One Pot Recipes

Instant Pot Peanut Butter Chicken

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Quick and easy instant pot peanut butter chicken recipe, homemade with simple ingredients in 30 minutes. Loaded with creamy, nutty, sweet, and spicy sauce.

This has lately been my favorite meal. It’s so flavorful and great for peanut lovers.

How to make peanut butter chicken (peanut sauce chicken)?

  1. Heat oil in Instant pot.
  2. Add chicken, broth, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, Sriracha sauce, honey, garlic powder, ginger powder, red chili flakes, salt, and pepper.
  3. Cover and cook.
  4. Release pressure.
  5. Stir.
  6. Garnish with chopped green onions, and peanuts.
  7. Enjoy!
Peanut Butter Chicken (Instant Pot)

What sides to serve with Thai/ Chinese peanut butter chicken recipe?

Rice– With any chicken dish, rice always serves as a complimentary side dish that is simple yet filling, and allows you to fully taste the flavors of the peanut butter chicken without having any other flavor overpower each other. You can serve boiled jasmine/basmati rice, or even Pineapple Rice and Cilantro Lime Rice. However, I would not recommend stir fried rice with this recipe because the flavors will not complement each other.

Quinoa– If you want to make this dish healthier, you can also substitute the rice with quinoa

Roasted vegetables– Roasted vegetables are always a classic for side dishes with chicken. Here are some of my favorite ones enjoyed by my family and I, but you can obviously use vegetable choices that you and your family love: Oven Roasted Carrots, and Oven Roasted Asparagus.

Salads– The best choice for a salad side dish would be a traditional green salad.

Noodles– You can pair this with your favorite noodles, or even zoodles! (zucchini noodles)

Spaghetti Squash– If you’re looking for another low carb choice for a side dish, you can always make spaghetti squash in the instant pot for a quick side.

Spicy Peanut Butter Chicken

crockpot/ slow cooker, curry, sticky, make it on stovetop as chicken stir fry.

Variations

Use different nut butters and nuts– Feel free to always add your own blend to this dish! You can use any choice of your favorite nut butters, or even nuts! For instance, if you want to make this dish a bit more sweet, you can always substitute the peanuts with honey-roasted peanuts. If you want to use a healthier choice of peanut butter, you can always use a low fat peanut butter. Give almond butter a shot!

Make it spicy– Despite the sweet, peanut butter flavor of this dish, you can always more spice to it by adding in more amounts of sriracha hot sauce, adding chili peppers, or even sprinkling some red chili powder on top!

Frozen vegetables– mix in 1 cup frozen vegetables to make this meal even more hearty.

Use other sources of protein– You can always substitute the chicken for other sources of protein. You can always serve this recipe with beef, shrimp, or any other protein food that you prefer!

Add sesame seeds– You can always add an extra dose of crunch by sprinkling some sesame seeds on top of the chicken.

What cut of chicken to use?– You can always use different parts of a chicken to make this dish more enjoyable for you and your family. Whether they be drumsticks, thighs, breast, or even the wings, they all will work well. The wings will also serve as an excellent appetizer. You can either coat the chicken slices in peanut butter chicken sauce, or marinade. (Note that you can serve the chicken both baked and/or fried!)

Use tofu– If you would like to create a vegetarian meal, you can always substitute the chicken with tofu, however, do not pair the two ingredients together.

Instant Pot Peanut Butter Chicken Recipe

Tips and Techniques

Use low sodium broth and unsalted butter– Both of these ingredients combined make the recipe less salty.

What cut of chicken to use?– If you use chicken breasts, you can cut them into 1 inch cubes. Otherwise, you can use the thighs, drumsticks, and whole.

Adjust the sweetness– adjusting the sweetness can be done to your taste. You can either add more peanut butter, or more honey to further intensify the sweetness.

Finely chopped garnishes– there are a number of different garnishes you can add to this dish. You can either sprinkle some of your favorite nuts on top, seeds, or even garnish with some cilantro, green onions, or parsley.

