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These Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken Bowls are a delicious and quick dinner that your entire family will love. Juicy chicken thighs are cooked in a sweet and savory sauce, and then combined with broccoli and quinoa for a complete meal that’s high in protein and packed full of flavor and nutrients.
This quick meal uses just a handful of ingredients and is great for the whole family or for meal prep lunches throughout the week. I love cooking chicken thighs in the pressure cooker, and these are made even better with the most amazing honey garlic sauce. It’s one of my favorite Instant Pot chicken thigh recipes, and I hope you love it too!
Where’s the Recipe?
Here at My Crazy Good Life we like to create delicious tasting recipes that require little effort. Whether you’re an experienced chef or new to cooking, we want this to be an easy meal for you to prepare.
In this article you’ll find information on each of the simple ingredients listed, as well as detailed Instant Pot cooking instructions, recipe and meal prep tips, and healthy eating plan calculations.
If you’d like to skip past all of the extra information and get right to cooking, simply scroll to the bottom of the page where you’ll find the Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken recipe card.
Ingredients in Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken
- Quinoa: I love using quinoa in place of white rice or brown rice because it is considered a complete protein source, which means that it provides all nine essential amino acids. It’s also a good source of antioxidants and minerals. I typically use white quinoa, but you can choose your favorite variety.
- Garlic: Fresh garlic cloves are essential to make the flavorful honey garlic sauce.
- Honey: Honey is one of my favorite sugar substitutes. It goes through less processing than white or brown sugar does and has trace amounts of vitamins and minerals.
- Coconut Aminos: Coconut aminos is one of my favorite things! It’s a great soy sauce substitute that, surprisingly, doesn’t taste like coconut. If you don’t have, or can’t find, coconut aminos you can use low sodium soy sauce or tamari.
- Chili Garlic Sauce: Chili garlic sauce is made with chili peppers, garlic, rice vinegar, and salt. It has a similar flavor to Sriracha, but is thicker. You can also use red pepper flakes in place of the sauce.
- Chicken: Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are what I use for this delicious recipe. I love instant pot chicken thighs, but you can use whole chicken breasts if you prefer.
- Broccoli: Broccoli is high in many nutrients, including fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, iron, and potassium. It’s also loaded with compounds that are believed to protect against cancer, can help lower cholesterol, and improve eye health.
How to Make Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken
- Spray the inner pot with olive oil cooking spray. Add the rinsed quinoa and 1 cup of water. Flatten the quinoa so it cooks more evenly.
- Close and lock the lid, then turn the pressure release valve to Sealing. Select Pressure Cook (high) and set the cook time for 1 minute. The pot will take a few minutes to come to pressure before it begins to cook.
- When the cooking time is complete, turn off the “Keep Warm” button if you have one and allow the pressure to natural release for 10 minutes before quick releasing any remaining pressure. Please see tips below to learn about Quick Release. Remove the quinoa from the Instant Pot and set aside.
- Combine the garlic, honey, coconut aminos, and chili garlic sauce in a small bowl.
- Spray the inner pot with olive oil cooking spray again. Place the chicken in the pot and pour the sauce over the chicken. Close and lock the lid, then turn the steam release handle to Sealing. Set the cook time for 12 minutes on High Pressure. When the cook time is complete, quick release the pressure and remove the lid. Transfer the cooked chicken to a cutting board and chop it into bite-sized pieces.
- Place the trivet in the pot and add the broccoli on top. It’s okay if some of the pieces fall through to the bottom of the pot.
- Close and lock the lid, then turn the steam release handle to Sealing. Press the Pressure Cook button (high pressure) and set the cook time for 1 minute. When the cook time is complete, do a Quick Release and then remove the lid. Use oven mitts to remove the trivet from the bottom of the instant pot, then add the diced chicken to the pot and stir together with the broccoli, making sure to completely coat the broccoli and chicken.
- To serve, place the cooked quinoa on a plate or bowl and top with the chicken and broccoli mixture.
