Easy Instant Pot Hawaiian chicken is pineapple sweet with a bit of a kick. Served on top of rice like our Ninja Foodi Pineapple Chicken or by itself it’s one of our favorite pressure cooker dinners with a thick savory sauce with a little spicy kick.
Let me share this easy Instant Pot Hawaiian chicken recipe with you! If you’re looking for a protein packed dinner with pineapple chicken pieces with a bit of a kick to it you will love this! It’s our favorite quick Instant Pot recipe. (affiliate links present)
Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken Breast
Most people don’t know this about me but I was born and raised for the first 6 years of my life in Hawaii! Crazy right?? It is true and I guess that is where my love of all of these bold flavors came from. You can make this as a Ninja Foodi recipe, in a Crockpot Express, Mealthy or any other brand. All these pressure cookers work very similarly so no worries.
We used boneless skinless chicken breasts this time but thighs are quite delicious as well. I use what is on sale or I have on hand. You just throw everything together and your bite size pieces are smothered in pineapple sauce you’ll love.
Jump to:
- Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken Breast
- Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken with Frozen Chicken
- How long does it take to cook Hawaiian chicken in Instant Pot?
- What is Hawaiian Chicken Sauce made of?
- What are some good side dishes to go with Hawaiian chicken?
- How to Make Hawaiian Pineapple Chicken Tacos
- Can you use chicken thighs to make Hawaiian chicken?
- How to Make 3 Ingredient Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken
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.
Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken with Frozen Chicken
This is How to Cook Frozen Chicken in the Instant Pot by itself with medium size breasts that have been separated. If fresh and diced into small pieces as directed in the recipe card below you need 6 minutes. If they are right out of the freezer you wouldn’t be able to slice. NO problem. There are 2 ways you can do this still:
- Either cook the meat until it is tender enough to shred under high pressure with 1 cup broth for 12 minutes with a 1 minute natural release.
- Then drain liquid in pot
- Shred chicken and leave in IP
- In a bowl whisk together the Hawaiian sauce ingredients until smooth
- Turn the pot to saute
- Pour in your sauce and allow everything to bubble for a few minutes so it thickens and serve once warmed.
If you wanted to cook the meat in the sauce I would still follow above steps except for 6 minutes, drain liquid and proceed as directed below with the sauce to continue cooking the meat with it.
I LOVE rice with everything. Growing up everything had pineapple in it, and soy sauce was always a must. Still to this day I can have a snack or almost dinner with just Instant Pot brown rice and soy. I’m in heaven. Of course adding protein is a plus. Once I made this I had my girls ask for it over and over again.
If you’ve never tried easy pineapple chicken before it is great! Not only do you get the sweetness of this delicious fruit, but it’s countered by a bit of heat from the Sriracha you’ll add. It is up to you just how spicy you make this pressure cooker pineapple chicken. The below recipe is very mild, so adjust as you wish.
How long does it take to cook Hawaiian chicken in Instant Pot?
It only takes 6 minutes to cook on high pressure, so about 15 minutes total including the time it takes to reach pressure. Meaning…quick dinner for sure! If you want a bit of heat red pepper flakes could be added. We like it sweet sweet though so we didn’t do that.
You can easily increase the heat level with some red pepper flakes, diced jalapenos, dry sriracha or chili powder. I would only add a bit when cooked, taste, and adjust when it is cooked as it is hard to tone it down if you make it too spicy.
Huli Huli is a popular chicken thighs recipe cooked in and with teriyaki. You may refer to it as Hawaiian chicken but the two are different recipes entirely. The latter has a rich sauce made with pineapple and soy sauce. Both are amazing dishes.
What is Hawaiian Chicken Sauce made of?
There’s no need to marinade it overnight but I suppose you could. You just dump it in and go! You could even use this same sauce to cook with Instant Pot Hawaiian pulled pork if you wanted, or use it to pour on top of leftovers. Main ingredients for this sweet style Hawaiian bbq chicken:
- Mix together:
- brown sugar
- minced ginger
- minced garlic
- ketchup
- soy sauce
- rice vinegar
- pineapple juice
- Chicken
- Pineapple chunks or tidbits
- Onion
- You could add bell pepper diced too if you chose to.
What are some good side dishes to go with Hawaiian chicken?
I serve it on top of Instant Pot white rice. I make it in my Instant Pot mini so it’s all done at the same time. You could alternatively serve it along with more fruit for the kiddos or with a side of vegetables or a side salad for a more low carb meal.
How to Make Hawaiian Pineapple Chicken Tacos
I mean there are so many ways to enjoy this. Using small tortillas you can spoon some in, top with cole slaw even for some crunch and enjoy. Want sliders? It would be messy but go for it with a dollop in between Hawaiian rolls.
Can you use chicken thighs to make Hawaiian chicken?
Of course There are many choices as to what you could use to make any of our Instant Pot chicken recipes. If I buy meat in bulk I use what I have on hand that needs to be cooked soon. Meat on sale at your store? Use what is less expensive y’all and you might find a new favorite.
- Use boneless skinless chicken breasts for the leanest cut
- Or you could use boneless skinless chicken thighs which is what I prefer because it is the most tender. It does have a bit higher fat content but so worth it in the end friends.
