I only just recently jumped on the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker train.  So, I’m still getting my feet wet with using it to its full potential.  However, this delicious, healthy, honey garlic chicken turned out perfectly on the first attempt!  I love love love just about anything that combines sweet, spicy, umami flavors, and this recipe is no exception!  Combine it with the fast cooking power of the Instant Pot and it’s a match made in kitchen heaven!

This chicken is so flavorful – with the delicious combination of garlic, ginger, honey, tamari, sesame, and a little spice.  It also includes a secret ingredient…fresh blackberries! It might sound crazy, but trust me, it adds just that little something extra .  I got the idea from a similar recipe over at Just a Taste.  She uses blackberry jam, which you could certainly substitute in this recipe as well, but it will add more sweetness than the fresh blackberries so you may want to cut down on the honey just a touch.  Funny enough, when my husband was eating this, he actually asked if it had jelly in it.  I was actually highly impressed his palate picked up on the addition of the berries!

Anyways, back to the recipe.  Using the Instant Pot allows for this to come together quite quickly.  First you utilize the pressure cooker mode to cook the chicken in the super tasty sauce, then switch it to saute mode to let it thicken up and for all the flavors to meld together and infuse fully into the chicken.  Once it’s cooked and ready to serve, just top it with some sliced green onions and sesame seeds if you like!  Serve it alongside your favorite stir fry veggies, rice, or like we did with a mix of quinoa and riced cauliflower!

It’s a great meal any time of the year, and perfect for meal prep.  It’s super flavorful, nutritious, delicious, healthy, and sure to please just about anyone you serve it to!

Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken

Servings:  8      Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts, about 2 1/2 pounds
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 3 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 C low sodium tamari, or soy sauce
• 1/2 C honey
• 12 – 15 blackberries, about 1 C, lightly mashed with a fork
• 1 tbsp. ginger powder
• 1-2 tbsp. sriracha hot sauce
• 1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
• 1 tbsp. corn starch
• 4 green onions, sliced
• sesame seeds, to top, as desired

Instructions:

1. Place chicken breast, onion, garlic, tamari, honey, mashed blackberries, ginger powder, and sriracha in Instant Pot.
2. Lock lid on pot and ensure knob is turned to sealing.  Select Manual mode and set time to 15 minutes.
3. Once it has finished, move knob to venting and allow pressure to let out.  Remove lid.
4. Remove chicken pot and select Saute mode and select Adjust until Medium heat. Heat sauce to allow to thicken, stirring frequently.
5. While sauce continues cooking, shred chicken.
6. Make a slurry with corn starch and 3 tbsp. cold water.  Add to sauce and stir to combine.  Allow to continue thickening for a few minutes, stirring frequently to ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom, another 5-10 minutes.
7. Add shredded chicken back to sauce, add sesame oil, and stir to combine.  Select Cancel to turn Instant Pot off.
8. If cooking sides, turn Instant Pot to Saute mode on Low heat while preparing sides.
9. Top with sliced green onions and sesame seeds.

For quinoa and riced cauliflower:

1. Cook quinoa in chicken broth, according to instructions.  Generally, it is a 1:2 ratio, or 1 cup quinoa cooked in 2 cups broth.  Add a few good shakes tamari while quinoa cooks.
2. Just before it is completely cooked, add partially thawed, frozen riced cauliflower (microwave 12 – 16 oz frozen riced cauliflower for about 30 seconds to 1 minute and then add to pan).
3. Stir to combine and continue cooking until all liquid is absorbed.

For stir fried snow peas:

1. Heat about 1 tbsp. ghee or cooking oil over medium heat in a large saute pan.
2. Add 2 pounds cleaned snow peas, stirring/tossing frequently.
3. Season with garlic and onion powder, pepper, and a couple shakes tamari sauce towards the end of cooking.

Recipe notes:

1. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you could prepare this using a traditional pressure cooker.  Just lock the lid on you pressure cooker, bring it pressure on your stove top (the topper will begin to wobble and spit a little), and let cook for 12-15 minutes.  Allow pressure to release naturally, or run under cool water until lid can be easily removed.  Then remove chicken, place pot, uncovered, back on stove top and simmer while shredding chicken.  Add corn starch slurry, shredded chicken, and sesame oil as per above.
2. Alternatively, you could cook the chicken in the sauce in a slow cooker over low for 4-5 hours, remove chicken and shred, place sauce in a sauce pan on stove top, bring to a simmer, add corn starch slurry, chicken, and sesame oil as per above.
3. If you need to avoid soy or are following a Paleo diet, you can substitute coconut aminos for tamari.  However, coconut aminos tends to be a bit sweeter so you may want to reduce the amount of honey and add a bit of salt.
4. For Paleo, you will need to substitute for the cornstarch.  I’ve read that arrowroot flour or tapioca flour can be used instead but I haven’t personally tried these substitutions.
5. You can also substitute crushed red pepper flakes in place of the sriracha.  I’d recommend starting with 1/4 tsp. and adding more as desired.
6. Tamari is a gluten free version of soy sauce so is great for those who can’t tolerate gluten.
7. I’ve mentioned before that a garlic press makes mincing fresh garlic so much easier and this recipe is no different! I highly recommend purchasing one if you haven’t already!  I use mine regularly! (note:  the one I linked is not the one I own, however it is highly rated)