Pool Party Chicken

Pool Party Chicken–Instant Pot or Crockpot dump-and-go chicken cubes with a soy sauce-pineapple juice sauce. A fun summer recipe!

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Pool Party Chicken

If you’re looking to serve up a summer-y chicken dish at your pool party but don’t want the fuss of cleaning up the barbecue grill afterwards try this pool party chicken that you can make in the Instant Pot or Crockpot. It’s sweet and savory and quite tasty.

My son told me, “Mom, this chicken is perfectly cooked!” The reason? The low pressure cooking time and the use of boneless chicken thighs. The chicken stays nice and tender in the Instant Pot or the Crockpot. I like to buy the big bag of frozen chicken thighs at Costco for sake of convenience.

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Low sodium soy sauce–or tamari
• Sesame oil
• Pineapple juice–or apple juice
• Onion powder
• Brown sugar
• Garlic cloves–or 1 tsp of garlic powder
• Ground ginger–or 1 Tbsp fresh grated gingerroot
• Cayenne pepper
• Chicken thighs–you can also use chicken tenderloins (same cooking time)
• Cornstarch
• Sesame seeds

Steps

Add soy sauce, oil, pineapple juice, onion powder, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and cayenne into Instant Pot. Stir in the cubes of chicken. 

Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 5 minutes on LOW pressure. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.

In a small bowl stir together the cornstarch with 3 Tbsp of water until smooth. Turn Instant Pot to saute setting and then stir in the cornstarch slurry until sauce has thickened. 

Sprinkle the sesame seeds on the chicken and serve over rice.

Notes/Tips

• Serve chicken and sauce over rice and a side of steamed or roasted broccoli. You can also stir in some pineapple chunks with the chicken and sauce after the cooking time is up. 
• I like using chicken thighs for this recipe because they stay moist and tender in the Instant Pot/Crockpot. You can also use chicken tenderloins (use the same cooking time). If you use chicken breasts use a 4 minute pressure cook time on low. They won’t be as tender but they will still work!
• I like to cut the chicken into cubes when it is slightly frozen. It is so much easier to cut.
• This recipe can be gluten-free if you use gluten free soy sauce or tamari.
• This recipe is dairy free.
• I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
• If you don’t have the option of cooking on low pressure just cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.
• Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
• How to cook rice at the same time: after you’ve added all the chicken ingredients into the pot add a tall trivet* into the pot. Then place a pan* with water and rice inside on top of the trivet (no need to cover the pan). The rice will steam perfectly. Use white rice, jasmine rice, converted rice or basmati rice. I usually use a 1 cup rice to 1.5 cup water ratio.
• Another recipes you can make with pineapple juice is Instant Pot Sweet Hawaiian Chicken.

More Chicken Recipes to Try…

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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*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.