Instant Pot Rusty Chicken

Instant Pot Rusty Chicken–tender chicken in a rust colored sauce made from soy sauce, chili garlic sauce and rice vinegar. You can also make this recipe in a slow cooker.

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Instant Pot Rusty Chicken

This is a dump and go chicken recipe that has great flavor and a little bit of heat. It’s quick to get going and you can even use frozen chicken. The other cool part of this recipe is that you can cook rice at the same time in the same pot, if you’d like. The recipe is named for the rust colored sauce that the chicken is served with. But the chicken could also be called chili garlic sauce-soy sauce-rice vinegar chicken 🤣.

This recipe can be made as a freezer meal to cook later too! Just add brown sugar, chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic and chicken to a freezer ziploc bag and squish the chicken around the sauce to get it marinating. Freeze the bag. When ready to cook add ½ cup of broth to the Instant Pot, throw in the contents from the ziploc bag and pressure cook for 15 minutes with a 10 minute natural pressure release. Follow the thickening instructions in the recipe card below.

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Chicken broth–or water and Better than Bouillon
• Brown sugar–to balance out the flavors
• Chili garlic sauce–sambal oelek, you can find this in a little jar in the Asian section of the grocery store
• Low sodium soy sauce–so it’s not too salty
• Seasoned rice vinegar–I like the Nakano brand
• Minced garlic–fresh or jarred
• Boneless, skinless chicken thighs–I used frozen from Costco. You can also use boneless, skinless chicken breasts although the chicken won’t be as moist and tender. Use the same cooking time.
• Cornstarch–to thicken the sauce

Steps

1. Add ingredients: Add broth, brown sugar, chili garlic sauce (1 Tbsp for less spicy or 2 Tbsp for more spicy), soy sauce, vinegar, garlic into Instant Pot. Stir. Add the chicken into the Instant Pot.
2. Pressure cook: Cover and make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 10 minutes for fresh or 12 minutes for frozen chicken. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move valve to venting. 
3. Thicken the sauce: Break up the chicken or shred. In a small bowl, stir together cornstarch and water until smooth. Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting and stir the cornstarch slurry into the pot. Once sauce has thickened turn off the Instant Pot. 
4. Serve chicken and sauce over rice.

If you’d like you can make pot-in-pot rice at the same time. After ingredients are added into the pot position a tall trivet* into the pot. In a pot-in-pot dish* add 2 cups white rice and 3 cups water. Place the rice dish on top of the trivet. You can cover the dish or keep it uncovered. The rice will cook perfectly as the chicken pressure cooks.

Notes/Tips

• Serve with rice and vegetables. Broccoli, green beans or asparagus are all good choices.
• 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.
• This recipe can be gluten-free if you use gluten-free soy sauce. This recipe is dairy free.
• Other recipes you can make with chili garlic sauce are Instant Pot Kung Pao Porcupine Meatballs and Instant Pot Dragon Noodles.

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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.