Instant Pot Perfect Chicken–creamy chicken, mushrooms, onions and sauce with lots of flavor from seasonings and lemon juice. With a little effort you can have an amazing tasting dinner!
Instant Pot Perfect Chicken
After one bite of this chicken and sauce Greg said, “wow this chicken is perfect!” I do have to agree that it was pretty amazing. The chicken was perfectly moist and tender. The sauce was so good that I was licking it off my plate. I think you’ll love it too.
We loved eating this chicken and sauce over rice. I made my rice in a separate 3 quart Instant Pot. However you can use the pot-in-pot method if you’d like to cook the rice at the same time as the chicken. Place a tall trivet* into the pot after you add in all the ingredients. Place a pot-in-pot dish* on top of the trivet. The dish should have a 1 cup white rice to 1.5 cup water ratio in it. You can cover the pot-in-pot dish or leave it uncovered.
I like using chicken thighs in the Instant Pot because they stay moist and tender. I used fresh thighs so that I could properly brown them. If you want you can also use chicken tenderloins for this recipe. If you use fresh tenderloins only pressure cook for 2 minutes with a 10 minute natural pressure release.
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Butter
- Boneless, skinless chicken thighs–you can also use bone-in thighs with the skin removed or chicken tenderloins
- Mushrooms
- Onion
- Minced garlic
- Dried rosemary leaves
- Dried thyme leaves
- Ground sage
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Lemon juice–fresh is best
- Water
- Better than Bouillon chicken base
- Cornstarch
- Heavy cream
Steps
- Lightly brown the chicken: Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. While the pot is heating up trim off excess fat from the chicken thighs (I like to use kitchen shears). Pat chicken dry with a paper towel. Lightly salt and pepper the chicken thighs. When the Instant Pot says HOT on the display add in the butter and let it melt. Add in the chicken pieces in an even layer and let brown lightly on one side for 3 minutes. Use tongs to turn over and brown for another 3 minutes on the other side. Use tongs to move chicken out of the pot and lay it on a plate.
- Sauté vegetables: Add the mushrooms and onions into the pot. Sauté for about 5 minutes. Add in the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Stir in the rosemary, thyme, sage, kosher salt and pepper.
- Deglaze the pot: Pour in the lemon juice, water and bouillon. Scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking. Cancel off the sauté setting.
- Pressure cook: Add the chicken back into the pot. Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 10 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10-15 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Thicken the sauce: Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. Make a cornstarch slurry by stirring together the heavy cream and the cornstarch. Stir a cup of the hot liquid into the cornstarch/cream. Then stir the mixture into the Instant Pot to thicken the sauce.
- Serve the chicken and sauce over rice, noodles or mashed potatoes.
Notes/Tips
- Serve the chicken and sauce over rice, noodles or mashed potatoes. This dinners goes along well with a side of green vegetables like green beans, broccoli or asparagus. The sauce tastes good over the vegetables too!
- 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 lemon juice are Instant Pot Lemon Herbed Chicken And Red Potatoes and Soft Lemon Sugar Cookies.
More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes…
- Instant Pot Aussie Chicken
- Instant Pot Chicken Julienne
- Instant Pot Old School Casserole
- Simple Man’s Lemon Garlic Chicken (Instant Pot or Crockpot)
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.
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Instant Pot Perfect Chicken
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Creamy chicken, mushrooms, onions and sauce with lots of flavor from seasonings and lemon juice. With a little effort you can have an amazing tasting dinner!
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 4–6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you can also use bone-in thighs with the skin removed)
- Salt and pepper
- 8 ounces sliced mushrooms
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp dried rosemary leaves
- 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
- 1/2 tsp ground sage
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 cups water
- 1 Tbsp Better than Bouillon chicken base
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. While the pot is heating up trim off excess fat from the chicken thighs (I like to use kitchen shears). Pat chicken dry with a paper towel. Lightly salt and pepper the chicken thighs. When the Instant Pot says HOT on the display add in the butter and let it melt. Add in the chicken pieces in an even layer and let brown lightly on one side for 3 minutes. Use tongs to turn over and brown for another 3 minutes on the other side. Use tongs to move chicken out of the pot and lay it on a plate.
