Instant Pot Lemon Herbed Chicken and Red Potatoes–a one pot meal that has lots of flavor. Chicken is browned and then quickly pressure cooked with red potatoes, baby carrots, seasonings and lemon juice.
Get the SLOW COOKER version of the recipe here
Instant Pot Lemon Herbed Chicken and Red Potatoes
I love recipes like this one! A one pot meal that is full of flavor and everybody in the family eats it happily. My son said that these carrots were the best he’s ever had. I don’t know if he was just being dramatic or what but I’ll take the compliment.
I started with fresh bone-in chicken thighs that I picked up from the store. I decided to use bone-in chicken for this recipe because it just has so much flavor. If you’d like to use boneless chicken you can do that too, it may not be as tender or flavorful though. I browned the chicken in the bottom of the Instant Pot for 5 minutes on each side. This step added an extra depth of color and flavor and was definitely worth the extra 10 minutes.
While the chicken was browning I cut up an onion into chunky slices and cut up red potatoes into chunks. I chose to use baby carrots and just throw them into the pot whole but you can also cut up regular carrots into chunks instead.
After deglazing the pot with some chicken broth I added in the vegetables and plenty of lemon juice and seasonings. I chose to go with a 5 minute pressure cooking time. 5 minutes typically wouldn’t be enough time for bone-in chicken to cook but since it was fresh and we’d browned it for a while, 5 minutes was actually more than enough time to cook and get tender. In fact next time I make this I’ll probably go with a 4 minute pressure cooking time so the potatoes and carrots aren’t quite as soft. I did make sure to measure the internal temperature of the chicken with a thermometer* and it was at about 180 degrees (chicken needs to be at least cooked to 165 degrees).
I let the pressure release on its own for 10 minutes and then released the rest of the pressure by opening the valve. Then I scooped out the potatoes, carrots and a piece of chicken onto a plate. It was truly delicious. I’m only sad that we don’t have leftovers. I’ll be making this Instant Pot Lemon Herbed Chicken and Red Potatoes in the future for sure!
More ONE POT INSTANT POT dinners you’ll love
Garlic Herb Pork Chops and Green Beans
Homestyle Chicken and Vegetables
What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Lemon Herbed Chicken and Red Potatoes 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.
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Instant Pot Lemon Herbed Chicken and Red Potatoes
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes plus 10 minute NPR
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
A one pot meal that has lots of flavor. Chicken is browned and then quickly pressure cooked with red potatoes, baby carrots, seasonings and lemon juice.
Ingredients
- 4 bone-in chicken thighs
- 2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
- 4 minced garlic cloves
- 3/4 cup chicken broth
- 1 yellow onion, cut into large chunks
- 1 lb baby carrots
- 1 lb red potatoes, cut into chunks
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 Tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
- 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot to the saute setting. While it’s heating up pat your chicken dry with some paper towels. When it says HOT on the display add in 1 Tbsp of olive oil. Place each piece of chicken into the bottom of the pot. Let the chicken sit there and brown for 5 minutes. Using tongs turn the chicken over and brown for 5 minutes on the other side.
- Carefully remove the chicken and place it on a plate. Add in the minced garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add in the chicken broth and deglaze the pot.
- Add the chicken back into the pot and lightly salt and pepper it. Add the onions, then the carrots and finally the potatoes. Don’t stir. Sprinkle the kosher salt, black pepper, oregano and lemon pepper over the vegetables. Drizzle the other 1 Tbsp of olive oil over the top. Drizzle the lemon juice over the top.
- Cover and pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 4 minutes (less soft vegetables) or 5 minutes (softer vegetables) on high pressure. Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid. Stir the pot a little to distribute juices and seasonings.
- Scoop potatoes, carrots and chicken onto serving plates and enjoy. If you enjoy a crispy skin on your chicken you can stick the chicken under the broiler for a few minutes.
Notes
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*.
I haven’t tried it but I believe you could use boneless chicken for this recipe as well.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot
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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.
Recent instant pot owner and so grateful that I found your YouTube site. This was my first meal in my new instant pot. Everyone agreed with your son, carrots where great! Thank you and keep them coming.
★★★★★
Thank you Thank you! I’m glad you found me!
Man, oh man!! Made this last night & my hubby is STILL talking about it. I’ve decided to have mercy on him & let him eat the leftovers. Was so delicious. Followed your directions to the T & it came out perfect. Wish I could give more stars.
★★★★★
Thanks so much Kim! I do love anything with lemon and this one is no exception!
Hi Karen, Do you have the nutrition information for this? Also how long do cook if using chicken breasts?
Thank you.
I dont have chicken broth, any suggestions? I do have bouillon cubes, as well as “better than Bouillon”
I like to use Better than bouillon. I use it all the time!
Hi Karen – We don’t have bone-in thighs and I’d prefer chicken on the bone for the reasons you mention. What do you think about drumsticks? I have drumsticks and also leg/thigh combo – I could cut apart the leg from the thigh though would rather use drumsticks. Same amount of time if so? They come in packs of six so wonder if they can rest on top of each other. Thanks!
I think that would work wonderfully!! Do it.
To my surprise, the 6-quart Duo Evo Plus nicely held six drumsticks. Placed under the broiler afterwards – after removing a lot of veggies to get to them – crisped the skin up nicely. I like the drumsticks even more than the thighs – they have a nice handle to hold onto. ; )
Only changes – a little more lemon juice and lemon pepper, added dried parsley to get some speckles, and halved the oregano. Next time I’ll add even more lemon pepper.
