Instant Pot Spicy Coconut Chicken Drumsticks–tender, juicy chicken drumsticks enveloped in a creamy coconut and sriracha sauce with loads of fresh cilantro. This chicken and sauce is perfect over rice and makes an easy and delicious weeknight dinner.
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Instant Pot Spicy Coconut Chicken Drumsticks
One of my favorite slow cooker recipes is coconut chicken drumsticks. I knew that I needed to tackle this recipe in the Instant Pot. First, I removed the skin from the chicken legs. The way that I do this is by using a paper towel. It helps you to grip the skin and get it off in no time. I wouldn’t want to keep the skin of since it will become soggy and gross in the pressure cooker. Once the skin is removed from the chicken you can make a simple sauce of coconut milk, sriracha, chili paste and soy sauce in the Instant Pot. Add those chicken drummies to the sauce and let it cook for about 18 minutes. The sauce will be really thin so once the pressure has been released you can switch the setting to saute and add a cornstarch slurry to thicken up the sauce in no time. I love eating this chicken and sauce over brown rice. I either make my brown rice in the Instant Pot or in the oven. I’ve never been a good maker of brown rice on the stove.
You may be interested in these other recipes…
All my Instant Pot recipes can be found here
Slow Cooker Yellow Chicken Curry
Instant Pot Chicken Curry
Crispy Coconut Chicken Fingers
What Instant Pot/Slow Cooker Did You Use?
For this Instant Pot Spicy Coconut Chicken Drumsticks recipe I used this Instant Pot IP-LUX60 V3 Programmable Electric Pressure Cooker. It’s 6 quarts, so the same size as most slow cookers. It cost me around $80 on Amazon. When I made a similar recipe in the slow cooker I used this 6 quart KitchenAid Slow Cooker.
Instant Pot Spicy Coconut Chicken Drumsticks
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
Description
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Tender, juicy chicken drumsticks enveloped in a creamy coconut and sriracha sauce with loads of fresh cilantro. This chicken and sauce is perfect over rice and makes an easy and delicious weeknight dinner.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 2 Tbsp Sriracha
- 1 Tbsp garlic thai chili paste
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 cup diced onions (I used a yellow onion)
- 3–4 lbs of chicken drumsticks (I put 10 in my pressure cooker)
- 1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 3 Tbsp water
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Combine broth, basil, Sriracha, garlic thai chili paste, soy sauce and onion in the Instant Pot. Stir.
- Using a double layer of paper towels pull the skin off of the chicken legs. Add the now skinless chicken legs into the slow cooker. Nestle them into the sauce.
- Cover the Instant Pot and make sure the valve is on “sealing.” Press manual and set the timer for 15 minutes. Once the timer beeps let the pot sit for 5 minutes and then release any remaining pressure by moving the valve from “sealing” to “venting.”
- In a little bowl stir together the cornstarch and water until smooth. Remove the lid of the Instant Pot and stir in the coconut milk and cornstarch mixture. Turn the Instant Pot to saute. The sauce should thicken in just a couple of minutes.
- Stir in the cilantro and serve the chicken and sauce over rice.
Notes
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot for this recipe.
Click here for the slow cooker version of this recipe
- Method: Instant Pot
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I want to make this, but my chicken drumsticks package says it’s about 5 lbs. Would it work for me to set my instant pot to 20 mini and let it natural release for 10 minutes. If not, please tell me what you suggest. Thank you.
I would cook the 15 minutes instead of 20. Will be great!
I used 6 drumsticks but same amount of sauce. The extra sauce was great on rice (cooked pot-in-pot) and broccoli.
I also added seasoning salt, onion powder, garlic powder on chicken.
★★★★
Sounds awesome! Thanks for the review.
Enjoyable but I improvised since I didn’t have sriracha or garlic that chili paste…. So I used red curry paste and dinner of my husband’s homemade hot sauce. I was certainly worried about too much heat so I held back. As the sauce was thickening, we added more hot sauce and also unsweetened coconut flakes for added flavor. Overall, happy with it! Thank you again Karen
★★★★
Good tips Dawn! I’m glad you like it!
When do I put in the coconut milk? According to the recipe, the coconut milk is used at the very end with the cornstarch? Is this right?
yes in step 4, you are correct.
Now that you’ve cooked it both ways, which one is your favorite, crock pot or pressure cooker?
Both are very similar! Maybe crockpot??
Would bone in chicken thighs work as well? And how long should I cook?
Yes they would and I would cook for the same time as listed above.
Any suggestions on how to make a non spicy version?
I’d leave out the sriracha.
this recipe looks amazing! I have an 8qt ip and wanted to put 24 drumsticks and double the sauce. Do you think that would all fit and would the time be the same?
8 quarts is pretty large. I bet it would work!
Would time need to be adjusted if using breasts instead of drumsticks?
you’ll need less time for breasts than bone-in chicken.
Karen, I’ve wanted to make this delish sounding recipe for ages, and have decided it’ll be our next dinner. Problem is, all I have is bone-in breasts…and no way to get any other chicken parts in time. That, and I have much fewer breasts than the amt of drumsticks called for in recipe.
Think my chick breasts will do? If so, how can I tweak cooking time accordingly? Fwiw, I’d be sure to de-skin the breasts.
Looking forward to hearing your suggestions, Karen.
Bone in breasts will work great! Keep the same cooking time.
Yaaay – thanks, Karen! Your timing is perfect: my “dudes” both had mildly upset tummies yesterday, so I put zippy (and delicious) sriracha yearnings on hold.
My picante loving palate (theirs too normally) is now doing its best to wait patiently…I WILL make this recipe soon. I look forward to posting about how it turns out – thanks to your bonus helpful feedback, Karen! 😁
Can i use Basmati Rice for the same ?
yep!