Pressure Cooker Apricot Chicken with Apricot Jam

Pressure Cooker apricot chicken with apricot jam just needs 5 ingredients and is the perfect dinner atop a bed of rice! If you have an Instant Pot or Ninja Foodi you’ve gotta’ try this! It’s a super cheap Instant Pot recipe, only about $15 to feed all 5 of us

Instant Pot Apricot Chicken

Have you ever made apricot glazed chicken?? It. Is. So. Good. I’m talking it’s a meal your kids will ask you to make over and over again. With a sweetness that is not too extreme but satisfied the sweet toothers in your house it is cheap and will have your fam asking for seconds. 😉

If you’re new to this kind of cooking we will make it easy on you. You can use any brand you might have at home including a Ninja Foodi, Mealthy or make as an easy Crockpot Express recipe some night. Find what you need at your grocery store or defrost some frozen chicken to get started.

How to Make Apricot Chicken in Instant Pot

Sounds delicious right? With French dressing or Catalina style and some jam you can coat your bite size poultry pieces with a sweet sauce your kids will love. Here are a few questions you might have before you get going on this meal prep.

Can you make apricot chicken with frozen chicken?

You could. For frozen chicken in the Instant Pot you wouldn’t be able to cut it into small pieces like you see here. What you would want to do is follow the instructions above to cook with broth for 12 minutes. Then you’d drain, shred the meat, set to saute and add the ingredients for this sauce. Allow to bubble and thicken and then serve!!

Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken with Apricot Preserves

Yep you have that right, you are going to use jam for the sweetness and fruit here. You could alternatively use orange marmelade and it would be more similar to our Instant Pot orange chicken recipe too. Add a bit of heat if you like with red pepper flakes or a bit of Sriracha and go!

How to Make Apricot Chicken in Ninja Foodi

In this machine you are going to use the lid that is not attached. That will cook under high pressure very quickly. You won’t need to use the other as you want the meat to stay tender and juicy.

1. Apricot chicken with boneless skinless chicken breasts are just sweet enough to put smiles on my kids’ faces.
2. You could use chicken thighs too if you’d rather, both come out tender and bite size which little ones love.

Cooked in our Instant Pot or Ninja Foodi it takes just 20 minutes to finish this and a batch of white rice. Of course you can serve it with anything you like but typically we make pressure cooker chicken bowls with broccoli on the side.

How long should you cook chicken in the Instant Pot?

That depends on what else is in your pot. For pressure cooker chicken and rice it’s the same but breasts need to be cubed bite size. Here’s a peek at what you’re going to need, and what we used to make this sweet and savory dish.

What is apricot sauce made of?

These are the ingredients necessary. You may have these already in your cupboard. It truly is a dump dinner that takes just minutes to be perfect when done. If you had leftover meat you could whisk this same sauce together, warm the meat and toss together.

1. Chicken – bite size, boneless, skinless breasts – could use chicken thighs as well
2. Chicken broth
3. Apricot jam / preserves
4. Catalina dressing
5. Onion soup mix
   1. Onion – this is really optional
   2. Cornstarch if you want to thicken sauce

Some like to add a bit of soy sauce to cut down the sweetness even more, either way is good to us. We serve this on a bed of white, brown rice or pressure cooker quinoa but that is up to you.

How many calories are in apricot chicken?

That depends on the serving but in the printable recipe card below there is information for this. Thighs would have more fat than white meat. To give you an idea, this feeds all 5 of us and costs about $15 total including the cost of rice. The color is a bit deceiving. It has a nice hint of apricot flavor and the perfect amount of sweetness. It’s super quick and easy compared to making it in a slow cooker or in the oven.

There is NO precooking required either!! You just throw in all 5 ingredients, stir so it’s well combined, and cook on high for 4 minutes. Seriously, that’s it. I usually use my mini Instant Pot to make rice but if you’re looking for easy rv meals I’d use Minute rice cups!

Why do we call it apricot chicken?

No there are no whole apricots inside, but we used apricot preserves in there so you would sure think there was. I mean you could add chunks of sliced fruit in there too but I would add at the end or it will get too soft.

How do you make apricot chicken casserole?

You could transition this easy Instant Pot chicken recipe into this if you wanted to? I would boil egg noodles to al dente in another pot and then when this is done, fold them together. There is enough sauce to coat everything without a problem. The flavors are somewhat similar to our Instant Pot Hawaiian chicken with pineapple which we make served over rice.

Our pressure cooker chicken pot pie soup recipe is amazing. We use canned veggies to make it even easier in the kitchen. Perfect winter time bowl of YUM when it’s snowy outside. Here is a quick step by step but there is also a printable recipe card for you below if you’d rather have that.

1. Add all ingredients except cornstarch into your pressure cooker, stir together so everything is coated well.
2. Close lid and set steam valve to a sealing position. Set to high pressure cook for 4 minutes. Do a quick release when done. 
3. Turn pot off, then push saute. In a separate small bowl add 3 tbsp cornstarch + 4 tbsp. of hot liquid from your pot. Whisk together so it is smooth.
4. Pour this cornstarch mixture into your pot once the liquid in your pot starts bubbling. Stir.
5. Slowly stir for 1-2 minutes, will thicken slightly. Then turn pot off.
6. Allow to sit for at least 5 minutes so sauce continues to thicken. Serve over rice and enjoy

Printable recipe below with nutritional information included as well. Keep in mind I do not calculate these, the system does and it accounts for exactly what I have listed below. Then try our creamy pressure cooker chicken and rice which turns out great every time.