Instant Pot Peanut Butter Chicken–easy and fast 5-ingredient, dump and go chicken with a peanut sauce.
This recipe can be made in slow cooker too! Just check the recipe card below for instructions.
Instant Pot Peanut Butter Chicken
Peanut butter and chicken might seem like an unlikely combination, but together they create a savory and delicious dish. This recipe is perfect for busy weeknights since it only has 5 ingredients and it’s dump and go! It tastes good served with rice to soak up all the sauce and a side of roasted broccoli.
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Low sodium soy sauce–it is important that it be low sodium soy sauce or it’ll be too salty
- Boneless, skinless chicken thighs–I used frozen. You can also use another cut of chicken like chicken breasts (10-12 minutes pressure cook time), chicken tenderloins (3 minutes pressure cook time) or bone-in chicken (12 minutes pressure cook time).
- Heinz chili sauce*–you can find this by the ketchup at the grocery store
- Crunchy peanut butter–or creamy
- Cornstarch–to thicken the sauce
Steps
Add water and soy sauce to Instant Pot. Add in the chicken. I used frozen chicken but you can also use fresh chicken.
In a bowl stir together the chili sauce and peanut butter. Scoop the mixture on top of the chicken. Try not to let the mixture touch the bottom of the Instant Pot to avoid the burn message.
Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 12 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
Stir together 2 Tbsp or cornstarch with 2 Tbsp of water until smooth. Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. Stir the cornstarch slurry into the pot to thicken the sauce. Once thickened turn off the pot.
Serve chicken as is or break up chicken with a spoon and serve it and the sauce on top of rice.
Notes/Tips
- We loved this with rice to soak up the rice. Another option is to serve it with naan bread.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
- 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 Instant Pot Creamy Sloppy Joes and Instant Pot 3-Ingredient Meatballs.
Can I Make The Rice At The Same Time?
Pot-in-pot rice is a method of cooking rice in a separate container placed inside the Instant Pot. This method allows you to cook rice and the chicken at the same time. Here’s how you can cook rice at the same time as the chicken.
Ingredients:
- 2 cup of white rice
- 2.5 cups of water
Instructions:
- Add the rice to a heatproof container that fits inside the Instant Pot (I often use this stainless steel pan*). Add in the rice and water.
- Add the chicken ingredients into the Instant Pot.
- Place the heatproof container with the rice on top of the chicken, using a tall trivet* to keep it elevated.
- Close the Instant Pot lid and set the valve to sealing. Cook as stated in the recipe card.
- Carefully remove the heatproof container with the rice from the Instant Pot. It will be perfectly cooked!
Note: You can use long grain white rice, converted rice, basmati rice, jasmine rice. Brown rice uses a longer cooking time (22 minutes) and won’t work for (pot-in-pot) this particular recipe.
How to make roasted broccoli
Roasted broccoli is a delicious and nutritious side dish that goes great with Instant Pot peanut butter chicken. The high temperature of roasting brings out the natural sweetness of the broccoli and gives it a crispy texture. Here’s how to make it:
Ingredients:
- 1 head of broccoli, cut into florets
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 425°F.
- Wash the broccoli and cut it into bite-sized florets. Make sure the florets are roughly the same size so that they cook evenly.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss the broccoli with olive oil, salt, and black pepper. Make sure each floret is evenly coated with the seasoning.
- Spread the broccoli out in a single layer on a baking sheet. If the florets are too crowded, they will steam instead of roast, so use a second baking sheet if necessary.
- Roast the broccoli in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges of the florets are crispy and browned. Use a spatula to flip the broccoli halfway through cooking to ensure even roasting.
- Remove the broccoli from the oven and transfer it to a serving dish. Serve and enjoy!
More Recipes with Peanut Butter…
Instant Pot Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake
This recipe is full of all the good things you love–cream cheese, peanut butter, chocolate and Reese’s mini peanut butter cups. Plus this cheesecake is made in the electric pressure cooker which cooks the dessert evenly and produces a perfect result with no cracking on the top of the cheesecake!
Instant Pot Dan Dan Noodles
An easier, Instant Pot spin on warm Chinese noodles with a savory, almost creamy sauce.
