Instant Pot Pad Thai

Instant Pot pad thai with chicken is easy and quick to prepare. Asian pasta made in your Ninja Foodi or pressure cooker is a new dinner treat we all love.

Ingredient Notes

Cubed chicken breast is here but thighs would be wonderful too. The latter is cheaper and more tender but everyone has their preferences. Dark meat is wonderful as well with more flavor and super moist.

Olive or sesame oil is needed to brown the meat in the first step ideally. This will barely cook the outsides and lock in the juices to keep them more moist.

Thai sauce you can buy bottled or make homemade (directions below). Either way you can add heat with more red pepper flakes or keep it mild.

Soy sauce is added to the above sauce to give it a savory umami flavor. Aminos would be a gluten free option for this.

Water or broth is better for the necessary liquid to cook the noodles to al dente but tender, the latter will add more flavor.

Rice noodles are traditional and in Asian aisle of grocery store. You can order them online too. Lighter than traditional spaghetti type of noodles sometimes they are called glass noodles and cook time for rice noodles is fast.

Some optional but suggested add ins to this or Instant Pot stir fry would be; Garlic minced, Carrots sliced thin, Green onions diced and Bell pepper is a nice touch. Cilantro can be chopped and served on top or added into the mix while cooking. Some like a light squeeze of fresh lime juice at the end when served.

How do you make Pad Thai sauce from scratch?

It makes it a lot easier if you just use the ready made jarred, but if you want to go all out you can whisk together; 3 Tbsp fish sauce, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 5 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 Tbsp rice vinegar, 1 Tbsp Sriracha, 2 Tbsp peanut butter. The last is optional if you want more of a peanut sauce.

Do you have to soak Pad Thai noodles?

Typically yes. If you are making something similar on the stovetop it is best to do so briefly to quickly soften them up. Using this method you don’t need to. With the liquid inside they’ll be steamed essentially.

Ninja Foodi Pad Thai

You could make this in your Crockpot Express pressure cooker or as an easy Ninja Foodi recipe. The brands are almost identical and directions stay the same. You’ll use the lid that is NOT attached with the Foodi though if you have that model.

How long do you cook rice noodles in a pressure cooker?

As I said earlier you can make this in any brand of pressure cook to make this. The cook time depends on whether they are cooked alone, which would be 0 minutes with water, or including other ingredients like we did here which would increase the time to 2 minutes.

Tips

Once you have sauteed the meat a bit you just kinda’ dump it all together to make this one pot meal. Even though the noodles are hard they’re also so thin that the high heat will create steam to make them tender.

At the end use tongs to mix it all together and once submerged in the sauce they will continue to soften. Be careful to release the steam right away or else even one minute longer will make them quite a bit softer.

You can really load this up with veggies too. That is, they need to have the same cook time. More bell peppers works great, even snap peas would work too if you wanted a good mix of a few.

Is this recipe gluten free?

Rice noodles and this sauce are in themselves gluten free so everyone can enjoy this pad Thai recipe. You would have to refer to the other ingredients you chose to ensure that they state they are GF but in our case they were.

I haven’t used brown rice noodles so I’m unsure of the pressure cooked times for those. You can certainly boil any sort of pasta on the side until al dente and then add those at the end.

Fold together so the sauce can coat those well. Then place the lid on for a few minutes so they can soak it up and get as tender as you’d like them to be. This is an easy way to provide a bit of steam to the veggies and noodles without turning it back on.

If you feel like you need more beyond what’s in your one pot I would suggest more vegetables personally. You can not really eat too many of those. Makes you satiated with very few calories such as;

What is a good side dish for Pad Thai?

1. Air fryer vegetables are great with just about anything really.
2. You can make a batch of sweet and/or savory pressure cooker carrots. My husband prefers them cooked separately instead of with everything else.
3. On that note, you could make air fryer chicken wings instead of inside the pot too. We even have tips on how to make Instant Pot frozen chicken wings if you are forgetful in nature like me.
4. Serve with pressure cooker broccoli or Instant Pot bok choy and enjoy.

I feel like this is a complete dinner with nothing else needed other than a drink and something sweet after. It saves rather well too for the next day if kept in the fridge. I wouldn’t keep much longer than that though as the texture will get too soft and a bit icky.

What to do with leftovers

If you do have leftovers let it come to room temp. first. Then store in airtight containers or freezer bags in the fridge. When reheating put in a microwave safe bowl with a few Tbsp. of broth over the top. Heat for 45 seconds, stir, another round of heat, stir and continue until it is warm all the way through. The liquid will steam it and moisten them up so they don’t dry out and get crispy and hard.

Other Meals You’ll Love

Looking for other things to make with this or throughout the week? I have a couple suggestions like our air fryer wontons! Yes the filling is homemade but super simple to make. Want something else unusual but delicious? Give our Instant Pot peanut butter chicken a whirl. Seriously weirdly yummy. We love air fryer potstickers too. I just use frozen in the box for those, but our egg rolls are from scratch.