Recipe Tips
- This recipe is great for meal prep! Store in individual serving size airtight container and keep in the fridge for up to 6 days, or the freezer for up to 2 months. To reheat, thaw the honey garlic chicken bowls, and then microwave each thawed serving for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
- Serve with your favorite toppings, such as sesame seeds, green onions, or sriracha sauce.
- Quick Pressure Release (or Manual Pressure Release) is when you move the Sealing Valve to the Vent position and hot steam shoots out of the pot. Natural Pressure Release is when you allow the pot to sit (do not move the Sealing Valve) and it slowly and naturally releases pressure – this takes a bit longer than a Quick Release but is beneficial for meat to retain its texture, for rice and grains to “unstick” from the bottom of the pot, and also allows a few extra minutes of cook time.
Healthy Eating Plans
21 Day Fix
These 21 Day Fix Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken Bowls are 1 1/2 Red Containers, 1 Green Container, and 1 Yellow Container per serving.
Entire recipe is 6 Red Containers, 4 Green Containers, and 4 Yellow Containers. I give you this information so it’s easier for you to re-calculate the container counts if you change something in the recipe.
Weight Watchers
11 Blue Plan Points | 11 Green Plan Points | 8 Purple Plan Points | 9 Points on the 2023 Plan
2B Mindset
This is a perfect 2B Mindset lunch recipe. If eating this for dinner, go ahead and serve without the quinoa, as it’s an FFC.
More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
- Healthy Kung Pao Chicken with a homemade hoison sauce is a delicious meal that feels like takeout.
- This Instant Pot Chicken Stir Fry is another easy chicken recipe that’s great for busy weeknights.
- Cauliflower Rice with Chicken is another easy Instant Pot recipe that’s low carb and great for meal prep!
- This easy recipe for Healthy Chicken Gyro Bowls can be made on the stove top, oven, or in an Instant Pot or slow cooker.
- Instant Pot Brown Rice Risotto with Mushrooms is an easy weeknight meal.
- This Healthy Drunken Noodles recipe is an easy stir fry noodle dish that your entire family will love
Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken
Equipment
- Instant Pot 6 qt
- Kitchen Knife
- Cutting Board
Ingredients
- ¾ cup dry quinoa rinsed
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos or reduced sodium soy sauce
- 2 tsp chili garlic sauce or 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 ½ lbs chicken thighs boneless, skinless
- 4 cups broccoli florets, chopped
Instructions
- Spray the inner pot with olive oil cooking spray. Add the rinsed quinoa and 1 cup of water to the inner pot. ¾ cup dry quinoa 1 cup water
- Close and lock the lid. Set the cook time for 1 minute (high pressure). When the cooking time is complete, allow the pressure to naturally release for 10 minutes before quick releasing any remaining pressure. Remove the quinoa and set aside.
- Combine the garlic, honey, coconut aminos, and chili garlic sauce in a small bowl and mix well. 1 tbsp garlic ¼ cup honey 2 tbsp coconut aminos 2 tsp chili garlic sauce
- Spray with olive oil cooking spray again. Place the chicken in the pot and pour the sauce over the chicken. 1 ½ lbs chicken thighs
- Close and lock the lid, and set the cook time for 12 minutes (high pressure). When the cook time is complete, quick release the pressure and remove the lid. Transfer the cooked chicken to a cutting board and chop into bite sized pieces.
- Place the trivet in the pot and add the broccoli. It's okay if some of the pieces fall through to the bottom of the pot. 4 cups broccoli
- Close and lock the lid, and set the cook time for 1 minute. When the cook time is complete, use a quick pressure release and then remove the lid.
- Use oven mitts to remove the trivet from the bottom of the instant pot, then add the diced chicken and stir together with the broccoli, making sure to coat the broccoli and chicken in the remaining sauce
- To serve, place the cooked quinoa on a plate or bowl and top with the chicken and broccoli mixture.
Notes
- This recipe is great for meal prep! Store in an individual serving size airtight container and keep in the fridge for up to 6 days, or the freezer for up to 2 months. To reheat, thaw the honey garlic chicken bowls, and then microwave each thawed serving for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
- Serve with your favorite toppings, such as sesame seeds, green onions, or sriracha sauce.
Nutrition
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