Instant Pot Thai Chicken Noodles
A true one pot meal! The chicken, sauce and noodles are all cooked at the same time in minutes in your electric pressure cooker. The noodles are enveloped in a mild creamy peanut and lime sauce and the peanuts, cilantro and red bell peppers give texture and color. A delicious and easy recipe to make any night of the week.
Instant Pot Chocolate Peanut Butter Hummus
Make a chocolate dip that’s a little healthier using chickpeas! This is great as a dip for fruit and pretzels. Dried chickpeas can be cooked very quickly in the Instant Pot.
Instant Pot Cracker Jacks
A homemade version of the original snack! Caramel covered popcorn and peanuts is an addicting snack that you can make completely in your Instant Pot.
Chunky Muddy Buddies
Do you love chex muddy buddies but wish there were more of the stuck together chunks? I prefer my muddy buddies this way too and have tweaked the recipe so that it’s basically all chunks. More peanut butter, more chocolate, more deliciousness.
Instant Pot Peanut Noodles
Sweet and spicy peanut noodles ready in only a few minutes with your Instant Pot!
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 Peanut Butter Chicken
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 27 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
Easy and fast 5-ingredient, dump and go chicken with a peanut sauce.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 1/4 cup Heinz chili sauce (find it by the ketchup)
- 1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Add water and soy sauce to Instant Pot. Add in the chicken.
- In a bowl stir together the chili sauce and peanut butter. Scoop the mixture on top of the chicken
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 12 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Stir together 2 Tbsp or cornstarch with 2 Tbsp of water until smooth. Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. Stir the cornstarch slurry into the pot to thicken the sauce. Once thickened turn off the pot.
- Serve chicken as is or break up chicken with a spoon and serve it and the sauce on top of rice.
Slow Cooker Instructions:
- In a bowl stir together water, soy sauce, chili sauce and peanut butter.
- Add chicken to slow cooker. Pour the sauce over the top.
- Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.
- Serve chicken as is or break up chicken with a spoon and serve it and the sauce on top of rice.
Notes
You can also use bone-in chicken thighs (same cooking time). Chicken tenderloins also work for this recipe although you will only pressure cook them for 3 minutes with a 5 minute natural pressure release.
- 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.
Because I bought Trader Joe’s sweet chili sauce specially for this recipe per original printing of this recipe and I liked it and will make again! I had mixed a spoonful of sauce ingredients using Heinz chili sauce and did not like so glad I didn’t try that. Wondering if you triffids sweet chili sause instead of Heinz. Thai brands of this chili sauce seem spicier, which I can’t take in my senior years, but Trader Joe’s is perfect and at 1.79 a bottle, such a good deal!
★★★★★
I wish I had a Trader Joe’s close to me! I’ll have to try that.
Can I Double this recipe?
yes absolutely…keep the same cooking time
This looked and sounded really good. I was pretty excited to try it out. Didn’t turn out so hot and probably not a make again.
★★
I am pretty psyched to try this recipe soon….I’m confused on only one ingredient…the sweet chili sauce. Are you referring to the Heinz brand of sauce, or an Asian sweet chili sauce. It all sounds so delicious! Thank you Karen.
My bad. I just clicked on the ingredient as you posted….it led me to Heinz Chili sauce! Now I can make this on Monday night!!! YAY.
You got it! The heinz is right
Heinz sweet chilli sauce is spelled differently than Asian sweet chili sauce that I have. The Heinz version has 2 “l’s”. When you click on the link in your blog it brings you to the regular Heinz chili sauce which is different than sweet chili sauce. So I am confused which you used. I am trying this tonight and I used a Thai sweet chili sauce. Hopefully it will taste OK.
sorry I meant heinz chili sauce. I just changed the recipe card so others don’t get confused.
Wondering how your recipe turned out. I just bought Trader Joe’s sweet chili sauce (under $2.00) but haven’t made recipe yet. I always use Heinz chili sauce on meat loaf and this and the sweet chili sauce are very different.
Can I use Heinz chili sauce in place of sweet chili sauce?
yes that’s what i used!
Can I use regular peanut butter?
Crunchy peanut butter–or creamy, it’s in the Ingredients/Substitution Ideas.
So, yes.
Yep!