Instant Pot Mushroom Chicken with Green Beans—tender bites of chicken, mushrooms and green beans in a savory ginger soy sauce. Serve over rice for a tasty and easy dinner!
Slow cooker instructions are listed in the notes section of the recipe card below.
Instant Pot Mushroom Chicken with Green Beans
If you’re a fan of the mushroom chicken with zucchini at Panda Express try this Instant Pot twist that uses green beans in place of zucchini and your Instant Pot in the place of a wok. It’s a saucy chicken that tastes great served over rice to soak up all that savory sauce. Here are a few notes about the recipe…
Can I use chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs? I like the moist, tender dark meat for this recipe. I do understand that many are in the white meat boat though. So yes you can use chicken breasts in the place of chicken thighs.
Can I use frozen chicken? For this recipe the chicken will be cut up into bite size pieces so that it can cook at the same rate as the mushrooms and green beans. To cut up the chicken it will need to be fresh or thawed so sorry no frozen chicken for this recipe.
How can chicken cook in 2 minutes? For this recipe the chicken is cut up into bite size pieces. It cooks super fast because it’s so small. Plus the chicken will be cooking the whole time the pot is building pressure and the time it takes to release the pressure.
I don’t like mushrooms. You don’t have to use mushrooms if you don’t like them. You can use a half pound of extra green beans in their place.
Can I used canned green beans? No fresh green beans? That’s fine. Just use a couple cans of drained green beans. Do not pressure cook the beans though. Add them into the pot after the pressure cooking cycle is over (when you’re thickening the sauce with cornstarch).
Can I make pot-in-pot rice at the same time? I was hoping to have room in the Instant Pot for pot-in-pot rice but my 6 quart pot was super full! If you are cooking this in an 8 quart pot there might be room for a shallow pan of rice.
How do I store ginger? I love ginger for many recipes! It lasts a long time since I only grate off a teaspoon or two at a time. I like to wrap my ginger root in foil and then store it in a ziploc bag in the freezer. When I’m ready to use it for a recipe I use my smallest grater* and grate off the amount that I need. It’s so much easier to grate when it’s frozen! I don’t peel my ginger.
More Instant Pot Panda Express Recipes…
Instant Pot Kung Pao Porcupine Meatballs
Better Than Takeout Instant Pot Recipes
Instant Pot Mushroom Chicken with Green Beans
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into bite size pieces
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 8 oz sliced mushrooms
- 1 pound fresh green beans, washed and trimmed
- Optional: 1 (8 oz) can water chestnuts, drained
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger root
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch + 3 Tbsp cold water
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to the saute setting. When the display says HOT add in the oil and swirl it around. Add in the chicken and lightly brown it for about 2 minutes. Add in the garlic and saute for 20 seconds. Turn off Instant Pot.
- Add in the mushrooms and green beans (and water chestnuts, if using). In a bowl whisk together broth, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger and brown sugar. Pour the mixture into the Instant Pot.
- Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 2 minutes. When the time is up let the pot sit for 10 minutes. Then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Turn your Instant Pot to the saute setting. In a small bowl stir together 3 Tbsp of cornstarch with 3 Tbsp of water, until smooth. Then pour the mixture into the Instant Pot. The cornstarch mixture will thicken up contents of pot quickly. Turn off the Instant Pot
- Serve chicken, sauce and vegetables over rice.
Notes
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1. Make it in 8 quart pot with no changes or halve the recipe in 3 quart pot, same cooking time.
Slow Cooker Instructions: Add chicken, garlic, mushrooms, water chestnuts, green beans into slow cooker. In a bowl whisk together broth, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger and brown sugar. Pour the mixture into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours. Remove lid. In a small bowl stir together 3 Tbsp of cornstarch with 3 Tbsp of water, until smooth. Then pour the mixture into the slow cooker. Turn slow cooker to high and cook without the lid for 30 minutes, or until sauce is thickened.
- 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.
We really enjoyed this meal. I used about 1 1/2 lbs chicken breast because that’s what I had on hand. I cooked using the Instant Pot method. Yummy. I think next time I’ll add in some green onion in with the garlic for even more flavor. This is a keeper.
★★★★★
Thanks Debbie! Love your ideas!
Haven’t made this yet, but plan on it. My question is, I have chicken that I’ve canned this year. Can I use that and if so, would I change the time cooking?
Thank you so much.
You could just keep the same cooking time.
It was good served over jasmine rice. I only used 3/4 cup chicken broth and it was substantial. It was good with the water chestnuts. I may try using only about 1 1/2 lbs. of chicken next time.
★★★★★
Glad you liked it Sharon!
Karen, I just recently found your recipes. I usually don’t eat meat, so I’m cooking these for my husband and this is the second one I’ve tried. The first one I tried was Home style Chicken and Vegetables. Both recipes have been so easy to make, easy to cleanup and he was very happy with them. Win Win! Thank you!
★★★★★
Yay! What a fun message to read. Thanks Kathy.
I was really hoping this would be great but sadly, we were disappointed. I followed the recipe, only thing different was I used more garlic and ginger as we like both a lot. I also added the water chestnuts. I’ve actually never had the Panda Express spoken about, so maybe this was exactly how it was supposed to taste!! On the plus side, the chicken was very tender. You win some, you lose some.
★★
😥
Can I use fresh zucchini in place of the green beans? Or will the zucchini lose it’s form? We’re not great bean fans.
You can add in zucchini after pressure cook time is over. Otherwise it will get way to mushy!
My chicken came out dry? Can you tell me why.?
★★
Hi Deborah, Sorry to hear that! Did you use chicken thighs or breasts?
I would love love love a recipe for Panda Express string beans and chicken💖💖💖💖.
Yum! Sounds like I need to make that 😊
Yum!!! If I actually prefer zucchini, should I add it at the end? I imagine it would be mush if I add it when you say to add the green beans? Thank you for this!!
Yes add it later. It definitely does not hold up to pressure cooking!