This spicy honey Instant Pot chicken thighs takes just 4 minutes to cook and comes out moist and full of flavor! Sweet and spicy chicken bites smothered in delicious sauce which we love atop a bed of rice. A great healthy pressure cooker dinner our whole family enjoys.

spicy honey instant pot chicken
Want to save this recipe?
Just enter your email and get it sent to your inbox! Plus you’ll get new recipes from us every week!
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Ever since I got my fancy pressure cooker I have been fiddling with new Instant Pot recipes and have come up with many that are so quick and my family loves! This spicy honey Instant Pot chicken is one of our favorites though! (affiliate link present)

Honey Instant Pot Chicken

My littlest love orders “sweet chicken” when we get to Chinese food restaurants so I aimed to create something similar. I wanted a little bit of heat this time though since we love Sriracha! We’ve also done this with other simple ingredients like in our Instant Pot black pepper chicken from Panda Express.

You can use whatever you have at home too. There is a Crockpot Express version and Ninja Foodi too. All of them work just the same with high pressure and take no time at all in one pot.

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:

For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.

A white Instant Pot with a Star Wars theme sits on the kitchen counter, ready to tackle your favorite beef arm roast recipe. The digital display glows "On." Next to it lie a patterned cloth and some green onions, all against the backdrop of blue kitchen cabinets and a stovetop.

Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken

This sweet and spicy honey Instant Pot chicken recipe turned out great the first time around. We will definitely be making this one again!  If you don’t have an Instant Pot yet and are busy like we are I highly recommend getting one!

It has made making dinners so much easier. I tend to cook healthier overall too. I can add chicken, whip up this sauce in a small bowl, close the lid and in less than 20 minutes it’s done. Seriously! If you’re looking for a healthy Instant Pot recipe that tastes amazing for dinner or even serve this as an appetizer in a bowl with some toothpicks on the side to snack on without the rice!

spicy honey instant pot chicken 2
chicken

Use as much or as little Sriracha as you want to adjust the heat level, or leave it out entirely and make a sweet honey chicken, that would be amazing too.

Instant Pot Spicy Honey Chicken

If you really like heat like our Instant Pot Korean chicken just add more, or cut out entirely if it’s not your thing. I added large chunks of chicken to the pot knowing they would shrink a bit when cooking.

If you cut them smaller I would decrease the cook time to 3 minutes to maintain it’s moisture. You still want to give it time to soak up all the yummy sauce juices. That is the great thing about the pressure cooker function. You can use the same meat but create a different sauce and it is infused into the meat when it cooks.

It does it so quickly too and allows us to eat dinner as a family much more often because I can make a complete meal in about 20 minutes. Many of our easy air fryer recipes work the same way if you have that appliance too.

diced chicken thighs
pressure cooker chicken

Spicy Honey Ninja Foodi Chicken

You can use a Instant Pot or any other pressure cooker. With an IP I HIGHLY suggest you get a non stick pot too, linked above because many times the burn notice will get triggered inaccurately which is prevented with this! The Ninja has a ceramic pot which works well as is. You will use the lid that is not attached to make it in a Foodi machine.

Spicy Honey Garlic Chicken Ingredients

I have made this here with boneless skinless chicken breasts. You could certainly use chicken thighs meat if you preferred this, nothing would change as far as timing either way. This time we diced it. You could cook whole like our Instant Pot spicy teriyaki chicken thighs but the timing would be longer.

  • Brown sugar will bring sweetness to the meat
  • Honey is a sweet element as well
  • Minced ginger & garlic brings the Asian flavors soar
  • Soy sauce or amino acids are a gluten free option
  • Sriracha – can leave out if you don’t want any heat
  • Onion
  • Cornstarch

Here’s how to make the perfect 2 Cups Instant Pot white rice to serve underneath, or make another grain of your choice.

soy sauce

How to Make Instant Pot Spicy Honey Chicken Breast

Once everything is in the pot (minus the cornstarch) you just lock lid and pressure cook! Then do a quick pressure release once the beep goes off and enjoy the yumminess my friends. I start my rice before preparing this so everything is done at once. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  • Cut chicken breasts into large bite size chunks and cut onion into chunks.
  • Put chicken and onions into the Instant Pot or pressure cooker.
  • Mix all other ingredients together (except the cornstarch) well with a fork and pour on top of chicken.
  • Close the lid and steam valve and set Instant Pot to manual, pressure, high, 4 minutes.
  • Do a quick release and carefully lift lid.

If you want a thicker gravy / sauce put some of the hot sauce in a small bowl with the cornstarch and whisk together, then add back into the pot and stir. Set Instant Pot to saute, normal and let bubble for a few minutes. Allow to sit for a few minutes so the sauce thickens. We do the same with our Instant Pot sesame chicken and it works great.

Honey Sriracha Chicken Bowl

This has become a popular way of serving this deliciousness. Many serve this over rice but you could serve it with pressure cooker quinoa to add protein, or even over noodles. I would not cook the grains and this spicy chicken together as the texture isn’t as pleasing.

instant pot hawaiian chicken 2
Should you cook chicken breasts whole or cut up in a pressure cooker?

That depends on what I am making. If you want shredded chicken by all means leave them whole and shred once fork tender. If you are cooking chicken in sauce in Instant Pot it is best to cube boneless skinless breasts or thighs into bite size pieces so it can coat and soak up the sauce more.

