Instant Pot Hurry Chicken–a quick chicken recipe that takes only about 5 minutes of prep! Serve chicken and sauce over rice and a side of vegetables. Perfect for a busy weeknight.
This recipe can also be made in the slow cooker. See instructions in the recipe card below for how.

Instant Pot Hurry Chicken
When you don’t have a lot of time and need a quick dinner idea try making hurry chicken in a hurry! It’s only got a few ingredients and it’s a dump and go recipe that only takes 5 minutes of prep and 3 minutes of pressure cooking time. You may even have all the ingredients you need at home right now. This chicken sits well on the keep warm setting for a couple hours. This comes in handy when you’re serving in shifts, which I often do at my house.
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Boneless chicken tenderloins–frozen is okay. I buy the big bag of frozen tenderloins from Costco.
- Chili sauce–or ketchup. Chili sauce can be found by the ketchup at the grocery store.
- Onion soup mix
- Brown sugar
- Cayenne pepper
- Worcestershire sauce
- Cornstarch
Steps
Pour water into Instant Pot. Add in the chicken tenderloins.

In a bowl, stir together the chili sauce, onion soup mix, brown sugar, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce.

Spoon the mixture over the top of the chicken. Don’t stir.

Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes (fresh or frozen chicken). When time is up let pot sit for 5 minutes then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.

In a small bowl stir together 2 Tbsp cornstarch and 2 Tbsp water until smooth. Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. Add in the cornstarch slurry and stir until sauce thickens. Turn off Instant Pot.

Serve chicken and sauce over hot cooked rice.

Notes/Tips
- Serve over hot cooked rice and a green salad on the side. For a lower carb option serve over cauliflower rice.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
- You can also use other cuts of chicken such as bone-in chicken thighs or boneless chicken thighs (12 minute pressure cook time). For boneless breasts use a 10 minute pressure cook time.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Other recipes you can make with chili sauce are peanut butter chicken and creamy sloppy joes.
- Recipe adapted from Food.com

More Instant Pot Chicken Tenderloin Recipes…
Instant Pot Coca Cola Chicken
A delicious and simple dump and go 4-ingredient chicken recipe with Coca Cola. This recipe couldn’t get any easier!
Instant Pot Chicken Julienne
Chicken tenderloins in a creamy lemon paprika sauce. An easy, dump and go, saucy chicken recipe.
Instant Pot Sunshine Chicken
Chicken tenderloins and rice simmered in orange juice and seasoned with turmeric makes a bright yellow, sunny dish that has great flavor and takes only minutes to prepare.
Old Lady on a Bus Chicken
Old Lady on a Bus Chicken is chicken tenderloins that can be made in your Instant Pot, Crockpot or oven. The secret is the barbecue sauce that has a special ingredient…orange juice concentrate!
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.


Instant Pot Hurry Chicken
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 8 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
A quick chicken recipe that takes only about 5 minutes of prep! Serve chicken and sauce over rice and a side of vegetables. Perfect for a busy weeknight.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 pounds boneless chicken tenderloins
- 1/2 cup chili sauce (or ketchup)
- 1 envelope onion soup mix
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Pour water into Instant Pot. Add in the chicken tenderloins.
- In a bowl, stir together the chili sauce, onion soup mix, brown sugar, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce. Spoon the mixture over the top of the chicken. Don’t stir.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes (fresh or frozen chicken). When time is up let pot sit for 5 minutes then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- In a small bowl stir together 2 Tbsp cornstarch and 2 Tbsp water until smooth. Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. Add in the cornstarch slurry and stir until sauce thickens. Turn off Instant Pot.
- Serve chicken and sauce over hot cooked rice.
Slow Cooker Instructions:
- In a bowl whisk together the water, chili sauce, onion soup mix, brown sugar, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce.
- Add chicken into slow cooker. Spoon the mixture over the chicken.
- Cover and cook on low for 2-3 hours.
- If you’d like to thicken the sauce then stir together 2 Tbsp cornstarch and 2 Tbsp water until smooth. Add in the cornstarch slurry and stir. Turn slow cooker to high and cook without lid until sauce thickens.
- Serve chicken and sauce over hot cooked rice.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot or Slow Cooker

*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.
It was good but I think I’ll do a half packet of onion mix since it was too oniony lol
Can you use sweet chili sauce?
Sure 🙂
Delicious and oh, so EZ & fast! Truly worthy of its name. Had dinner on the table in record time. THANKS again!
★★★★★
So glad it lived up to its name!!
Sorry clicked 5 stars and then it deselected when I posted.
Here are the 5 stars I meant to rate your recipe!
★★★★★
Hi, great fast recipe…
I made as recommend and all enjoyed. Next time I needed a quick meal the left over rice I was going to use was a bit iffy so I made fresh rice pot in pot method… prepped as you outlined and just put in the trivet over the chicken mix put a pot with equal parts rice and water on the trivet, only bumped cook time up 1 minute (to 4) and natural release 5 mins. (10 total). Quick released the rest of the pressure, removed the rice and thickened the sauce as you show in the recipe. The extra minute (and release time) didn’t seem to harm the chicken and the rice fluffed up nicely. Have tried it this way now in both my 6 qt. and 10 qt. (added extra half cup of water for 10 qt.)… We love it, thank you.
David,
What kind of rice did you use for the pot-in-pot method? Thanks, Kim
Kim,
The first time I was in a pinch (I didn’t expect to have to make rice as we had tasty takeout fried rice but it did not transport well) and just used some good ol american med. length white rice I had in the pantry. I was making a good sized batch of IP hurry chicken in my 10 qt. crock pot express which gave the luxury of enough room for a good sized pot of rice (2 cups rice, 2cups water) atop the trivet for pot in pot. The next time I used Thai jasmine rice in my 6 qt. (with a smaller pot in pot of course, but still equal parts rice and water). Removed the rice pot and trivet after 10 min. of natural and then quick release and let it steam off to the side while thickening the chicken and sauce with slurry. Fluffed the rice with a fork, served it on a plate with a good amount of your awesome IP hurry chicken and sauce ladled over the top…
★★★★★
yay! So glad to hear it! Thanks for the review David.