For busy weeknights, cooking with the Instant Pot is a good idea to keep dinners mostly hands-off and easy. This Instant Pot honey garlic chicken is a great make-ahead meal prep recipe. We provide slow cooker instructions too, so you can make this recipe either way!
Meal Prepping Over The Weekend
It’s no secret, we are chronic meal planners. Both Justin and I are very routine and habit based, and we love having our meals all planned out in advance, shopped for and prepped to the extent we have time. It just makes the week go so much smoother, and makes us feel like we are able to just enjoy one another in the evenings rather than hustling to figure out what’s for dinner and then run to grab ingredients, etc. By the time we get to Monday, it’s all taken care of and pretty much smooth sailing for the week, at least when it comes to food! Recipes like this Instant Pot honey garlic chicken are perfect for meal prep because you can easily turn it into a lunch or dinner as needed during the busy week.
Lunch Or Dinner – It Doesn’t Even Matter
We love the versatility of this honey garlic chicken. It’s super easy to pair with just about any veggie, greens and even plain white rice if you tolerate it (or cauliflower rice). Here’s an example of a simple way to use it as the protein in a pretty typical bowl at our house – use mixed leafy greens (or any greens of your liking), some pickled veggies (we used green beans from Justin’s mom) and avocado with that yummy Everything But The Bagel seasoning from Trader Joe’s! If you haven’t tried that seasoning yet, just do it! You will wonder how you ever lived without it! We ran out of sauerkraut, otherwise I would have added a big pile of that on there too, but we ran out…so you know real life stuff. You can use whatever greens and veggies you have on hand. Leftover roasted veggies would be great, too!
Instant Pot Or Crockpot
We love our Instant Pot since it cuts down on cooking times, but this honey garlic chicken can also be made in the crockpot just as easily. Use whichever you have or prefer. Either way, you will end up with delicious shredded chicken that you can use to pair with whatever veggies, greens or sides you prefer! I’m thinking now that it would be a great one to stuff sweet potatoes or squash with. I’m making a mental note to try that out real soon!
More Instant Pot protein options
- INSTANT POT WHOLE30 PULLED PORK WITH BBQ SAUCE (PALEO + WHOLE30)
- BEEF BARBACOA (PALEO, WHOLE30 + KETO)
- CHICKEN TINGA (PALEO, WHOLE30 + KETO)
- INSTANT POT SLOPPY JOE’S (PALEO + WHOLE30)
Your Turn To Try Our Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken
Go ahead and bust out either your Instant Pot or Crockpot and make this honey garlic chicken! Then, take a photo and show us what you paired it with. Tag us on Instagram @realsimplegood, so we can see! Also, let us know what you think by leaving a comment below. And make sure to give us a follow if you don’t already – let’s stay connected!
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Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken Recipe (Paleo, GF + Refined Sugar-Free)
Ingredients
- 3 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1/2 cup coconut aminos
- 1/4 cup raw honey
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated on a microplane
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 green onions, diced, (the white and green parts are used in separate steps – green parts to garnish when you serve)
Instructions
- Place chicken in the bottom of the instant pot.
- In a bowl whisk together the coconut aminos, honey, fish sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, garlic and the white parts of the green onions.
- Pour the sauce mixture on top of the chicken. Cook in the instant pot on the manual setting for 22 minutes. Alternatively, you can cook in the crockpot on high for 3 hours or on low for 6 hours.
- Manually release the instant pot. Once the pressure has released, remove the lid and shred the chicken with two forks.
If I use bone-in chicken thighs – does the cook time increase?
The cooking time in the recipe should be sufficient for bone-in thighs. Enjoy!
My 7 year old son told me to let everyone know he likes it! 👍
Haha! We love hearing that! Thanks for coming back to let us know how it went. 🙂
Soooo Gooood!!! Thanks for this great recipe. Turned out great. Whole family loved it. Will make often. Good over rice, if not doing AIP or Paleo. I added a splash of sesame oil (AIP reintro) in my bowl at the end with the scallions – so good! Super easy to make. Def recommend.
So happy to hear you enjoyed this one so much! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a review. 🙂
Delicious!! Will absolutely be making it again and sharing this recipe with family and friends!
So glad it was a hit! Thanks so much for coming back to add your rating/review! 🙂
This was such a quick recipe that was loved by my whole family. My husband is slightly obsessed with it! I served it on roasted broccoli and green beans. AMAZING! This will definitely be in the constant rotation.
Thanks Lacey, glad you all enjoyed this one!
Yesterday I realized I forgot to marinate the chicken for dinner so looked online and found this recipe – had all the ingredients (well the ones I could eat) and so decided to give it try… I plopped in the frozen chicken breasts (4) and then the sauce ingredients (subbing ACV for white vin, omitting the sesame oil (AIP not allowed) and excluded the green onions (didn’t have on hand)) into the IP and an hour later I had dinner on the table and everybody LOVED it!! I shredded the chicken and mixed into the sauce and served with roasted broccoli and caulifower – easiest dinner ever!!
So glad this recipe worked for you Heather!
So good! I make this one regularly – the flavors never get old. Plus, you can modify it slightly to focus on different flavors. Super good with brussel sprouts!