- Either type you choose I would definitely remove the fat and trim each piece before cubing it.
- Then dice into bite size pieces. Remember that the smaller they are the faster it will cook. Too small though and it may dry out.
You do not precook your chicken, it’s put in raw with the sauce and it all cooks together. That is why I love making it this way, I mean you can’t get any easier right? Really very little prep and no sauteeing at the beginning. This is how it looks once it’s done!
How to Make 3 Ingredient Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken
If you want to do a sort of cheater version of this with store bought ingredients, a sauce already made you could. We actually call this Instant Pot orange chicken with barbecue sauce and a can of pineapple. I mean I guess you could call it from Hawaii and a great option if you are short on time, our 3 ingredient Ninja Foodi chicken breast is similar too.
Pressure cooker chicken and rice is a family favorite cooked in just a few minutes. You can add 1 1/2 cups or more protein and it’s great if you have leftovers to use up. I wouldn’t add fruit to this one as it wouldn’t go well with the condensed soup.
- Instant Pot sesame chicken has a similar feel to this one but different.
- Spicy honey Instant Pot chicken has been pinned over 100K times and gets rave reviews.
If you’re still looking for more this Hawaiian pork roast with pineapple recipe is on our list to try. You can eat this with Ninja Foodi rice or shred it and throw it inside some tortillas to make tacos. Any way you slice it it’s delish.
Need directions for Slow cooker Hawaiian chicken? We have that for you too! It has a longer cooking time but I like to pass along as many variations as possible for all of you.
Let us know what your family thinks of this one. We have heard so many success stories of families making this a weekly meal so they can eat together more often and enjoy every bite. 😉
Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken
Equipment
- 1 pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breasts, or thighs, boneless, skinless, diced
- 1 c pineapple juice
- 1 c pineapple tidbits
- 1/3 c soy sauce
- 1 tbsp garlic, minced
- 1/2 tbsp ginger, minced
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 c ketchup
- 1/3 c brown sugar
- 1.5 tbsp Sriracha, makes it cut down the sweetness, but not spicy, add more if you want heat
- 1/2 onion, diced, optional
- 3 tbsp cornstarch, + 3 tbsp of hot liquid from pot to thicken at end
Instructions
- Put your diced (bite size) pieces of chicken as well as all other ingredients in the list into your pressure cooker (except for the cornstarch, we will use that later).
- Stir together so chicken is coated well.
- Close lid and steam valve and set to high pressure for 6 minutes.
- Do a quick release, turn off/cancel button, and then press saute button.
- In a small bowl whisk together 3 tbsp of cornstarch + 3 tbsp of the hot liquid inside your pot. Pour this mixture in.
- Mixture should now be bubbling. Stir and bubble for about 1 minute, then turn pot off.
- Sauce will have thickened a bit, and will continue to thicken as it sits for a few more minutes.
- Serve as is or on top of rice, enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I really like this recipe. My question is can you tell me the amounts to serve at a party for 30?
Doubling it in one batch shouldn’t be an issue. I wouldn’t make more than that at once so you would need to make multiple batches.
Easy and delicious! Added red pepper flakes before cooking, and added bell peppers for a minute or two while the sauce was thickening. Perfectly seasoned for my taste – didn’t even need to add salt or pepper!
Oh good!
Can I make this ahead of time and set the IP to “keep warm” for a couple hours before serving?
Or will the cornstarch keep thickening and cause issues?
Excited to try this at a potluck! Just have to figure out timing.
I wouldn’t leave it for a few hours. It will continue cooking on warm still and meat will dry out beyond about 20 minutes on that function.
Made this tonight for dinner! It was too spicy for my kids but my husband *raved* about it! Will definitely make it again (with bit less Sriracha 😊)!!
Yes, adjust the heat and enjoy!
What is the best way to cook this with the rice in same IP? I’m trying to figure out how to modify this for a camping trip! Thx!
I would refer to my recipes with chicken and rice together as the amount of liquid added is important. You can search my pressure cooker chicken and rice, Instant Pot sausage and rice, Instant Pot Mexican chicken and rice, and there are others
CouldI use fresh pineapple cut up into chunks?
Sounds delicious, can’t wait to make it.
@Pat, I would think so! I have another recipe that calls for fresh or canned pineapple. The only thing I think that you might need to watch is make sure there is enough liquid.
Is there any way to make the rice in with everything as one pot meal. I would think it would need more juice to cook the rice.
No that wouldn’t work. You need 12 minutes for rice and it would need to be in a separate pot on top of a tall trivet above the meat but then the meat would be overcooked since this only takes 6 min
looks great. could you make this in an instant pot mini? only 2 of us. Thanks
Cut the recipe in half should take care of that!
I want to serve this in Hawaiian buns, but does it “shred”? I use your Hawaiian pulled pork IP recipe usually but I don’t have pork. Just trying to make sure I end up with shredded chicken and not chunks. Help?
Well it’s diced instead of large pieces to shred but it will be fall apart tender yes
We love the recipe. I always add extra pineapple! If I were to do this as a freezer meal, any idea what the cook time would be from frozen?
Oh good!! Frozen will thin the sauce out as it will emit water when meat defrosts but I probably would only increase time by 2 min, just a guess.