Instant Pot Honey Bourbon Chicken Recipe

Instant Pot Honey Bourbon Chicken is a quick and easy recipe that makes flavorful restaurant-quality bourbon chicken at home!

If you’d never had bourbon chicken, you’re in for a treat! This recipe makes tender chicken in a flavorful sauce.

This Instant Pot honey bourbon chicken makes a quick and easy weeknight meal. The entire dish takes less than 40 minutes to make, and it makes a great freezer meal or meal for weekly meal prep.

Ingredients and substitutions

• Soy sauce: I like to use lite or reduced-sodium soy sauce to better control the saltiness of the sauce.
• Honey: Feel free to adjust the amount of honey to your taste. The sauce is sweet but not overly sweet.
• Ketchup
• Bourbon: If you don’t have bourbon, you can use whisky. Apple juice makes a great alcohol-free substitute.
• Sesame oil: Sesame oil adds a bit of flavor to the sauce, but if there are allergy concerns, you can use vegetable oil or olive oil instead.
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Sriracha: The sauce isn’t spicy, but the Sriracha helps to add a little balance to the sauce. Feel free to add more if you’d like some heat.
• Chicken thighs: I like to use chicken thighs in this recipe because they stay moist while they cook. If you’d like to use chicken breast, you can. You’ll need to reduce the cooking time to about 7-8 minutes.
• Cornstarch: You can add more or less depending on how thick you’d like the sauce to be.

How to make Instant Pot honey bourbon chicken

Step 1: Whisk the soy sauce, honey, ketchup, bourbon, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and Sriracha together in the Instant Pot inner pot.

Step 2: Add the chicken thighs, and toss to coat.

Step 3: Lock and seal the lid. Make sure that the pressure release valve is turned to sealing.

Step 4: Cook on manual high pressure for 10 minutes, or until the chicken has reached 165F.
Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, and the carefully release the remaining pressure by turning the pressure release valve to venting.

Step 5: Remove the chicken from cooking liquid and either chop or shred. Set aside the chicken.

Step 6: In a small bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons of the cornstarch with 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid.

Step 7: Once smooth and well-combined, add the cornstarch mixture to the cooking liquid and stir in.

Step 8: Press cancel and then sauté. Bring the cooking liquid to a boil, stirring regularly. Let it cook until thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Press cancel.

Step 9: Stir in the cooked chicken and serve garnished with sliced green onion and sesame seeds, if desired.

Freezer meal directions

To freeze

To make this a freezer meal, stir the first 8 ingredients, up to the chicken thighs, together in a medium bowl. Add the sauce to a resealable freezer bag or freezer-safe container.

Add the chicken thighs. Freeze.

To use

Thaw and use as directed. You may find that you need to add an additional 1-2 minutes to the cooking time depending on whether or not it’s 100% thawed or not.

To use from frozen, add the frozen mixture to the inner pot. Cook for about 15-20 minutes. You may find that you need to add an additional tablespoon of cornstarch to help thicken up the sauce.

Recipe FAQs

Serving suggestions

Honey bourbon chicken is great over rice! You can serve it with steamed white rice or brown rice or even fried rice. It also goes well with steamed broccoli, snow peas, or snap peas.

Storage

Any leftover chicken should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The chicken keeps well and will keep for up to 4 days when properly stored in the fridge.

More Instant Pot chicken recipes!

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