Instant Pot Shoyu Chicken–soy sauce and brown sugar marinated chicken thigh pieces cooked quickly in your Instant Pot. A flavorful chicken that tastes great over rice.
Pin this recipe for later!

Instant Pot Shoyu Chicken
Shoyu chicken is a popular Hawaiian dish that’s often served over rice. Typically the chicken is marinated and then cooked on the grill. My version utilizes the Instant Pot. I knew that the chicken would turn out awesome because I cut the thighs into pieces and each piece was perfectly marinated and flavored. The Instant Pot and chicken thighs go together well! The IP cooks thighs perfectly and they stay moist and tender. I think you’ll really love this flavorful, tender chicken.
Notes/Tips
- Serve the chicken over rice. I cooked my rice in a separate Instant Pot. With the short 4 minute cooking time of the chicken I’m not sure if pot-in-pot rice would work out. You can try it though and see!
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 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.
Pin this recipe for later!

More Chicken Thigh Instant Pot Recipes…
- Instant Pot Perfect Chicken
- Instant Pot Aussie Chicken
- Instant Pot Chicken Julienne
- Marie Osmond’s Chicken (Instant Pot or Crockpot Recipe)
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.
Pin this recipe for later!

Get a daily Instant Pot recipe delivered to your email!
Print
Instant Pot Shoyu Chicken
Description
Soy sauce and brown sugar marinated chicken thigh pieces cooked quickly in your Instant Pot. A flavorful chicken that tastes great over rice.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp dry minced onion
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano
- Pinch of crushed red pepper
- Pinch of smoked paprika
- 4–6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- Add soy sauce, brown sugar, onion, garlic powder, ginger, pepper, oregano, crushed red pepper and smoked paprika into Instant Pot liner. Stir well.
- Trim the thighs of excess fat and cut them into bite size pieces. Add the chicken pieces into the Instant Pot liner and stir well to coat the chicken in the mixture.
- Place the Instant Pot liner with the chicken in it into the refrigerator and let the chicken marinate for an hour.
- Stir the chicken well. Pour in the water and stir. Place Instant Pot liner into the Instant Pot base.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 4 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move valve to venting.
- Stir the chicken and serve it over rice.
Stay in touch!
- Sign up to receive daily Instant Pot recipes (it’s FREE)
- Join the 365 Days of Instant Pot Recipes Facebook group
- Subscribe to my YouTube channel
- Buy the 365 Days of Pressure Cooking Cookbook
Pin this recipe for later!

*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.
This has become one of my favorite quick and easy meals. Super tender, delicious chicken! I sometimes thicken the sauce with a cornstarch slurry but is great as-is
★★★★★
Thanks so much for the 5 stars! This is a good one!
Another winner, Karen! It was so flavorful and easy! The only thing I changed was to thicken the sauce with a bit of corn starch. It was so delicious that I wanted it thicker. I served it over rice. Another plus–it smelled so good while cooking. Instant Pot recipes often don’t provide that pleasure since they cook so fast!
★★★★★
I’m glad you liked it Jeanie! Thanks so much for the 5 stars.
It says to add water? How much water is needed?
1/4 cup of water
Can I use precooked meat to marinate, then cook? If so, how much time in the IP?
If it’s already cooked you could just do a 1-2 minute cooking time
Quick, easy, delicious. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner. Thanks for supplying 1/2 recipe amounts. I used whole skinless thighs with bone in because I like flavor from the bones. Pressure for 10 minutes. It was so flavorful, and tender. Thank you for great recipes.
★★★★★
Yum yum! I’m glad you tried it with the bone-in chicken. I figured it would be so good!
I know we will love this, question can I double the sauce. We love a lot of sauce on our rice.
Yes yes you can totally double the sauce!
I haven’t made this…. yet but I’m questioning putting the liner in the fridge for an hour. Won’t there be condensation when you bring it out of the refrigerator? I think I’ll marinate in a baggie or separate bowl and risk ruining my IP with condensation.
You realize that you can dry off any condensation that might appear on the stainless steel liner, right?
Sure you could do that. Or just wipe off condensation. It’s up to you!
Can we make pot-in-pot rice with this? Thanks!
I cooked my rice in a separate Instant Pot. With the short 4 minute cooking time of the chicken I’m not sure if pot-in-pot rice would work out. You can try it though and see!
Hi… love your site! I’m wondering if I could sub pork tenderloin in your recipes that call for boneless chicken breasts or Thighs? What time difference would I use if any? Thank you and keep up the great work!
Sure I think that would work fine. Will you be cutting it into pieces? If so I would use same cooking time.