• Home
  • Email List
  • Cookbooks
  • FAQs
  • Instant Pot Secrets
  • Sponsor Me

365 Days of Slow Cooking and Pressure Cooking

Easy slow cooker and Instant Pot recipes for each day of the year

  • Filter Recipes
  • Instant Pot
  • Slow Cooker
  • Chicken
  • Beef
  • Pork
  • Meatless
  • healthy
  • Soups

November 16, 2022

Sweet Baby Ray’s Chicken

  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

Instant Pot or Crockpot Sweet Baby Ray’s Chicken is tender chicken bathed in a sweet and slightly spicy sauce with lots of flavor!

Pin this recipe for later!

Sweet Baby Ray's Chicken

Instant Pot Sweet Baby Ray’s Chicken

With only 7 ingredients this is a simple recipe! You’re going to love the tender chicken and the flavor of the sauce. The key to the sauce is letting it reduce down for a few minutes after the pressure cooking time is up. It gets concentrated for a thicker consistency and full-bodied flavor. You can keep the chicken intact in larger pieces or you can break up the chicken with a spoon (it gets that tender). I prefer the latter as I am able to coat each smaller piece in more of the delicious sauce!

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

  • Chicken broth–use 1/2 cup of broth for frozen chicken and 3/4 cup for fresh chicken
  • White vinegar–or apple cider vinegar
  • Boneless, skinless chicken thighs–trimmed of fat, frozen is fine
  • Red pepper flakes
  • Garlic salt
  • Fresh cracked pepper–I love fresh cracked pepper* and use it all the time
  • Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce–I like original best

Instant Pot Steps

  1. Add ingredients strategically: Pour broth and vinegar into Instant Pot. Add chicken into bottom of pot. Sprinkle the chicken with red pepper flakes and garlic salt. Add in some fresh cracked pepper to taste. Pour the BBQ sauce over the top of the chicken (try to keep it off the bottom of the pot). Don’t stir. This will help prevent the burn error message.
  2. Pressure cook: Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 12 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move valve to venting and remove the lid. Cook 12 minutes for frozen or fresh chicken thighs.
  3. Reduce the sauce: Move the pieces of chicken to a plate. Turn Instant Pot to saute setting (MORE) and let the sauce reduce for 10 minutes. It will get thicker and more flavorful if you reduce it for the full 10 minutes. Reducing the sauce is much more than just thickening it. It is all about the flavor! As the sauce simmers down it gets more and more flavorful.
  4. Stir the chicken back in: When the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon turn off the Instant Pot. Stir the chicken into the pot with the sauce. You can break up the chicken into pieces or keep it in whole pieces. 
  5. Serve and enjoy!

Notes/Tips

  • Serve with baked potatoes (or another type of potato you like…we made homemade fries in our air fryer) and some raw veggies and dip.
  • 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.
  • Other recipes you can make with Sweet Baby Ray’s are Instant Pot Dr. Pepper Chicken and Instant Pot Hillbilly Casserole.
  • I love using boneless, skinless thighs for this recipe because the meat stays so moist and tender. If you don’t like dark meat you may consider trying bone-in chicken breasts (remove the skin) instead. You’ll get ultra tender white meat. If you want to you can also use boneless breasts although they won’t turn out as moist and tender. In all of these cases use the 12 minute pressure cook time with a 10 minute natural pressure release.

Pin this recipe for later!

Sweet Baby Ray's Chicken

More Instant Pot Chicken Thigh Recipes

Instant Pot To Die For Chicken

Tender chicken with a garlic brown sugar sauce takes little effort but yields amazing results!

Read more

Instant Pot Hunters Chicken

Tender chicken thighs in a homemade tomato-based barbecue sauce topped with cheese and bacon.

Read more

Instant Pot Aussie Chicken

Tender bites of chicken and mushrooms surrounded in a creamy Dijon mustard and honey sauce. An easy dump and go recipe!

