slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes.
- Stir in the cashews.
- Serve sauce, chicken and vegetables over rice and garnish with sesame seeds and green onions.
- 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.
Amber says
Super easy and very tasty! Even my fussy eaters liked it. We’ll definitely make it again!
Karen says
Awesome! Thanks for the 5 stars Amber.
Jim says
The family loved this. While I love spicy foods, I did cut the Sriracha in half for the sake of the rest of the family. Asian food does not usually prepare well in an Instant Pot, but this was great. Thanks!
Karen says
Thanks Jim! So glad to hear it!
Hunter says
this was very bland. disappointing