Instant Pot Chicken Breast is a quick and easy way to get tender and juicy chicken breast ready to use in all of your favorite dishes. Lightly seasoned with herbs and garlic, it’s a flavor so versatile it can be used in so many ways.
Cooking chicken breast is so easy…dress it up, dress it down, make the best shredded chicken, or the best instant pot whole chicken. No matter how you use it, this deliciously simple chicken recipe uses the best method to get dinner on the table in a pinch!
Instant Pot Chicken Breast knows no bounds. Two of my all-time favorite ways to use it are chicken tortilla soup and the best green chicken chili recipe. Both are so flavorful, hearty, and easy!
It also makes perfect tender bites of chicken to use in this Citrus Chicken Salad Recipe, Jalapeño Popper Chicken Casserole, or Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole.
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Reasons to love tender Instant Pot Chicken Breast:
- Quick and easy with the high pressure Instant Pot
- Versatile
- No-fuss
- Easy cleanup
- Batch cooking/Meal prep friendly
- Budget-friendly
- Basically fool-proof with pressure cooking
- One pot recipe
🍗 Ingredients:
- Fresh Chicken breasts – Skinless and boneless chicken breasts
- Dried onion flakes – Can substitute with onion powder if you don’t have flakes.
- Garlic salt – Replaces regular salt in this recipe, adds a nice garlic flavor. You can also use garlic powder, be sure to then season the meat with 1 teaspoon of salt.
- Black pepper – Coarse grind.
- Dried parsley – Can also use oregano, basil, or preferred herb
For a full list of ingredients and their measurements, 📋 please view my printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Equipment Needed:
Instant pot is needed for this recipe.
Substitutions and Variations
- You can choose any of your favorite herbs to season this boneless skinless chicken breast with. Some examples are thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, parmesan cheese, an Italian seasoning, taco seasoning…the options are endless.
- You can turn this into instant pot chicken thighs if you prefer or you can also use bone-in chicken breasts.
- This can be used for shredded chicken tacos, diced chicken for a chicken alfredo pasta, and keep it whole for chicken parmesan!
- If you’d like to add a kick to the herbs and spices, try to add in some smoked paprika or red pepper flakes! 🌶️
- For added flavor, feel free to use a chicken broth or chicken stock instead.
- Once fully cooked, you can sauce them up depending on how your serving it. We like to use soy sauce if serving with rice or barbecue sauce when we serve with corn on the cobb.
🔪 Instructions:
PREP: Place rack in the Instant Pot and arrange chicken breasts on top in a single layer. Add in water to the bottom of the pot (avoid touching the chicken).
Step 1: Season the chicken by sprinkling the chicken breasts and place the lid on the pot.
Step 2: Set the valve to seal and press the manual button to cook for 6 minutes.
Step 3: Do a quick release of the pressure and remove chicken from the pot.
GARNISH/SLICE/SERVE: Serve chicken breast as is, or slice, chop or shred it to use for all your cooked chicken needs.
What is Instant Pot Chicken Breast?
The magic of the Instant Pot is that it pressure cooks the chicken and doesn’t dry it out. It’s basically a, set it and forget it, method which means it’s perfect for a busy weeknight dinner, or on those dreaded days you forget to thaw the chicken! Because yes, you can absolutely cook it from frozen.
Make the chicken breast in the Instant Pot ahead of time, and use any leftovers for all sorts of meals throughout the week. It’s meal prep made easy.
The chicken can also be frozen (if you use fresh breasts to begin with – do not refreeze cooked chicken that was previously frozen) and pulled out in a pinch anytime you need to toss some chicken into a recipe.
I used a light simple seasoning of dried herbs, dried onion flakes, garlic salt, and pepper. But you can tweak the recipe to use all kinds of different seasoning combinations that will suit whatever recipe you’re making.
As we all know, it’s not hard to overcook a chicken breast and end up with a dry breast, but luckily using the Instant Pot pressure cooker results in juicy chicken every time!
Recipe FAQs
Follow exactly the same instructions as directed, but you’ll set the cook time to 15 minutes for these frozen breasts.
You don’t! You won’t get a sear on the outside of course, but it makes no difference to how juicy and tender it is. Using other cooking methods, searing is great for locking in juices, but in the Instant Pot you don’t have to.
You want the steam pressure to cook the chicken breast rather than boiling it – you will get tender, juicy, and FLAVORFUL chicken this way. When chicken boils, it turns out rubbery and less flavorful.
Chicken breast is great for weekly meal prep for those busy weeknights and make ahead dishes. If this is your plan, cooked leftover chicken breast will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days in an airtight container. It’s also great to freeze for later on!
Easy Instant Pot Recipes
If you tried this Instant Pot Chicken Breast Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you liked it in the 📝 comments below.
Instant Pot Chicken Breast
Ingredients
- 4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- ½ teaspoon coarse black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley, oregano, basil, or preferred herb
Instructions
- Arrange chicken breasts on a rack in the instant pot. Add ¼-1/2 cup water in the bottom of the pot (water should not touch the chicken breasts.
- Sprinkle herbs and seasonings over the chicken breast. Place the lid on and seal.
- Set the instant pot to the manual setting to cook for 6 minutes. Press start.
- Release pressure from instant pot when chicken finishes cooking.
- Remove chicken from instant pot. Slice, chop, or shred to use for all your cooked chicken needs.
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Notes
- You can choose any of your favorite herbs to season this chicken breast with. Some examples are thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, parmesan cheese…the options are endless.
- You can try this also with chicken thighs if you prefer.
- This can be used for shredded chicken for tacos, diced chicken for a chicken alfredo pasta, and keep it whole for chicken parmesan!
- If you’d like to add a kick to the herbs and spices, try to add in some smoked paprika or red pepper flakes! 🌶️
- For added flavor, feel free to use a chicken broth or stock instead.
Nutrition
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