Sweet Baby Ray’s Chicken

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

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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.

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More Instant Pot Chicken Thigh Recipes

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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.