This is an easy 3 ingredient Instant Pot shredded chicken recipe that we use to make soft tacos often! Simple pressure cooker dump recipe that’s healthy and so cheap that it feeds all 5 of us for under $10.00. If you’re looking for a great barbecue chicken recipe this one is a keeper and really versatile too.
I’m in love with my Instant Pot! It makes dinnertime so much easier and I feel like I cook much more often for the 5 of us because of it, that’s a win win in my book. Last night I made this 4 ingredient Instant Pot shredded chicken “Hawaiian style” and it came out SO very delicious. I added it to small soft tortillas with some cheese and avocado slices and made tacos with it. Everyone raved about how good this turned out and it just took 15 minutes to cook in my new favorite appliance. Here is the easy recipe, and one of our favorite Instant Pot recipes now, especially for taco Tuesdays! (affiliate links present, updated, originally published 1/17)
Amazing doesn’t even describe this meal!
Just 3 ingredients and an Instant Pot and you’re ready to go! We love it like I said, served in flour tortillas but we’ve served it over rice before too and it’s just as good. It is a pretty healthy chicken recipe too and really inexpensive to make costing only about $10 total for the whole meal which served all 5 of us + leftovers for me to eat it for lunch the next day.
I have made it using frozen chicken in the Instant Pot too which makes it handy for super busy days!
Here is what you will need and a quick video of how I make it:
This is what you need to make this 3 ingredient Instant Pot Shredded Chicken
- Instant Pot
- 1 bottle of barbecue sauce (about 20 oz., not honey style, we like this one)
- 1 can of chunk pineapple
- 3 -4 boneless chicken breasts
- Water
- Small tortillas, cheese, and avocado if you want to make them into soft tacos (delish)
- Onion – optional but good
If you happen to have the burn message displayed on your pot follow these steps on how to deglaze your Instant Pot.
If you don’t have an Instant Pot yet I highly recommend it because it helps busy families like you and me.
I’m constantly adding to my recipes and you can find them all here on my Instant Pot Recipes page so bookmark that to refer back to it later!
If you want to make this in your slow cooker here are the directions for crockpot bbq chicken recipe. 😉
Instant Pot Shredded Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 jar barbecue sauce 20 oz. or so, not honey style or one with a lot of sugar in it
- 1 c chunk pineapple
- 3 - 4 chicken breasts or 2 large ones cut in half, boneless / skinless
- 1 bag flour tortillas pkg. small
- 3/4 c water
- avocado sliced, optional
- 1 c pineapple juice from the can you're using
- 1 onion sliced, optional
- 1 tbsp soy sauce optional
- 1 c cheese
Instructions
- Empty 1/2 jar of barbecue sauce on bottom of Instant Pot.
- Put chicken breasts on top of your sauce, squeeze other half of jar on top of the chicken.
- Pour 3/4 c water inside your bbq sauce jar, put lid on and shake, pour this on top of chicken followed by chunks of pineapple (and sliced onion + soy sauce if you choose to add those). Gently stir so chicken is well coated.
- Close Instant Pot and make sure steam valve is closed. Set to poultry setting, high for 15 minutes (automatically sets to this time when you hit the poultry function).
- When it beeps do a quick release, and then lift lid.
- Use 2 forks to shred chicken right in the pot. Add some to small tortillas to make soft tacos with some cheese and avocado, or leave chicken whole and serve on top of rice.
Video
If you’re looking for more easy Instant Pot chicken recipes try these:
- Instant Pot chicken parmesan casserole
- EASY Instant Pot teriyaki chicken
- Easy Instant Pot orange chicken
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Thinking of making this with a pork tenderloin. Would the cook time be the same?
In the video, after the pineapple you add something else (it looks kind of like soy sauce). It’s not on the ingredient list. What is it?
Oh yes, sorry. Occasionally I add a tbsp. of soy sauce.
I kept getting the “burn” error. After 3 attempts of stirring and adding more juice , I gave up.
I had the same issue
Did you include the water, if not it will not have enough liquid.
Same issue and i included the water
I’m new to the instant pot. Could I do this with frozen chicken? What would I need to change?
Increase time….maybe 3 more minutes??
Your frozen foods will thaw as the IP comes to pressure, so you don’t want to increase the cook time, or you risk over-cooking the chicken and making it dry. Using frozen foods takes a little bit longer to cook because it takes a little bit longer for the IP to fully pressurize. But thawing in the IP for a few minutes is a lot less time than thawing in the sink or refrigerator, so you’re still saving time!
Can I make the recipe without the pineapple?
Yes of course
I just made this and the bottoms of the chicken breasts ended up completely burnt. I removed the burnt parts and shredded the rest and it was still delicious, but any idea what I did wrong? I followed the instructions exactly. I used Sweet Baby Rays Hickory & Brown Sugar BBQ sauce–could that be why?
Could be the brown sugar sauce or you pushed chicken down instead of laying on top of sauce so it was too close to bottom. Ours was browned but definitely not burned.
Do I have to use that much bar-b-que sauce? Will it work with half that amount or will that be too dry?
I did it with half the amount of bbq sauce and a large can of pineapple. The only thing I would change is use half the juice from the larger can of pineapple.