One of my favorite go-to’s!!
This recipe is AMAZING! Honestly, it might be my favorite. I could eat it everyday, can’t wait to make it again!
I have made this recipe a dozen times in a handful of months. It’s incredible, easy and versatile. I have also shared with so many people who concur it’s a WINNER! It does leave some extra liquid behind as a previous poster noted, but after we shred it, we just put it back int pot to soak up the goodness and it enhances the flavor! Leftovers are even better.
Really enjoyed this.
This recipe is one of my go-tos. My husband and my 4 year-old both love it.
One of our new faves! So much flavor, and because it’s done in the crock pot, it’s super easy too! Just put it in and walk away! This one will be in our rotation for a while!
That’s great to hear Liz, glad to hear it will be in the rotation.
Would substituting liquid aminos for coconut aminos be okay?
Liquid aminos are much saltier so you’d need to use only 1-2 tbsp instead of 1/4 cup.
Did I miss something? It says you’ll use both parts of the onions, but I only see where it uses the white part.
Thanks.
They’re to add on top when you serve! Added a note in the recipe card. Thanks!
We love this recipe! So so easy and full of flavor. It’s even my 12 year old’s favorite meal currently 🙂 WIN!
Thanks for a delicious, healthy, and simple recipe!
Yay! That definitely sounds like a win! Thanks so much for giving our recipe a try and for taking the time to come back and share! We love hearing how it went and that your kiddo enjoys it! 🙂
This was fabulous. Thank you!
However I find the the instant pot recipes call for such huge amounts.
I’m a complete novice with this. I have half the amount of chicken (1.5lbs), so I’ll halve the amount of ingredients and do I halve the amount of cooking time? Or is this where I press the poultry button and it calculates it accordingly?
I’ve no idea how to go ‘off piste’ with cooking times… any help would be greatly appreciated
Katy – you can cut the recipe ingredients in half and cook the chicken for 15 minutes at high pressure with a quick release (for 1.5 lbs of chicken).
Also, I’m confused, are we supposed to shred the chicken? It doesn’t say to do so in the recipe. I put the chicken thighs in whole (the way the came at the store).
What does ‘manual’ release mean? Are we supposed to do instant release or natural? Thanks in advance!
Hi there! Manual release is the same as instant release, so once the IP timer goes off release the pressure. Also, please see step #4 in the instructions. You shred the chicken once it has cooked in the IP right before serving. Hope that helps!
Just finished this in the instant pot. Super easy recipe and fantastic chicken! I added half julienned green pepper and half a brown onion cut the same way, and sprinkled some coarse sea salt and fresh ground black pepper so it would look like I knew what I was doing. I strained it after deboning and shredding the chicken, made one more pass for cartilage or bone pieces, and it’s soaking in the leftover sauce – ready to go for tomorrow.
Thanks for the recipe!
Jonathan
Sounds delicious! Thanks for coming back and letting us know :).
This is so good! But I think 2 tbsp of fish sauce is a bit excessive- atleast it was for me!! Next time I will do only 1 tbsp. Otherwise its super good! Thank you for sharing!!
So glad you liked it! And yes, of course adjust as needed to match your preferences! Thanks so much for trying our recipe and taking the time to come back and share how it went! 🙂
Fantastic! Make this, you will not be dissappointed. Added a little siracha when serving. Love it, adding to our favroites.
Excellent! So glad you love it! Thanks so much for giving our recipe a try and coming back to share! 🙂
I just made this dish and found the liquid didn’t cook in very well. There is plenty of liquid but the chicken is somewhat bland. The sauce has a great taste but I would have loved for it to cook into the chicken better. I’m wondering if perhaps it needed to cook longer— in the recipe above, the cook time is listed as 35 minutes up top but in step 3, the cook time is written as 22 minutes, which do you usually follow?
Thank for your sharing!
We noted the cook time as 35 minutes because it takes a little over 10 minutes for the IP to come to full pressure. Setting it for 22 minutes should be fine. Sorry to hear that your chicken didn’t turn out as you would have liked. Did you shred the chicken in the IP? That’s what we do and we also spoon some of the juices from the IP onto the chicken when serving. That gives it some extra flavor. You could also marinate the chicken in the sauce if you’d like to “set in” the flavor better. Thanks for trying our recipe and leaving a comment!
This was delicious! I didn’t have fish sauce so I used oyster sauce instead but it was still fantastic to me! Next time I’ll try it your way, with fish sauce. Thank you for sharing!
What do you pair it with? I’m new to Paleo and love new ideas!
We usually just eat this over some greens and maybe some kraut. You could also pair it with some roasted veggies or eat it in a lettuce shell as a taco. Check out some of our side dish recipes here:
https://realsimplegood.com/category/sides/
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for giving it a try and leaving a comment.
This is fantastic! Makes quite a bit more than I needed since it’s just two of us, but we noshed on it for lunch for days. I would happily serve this for company.
That’s great to hear! So glad you guys enjoyed it! We love making it for the two of us as well just to have something on hand in the fridge for lunches/leftovers. Thanks so much for trying this one out! 🙂