Instant Pot Chicken and Potatoes

Instant Pot chicken and potatoes can be cooked together at the same time and both come out perfectly tender! Makes an easy Ninja Foodi pressure cooker one pot meal too. If you don’t have time for our Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs and Potatoes this is the answer for a healthy dinner.

Chicken and Potatoes Pressure Cooker Recipe

Love cooking your side dish with the main meal all together in a one pot meal? Me too! Yes we cooked thighs, breasts and potatoes in our pressure cooker for years but not together. I mean like nobody talked about that until some time had passed and goto used to how it all worked. Now it is a thing, like you have to try it.

You don’t have to have an IP brand either. You can use your Crockpot Express or a Ninja Foodi too if that is what you have. As long as it is an electric pressure cooker and has the high pressure function you are good to go with this one.

Ninja Foodi Chicken Potatoes and Carrots

Yes you can use medium size breasts or chicken thighs but the latter are my favorite by far. Cheaper, more tender and packed with tons of flavor goes the dark meat I say. Honestly, whatever is on sale goes into my cart. OR if I have a package in the fridge that needs to be used then that’s the winner winner chicken dinner.

If you want more veggies then just use firmer varieties so they cook at the same rate. Peeled and large chunks of carrots are winners, green beans would work fine as well. Stay away from more delicate ones like broccoli and it will become mushy.

Instant Pot Frozen Chicken and Potatoes

If all you have is frozen thighs in Instant Pot that is okay. You will just want to use the timing in this post linked here and make sure that your pieces are broken apart. If they are in a large clump and hard just run them under cool water and pull them apart. This step is a must for getting it cooked to a safe internal temperature.

Ingredients

1. Boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts
2. Chicken broth or stock works
3. Olive oil or avocado oil
4. Red potatoes are my choice, russet potatoes could be used if you’d rather
5. Minced garlic we love with everything
6. Onions sliced or diced
7. Salt and pepper are basic seasonings
8. Onion powder and garlic powder is good
9. Thyme and paprika

Variations

You can season these as you like. If you want an Indian flare you can add curry seasoning blends, something simple can just be salt, pepper and garlic salt. Use a mixture of a few of your favorites or a blend already bottled from the store.

Of course you can bake or pan fry it. Using your smoker or barbecue are great too, but they do tend to make it drier than the pressure cooker. To make things easier, I choose boneless and skinless but those are a bit more expensive. If you’re looking for the most inexpensive chicken, get bone-in with the skin on.

If you use bone in thighs it may take an additional 1-2 minutes cook time. Here’s where we begin with this Instant Pot chicken recipe.

What are the different ways to cook chicken?

Here’s what we used, the seasoned chicken can be adjusted according to your liking of course. Just use what you have on hand to make things easier. Cheap Instant Pot recipes my family loves is what our site is all about. I’m sure you’re the same way if you’re reading this right now. 😉

How to Cook Instant Pot Chicken Thighs and Potatoes

1. First set your machine to saute and add some olive oil. When hot, add chicken that has been seasoned on both sides well.
2. Once browned on both sides, remove and set aside.
3. Add diced onions and garlic, cook until onions are softened. Then use a bit of your broth to deglaze your pot, press cancel now.
4. Add potatoes and chicken on top of cooked onion mixture. You can include baby carrots in there too.
5. Pour remainder of broth on top.
6. Close lid and steam valve.
7. Set to high pressure for 8 minutes.
8. Then allow pot to naturally release the steam for 5 minutes.
9. Release rest of steam, remove and serve!

I used to use my slow cooker all the time until a few years ago when I got this “magical multi cooker pot”. Now when I totally forget to prep what I need in the morning, I can throw it all in and out comes a home cooked meal in no time.

Tips

• High pressure is used for 90% of all pressure cooker recipes, and for this one as well.
• When meat is involved, natural release is usually best. Why??? Because it maintains the tender juiciness of the meat.

Another tip is to wait at least 5 minutes after you remove the chicken before you slice it. This will make sure that the juices stay inside and immediately don’t leak out. If you cut right away you will lose this and it will dry out quite quickly.

How do you keep chicken breast moist when cooking?

Rubbing the chicken with a little olive oil before seasoning is helpful. This goes with just about any piece really. It will not only maintain more of the moisture, but also keeps salts and herbs stuck on to the outside.

This is the end result. If you follow this timing they will both be nice, tender and full of flavor. Make sure your meat pieces aren’t too thick because you want everything to cook evenly. You could brush or pour some sauce on top if you wanted before serving this too.

How long are leftover potatoes good for?

Properly stored in airtight containers, cooked potatoes will last for 3 to 5 days in your refrigerator. Of course the sooner the better as far as the texture of them goes.

Is it safe to reheat potatoes in the microwave?

As long as they’re refrigerated as soon as they’ve cooled, and not left on the countertop longer than 1 hour you can. To moisten, add a bit of butter or olive oil on top.

What to make with leftovers

• You can of course use any of our leftover chicken recipes here for what wasn’t eaten the first day.
• Make mashed potatoes the next day with the diced spuds from this dinner.
• OR bag up what you didn’t eat and make our simple chicken pot pie recipe on day

Now before we jump to recipe and get started, make sure to bookmark our site because we add new Instant Pot recipes each week!