Instant Pot Let’s Get Married Chicken–garlic butter chicken bites in a lemon cream sauce made fast in your Instant Pot.
Instant Pot Let’s Get Married Chicken
Make this chicken tonight and you might hear the phrase “let’s get married!” It’s just that good. The bites of chicken are ultra tender. The garlic-butter-lemon sauce is so good you’ll want to lick your plate! With only a 3 minute pressure cooking time this recipe comes together quite quickly. We definitely ate this chicken until it was gone at our house…no leftovers!
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Boneless skinless chicken thighs–you can also use chicken tenderloins with the same cooking time
- Italian seasoning–or make your own
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Garlic powder
- Dried parsley
- Olive oil
- Butter
- Garlic–fresh is best
- Lemon juice–fresh is best
- Chicken broth–or water and Better than Bouillon chicken base
- Heavy cream
- Cornstarch–you can leave this out if you’d like it to be low carb
Steps
Trim off excess fat from the chicken. Cut the chicken thighs into cubes. Place the chicken in a airtight container with a lid. Add the Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley and olive oil in with the chicken. Cover the container and shake until chicken is all coated in the seasonings. Set aside.
Turn Instant Pot to saute “normal” setting. When display says hot add in the butter and let it melt.
Add in the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Pour in the lemon juice and broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking. Turn off Instant Pot.
Dump in the chicken.
Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
In a small bowl stir together the cream and cornstarch until smooth, add in a little bit of water if needed to thin it out. Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. Stir in the slurry to thicken the sauce. Once thickened, turn off the pot.
Serve chicken and sauce and enjoy! Top with a bit of parmesan cheese, if desired.
Notes/Tips
- Serve with mashed potatoes, rice, noodles, garlic bread or cauliflower rice. Broccoli tastes great served alongside the chicken as well.
- I like using chicken thighs for this recipe because they stay moist and tender. If you want you can use chicken breasts. Cut the chicken into cubes against the grain. Only pressure cook for 1 minute with a 5-10 natural pressure release.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
- There is only a half cup of liquid used in this recipe but I find that the pot comes to pressure with no issues. That is because the chicken is a moisture releasing ingredient and adds to the amount of liquid in the pot.
- This recipe is gluten-free and can be low carb if you eliminate the cornstarch.
- 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 are Instant Pot Lemon Rice and Lemon Chicken Scallopini.
More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes…
Instant Pot Chicken Rosa Maria
Chicken, ham and mushrooms in a lemon sauce with cheese. A flavorful chicken dish that is anything but bland!
Instant Pot Chicken Diane
Chicken and mushrooms in a lemon-dijon sauce made in your Instant Pot.
Instant Pot Fancy Pants Chicken
Chicken tenderloins in a creamy sauce with ham, spinach and mushrooms. Lots of flavor for a small amount of work!
Instant Pot Uncle Gary’s Chicken
Tender chicken in a tomato-based sauce with mozzarella and parmesan cheese all served over spaghetti.
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.
Let’s Get Married Chicken
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Garlic butter chicken bites in a lemon cream sauce made fast in your Instant Pot.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp dried parsley
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 3 Tbsp heavy cream
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Trim off excess fat from the chicken. Cut the chicken thighs into cubes. Place the chicken in a airtight container with a lid. Add the Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley and olive oil in with the chicken. Cover the container and shake until chicken is all coated in the seasonings. Set aside.
- Turn Instant Pot to saute “normal” setting. When display says hot add in the butter and let it melt. Add in the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Pour in the lemon juice and broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking. Turn off Instant Pot.
- Dump in the chicken. Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- In a small bowl stir together the cream and cornstarch until smooth, add in a little bit of water if needed to thin it out. Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. Stir in the slurry to thicken the sauce. Once thickened, turn off the pot.
- Serve chicken and sauce and enjoy! Top with a bit of parmesan cheese, if desired.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot
*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.
That’s one of the (many) reasons why your recipes are so great, Karen. You give us room to adapt at home as needed 😁
Thanks Jennie!
Finally made it last week. Super easy recipe that came out well. Thanks, Karen 😀.
FWIW you were definitely right about breast meat coming out less tender than thighs likely would have. Still, it was a yummy recipe that worked out happily with what was in house – including evaporated milk taking the place of heavy cream. That and a slight shortage of lemon juice having a little fresh squeezed lime & orange juice making up the difference.
★★★★★
I love that you made it work with what you had!
Hi Karen, could this delish-looking recipe be adapted to a slow cooker? Incredibly, both my Instant Pots went kaput within the past two weeks. I bought both approximately 8 years ago at the same time. Maybe the IP lifespan (hint-might be a good topic you could write about?) Until I decide which IP to buy, I’m back to using my 6 quart slow cooker. Thanks much for any advice.
Yes I believe you could in the slow cooker. Add the ingredients into the slow cooker and slow cook for 2 hours on low. Thicken with the slurry on high setting without lid for about 10 minutes.
I returned to make this again as it was a huge dinner hit. I see I didn’t reply to your message about adapting to a slow cooker, so here I am. I used a slow cooker to cook for 1.5 hours on low and then on the Warm setting for 30 minutes. Sauce is amazing and I found no corn starch was needed with the slow cooker. Served with egg noodles and this time I’m serving with sides of mashed potatoes and frozen peas. Thanks, Karen.
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks for the 5 stars!
Thanks, Karen. 3/4 inch cubes it’ll be. Hubby hijacked my conveniently defrosted chicken and grilled it. The nerve of the man 😉! “Let’s Get Married” chicken is now top of the list for future.
Well that sounds like a good dinner too haha!
It was 😁. So yes, in spite, of the delay on “my” chosen recipe, we shall remain married 😊
I plan to make this for dinner tonight – using chicken breasts, cause that’s what’s in the house.
Karen, what approx size do you suggest cutting the chicken cubes for this recipe? A basic guideline would help. Otherwise, my cubes can get all over the map 😊.
I would say about 3 quarters inch cubes would be great.