Best Instant Pot Sesame Chicken

Instant Pot sesame chicken takes less than 15 minutes to make in your pressure cooker! This quick and easy meal has a sweet and savory sauce with tender chicken over rice. My family loved it!

Have you ever gone out to dinner and had that sweet sesame chicken with rice and thought “I wish I could make this at home, it’s so good”??

I have, so I got to experimenting the other day. I first tried air fryer sesame chicken and that was delish, then I took it a step further.

Of course there is always plenty of ginger and garlic added into Asian inspired recipes so we have just enough of that thrown in there too.

• Likelihood is you have everything you need for this sesame chicken sauce at home except for maybe a bottle of hoisin sauce, which is amazing by the way.

Don’t worry…the rest won’t go to waste because after you’ve made this pressure cooker sesame chicken you’re going to want to make our Instant Pot spicy teriyaki chicken thighs that uses this sauce in the mix too.

What is the difference between orange chicken and sesame chicken?

• The sauce!
• This recipe is sweeter, really.
• There is no heat to this dish vs. some orange that has a kick to it like General Tso’s at Panda Express.
• Of course this one has sesame seeds too.

I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts and dice them up so they are bite size pieces.

Why do I dice the chicken up?

• Smaller pieces of chicken makes each piece more tender in the cooking process
• Bite size pieces allows the delicious sauce to soak all the way in so each piece has that delish sesame chicken taste

It makes it easier for the kids (and me) to eat when the chicken is already cut up

Alternatives to using fresh chicken:

• If using diced up pre-cooked chicken (i.e. rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken) alter the recipe below this way
  • Add your pre-cooked chicken at the beginning but no need to put into Instant Pot and saute like if it were raw

Mix together your diced chicken pieces with the diced onions, garlic and ginger still, then skip to step 4 where you add the sesame chicken sauce.

On step 5 lock the lid and set to pressure high for 2 minutes vs. 3

Including all the time it will take you to prep everything, this should take under 30 minutes to make from start to finish. Much faster than if you made it in a slow cooker. 

Once your chicken is no longer pink on the outside you’re going to whisk together the ingredients for your homemade sesame sauce and pour it right in.

Make sure you then stir it around so all the chicken is coated and the flavors will really soak in. I would cook rice at this time so it’s all pressure cooking together. (I have several machines to do it all)

Pressure cooker honey sesame chicken

Now once the 2nd cook time is over, do a quick pressure release. It will be done but it is best if you use a bit of cornstarch to thicken the sauce so it’s ooey gooey delicious.

I use 4 tbsp of cornstarch whisked together with 4 tbsp of hot liquid from pot. Add that in on saute and allow that to bubble and the sauce to thicken.

Of course you can use less if you want it thinner than what you see here, but really if you ask me this is just perfection…….

What is sesame chicken made of?

• Thighs usually, but we chose to use chicken breasts. Either or are fine really.

Many times they are deep fried, this is a low fat version without breading. Sauces vary slightly adding heat, or making sweet and mild. Cornstarch is used to thicken it up at the end.

Instant Pot sesame chicken

This is what we used and you should have available to you to get going on this one:

• Diced chicken
• Green onions
• Minced garlic
• Ginger
• Soy sauce

• Hoisin sauce
• Brown sugar
• Honey
• Worcestershire sauce
• Sesame seeds
• Cornstarch to thicken sauce
  • red pepper flakes optional

Cook Instant Pot white rice separately and serve on top. Brown rice is a healthier alternative too.

After you make this we have some other easy Instant Pot chicken recipes you will love:

• Easy Instant Pot butter chicken
• Our pressure cooker apricot chicken is the bomb
  • Chicken tinga is a new recipe to try
• Instant Pot orange chicken recipe – healthy version
• 3 ingredientInstant Pot teriyaki chicken 

Our spicy honey Instant Pot chicken is probably our most popular followed by Instant Pot Korean chicken. I am telling you, since I got this magical appliance we have been able to eat together more AND I cook more from scratch.

That means we eat healthier and it is amazing how my kids taste buds have changed for the better. They are now very experimental eaters which is great.

Is sweet and sour chicken the same as sesame chicken?

Ours is definitely different because our Instant Pot sweet and sour chicken uses frozen popcorn chicken that’s breaded. This one has less carbs since it doesn’t have any breading at all.

The sauce also has a different taste. One has some heat and this one is sweeter

How do you thicken sesame chicken sauce?

• Cornstarch + some of the hot liquid mixed together creates a roux.
• Dump this in on saute mode at the end and stir. 

It will thicken as it sits thereafter too so just remember that. You don’t want to add too much cornstarch or other roux or it will get to be a weird texture.

Can you make this in your Ninja Foodi too? YES of course!! Follow the same instructions below. Then serve it over fluffy rice and BAM, best meal evahhhh!

• If you’re looking for others, try our Instant Pot hoisin chicken. We hope you enjoy this and many others on The Typical Mom blog. 😉

You can make Crockpot sesame chicken too! With a sweet sauce cooking all day long the meat just sucks it up and makes it over the top.

I’ve served this over rice or mashed cauliflower for a lower carb meal and it’s as good as brown or white rice.

Ready for an easy family friendly meal? That’s really all we do here since I have 3 girls and I will tell you that they think this one is “the bomb”!

Have you made something that your family thought was over the top lately??

Serve on top of rice sprinkled with your remaining tbsp of sesame seeds and add some diced green onions if desired.