Use both sesame oil and olive oil– Using these together will give the best overall flavor of the dish.

Serving sizes– Whether it’s a dinner for two, a family dinner, or a banquet, this recipe is extremely accommodating to different sizes that you wish to serve. Double the recipe to serve a crowd.

Easy Peanut Butter Chicken Recipe

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Instant Pot Peanut Butter Chicken Recipe (Peanut Chicken)
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Instant Pot Peanut Butter Chicken

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Quick and easy instant pot peanut butter chicken recipe, homemade with simple ingredients in 30 minutes. Loaded with creamy, nutty, sweet, and spicy sauce.
Yield: 4 People

Ingredients

Instructions 

  • Turn Instant pot to “Saute”mode and heat oil.
  • Add chicken, broth, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, Sriracha sauce, honey, garlic powder, ginger powder, red chili flakes, salt, pepper and mix everything together.
  • Put the lid on and turn up the the valve to “Sealing.” Select “Manual” mode and set the timer for 9 minutes. 
  • When the cook time is over, turn the valve to “Venting” and do a quick pressure release. 
  • Remove lid and stir everything together. 
  • Cook, uncovered, on “Saute” mode for a little longer, to reduce liquid and make the sauce thicker.
  • Garnish with green onions and chopped peanuts. Enjoy!

Notes

  • Read all my tips above.
  • Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Nutrition

Calories: 455kcal, Carbohydrates: 15g, Protein: 55g, Fat: 19g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 145mg, Sodium: 1485mg, Potassium: 1070mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 10g, Vitamin A: 170IU, Vitamin C: 9.8mg, Calcium: 27mg, Iron: 2mg
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese
Calories: 455
Author: Abeer

Happy cooking everyone!

16 comments on “Instant Pot Peanut Butter Chicken”

  1. Cooking this recipe for tonight

  2. Is this pressure cooked for 9 min or just sauté mode with the lid on?

    Im using the Ninja Foodi i may just fine a stovetop recipe but I’ll regret it in this heat

    • I used an Instant pot and it was pressure cooked for 9 minutes. It was not on the Sauté mode. I am not sure if any adjustments are needed for your brand of pressure cooker. Let me know how it goes.

  3. Delicious! Even my picky kids love it. Chicken taste and all is cooked to perfection. 

  4. This was great – Kids even liked it. Prepared it in an 8-quart IP according to the recipe verbatim, except I didn’t have ground ginger (I did add some red pepper flake). Also, I’m not exactly sure how much chicken I used as was it was three chicken breasts I had leftover from one of those BIG packs that Sam’s Club sells – so probably close to 3#, but there was still plenty of sauce. At the end, I also added about 2 Tbsp cornstarch slurry (water/cornstarch) to thicken the sauce some as putting it on ‘saute’ after cooking didn’t do much except burn some of the sauce to the side of the pot – lol. Served it over rice and topped it with chopped celery leaves and crushed (roasted-unsalted) peanuts. Served with aside of Normandy vegetables. Great recipe – will make again!

  5. You say use butter and oil but o see no butter listed other than peanut butter

  6. Do you brown the chicken in the oil on the saute mode first and then add the rest of the ingredients? And then cook on high pressure for the 9 minutes?

  7. I was wondering if you could do a pot in pot and make some rice at the same time? Or would the time have to be changed too much? Um using either Jasmine or Basmati rice.

  8. The recipe says to put on Sauté mode, but your comments say that’s not what you did. Can you clarify if you use the pressure cook setting or the sauté  setting to cook the chicken? 
    Looks delicious and I’m looking forward to trying this!

  9. I love the flavor of this recipe! The only problem is that my chicken comes out rubbery. I follow the cooking times outlined in the recipe, and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Even with the rubbery chicken, I continue to make it. 

    • Hi Jay! Yikes. Rubbery chicken is usually a result of over-cooking. I suggest reducing your cook time. Use a meat thermometer at the end to make sure that the internal temperature of meat is 165˚F. Let me know how it goes.

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