Instant Pot No Time To Cook Chicken—too busy to cook? This easy 5 ingredient chicken recipe takes 5 minutes of prep and only 15 minutes to pressure cook. Serve this saucy, savory chicken over rice or mashed potatoes.
Note: SLOW COOKER instructions are in the recipe card below

Instant Pot No Time To Cook Chicken
If you don’t have a lot of time to prep dinner or if you’re feeling lazy this is a perfect dump and go chicken recipe that tastes so good! Bites of chicken are engulfed in a creamy, savory onion gravy.
If you want you can easily make pot-in-pot rice at the same time as the chicken and sauce. Another good choice is to serve the chicken and sauce over mashed potatoes. And if you don’t want to go to the effort to make homemade mashed potatoes just use instant potatoes!
Serve the chicken and sauce with a side of vegetables. To make it easy on yourself steam a bag of broccoli (or other frozen vegetables) in the microwave for 5 minutes. No chopping, no prep…just press a couple buttons and go!
If you’re trying to eat low carb serve the chicken and sauce over cauliflower rice. I found a big bag of frozen cauliflower rice at Costco that has come in handy for recipes like this one. I just pop the bags into the microwave to steam.
More Instant Pot 5 Ingredient Chicken Recipes…
Instant Pot 2-Ingredient Balsamic Chicken
Instant Pot Creamy Salsa Chicken
Instant Pot Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwiches
Instant Pot 3-Ingredient Chicken and Gravy

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Instant Pot No Time To Cook Chicken
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Ingredients
Equipment needed: Instant Pot and (if wanting to cook rice at same time) tall trivet and pan for pot-in-pot cooking
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- 1 (10.5 oz) can Campbell’s French Onion Soup
- 1 1/2–2 pounds boneless chicken breasts or thighs (you can also use bone-in chicken)
- 1 (10.5 oz) can Campbell’s Cream of Chicken with Herbs Soup
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- Optional for pot-in-pot rice: 1 1/2 cups uncooked white or parboiled rice and 2 1/4 cups water
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Pour broth and can of French onion soup into bottom of Instant Pot*.
- Place chicken into bottom of Instant Pot in a single layer.
- Spoon the cream of chicken over the top of the chicken without letting it touch the bottom of the pot.
- If you’d like to cook rice at the same time then place a tall trivet* into the pot. Pour 1 ½ cups rice and 2 ¼ cups water into a pan that fits inside your pot (I used my stainless steel pan*). Place the pan on top of the trivet.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 15 minutes (boneless chicken) or 18 minutes (bone-in or frozen chicken).
- When time is up let the pressure release naturally for 5-10 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Carefully remove the rice pan and set it on the counter.
- In a small bowl stir 1 cup of hot broth into sour cream to temper. Then stir the mixture into the Instant Pot. Break up the chicken into pieces or shred.
- Serve chicken and sauce over rice or potatoes.
Slow Cooker Instructions:
- Pour French onion soup and cream of chicken soup into slow cooker (no broth needed for slow cooker version). Stir together well.
- Add in the chicken.
- Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours.
- In a small bowl stir 1 cup of hot broth into sour cream to temper. Then stir the mixture into the slow cooker. Break up the chicken into pieces or shred.
- Serve chicken and sauce over rice or potatoes.
Notes
In the place of cream of chicken you can use cream of mushroom or cream of celery condensed soups.
- 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.
Can I adjust the pot in pot rice and only cook one cup?
yes!
My grocery store doesn’t carry the Cream of Chicken with Herbs and so I used a can of regular Cream of Chicken and then sprinkled 1 tsp of Herbs de Provence (I had bought it previously for a recipes and had never used it since :). It turned out amazing! My family kept raving about it and mu hubby said I can make that anytime! I’m sure another herbal blend would work.
★★★★★
Good idea! Thanks Jayme!
Can Jasmine rice be used for the rice in this recipe?
yes!
How do you do the recipe in a 3 quart instant pot
you should be able to make this recipe in the 3 quart pot with no changes. Fresh chicken will fit better than frozen chicken.
How do you do the recipe in a 3 quart instant pot I would like to try all of your recipes but not sure how long to do them in a 3 quart instant pot
If your on a bland diet this one is for you!! So disappointed!
★★
Sorry you didn’t like it. For us it was anything but bland. Did you use the brands I recommended?
Karen, I’ve never done pot in pot cooking. Do you need a lid on the in pot? i would think you wound not want a lid, but it looks like in the picture, there is one?? thanks.
I’ve cooked rice both ways…with or without the lid and it always turns out great!
In a pressure cooker, how would you prepare this using frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs and also long grain brown rice please? I’m using an 8 qt Foodi. Thanks.
Pressure cook for 18 minutes (for frozen chicken). Brown rice usually takes 22 minutes plus 10 minutes NPR. So you might want to cook it separately. I think it might be a little crunchy still if you tried to cook it pot in pot with the frozen chicken.
Thank you. If I decide to do the brown rice, I think I will probably just cook it separately. Might do spuds since I have some russets to get rid of.
Keep up the good work!