Instant Pot Chicken Lo Mein Zoodles

This Healthy Chicken Lo Mein recipe is easy to make in your Instant Pot or on the stove top. Chicken Lo Mein is a Chinese chicken recipe, and this one uses zoodles (zucchini noodles) instead of traditional lo mein noodles or rice.

Using zoodles is a great way to add more veggies to your diet and reduce carbs. This is an easy recipe to modify with more vegetables, or to use tofu instead of chicken.

It’s a quick one pot meal that it perfect for busy weeknights when you don’t have a lot of time to cook. The prep and cooking time is about 30 minutes.

This recipe is one of my favorites to order when I’m visiting Chinese restaurants (the other is Chicken Chow Mein). With the simple savory sauce and fresh veggies, it’s a delicious dinner and the leftovers make a perfect lunch.

Where’s the recipe?

Here at My Crazy Good Life, we write our recipes in a simple and easy to read format. I like to provide a lot of tips and details, and always include special diet information. If you’d like to skip over all that, just scroll down to the bottom of the post for the printable recipe for this Instant Pot Chicken Lo Mein Zoodles.

Ingredients in Chicken Lo Mein Zoodles

• Olive Oil: I prefer to use olive, coconut, or avocado oil when I cook. I stay away from highly processed oils like vegetable oil.
• Ginger: Fresh ginger has an authentic Asian flavor that will make this recipe amazing.
• Garlic: Fresh is best here. If you struggle to keep fresh garlic in the fridge, look at buying prepackaged minced garlic.
• Onions
• Boneless Chicken Breast: You can use chicken thighs if you’d like, or swap out the meat for extra firm tofu.
• Bell Pepper: Bell peppers are high in vitamin C and other antioxidants. The color for this recipe doesn’t matter, but I do like to use a colorful medley of vegetables when I can. Red peppers are always a must for me.
• Celery: I love the crunch that this adds to any meal.
• Carrots
• Mushrooms: Did you know that mushrooms are high in antioxidants, vitamin D and fiber?
• Soy Sauce: I love to use Coconut Aminos but any other low sodium soy sauce will do. Liquid aminos works as well, but is very high in sodium.
• Rice Vinegar: If you don’t have rice vinegar, you can use regular white vinegar.
• Honey: If you don’t have honey on hand, you can use maple syrup. You can also leave this out if you don’t have anything.
• Zucchini: Zucchini is very filling and contains calcium, iron, and antioxidants. Using zucchini instead of noodles will make this recipe low carb.
• Toppings: Totally optional, but it’s fun to serve topped with sesame seeds or green onions.

Optional extra fresh vegetables to add:

Adding lots of veggies to this recipe is recommended! You might consider doubling the sauce ingredients (coconut aminos, rice vinegar, and honey) if you start adding a lot.

• snow peas
• stir fry veggies
• snap peas
• bean sprouts
• shelled edamame beans

Recipe Tips

• I don’t normally add salt and pepper to my recipes. Most healthy eating plants stay away from added salt and I like to allow readers to decide how much they’d like to add to their meals.
• Chop your veggies ahead of time for an even quicker weeknight dinner!
• If using tofu instead of chicken, I’d season and saute the tofu ahead of time and add it in with the zucchini at the end of the recipe.
• If you’d like to use noodles in this recipe, I’d cook them separately and use a teaspoon or two of sesame oil after they’re cooked to keep them from sticking.
• If you’d like to thicken the sauce for this recipe, you can add 1 tablespoon brown rice flour to the soy sauce mixture.

How to make Instant Pot Chicken Lo Mein Zoodles

Stovetop Instructions for Chicken Lo Mein Zoodles

1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium-high heat. Sauté the garlic, ginger, and onions in the olive oil.
2. Add the chicken to the skillet. Let it brown for 2-3 minutes.
3. Mix in the bell peppers, celery, carrots, mushrooms, coconut aminos, rice vinegar, and honey.
4. Cover the skillet and reduce the heat to medium low. Let the chicken and vegetables cook for 7-10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots have softened (if the carrots are softened, the other vegetables will be cooked as well).
5. Remove the lid and add zucchini noodles, and cook for an additional 2-5 minutes until the zucchini noodles soften and the sauce thickens. It’s very easy to overcook zucchini noodles–keep an eye on them!

Healthy Eating Plans

21 Day Fix/Portion Fix:

• Entire Recipe: 6 red containers, 9.5 green containers, 1 oil teaspoon, 3 sweetener teaspoons. I give you the counts for the entire recipe so it’s easier for you to recalculate if you change something.
• Per Serving (each serving will be about 1 3/4 cups): 2 green containers, 1 1/4 red container, negligible oil teaspoon (I don’t even count it), 3/4 sweetener teaspoon.

2B Mindset:

• This makes a great dinner option. If you want to make it for lunch you can add in the FFC of your choosing to balance out your plate.

Weight Watchers:

• 1 Serving (about 1 3/4 cups): 2 Blue Plan Points | 5 Green Plan Points | 2 Purple Plan Points | 2023 Plan: 3

More healthy meals based on your favorite Chinese food

• Veggie Spring Rolls with Easy Peanut Sauce
• Egg Roll Cups
• Instant Pot Tofu Pad Thai
• Instant Pot Pineapple Fried Rice
• Healthy Egg Drop Soup

5 from 3 ratings

click the stars to rate!