- Add the mushrooms and onions into the pot. Sauté for about 5 minutes. Add in the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Stir in the rosemary, thyme, sage, kosher salt and pepper.
- Pour in the lemon juice, water and bouillon. Scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking. Cancel off the sauté setting.
- Add the chicken back into the pot. Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 10 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10-15 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. Make a cornstarch slurry by stirring together the heavy cream and the cornstarch. Stir a cup of the hot liquid into the cornstarch/cream. Then stir the mixture into the Instant Pot to thicken the sauce.
- Serve the chicken and sauce over rice, noodles or mashed potatoes.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot
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Karen that really came off sounding critical. Everyone has their likes and dislikes. I have so many of your recipes saved and I’ve tried several that were all very good. The best part is this recipe, for me and my hubby is, it will be better to our liking without those particular herbs and the lemon juice. Honestly I eat it to town and back without those 4 ingredients and nothing else added which reminds me of chicken and dumplings but with rice instead of dumplings. I love comfort dishes with rice. meant to say I used 3 chicken breast and cooked them the same amount of time as the thighs and they were pretty thick breast.
I hate leaving negative reviews and the more I thought about it, mine sounded negative. Thanks for many great recipes and more to try for both the slow cooker and Instant Pot.
★★★★★
Oh no worries! My recipes serve as a base and then everyone should adjust to their own likes and tastes! Keep up the good work!
I think the base for this is great. I didn’t care for the combination of herbs, it tasted off. I think the lemon juice was not necessary, it was distracting. I loved combining the cornstarch into the cream. something I won’t forget with other recipes. Overall I’d make it again but leave out the lemon juice, Thyme, Sage, Rosemary and maybe add some fresh sprigs of Oregano. Thyme might be ok but not the Sage and Rosemary. The sage was over powering. I cooked with whole boneless chicken breast because I misread the recipe and thought it called for breast. I cooked the whole breast the same time and it turned out great. Not dry. Thanks for a great base fir some great comfort food!
★★★
Karen that really came off sounding critical. Everyone has their likes and dislikes. I have so many of your recipes saved and I’ve tried several that were all very good. The best part is this recipe, for me and my hubby is, it will be better to our liking without those particular herbs and the lemon juice. Honestly I eat it to town and back without those 4 ingredients and nothing else added which reminds me of chicken and dumplings but with rice instead of dumplings. I love comfort dishes with rice. meant to say I used 3 chicken breast and cooked them the same amount of time as the thighs and they were pretty thick breast.
I hate leaving negative reviews and the more I thought about it, mine sounded negative. Thanks for many great recipes and more to try for both the slow cooker and Instant Pot.
★★★★★
Another delicious recipe. Thank you
★★★★★
You’re welcome! Thanks for the review and 5 stars ★★★★★
I’m going to try this with chicken breast. This will be the first time I have used my Instant Pot, would the cooking time be the same as with thighs?
Yep!
Amazing flavor! Perfect cooked chicken. Very nice.
Yay! Thanks!
Hello Karen. I have a question about making & adding the cornstarch slurry. In step 5 do you add the cornstarch slurry back to the IP on the Saute setting while the chicken is still in the IP? I didn’t see where you mentioned to remove the chicken in order to prepare the slurry on the Saute setting. Or do you just prepare the Cornstarch slurry in a separate bowl & then add it back to the IP for it to finish thickening the sauce? Thank you.
I just stirred the slurry into the pot with the chicken. It worked great!
Thank you Karen! I’m looking forward to giving this recipe a try! Love all your recipe ideas! Keep up the great work! 🙂
What is the purpose of patting the chicken dry after removing from the browning step only to put the chicken right back into the pot a few minutes later?
★★★★★
oops sorry that line was not supposed to be there…I’ve corrected it. Thanks!
I was going to ask the same thing! I made this last night and didn’t lay dry. Came out great!
★★★★★