How long to cook Instant Pot chicken legs with sauce is here! If you love easy pressure cooker dinners made in just 10 minutes, you’ll get fall off the bone tender meat with fresh or Instant Pot frozen chicken legs too.
I actually have three easy Instant Pot chicken legs recipes here for you today! This one you see here can be made as spicy as you like, or mild with enchilada sauce! Definitely one of our favorite easy easy Instant Pot recipes.
If you’ve never made any type of pressure cooker chicken drumsticks they are so easy and a healthy meal too! We have directions for frozen chicken legs above too, but if they’re defrosted use this one. Fresh or thawed meat is always best as far as getting fork tender poultry.
If you like a little crisp on the outside you just pop them under your broiler, air fryer or Ninja Foodi chicken legs recipe. You can brush sauce on so it bakes and caramelizes a bit or just season lightly. They are perfection I tell you!
How Long to Cook Chicken Legs in Instant Pot
All you need is 15 minutes! I don’t know of anyone who who debone this cut so yes we are talking about bone-in legs of course in this case. You will want to allow a bit of a natural release at the end too (as with all other meats cooked under high pressure to keep them juicy).
- Trial 1 – I made these with a can of enchilada sauce
- Our trial 2 – Using barbecue sauce (don’t choose honey style as that will trigger the burn message) came out great too.
- 3rd recipe we used our Birria Taco Sauce for a spicy option
All have the ability to be as mild or as spicy as you want. I will show you how to crisp up the chicken skin (or outside if there’s no skin) once your Instant Pot chicken legs are cooked.
I say if I can feed my family of five for under $15 it is a win, and this pressure cooker chicken dinner is one of those…..I share my others in this post with lots of cheap Instant Pot recipes. This takes just 15 minutes too so it a real win win for all.
Ingredient Notes
You are going to want the obvious, Chicken legs – 8 medium sized drumsticks fit well in my 6 qt. IP just for reference.
I used a very large 28 oz. can of enchilada sauce – any brand and heat level or alternatively you can use 1 bottle of bbq sauce + 3/4 c. water
And 1 onion we like to add in there but is definitely optional, sliced or diced works either way to add flavor and texture.
Chicken Legs Cooked in Sauce
You can find mild, medium, and spicy enchilada sauce at the store and for us mild is enough heat with tons of flavor! You could use veri veri teriyaki like we do to make our teriyaki chicken drumsticks if you wanted a bit sweeter flavor.
How to Crisp the Skin
We generally don’t eat chicken skin but still like a bit of browning on the top. Just 3-4 minutes on the broiler setting of my oven makes them perfect, or if you have a Foodi you can change the lids and use the one that is attached at 400F for the same amount of time.
Chicken Legs and Potatoes in Instant Pot
You could cut russets in half widthwise and place them on the very top if you wanted to. They take about the same amount of time so you’ll get a one pot meal. Both are going to use high pressure cooking temperature with short cooking times and a quick release for this one.
It only takes about 15 minutes to get the meat tender and pretty much fall off of the bone. That makes it a family favorite that is easy and delicious served with a simple side dish like Instant Pot vegetables. My kids say it’s a great recipe because “chicken legs rock”, no matter what sauce is used really. 😉
Can you stack chicken legs in the Instant Pot?
Typically I do not with other cuts but when making drumsticks I do, yes. The more they overlap the less they can steam properly so some spots won’t be as done as much as the other parts will be but there isn’t really a problem in all the times we have made this.
Instant Pot Chicken Legs Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 large chicken legs, medium size legs
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp garlic
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 3 large bay leaves
- 1 cup water, or chicken broth
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
Instructions
- Mix the sugar into the vinegar. Place the chicken into the pressure cooker then add in the chopped garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaves. Next pour in the vinegar-sugar mix in, then water, then the soy sauce. (or use 16 oz. of your favorite sauce)
- Put the lid on the pressure cooker, seal pressure release valve, and select high pressure for 15 minutes. When done, allow to naturally release for 5 minutes then move valve to Venting to release remaining pressure. Carefully remove the cooked chicken and place on a serving bowl.
- To thicken up the remaining sauce, select Saute function and set to 10 minutes. Allow to simmer until the liquid has halved. (if you want quite a bit thicker you can whisk a tbsp cornstarch with water in a bowl and dump that in) Pour over the chicken in the serving bowl.
- To serve, plate with steamed white rice, a piece of chicken then drizzle some of the reduced sauce over the chicken. You can remove the bay leaves and discard them. Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
To serve, plate with steamed rice, a piece of chicken then drizzle some of the reduced sauce over the chicken. You can remove the bay leaves and discard them. Enjoy!
How do you reheat chicken legs?
First start by heating the oven to 400 put pieces in a baking dish rather than a pan to catch juices. Add about 1 cup of chicken broth into your pan so it is about 1/4 of an inch high. Once preheated, place inside until the liquid is bubbling and meat is warmed all the way to the middle. You could throw them into your air fryer too if you want really crispy
Looking for more Instant Pot chicken recipes we have a bunch! Instant Pot chicken and dumplings recipe is great as well as this Instant Pot Korean chicken over rice
Pressure cooker chicken and rice is a Campbell’s classic dish. Our Instant Pot Hawaiian chicken is oh so tasty too
what about using mole sauce (chicken mole is a Mexican dish ).
My guess is that would work fine.
Are you cooking whole chicken legs? Or just the drumstick?
Drumsticks
If I’m only cooking 4 chicken legs, would you recommend half the pressure cooking time?
Probably not.
Is the chicken frozen? Could you do this with them frozen?
These weren’t frozen. Time shouldn’t need to be increased much if at all. Try with same timing. Of course depends on how large legs are.
Is there a reason you can’t make more than one layer of chicken legs? With a 14-year old and 7-year old grandson, this would just be a snack! There are five adults and two kids when we get together so I need to make more. Still learning the IP but I love it! Thank you for your help!!
you could try putting the legs in a bowl and coating with your sauce. then maybe a trivet (i think the fat would need to drain) and stand the legs vertical with the thin bony end pointing up and add a few more minutes per leg because of the volume of meat , the onions could still be scattered on top.
Have you ever tried it with green enchilada sauce?
No but that would be good too.
These turned out soupy. The sauce is so thin. Is there a trick I should know?
If you used enchilada sauce it isn’t intended to be thick, if you make the bbq sauce version it will be thicker. You could remove the legs, set to saute and whisk in a bit of cornstarch and allow to bubble to thicken a bit if you wish.
This will often happen when cooking meats- water renders out of most meat. We remove the “done” meat to a warm tray and cover if you want to keep it warm; then CANCEL the pressure cook cycle; then push the saute button and let it boil to reduce the sauce to the consistency you want. Watch it because it may seem to reduce slowly at first, depending on how much liquid you have and then toward the end… it reduces quickly… would be easy to accidentally burn it away. This may become a little to salty depending on what you used to season your cooking meat, so perhaps add a little more water/nonsalty liquid at first and then do the reducing. You will be pleased with the resulting sauce.
They look so flavorful and delicious! I love the finishing with the chives, too! So interesting to combine the enchilada sauce with them – awesome!
Can you use thighs instead of drumsticks?????
You don’t need any “thin” liquid in the pot to make this? Won’t it show “burn” without it?
Enchilada sauce is not thick so it works just as is, when I use bbq sauce I add 1/2-3/4 c. water as well.
You mentioned using an air fryer lid but no instructions using it with your recipe(s). Can you give me/us the instructions? I just received an air fryer lid and would love some good crispy drumstick recipes using the air fryer lid.
Thank you