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Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken is delicious and easy, made in a sweet and savory sauce. This juicy and tender chicken recipe will become your family favorite dinner.
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Easy Instant Pot Recipe
I love easy Instant Pot recipes because they save you from hefty take out bills and help you eat a delicious and nutritious meal even on the busiest days. My Instant Pot has saved me so much time, money, and tons of effort when preparing everyday dishes.
When you are short on time, you might be thinking that take out is the better dinner choice but with this Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken, cooking at home can be much faster. You can have this flavorful dinner on the table within 30 minutes.
If you are meal prepping every weekend or batch cooking to freeze meals for later, that means dinner can be served within 15 minutes.
Healthy Honey Sesame Chicken (Gluten-Free, Paleo, Whole30)
I love that this recipe is easy and quick to make, and requires common pantry staples. Not only that but it’s also relatively healthy with a few modifications. In order to make it gluten-free, Paleo and Whole30, you can use arrowroot starch instead of cornstarch, coconut aminos instead of soy sauce, and healthier and lighter ketchup instead of the processed store-bought ketchup (here is a low carb homemade ketchup recipe).
What Side Dishes Go With Honey Sesame Chicken
You can serve this dish with basmati rice or cauliflower rice for a low-carb option. Add colorful vegetables like steamed broccoli, carrots or sauteed bell peppers.
Make-Ahead Instant Pot Chicken Recipe
If you are meal planning and prepping, you can make this recipe ahead of time and store it in the fridge for several days or freeze it in the freezer. If you have minimal time to meal prep on weekends, you can place all the ingredients in a ziplock bag and refrigerate it until it’s time to cook dinner. Just dump all of the ingredients of the ziplock bag in the Instant Pot (or Slow Cooker) and dinner can be ready in about 15 minutes. You can also meal prep 2 cups of cooked rice to go along with it.
Can you Freeze Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken
This Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken is a great recipe to add to your freezer stack for days when you don’t have time to cook. You can either fully cook the chicken & the sauce, and then freeze it. Or you can add the ingredients to a freezer-safe ziplock bag, and freeze it uncooked. When you are planning to reheat it or cook it the meal, make sure to place the frozen food in the fridge the night before or in the morning to allow enough time to thaw.
Other Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
Instant Pot Chicken Cacciatore
Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup
Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken
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Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup honey
- 2 teaspoon sesame oil
- ¼ cup soy sauce, (or Fish sauce for Paleo, Whole30)
- 1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 Tablespoon homemade ketchup
- ½ Tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 Tablespoon arrowroot starch, (or cornstarch)
- sesame seeds
- fresh green onions, chopped
Instructions
- Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides. Preheat pressure cooking pot using the ‘Saute’ setting. Add olive oil, chopped onion and seasoned chicken to the preheated pot. Saute, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened. Add minced garlic and saute for about 30 seconds.
- In a small bowl, mix the honey, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, ketchup, and ground ginger. Mix well, and add to the pot.
- Lock the lid, seal the valve, and press the ‘Manual’ (or ‘Pressure Cooking’) button, and adjust the time to 4 minutes. When timer beeps, turn pressure cooker off and do a quick pressure release.
- Remove chicken from the pot, and shred it. Transfer 1/4 cup honey sesame sauce from the pot to a small bowl. Add 2 Tbsp arrowroot starch (or cornstarch) to the bowl and stir until the sauce is smooth. Return the sauce back to the pot, and saute using the ‘Saute’ function for a couple of minutes until the sauce thickens. Turn off the pot. Add shredded chicken back to the pot and mix well.
- Serve honey sesame chicken over rice. Sprinkle some sesame seeds and chopped fresh green onion on top.
My husband said this is better than takeout & I agree. I doubled the sauce.
Yes, homemade is always better! 🙂 So glad you and your husband loved it!
How would I convert this recipe for the crock pot?
Hi Rose, you can add all ingredients except the arrowroot starch & the green onions to the slow cooker. Set on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. When it’s done, transfer the chicken breasts to a plate and shred it. Prepare a slurry with the arrowroot starch and add it back to the crockpot and cook it until the sauce thickens. Add the shredded chicken to the pot and stir everything to coat. Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
Do you use frozen or thawed chicken for this recipe?
I am using thawed chicken breasts. If you are using frozen medium-sized chicken breasts, increase the cook time to 15 minutes. After the cooking cycle is over, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. After that time is up, carefully turn the valve to release and let the remaining pressure come out. When the float valve pin has dropped, carefully open the lid. Happy cooking! 🙂
Hi there! I had fun cruising around your website/blog. Your recipe for Instant Pot Sesame Chicken caught my eye. I always have frozen chicken breasts on handl I did use white Maui “stocky rice”, but otherwise I kept to the recipe. We had company over for dinner and they loved this … as did I! Very ryuumy$ Thanks for sharing.
Aloha … Nancy On Maui