Easy Instant Pot creamy chicken recipe using fresh or frozen chicken your family will love. Pressure cooked in just minutes served over egg noodles or rice makes a cheap one pot meal we make year round. If you loved our slow cooker creamy chicken creation but want something quicker, this is it!
We made this creamy chicken in Instant Pot dish after our Crockpot creamy chicken dish was so very popular. Not everyone has all of the countertop appliances so I wanted to cover all my basis. We all love dishes with cream of chicken and this will be another easy Instant Pot recipe you’ll add to your rotation. (post may contain affiliate links)
Ninja Foodi Creamy Chicken
You don’t have to own an IP either. Yes I know and own the other machines that work just the same. For Crockpot Express you will use the same steps. For a Ninja Foodi recipe choose the lid that is not attached and the pressure cook button. If you have rotisserie or precooked meat you can skip the first step.
In that case you will only use the saute or brown button to melt and warm the condensed soup and cream cheese. The pasta would be cooked separately, ideally. OR you can use our pressure cooker butter noodles directions before, after, or in another pot. On the stovetop works as well of course, take your pick, but just do it apart from one another for the ideal outcome.
If you are new to pressure cooking we have a lot of easy one pot meal recipes for you here. To begin with let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should know how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
Pressure Cooker Creamy Chicken
This is similar to our Instant Pot chicken and rice dish. That one includes white rice into the mix all cooked together until tender whereas this boils noodles separate. The reason this one isn’t one pot is because I wanted the sauce with meat to be super thick. If you added the pasta in there too you’d need to increase the liquid broth which would thin it out.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breasts fresh or frozen, boneless skinless – or make as a leftover chicken breast recipe
- Chicken broth is best
- Packet Italian dressing mix seasoning
- Butter or dairy free alternative
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup or chicken, either one works
- Block of cream cheese cut into cubes, softened
Made with Frozen Chicken
You could actually make this with frozen chicken in Instant Pot if that is all you have on hand. With the 15 minute cook time either one will work and still come out tender enough to shred with 2 forks. I’d highly suggest boneless skinless and medium sizes, not huge.
Are organic chicken breasts better?
When it comes to discussing poultry I do have a lot to say. To me there is a HUGE difference in texture when you compare “regular” and organic free range pieces. Any day of the week I will pay the extra dollars for the latter as it is leaner and doesn’t have the gristle texture to it. Just my opinion, do as you wish, but have to share my findings as I do cook a lot. ๐
I have made this one the stovetop, but that is usually when I have leftover precooked meat already. For that I am just merely warming everything up and not worrying about cooking to a safe temp in the center. We also have a version, Instant Pot creamy chicken and rice if you want grains in there together. If I do have fresh meat then these are the steps I follow.
How to Make Creamy Chicken in Instant Pot
- Add chicken and broth to your pressure cooker.
- Sprinkle the dry dressing mix on top of the meat.
- Add butter. Set to poultry (or manual) high pressure setting for a total of 15 minutes.
- When cooking is complete, let the steam naturally release for 10 minutes.
- Then quickly release the rest.
- Release pressure valve and carefully open the pot away from you as it will be quite hot.
- Using two forks, shred the chicken. Stir in cream of chicken soup and cream cheese until completely melted.
- If necessary, set the instant pot to saute to create some heat while stirring and help the cheese melt.
- Serve immediately on top of egg noodles cooked separately as is or with shredded parmesan cheese.
If you find that you think the sauce is too thick, just thin it out just a bit with some milk to your liking. As for adding vegetables into the mix I would only do so with diced frozen vegetables like peas or mixed with green beans and carrots. 3/4 of a cup would work, added before sealing the lid. 15 minutes for fresh produce would break them down too much, other than maybe carrot dials (those would be fine).
These ingredients work really well slow cooked as well (link shared above). I do that with frozen chicken breasts often if I do have it all together at the beginning of the day. Boneless chicken thighs works well too if that is what I have on hand. Dark meat is even more tender than white so I would try both and see which is your fave.
Creamy Chicken Recipe with Cream of Chicken Soup
I have in the past made a large batch of Instant Pot cream of chicken soup. I’ll use a few scoops to make this, a bowl as is for lunch, and save the rest to use the next day. Canned is very convenient for sure but if you have never tried making condensed soups from scratch it is easier than you might think.
What is great about making it yourself is that you can control the sodium which is helpful for those with high blood pressure issues. Another huge plus is that you can use ingredients that are lactose free if you need dairy free options to eat. We have that issue at our home so I have had to tweak things so everyone can enjoy them around here.
As long as you pressure cook chicken in a sauce or broth to stay moist it will in fact fall apart more and more over time. You only need 12-15 minutes for boneless breasts and about 1 hour for a whole bird to get it to perfectly tender. If you forgot about it for a few more minutes though you would be okay. Allowing for a natural release of steam will tenderize it too.
You can using the saute function with a bit of oil inside but it is not necessary. If you do want a bit of browning and texture on the outsides (with skin on this is nicer) just sear for 2 minutes on each side, then pressure cook. You can skip this step too though and still have a successful meal.
For our creamy chicken recipe we use cream cheese instead of heavy cream. In this instance milk would not make this dish as thick as you’d want. Milk is much thinner so the consistency and texture would be different but yes it could be done technically.
We will answer a few more questions you might have below too, but let’s stop to smell thru the screen. ๐
Can I use different types of chicken (breast, thighs) to make creamy chicken?
Of course. For our recipe we use 2 pounds so as long as you used boneless skinless thighs or breasts it would work the same way. I would stay away from bone-in just because it won’t yield as much meat so the amounts will be slightly off. Another reason I don’t choose those is it is harder to serve when done.
Are there any healthy alternatives for making creamy chicken?
You could use low fat cream cheese if you wanted but I will say that the taste is definitely different if you do. If you wanted to omit that ingredient all together you could instead use 2 cans of soup to keep it nice and thick as a sauce when done. In this case I would use 1 can of cream of chicken and use mushroom for the other for the best flavors.
Can I freeze creamy chicken leftovers?
You can but I would recommend that you freeze it without the noodles inside as those don’t freeze and thaw out well. Better yet is to just keep the soup, tender chicken sealed in a container once cooled in the fridge. It will stay well for up to 3 days. When reheating creamy chicken transfer to a microwave safe dish. Heat for 45 seconds, stir and heat for another 45 seconds or until warmed all the way thru to the middle.
Instant Pot Creamy Chicken
Equipment
- 1 pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breasts, fresh or frozen, boneless skinless
- 1 c chicken broth
- 1 packet Italian dressing mix
- 1/4 c butter
- 1 can cream of chicken soup, or cream of mushroom soup
- 1 block cream cheese, cut into cubes, softened
Instructions
- Add chicken and broth to the instant pot. Sprinkle dressing mix on top of the chicken. Add butter. Set to poultry (or manual) high pressure for 15 minutes. When cooking is complete, let steam naturally release for 10 minutes.
- Release pressure valve and carefully open the pot. Using two forks, shred the chicken. Stir in cream of chicken soup and cream cheese until completely melted. If necessary, set the instant pot to saute to create some heat while stirring and help the cheese melt.
- Serve immediately on top of egg noodles cooked separately.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.