Instant Pot Chicken Lo Mein Zoodles Recipe

Created by: Becca Ludlum

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 11 minutes mins

Total Time 26 minutes mins

Servings 4 servings

Print

Pin

Rate

Instant Pot Chicken Lo Mein Zoodles are an easy recipe! Packed with veggies, this 30 minute meal is low carb, gluten free, and delicious!

Equipment

• Instant Pot 6 qt
• Kitchen Knife
• Spiralizer

Ingredients 

• ▢ 1 tsp olive oil
• ▢ 2 tsp ginger fresh and grated
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic minced
• ▢ 1 cup onions sliced (about 1 small onion)
• ▢ 1.5 lbs chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces
• ▢ 1/2 cup bell pepper sliced
• ▢ 1/2 cup celery chopped (about 2 stalks)
• ▢ 1/2 cup carrots about 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• ▢ 1 cup mushrooms
• ▢ 3 tbsp coconut aminos or low sodium tamari or soy sauce
• ▢ 1 tbsp rice vinegar rice
• ▢ 1 tbsp honey
• ▢ 6 cups zucchini cut into noodles, about 3 zucchini
• ▢ 1 tbsp brown rice flour optional

Instructions

Instant Pot

• Turn the Instant Pot to sauté mode. Sauté the garlic, ginger, and onions in the olive oil.
• Add the chicken to the Instant Pot. Let it brown for 2-3 minutes. This will prevent the chicken from sticking together.
• Turn off the Instant Pot. Mix in the bell peppers, celery, carrots, mushrooms, coconut aminos, rice vinegar, and honey.
• Close the lid and turn the pressure valve to Sealing. Pressure cook on high using the “manual” or “pressure cook” button for 2 minutes. Release the pressure by turning the pressure valve with the end of a spoon.
• Add the zucchini noodles. Mix them in so they are covered with sauce. Gently close the lid (don't secure the lid, we don't want the pot coming to pressure again) and let the noodles sit in the warm Instant Pot for 1-4 minutes to soften. Over-cooking zoodles can turn them to mush, so keep a close eye on them!
• Remove the lid, turn the Instant Pot to sauté and mix in the rice flour. Mix the rice flour for 1-2 minutes until the sauce thickens.

Stove Top

• Heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat. Sauté the garlic, ginger, and onions in the olive oil.
• Add the chicken to the skillet. Let it brown for 2-3 minutes.
• Mix in the bell peppers, celery, carrots, mushrooms, coconut aminos, rice vinegar, and honey.
• Cover the skillet and reduce the heat to medium low. Let the chicken and vegetables cook for 7-10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots have softened (if the carrots are softened, the other vegetables will be cooked as well).
• Remove the lid and add zucchini noodles, and cook for an additional 2-5 minutes until the zucchini noodles soften and the sauce thickens. It's very easy to overcook the zucchini noodles–keep an eye on them!

Slow Cooker

• Heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat. Sauté the garlic, ginger, and onions in the olive oil.
• Add the chicken to the skillet. Let it brown for 2-3 minutes. This will prevent the chicken from sticking together in the slow cooker.
• Transfer the chicken and onions to the slow cooker. Add the bell peppers, celery, carrots, mushrooms, coconut aminos, rice vinegar, and honey.
• Place the lid on the slow cooker. Cook on high heat for 2-3 hours or low heat for 4-5 hours.
• During the last 15 minutes of cooking mix in the zucchini noodles and brown rice flour. Cover and let the zoodles cook and the sauce thicken. Serve still hot.

Video

Notes

21 Day Fix/Portion Fix:

• Entire Recipe: 6 red containers, 9.5 green containers, 1 oil teaspoon, 3 sweetener teaspoons. I give you the counts for the entire recipe so it’s easier for you to recalculate if you change something.
• Per Serving (each serving will be about 1 3/4 cups): 2 green containers, 1 1/4 red container, negligible oil teaspoon (I don’t even count it), 3/4 sweetener teaspoon.

2B Mindset:

This makes a great dinner option. If you want to make it for lunch you can add in the FFC of your choosing to balance out your plate.

Weight Watchers:

1 Serving (about 1 3/4 cups): 2 Blue Plan Points | 5 Green Plan Points | 2 Purple Plan Points | 3 2022/2023 Plan Points

Recipe Tips:

• I don’t normally add salt and pepper to my recipes. Most healthy eating plants stay away from added salt and I like to allow readers to decide how much they’d like to add to their meals.
• Chop your veggies ahead of time for an even quicker weeknight dinner!
• If using tofu instead of chicken, I’d season and saute the tofu ahead of time and add it in with the zucchini at the end of the recipe.
• If you’d like to use noodles in this recipe, I’d cook them separately and use a teaspoon or two of sesame oil after they’re cooked to keep them from sticking.

 

Nutrition

Calories: 298kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 40g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 109mg | Sodium: 238mg | Potassium: 1393mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 3737IU | Vitamin C: 65mg | Calcium: 64mg | Iron: 2mg

Make This Recipe?

Make sure to follow on Pinterest @bludlum and on Instagram @beccaludlum