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One of the best Instant Pot recipes with chicken thighs in a sweet and savory honey sesame sauce. This juicy and moist chicken will be an instant hit!
Instant Pot Recipes With Chicken
Instant Pot is best for making chicken. The pressure cook time is usually very short, depending on the part of chicken used.
If you have a killer sauce recipe, dinner is guaranteed to be a success. Just like these tender, juicy, moist and soft Instant Pot chicken thighs swimming in the mouthwatering honey sesame sauce.
Want to try more Instant Pot recipes? Try my Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken recipe!
Honey Sesame Sauce
One of my most popular Instant Pot recipes is Honey Garlic Chicken. This Honey Sesame Chicken recipe calls for similar and simple ingredients:
- Honey
- Toasted sesame oil
- Soy sauce
- Apple cider vinegar
- Chili garlic sauce
- Chicken broth
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
The flavor is savory, sweet, with a tint of tartness and heat. This Instant Pot chicken is now my #1 favorite dinner recipe.
Instant Pot Chicken Thighs
For the chicken, I used skinless and boneless chicken thighs and they are perfectly cooked in 8 minutes in the Instant Pot. You can also use bone-in chicken thighs.
The active prep time is only 5 minutes, so dinner is ready for the entire family in practically less than 20 minutes!
Serve the chicken over steamed rice, just like the picture above and you have the most amazing Asian chicken dinner ever!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you sure can. Just pressure cook chicken breasts for 10 minutes. The instructions and methods are exactly the same. If you use frozen chicken breasts, please increase the pressure cooking time to 12 minutes.
This Instant Pot chicken recipe is only 392 calories per serving.
What To Serve With Honey Sesame Chicken
This dish is best served with rice or simple pasta. For a healthy meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please leave a comment and consider giving it a 5-star rating. For more easy and delicious recipes, explore my Recipe Index, and stay updated by subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
Other Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
- Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken
- Ginger Soy Chicken (Instant Pot)
- Instant Pot Creamy Garlic Chicken Thighs
- Instant Pot Butter Chicken
Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs. boneless and skinless chicken thighs
- salt
- ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 tablespoon oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon toasted white sesame
- 1 tablespoon scallion, chopped
Honey Sesame Sauce
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 1/2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha , or chili garlic sauce Rooster brand, or most to taste
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Wash and rinse the chicken thighs with cold water, then pat them dry with paper towels. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and set aside. In a separate bowl, mix all the ingredients for the Sauce together, stirring until well combined. Ensure that the honey and cornstarch are completely dissolved. Set aside.
- Turn on the Sauté mode on your Instant Pot. Once the pot is fully heated (to prevent the chicken from sticking), add the cooking oil. Pan-sear the chicken thighs until they turn slightly brown. If they stick too much, you can use a non-stick skillet for pan-searing or skip this step.
- Add the garlic and sauté for a minute. Pour in the sauce and top with white sesame seeds. Cover the pot, select Manual, and set it to High Pressure for 8 minutes.
- When it beeps, turn to Quick Release. Once the valve drops, carefully remove the cover, add the chopped scallions, and serve immediately. Set the Instant Pot to Sauté mode to reduce the sauce for about 2 minutes, or until it slightly thickens.
- If the sauce is lighter in color than shown in the pictures, you might consider adding some dark soy sauce to achieve a deeper color. Different soy sauces have varying colors; some are lighter, while others are darker. If you use a lighter soy sauce, the sauce will appear lighter, but the taste should remain about the same.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I just made this recipe tonight. I skipped pan searing the chicken thighs and had to use flour instead of corn starch. The sauce turned out perfect! I did saute the sauce after the chicken was cooked to thicken it up and that worked perfect. Yummy recipe. Thank you!
Hi Annie, thanks for trying this Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken recipe. I am glad you liked it.
This came out delicious! For future cooks, note that this took a solid hour from start to dinner – don’t expect to have anything in 13 minutes. My chicken turned out dark enough. I did saute, and I used the dark soy sauce. I also upped the garlic to about 5 cloves, and still added a bit of garlic powder. I did end up with a large pool of liquid at the end, like most others. I feel like this recipe could use more chicken? But I added a dash of corn starch and reduced for 10 minutes or so, and it was great. I cut up my chicken into bite size pieces, which felt appropriate for an Asian recipe. I’ll make this again!
Hi Laura, great to hear that you have success with this recipe. Yes, you can use more chicken. The liquid part is due to the fact that we need at least 1/2 cup of liquid for pressure cooking to work. So you have to use the Saute function to reduce the sauce but corn starch is a good idea.
So I made this tonight and though I used the same soy sauce, mine didn’t look like the pic at all. And I had to top up the liquid because my IP needs 1C of liquid and those ingredients didn’t even come to 3/4 C. In fact, I had to adapt quite a few aspects of this recipe. So my version was delicious, and thanks for the foundation.
Hi Janet, thanks for trying this recipe. I used a 6 quart and you only need 1/2 cup of liquid. 1 cup will be too watery for this recipe, but you can always reduce the sauce by using the saute mode. When the sauce is thickened and reduced, it will be darker. :)
Any idea how many Weight Watchers points this might be per serving? :)
Hi Lauren, sorry I am not sure.
I made this once, and the family LOVED it. Mine also did not look like the pictures, but who cares? The taste was great! I think I will need to double the recipe to keep everyone happy next time. If I want to double this, will the cooking times need to change? If so, what times do you recommend?
I think you will double everything with double the liquid cook time should be the same!
Hello, I’d love to try and make this but I’m not fining the recipe anywhere.. can you please help?
The recipe is at the bottom of the screen, please scroll down.
Hi Rasa, I was wondering with this recipe, can I use the small chicken drumsticks and would they cook with the same recipe as above.
Yes it would work.
Will this recipe work well with skinless bone in chicken thighs? That’s what I have in freezer, and I’d love to try this recipe.
Yes, it will. Just cook it slightly shorter. Maybe 2 minutes shorter. :)
I made this tonight and had the same issue with the sauce, however I cooked it on saute for a few minutes after and it did not thicken. Love the flavor though. My sesame seeds dissolved while it cooked though. Will definitely make this again.
Yes, in the recipe I already stated clearly to turn on Saute mode to reduce the sauce, it will definitely reduce the sauce if you saute for 2 mins or longer. There is no way it wouldn’t thicken. Anyway, try it next time.
Thank you for this recipe—it’s just as easy as you say, and it turned out great! Only thing I did a little different was the sauce seemed a little thin at the end of cooking so I turned the IP to “saute” for a couple of minutes while I was scooping rice into bowls. Was perfect after that.
Yes use saute mode to thicken up the sauce! :)