Instant Pot teriyaki chicken made with tender pieces of white meat simmered in a flavorful Japanese-inspired sauce. This tasty meal is ready to eat in 30 minutes or less using a pressure cooker. Serve alongside rice and vegetables for a complete dinner solution.
There is one Japanese dish that my family can’t get enough of, and that’s teriyaki chicken. Sliced pieces of tender chicken breast drizzled with a sticky, sweet and savory sauce is undeniably satisfying. It’s a go-to item that we always order when dining out, until now. I’ve created an easy Instant pot version that requires minimal effort to make, with big bold flavors.
The trickiest part about using a pressure cooker is thoroughly cooking the chicken without drying it out. The solution is cooking whole tender breasts to keep the meat juicy. The lean protein simmers in a homemade teriyaki sauce that makes the flavors pop! Beware, you’ll want to add it to everything.
Once you make this meal once, there’s a good chance it’ll be put into the weekly dinner rotation because it’s just that good. Restaurant quality meal prepared in your kitchen!
Cooking lean chicken breasts in the Instant Pot under elevated pressures and temperatures can be a challenge. I initially tested this recipe using the saute function to get some browning on the surface to develop more flavor and texture. It’s a process I often do for other chicken breast recipes. However, once the chicken was pressure-cooked, it became dry and stringy. Instead, to keep the chicken succulent, I opted to follow this process:
How to make instant pot teriyaki chicken
- Add the chicken and sauce together in the pot.
- Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes.
- Immediately “quick release” the pressure to prevent overcooking.
- Allow chicken to rest 5 to 10 minutes before slicing to account for carryover cooking.
Despite not browning the surface of the chicken before pressure cooking, simmering the poultry in the teriyaki sauce infused a lot of flavors while preventing it from drying out. Win, win! Chicken thighs can also be used for this recipe if you prefer dark meat.
Teriyaki sauce is a favorite to add flavor to any meat or vegetable dish instantly. The good news, it’s made with simple pantry ingredients.
Homemade teriyaki sauce
- Soy sauce
- Honey
- Rice vinegar
- Mirin rice wine
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Cornstarch
The combination of umami flavors from the fermented soybeans balanced with honey for sweetness clings to your taste buds. The aromatic ginger and garlic flavors infuse into the sauce, adding earthy notes.
A splash of acidity from vinegar and rice wine elevates the taste intensity of each ingredient for a heightened experience with each bite. A cornstarch slurry is added at the very end of cooking acts as a thickening agent, allowing the sauce to cling to the chicken surface.
This teriyaki chicken is one of the easiest and quickest recipes I’ve made so far in my electric pressure cooker. If you’re new to using the multi-cooker, check out my Instant Pot guide for the basics of how this device works.
The cooked chicken breasts can be sliced or even shredded, with some sauce drizzled on top and extra on the side. I like to serve this dish with fragrant jasmine rice, brown rice, or for a low carb option, cauliflower rice or broccoli rice. Teamed up with some healthy vegetables, this is a complete meal to provide nourishment after a long day.
More Instant Pot recipes
How to correctly add a thickening agent to a sauce
Dry cornstarch powder should not be added directly to a hot simmering sauce. That will create a clumpy product. Instead, mix the cornstarch in room temperature or cold water. The slurry will allow the starches to more easily go into the hot liquid, absorb the water, swell and thicken the sauce. Make sure to continuously stir when adding in the thickening agent to help it stay separate and disperse properly.
Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, 4 pieces
- 1 ¾ cups water, divided
- ⅔ cup soy sauce
- ¾ cup honey
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons mirin rice wine, optional
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons minced ginger
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons green onion, thinly sliced
- ½ teaspoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- Add chicken breast to the Instant Pot.
- In a medium-sized bowl whisk together 1 ½ cups water, soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, mirin rice wine, garlic, and ginger. Add this teriyaki sauce to the Instant Pot.
- Make sure that the release valve is in the "Sealing" position.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, turn and lock.
- Press the "Manual" button on the Instant Pot on high pressure, and then set the timer to 10 minutes using the "+" or "-" buttons. It will take about 10 minutes for the pot to heat and build up pressure. You will see some steam release from the lid, and then the time will start on the display.
- Once the display indicates "On" and begins the countdown at "10", the Instant Pot will beep when the cycle is complete.
- Cover the steam release handle with a towel to avoid splattering. Carefully quick-release the pressure by sliding the steam release handle to the "Venting" position, releasing all of the steam until the float valve drops down.
- Carefully open the lid. Press the "Keep Warm/ Cancel" button.
- Remove chicken and transfer to a clean plate, rest 5 to 10 minutes before slicing.
- In a small bowl whisk together the cornstarch and ¼ cup of water to make a slurry.
- Press "saute" on the "more" setting.
- Once the teriyaki sauce begins to rapidly simmer, gradually add in the cornstarch slurry, constantly whisking.
- Cook and whisk the sauce until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, 60 to 90 seconds.
- Slice chicken, drizzle teriyaki sauce on top and garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.
