Instant Pot Bone In Chicken Thighs

Our Instant Pot chicken thighs bone in recipe with a creamy cream cheese sauce is a dinner your family will love too. Easy pressure cooker dinner with fresh meat or use cook time for Instant Pot frozen chicken thighs.

I’m back with some more easy Instant Pot recipes this week! This time we have a creamy chicken thighs bone recipe to share with you so you can enjoy the yumminess too. It’s a great recipe our whole family loved with a side of mashed potatoes.

Maybe you have veered away from this dark meat. Yes the most popular cut is white meat but seriously once you make these and really give them a whirl you will become a real believer like I did back in the day. Now I use them more than anything else. This is why we love this cut of meat:

• They’re super cheap
• They have so much more natural flavor to them vs. breasts
• Chicken thighs are really tender

Ninja Foodi Bone In Chicken Thighs

If you have a Ninja Foodi you can follow these same directions using the lid that is attached to air crisp. These use defrosted or fresh meat, if yours aren’t then follow our air fryer frozen chicken thighs recipe.

Of course you can get boneless chicken thighs but I find that they are much more expensive. It isn’t really worth the added expense to have the bone removed, but that is totally up to you. You can really do so many things with them and no matter what they turn out amazingly well.

Here we are going to focus on sauteeing and then cooking chicken thighs in Instant Pot but after that I’ll share a few others. Now that I have an air fryer they are fabulous in that too. There is a big difference between the two with the texture.

This way you are going to get the most tender meat possible, without any crisp. The meat will literally fall off of the bone with no effort at all. Spoon the creamy sauce over the top and serve as is or with a side of vegetables or potatoes. BAM, a wonderful meal in no time at all.

With this pot you will use the lid that is not attached and the pressure cook button. At the end you can get crispy skin with the other lid. You can of course add seasonings of your choice to the outside before you sear so they bake on nicely and give it added flavor. There are some suggestions we use below too. This is what you’re going to need:

Ingredient Notes

You are going to want to pick up medium sized Chicken thighs bone in timing shared, if boneless skinless set to 8 minutes or use our Instant Pot honey mustard chicken recipe

Chicken stock is better than water for the necessary liquid needed to pressure cook because it adds more flavor.

1. Cream cheese or dairy free alternative, softened
2. Fresh spinach is a nice add in
3. Sun dried tomatoes are optional
4. Parmesan will make the sauce richer
5. Garlic powder for seasonings
6. Olive oil for sauteeing the meat
7. Salt and pepper for taste

You can use an Instant Pot air fryer lid to crisp the skins if that is what you have, or your air fryer! I will talk about a few options to crisp the outside below because you can do it a few different ways and have the texture turn amazing.

with Frozen Chicken Thighs

If these are straight out of the freezer I will typically change the timing from 10 to a bit longer, 15 minutes is better. I want fall off the bone meat as the end result and typically don’t bother crisping at the end. If you added that I would decrease the time by 2 minutes since that will heat it longer.

How Long to Cook Pressure Cooker Bone in Chicken Thighs

In total with a bit of browning, high pressure cook time, time to reach pressure and a few minutes of natural release you should set aside about 30 minutes start to finish. Pretty quick actually if you ask me with a rich creamy sauce all cooked together in one pot.

Now there are 3 steps to making these: We browned the chicken thighs first. You’ll use the saute function for this to get the outside cooked just a bit. To go thru all of them you’ll cook for 10 minutes or so total. Then remove the chicken thighs so you can deglaze your Instant Pot after this step to get all the browned bits off so it doesn’t trigger the burn notice.

Return your chicken and use the pressure cooker function to cook your chicken thighs. When they are done use this Instant Pot air fryer lid to crisp the skins!! Or pop them into the oven using the broil function to get those skins nice and a bit crispy like you see here above.

Of course you can feel free to skip this last step. However, that 5 minutes will make all the difference in the oohs and ahhhhs you’ll get when your thighs are done.

I also share these frozen whole chicken in pressure cooker instructions too if you are having a forgetful moment like I do sometimes. Our smoked chicken thighs are amazing if you have a Traeger and/or love to cook outside during the year.

Ok so nobody likes rubbery outsides when you want a bite of your tender piece of poultry. NO, you want fork tender meat but the outsides should be crunchy with either seasonings galore or a rich sauce to cook it in. With this pot alone you aren’t going to get the outsides crunchy but there is a way to do it still.

You may have bought one of the new air fry lids that they came out with recently. It is another top that you use instead of the high pressure one that comes with the pot. You can follow my directions below and then move the meat into the basket that came with, and out of the sauce. Put that lid on and give it a crisp! Here are some other methods;

There is a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for you with recipe notes as well. You can keep it in your recipe box for later or just come back time and time again when you want to make this. First here is a quick rundown to peek at first before you get going. 😉

How to Cook Bone-In Chicken Thighs in Instant Pot

Set your electric machine to saute. Mix the seasonings together to create a dry rub to coat on all sides of thighs. Add olive oil into your pot and heat, set meat inside in batches, brown skins on both sides. Turn the machine OFF, you do this in order to allow it to cool down. Deglaze pot after this step.

Once they are browned, place in a circle so that you can then pour chicken stock/broth into the middle to steam to tender. Set to high pressure and cook naturally releasing for 5 minutes before a quick release when done.

1. Remove and if you would like to crisp skin, just place on a baking sheet prepared with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Broil to crisp the skin for a few minutes.

How do you thicken the sauce?

If you want to thicken the sauce you can do so while the chicken broils. Switch the pressure cooker to saute again and heat the juices to boiling. Whisk in the cream cheese until melted (make sure it is room temp or it won’t melt smooth).  Add the parmesan cheese and remaining garlic powder.

When the sauce has reduced to your desired consistency, add the sun-dried tomatoes and spinach. Stir to combine and serve with chicken over pasta or as desired.  If you want the sauce to be thicker put 2 tbsp cornstarch in a bowl with 2 tbsp cold water and whisk together, then dump into pot. Stir and allow to thicken on saute as it bubbles it will thicken.

While they’re in the broiler you’re going to make the sauce right in your pressure cooker…… Pour the cream cheese sauce right on top and serve!! It is great with a bed of rice, potatoes or steamed vegetables for a healthy choice.

How to get the Chicken Skin Crispy

Transfer meat to a pan and put under the broiler for 3-5 minutes, or until top of skin gets as crispy as you’d like. Use air crisp function on your Ninja foodi pot. Empty thickened sauce into a bowl and put chicken in an air fryer. Make sure they aren’t overlapping so they crisp as much as possible.

Put CrispLid on and set to 400 degrees for 4-8 minutes or until they’re as crispy as you’d like. Remove and pour cream cheese sauce over the top. Serve.

A few minutes at 400 degrees with a light spray of olive oil on top will do the trick for any of the air crisp or air fry machines you might have at home. You do want to remove from the sauce so the very hot air can circulate around the meat and get the texture you want. It can’t get thru cream cheese y’all. 😉

Other Chicken Thighs Recipes You’ll Love

Instant Pot crack chicken casserole is our fave next to Instant Pot chicken and potatoes. Easy Pressure cooker cheesy chicken spaghetti is a great one with leftover meat too. You should try our Pressure cooker beer can chicken too if you want to buy the whole thing and not chop it into pieces.