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.
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)
Table of Contents
- Honey Instant Pot Chicken
- Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken
- Instant Pot Spicy Honey Chicken
- Spicy Honey Ninja Foodi Chicken
- Spicy Honey Garlic Chicken Ingredients
- How to Make Instant Pot Spicy Honey Chicken Breast
- Honey Sriracha Chicken Bowl
- What to Serve With Honey Garlic Chicken Instant Pot
- Spicy Honey Instant Pot Chicken Recipe
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:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should know how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
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!
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.
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.
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. ๐
- 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.
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.
Spicy Honey Instant Pot Chicken
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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Do you have a recommendation on how to modify for a crock pot instead of an instant pot?
Hi! My family loved this. Has anyone tried it with pork tenderloin pieces instead of chicken? Trying to use up some pork ?
I believe that would taste incredible too, just dice them up like the chicken.
For the boneless chicken breast, do you have to cook them prior to putting them into the pot? Or do you jus let put them in raw with the sauce & cook
For 4 minutes and the chicken comes out completely cooked?
Made this tonight for dinner. Didn’t have onion, minced ginger or garlic so used ground ginger and 3 Tbs of granulated garlic instead. I thought it was a bit spicy, but the husband said this recipe is a keeper!
So glad!
I am trying this recipe today, but want to leave the siracha out for my toddler….anything else that you recommend mixing with the cornstarch or should I just use water
Either use water, chicken broth, or some of the hot liquid in the pot to whisk in a small bowl with cornstarch until smooth. Then dump in to thicken. ๐
Thank you! It was delicious, everyone loved it! Will definitely make again ๐
So glad it was a hit.
I used some sesame oil and a little bit of water. Really loved the heightened taste of the sesame.
Loved this. Next time I will steam some broccoli and add when finished.
4 Tablespoons.,85 grams or 3 oz.
I just got my IP for Christmas and this was my first try at it. Family of 5 says… “Winner winner chicken dinner!” I’m the picky water of the group and man this is good! Thank you so much! I look forward to trying more of your recipes!
OH Yeah!!
Ok but kinda bland. I used 2 tbsp of sriracha and there was no heat at all. Need to double the sauce and add more sriracha.
How long do I keep in IP if chicken is frozen?
Pieces would need to be precut into bite size pieces beforehand, I wouldn’t adjust time but of course check to ensure it is cooked thru when done.
Can I use boneless thighs for this recipe?.
Thanks
RH
Such a yummy dinner! My husband and family LOVED it! I added a cup of water to make sure there was enough liquid. I left out the Worcester sauce and sesame seeds and also used a Tbs onion powder and 1/4th tsp ground ginger as replacements for fresh onion and ginger. Next time Iโm definitely doubling it! ? SO yummy!!!