Equipment
Notes
- Serve teriyaki chicken with jasmine rice, brown rice, cauliflower rice, or broccoli rice.
- Chicken thighs can be substituted for chicken breasts.
- If substituting cornstarch for arrowroot powder, use 3 ½ tablespoons of arrowroot powder mixed with ¼ cup water.
- MAKE IT PALEO: Use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce. Omit the rice wine. Use arrowroot powder instead of cornstarch. Substitute pure maple syrup instead of honey.
- MAKE IT GLUTEN-FREE: Use coconut aminos or gluten-free tamari instead of soy sauce.
Nutrition Facts
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000-calorie diet. All nutritional information is based on estimated third-party calculations. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods, and portion sizes per household.
Cassie says
Quick, easy and delicious! Our family really enjoyed this one and I’ll be making again
Jessica Gavin says
Thrilled to hear that the family enjoyed the chicken teriyaki, Cassie!
Carlene says
Delicious!
A couple of notes — first, instruction #7 is essential. Do not let the towel slip. Not even for one little second. Take it from me. Also, “splatter” is probably not the word you are looking for. I found “spray,” “spew” or “erupt” to be more accurate. It is almost 10 pm, and I have finally finished cleaning up the tsunami of teriyaki sauce from top to bottom of my kitchen.
Second, I’m not sure why this happened, but it took well over a half hour before enough steam built up to actually start cooking and counting down the 10 minutes. This would have been a quicker recipe in the oven, but, as I said above, it was delicious.
Thanks for posting the 12 recipes! I plan to make them all to finally master my Instant Pot. I bought it over a year ago, thinking that it would change my life. I’m still hoping!
Jessica Gavin says
Thank you for your feedback, Carlene! Sometimes a greater amount of liquid takes longer to build steam in the instant pot when it’s cool. I can’t wait to hear about what pressure cooker recipes you make next!
Kelly says
I want to use just one pound chicken, can I just half all the ingredients? 🙂
Jessica Gavin says
Yes, I think it would be other to halve the other ingredients. You typically want at least 1 cup of liquid in the instant pot.
Andrew Hamblen says
Would I be able to substitute the chicken for beef? If so, what would the cook time be?
Connie D says
I was wondering if I can put the chicken and sauce in the pot and let it marinate for 30 mins to an hour beforehand?
If I am pressed for time can I use my favorite bottled teriyaki sauce mix half and half with water or less and still thicken it with the cornstarch slurry at the end?
I am trying the recipe for dinner today.
Thank you.
Jessica Gavin says
Yes, you can marinate the chicken in the sauce before it cooks. I think you can use your bottles sauce if you add more cornstarch later, but check how thick it is after pressure cooking first. Please let me know how it goes!
Evan says
Have you ever used mini loaf pans to let the chicken marinate and infuse while its cooking in the instant pot? I’ve tried this for a salmon recipe and it was great! was curious if would be the same for chicken (and if cooking time would need to be adjusted…? any thoughts
Jessica Gavin says
Hi Evan- I’ve never tried that method before. Can you tell me more?
Motoflicka says
Wow!!! This first delicious chicken. I’ve made in The Instant Pot!
I have far too much sauce however. Can that be cooled off and saved, or what do I do with that? And if appears to lose its consistency as it cools – is that normal/correct?
Jessica Gavin says
I think you could cool the sauce and save it for a few days and reheat. However, cornstarch-thickened sauces lose some of their thickened consistency once reheated. The sauce isn’t too thick for this recipe, but shouldn’t be watery.
Jennifer Ellinger says
I actually had already cut my chicken into bite size pieces and tried this recipe anyway. It was a little dry, I will keep the chicken in a full breast next time for sure…I do have a question though as a new Instant Pot owner…when I released the pressure after it was done cooking for 10 mins, it spewed out the steam and tons of teriyaki liquid from the instant pot, I put a kitchen towel over it, but ended up using 3 kitchen towels to absorb the liquid that came out of the quick release steam nozzle…any suggestions or is this normal?
Thank you for the great recipe!
Sam says
Fantastic recipe. The chicken was so tender and moist. I think the next time I make it I’ll cut back on the honey to 1/2 a cup per one of the comments, and put in some pepper flakes or small amount of cayenne to give it a little zip.
Louise Hogan says
I’m so grateful for this recipe. My daughter just came home from a local college at 8:00. “Mom I need food”, not even halfway through the door, oh and I don’t have a lot of time. Yeah, right I thought but I had frozen chicken tenders and roughly the other ingredients and google. I didn’t have honey or mirin but I had maple syrup (I’m in Maine) and most of the other ingredients and started rice on the stove. I stopped the process at 7 minutes and it was delicious! She loved it, thanked me and left with most of the left overs! Thanks Jessica!
Jessica says
Could I add broccoli in with the chicken and sauce then pressure cook?
Jessica Gavin says
I worry that the broccoli would become overcooked. I would recommend pressure cooking the chicken and sauce, and then remove the chicken. Keep the sauce in and press the saute button. Add in the broccoli and cover for a few minutes, stirring and checking until the broccoli is tender