With sports resuming this spring and kids back in school, our life has gotten a whole lot busier! I have lots of meals that can be done in 30 minutes or less, but sometimes even that is too much time. On nights like that, your instant pot comes in handy. Recipes that cook in nine minutes like this instant pot orange chicken are exactly what you need. Serve it with roasted broccoli and rice for a complete meal, but also feel free to use frozen vegetables and pre-cooked rice if you don’t have the time for anything else.
I use chicken thighs for this orange chicken recipe, but you can use chicken breasts if that’s all you have on hand. Or a mix of the two! Cut them up into pieces that are roughly the same size and let the instant pot work its magic. Most of the ingredients in this recipe are pantry staples for me: things like olive oil, garlic, and soy sauce. If you don’t typically have orange juice or whole oranges on hand, that may be the only thing you need to add to your grocery list to make this easy dinner happen!
To make this easy instant pot orange chicken recipe, heat some olive oil in your instant pot and add the garlic and cut chicken. Cook for a few minutes until the chicken begins to brown, then add soy sauce, orange juice, honey, rice vinegar, salt, pepper, orange zest, and ginger. Add the lid to the instant pot, set to high pressure for 9 minutes, and dinner is cooked! To thicken the sauce, I like to remove the chicken from the instant pot and add a cornstarch slurry. A few minutes of whisking with the instant pot set to “sauté” gives you a nice thick sauce to return the chicken to. Serve over rice and dinner is done!
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 6-8 chicken thighs, cut in 1-2 inch pieces
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup orange juice
- 1 tbsp. honey
- 1 tbsp. rice vinegar
- ¼ tsp. ground black pepper
- ½ tsp. salt
- Zest of 1 large orange
- 1 tsp. ground dried ginger
- 2½ tbsp. cornstarch
- Set instant pot to "sauté" and heat olive oil. Add garlic and chicken thighs and cook until the chicken begins to brown.
- Add soy sauce, orange juice, honey, vinegar, black pepper, salt, orange zest, and ginger, Place the lid on the instant pot and set to high pressure for 9 minutes. Allow to naturally release or manually release when done cooking.
- Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together 2½ tbsp. cornstarch with 2 tbsp. water. Pour cornstarch slurry into the instant pot and set to "sauté." Whisk and allow the mixture to thicken, then return the chicken to the pot.
- Serve over rice, if desired.
- Enjoy!
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