Read more

Instant Pot Firecracker Chicken

Sweet and spicy tender pieces of saucy chicken made quickly in your electric pressure cooker.

Read more
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!

Sweet Baby Ray's Chicken
Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon

Sweet Baby Ray’s Chicken


★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

  • Author: 365 Days of Slow and Pressure Cooking
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 12 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR)
  • Total Time: 32 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe

Description

Tender chicken bathed in a sweet and slightly spicy sauce with lots of flavor!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 3/4 cup chicken broth (use 1/2 cup of broth for frozen chicken and 3/4 cup for fresh chicken)
  • 2 Tbsp white vinegar
  • 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat (frozen is fine)
  • 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tsp garlic salt
  • Fresh cracked pepper
  • 1 cup Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce

Instructions

Instant Pot Instructions:

  1. Pour broth and vinegar into Instant Pot. Add chicken into bottom of pot. Sprinkle the chicken with red pepper flakes and garlic salt. Add in some fresh cracked pepper to taste. Pour the BBQ sauce over the top of the chicken (try to keep it off the bottom of the pot). Don’t stir.
  2. Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 12 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move valve to venting and remove the lid.
  3. Move the pieces of chicken to a plate. Turn Instant Pot to saute setting (MORE) and let the sauce reduce for 10 minutes. It will get thicker and more flavorful if you reduce it for the full 10 minutes. 
  4. When the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon turn off the Instant Pot. Stir the chicken into the pot with the sauce. You can break up the chicken into pieces or keep it in whole pieces. 
  5. Serve and enjoy!

Slow Cooker Instructions: 

  1. Don’t use the broth for the slow cooker version. Add all other ingredients into the slow cooker. Stir well. 
  2. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours.  
  3. Stir. You can break up the chicken into pieces or keep it in whole pieces. Serve and enjoy!
  • Category: Chicken
  • Method: Instant Pot

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @365dayscrockpot on Instagram

Pin this recipe for later!

Sweet Baby Ray's Chicken

*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.

  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

8 Comments Filed Under: 5 ingredients or less, All Recipes, Chicken, Dump and Go, Gluten Free, Instant Pot, Summer, Slow Cooker

Recommendations

Comments

  1. LEON MILLER says

    January 25, 2023 at 6:34 pm

    Excellent recipe karen, thank you very much.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Karen says

      January 30, 2023 at 6:11 pm

      You’re welcome Leon! Thanks for the 5 stars 🙂

      Reply
  2. Sharon says

    November 22, 2022 at 6:47 pm

    I love recipes that are both easy and good. This one does both. Thank you for another great recipe, Karen.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Karen says

      November 28, 2022 at 7:28 pm

      Thanks Sharon!

      Reply
  3. george says

    November 17, 2022 at 2:19 pm

    Can I add mushrooms to this?

    thanks
    George

    Reply
    • Karen says

      November 18, 2022 at 10:46 am

      Sure! Mushrooms make everything better 🙂

      Reply
  4. Dianna says

    November 16, 2022 at 10:05 pm

    How long would I do this with frozen chicken tenders?

    Reply
    • Karen says

      November 17, 2022 at 11:11 am

      5 minutes with a 10 minute natural pressure release

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Welcome!

Karen photo

Hi, I’m Karen. I know that dinner time can be less than relaxing. Busy schedules and cranky kids and a hundred other things can lead to weariness when it comes to putting dinner on the table. I can help! I make homemade, family-friendly slow cooker and Instant Pot dinners and share the recipes with you.

Stay In Touch

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Categories

Archives

Amazon Associates Disclosure

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.

365 Days of Slow Cooking © 2023 · Privacy Policy

MENU
  • Home
  • Filter
  • Instant Pot
  • Slow Cooker
  • Chicken
  • Beef
  • Pork
  • Meatless
  • Healthy
  • Soups
  • Email List
  • Cookbooks
  • FAQs
  • Instant Pot Secrets