I’d like a little firmer potatoes and carrots and cooked them at 4 minutes. I wonder if 3 would be sufficient, especially since the chicken will be under the broiler afterwards for 5 minutes. And my prep time continues to be at least double – for all recipes, not just here. I start the clock as I’m gathering all the ingredients – maybe that’s the difference… ; )
★★★
I don’t know why my rating shows 3 stars – it was 5!
★★★★★
I bet 3 would work!
Hi . How do you Broil ?
Do you have a broil button on your oven? if so you can place chicken on a baking sheet and put it under the broiler (about 5 inches from the top heating element)
How much time using two breasts split bone in with potatoes. Five minutes still?
Yes that should be good!
I made this for dinner tonight and it’s terrific! In fact this was the first time chicken browned nicely in the IP – maybe I hadn’t thought to dry it previously so thank you!
By the end of cooking the skin lost the “brown,” and we just discarded it. Maybe next time I’ll stick it under the broiler, though with skin not really healthy, maybe not. I will add a little more lemon/pepper seasoning since I’m a lemon addict.
I like veggies with a bit of firmness and wonder if the chicken would still get to temperature if I tried 3 minutes instead of 4. The 5-minutes per side of browning starts the cooking nicely and with the Duo Evo Plus on 6 for sautéing, it’s extremely hot. What do you think, Karen?
Thank you once again for a “rotation” recipe!
★★★★★
Hello! I tried this with 3 boneless chicken thighs, water instead of chicken broth, baby carrots, potatoes and mushrooms. Used black pepper, salt, minced garlic, garlic powder and lime juice for flavor but the chicken still ended up without taste. In fact, no matter what recipe I try, chicken never has any flavor. Any tips or tricks?
Thanks for your recipes. You are making me a better cook.
I did make this for my wife and I, using our 3-qt Duo. I halved all the ingredients and used two frozen thighs.
I did not saute the chicken nor did I put it under a broiler. I surprised myself, it was oh so good!
My question is: Can you saute frozen chicken, etc?
★★★★★
Hi Bill, glad to hear this! I think you can brown frozen chicken it’s just a little harder to get a true “browning” on it.
Seriously yummy. Only change I made was to add dill, because lemon dill just seemed like an even better idea than straight lemon. And when everything was done cooking I pulled all the chicken and veg out, turned the Instant Pot back to sauté to heat up the juices and added a cornstarch slurry to make a delicious sauce. Liberally spooned it on everything 😊
★★★★
Sounds absolutely fantastic.
Hi! Would this work with a whole, cut up chicken, bone in? Should the cooking time change? Thanks!
I think that will work. Just make sure that the internal temp of the chicken reaches 165.
If I use drumsticks would the cook time change?
use the same time 🙂
Could I double this recipe!? How long would I cook it?? Husband and 3 kiddos…. 4 servings isn’t quite enough! Hahaha but I want to try this so bad!
Yes you can double it. Same cooking time!
Yummy and easy! My 5 and 7 year olds even told me they loved it. Instead of lemon pepper seasoning I used a Tbsp of lemon dill dip dry mix because that’s what I had on hand – and halved the oregano. I made the mistake of using frozen chicken breasts and set the time to 9 minutes (erring too much on the side of caution). I think 6 or 7 minutes would have been fine. The meat temp was well over 180 when I pulled them out and they were kinda tough (my own fault). Otherwise, the veg had a lovely flavour, the lemon really coming through. I even saved the cooking broth to make rice with, it was that yummy! Will definitely make again.
★★★★★
Glad you liked it!
I’ve made this twice and it is delicious!!! I used boneless thighs both times and they worked well, I browned them for less time and used the 5 min cook time. No bones to remove! The boneless thighs do fall apart during cooking. I also seasoned the thighs before browning them, with Dizzy Pig BBQ Shakin’ the Tree, which is a lemon pepper seasoning. I did not reduce the amount of salt and pepper in the recipe. Definitely a keeper and really easy to make as a weeknight meal!
★★★★★
I wish I had thought of Shakin’ the Tree! Dizzy Pig is a great company, family owned business, and we’ve visited them (they’re in VA) to taste the spices, and I took a couple Big Green Egg classes there. Their spice mixes are amazing! Pineapple Head is a fave.
★★★★★
If I have a 3 qt instant pot do you think I need the split to 2 batches?
Did it completely fill up your 6 qt? This looks delicious.
You may have to. It seemed like my pot was pretty full with the carrots and potatoes. Another option would be just to cook the chicken and double it.
Is this cooked on MANUAL?
Yes, manual on high pressure.
I need to double the recipe cause 4 isn’t enough. Would I double the time to 10 minutes? Will the vegetables be too soft?
Keep the cooking time the same! Double the ingredients.
Oh yum this was just delicious! And so healthy! I had no lemon pepper seasoning but just used extra lemon and other Italian and steak seasonings. Sooooo good! I was dubious of the 4 minute cook time with bone-in chicken (I used tons of drumsticks) but it was fall-off-the-bone tender and moist. I’ll be turning to this a lot!
★★★★★
NICE!!
This looks delicious! I would like to try this with boneless breasts. Can you tell me how I would adjust the cooking time?
If they’re thick chicken breasts more than an inch or so thick I would follow the recipe as it is written.
Is slow cooking the sme as crock pot cooking?
yes!