Looking for more easy InstaPot recipes? We have a few more you have to try too like our Instant Pot Hawaiian chicken recipe that is so good that is also sweet and with diced meat cooked right in the sauce. Our pressure cooker apricot chicken is a family fave and much sweeter than either of these.

What to Serve With Honey Garlic Chicken Instant Pot

This spicy chicken is great served with Instant Pot broccoli to. It only takes 1 minute on high pressure! Keep in mind the sauce thickens in the last step when adding cornstarch. BUT will continue to thicken as it sits so just add a bit. Options to consider:

NO problem if you’d rather use boneless skinless diced chicken thighs instead of breasts. If you want to omit all of the heat by golly you can make it mild too. Just don’t add the Sriracha. Mushroom masala is a great side with this.

instant pot spicy honey chicken
A bowl of white rice topped with spicy honey chicken chunks in a rich brown sauce, garnished with sesame seeds and chopped green onions. An Instant Pot with a patterned cloth sits gracefully in the background.
4.69 from 35 votes

Spicy Honey Instant Pot Chicken

By The Typical Mom
This spicy honey Instant Pot chicken takes just 4 minutes to cook and comes out moist and full of flavor! Sweet and spicy chicken bites smothered in delicious sauce which we love atop a bed of rice. A great healthy pressure cooker dinner our whole family enjoys.
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 4 minutes
Total: 19 minutes
Servings: 6
Save this recipe!
Get this sent to your inbox, plus get new recipes from us every week!
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Equipment

  • 1 pressure cooker

Ingredients 

  • 4 chicken breasts, cut into bite size chunks
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp honey
  • 1 tbsp minced ginger
  • 1.5 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1/4 c soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp Sriracha, or more if you want it really spicy
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1/2 onion, sliced or diced
  • 1 tbsp sesame seeds, optional to top
  • 2 green onions, optional to top
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch

Instructions 

  • Cut chicken breasts into large bite size chunks and cut onion into chunks.
  • Put chicken and onions into the Instant Pot or pressure cooker.
  • Mix all other ingredients together (except the cornstarch) well with a fork and pour on top of chicken.
  • Close the lid and steam valve and set Instant Pot to manual, pressure, high, 4 minutes.
  • Do a quick release and carefully lift lid.
  • Put some of the hot sauce in a small bowl with the cornstarch and whisk together, then add back into the pot and stir.
  • Set Instant Pot to saute, normal and let bubble for a few minutes.
  • Allow to sit for a few minutes so the sauce thickens.
  • Serve spicy honey chicken over rice.

Video

Nutrition

Serving: 8oz, Calories: 155kcal, Carbohydrates: 15g, Protein: 17g, Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 48mg, Sodium: 696mg, Potassium: 338mg, Sugar: 11g, Vitamin A: 65IU, Vitamin C: 4mg, Calcium: 25mg, Iron: 0.9mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dinner, Entree, Main Course
Cuisine: American, Chinese
Tried this recipe?Mention @thetypical_mom or tag #thetypicalmom!
instant pot spicy honey chicken
instant pot honey chicken

About The Typical Mom

Justine is the creative mind behind The Typical Mom and The Typical Family on YouTube. She began blogging about easy recipes, budget friendly activities for kids, and fun family travel destinations in September 2012.

You May Also Like

4.69 from 35 votes (2 ratings without comment)

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

121 Comments

  1. I made this tonight in a skillet with frozen grilled chicken strips! It was delicious! Only took about 4 minutes to cook the chicken since it was already cooked and it was very tender. Love this recipe and will definitely fix it again! I will use my new IP next time with fresh chicken as called for in recipe. Wasn’t sure how to adjust it for the frozen grilled chicken.

  2. First time user and not sure if your calling for cubed cooked chicken or raw cubed chicken?

  3. I have everything but cornstarch. Trying not to go to the store. Is there something else to substitute for cornstarch? Thank you !

    1. Build a simple Roux…. small pan…Medium heat… 2Tbs butter 2Tbs flour…work it together and treat as cornstarch in recipe.
      Good luck!!

    1. you would have to add equal amounts of water but yes you can then instead of QR then NPR ten minutes.

      1. What does QR and NPR mean? And would you increase the cook time from 4 min to 10 min if you add the rice?

      2. QR means quick release the steam valve, NPR means natural release which means to not touch it at all and let steam come out on it’s own which takes quite a while. I haven’t added rice together with this as you’d need more liquid and 10 min. to me would dry out the chicken.

  4. I really love the combination of sweet and spicy taste, especially when cooking chicken. I only have Tabasco at home so I might use it to replace Sriracha. I also love slightly toasted sesame seeds. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

  5. I have an 8 qt I am trying this with for the first time using it…. I plan to use a little less chicken. The liquid is enough? I though you need one cup of liquid for the instant pot no matter what?

      1. Same amount of liquid as what? I am new to this and do I need to add chicken broth or water or not? The Instant Pot guide says all recipes should have 3 cups of liquid but I am not seeing this much liquid in any of the recipes. I have the Instant Pot 7 in 1 Duo 6 qt.

  6. The only ingredient I am missing is an onion (trying to avoid going to the grocery store). Do you think it would alter the taste too much if I do not include?

    1. I had the same question. Answer was not clear. I am sticking to recipe and hope it doesnโ€™t blow up

      1. Have never had even a near blow up experience so no worries about that….recipes are meant to be a base so if you don’t have onion then leave out. That isn’t a must but it is good.

      2. It wouldn’t blow up from not enough liquid. If there were a problem, it would be a burn warning.

        Chicken releases a lot of water as it cooks