Chicken Yum Yum
You know how to tell when my brain is so full that I can’t possibly generate anything sensible? It’s when I come up with names like Chicken Yum Yum. That’s how. Y’all, seriously. It’s bad. And by bad I mean GOOD! But also bad, because when I get in my work zone like this it means two things: 1. Something really neato is in the works. 2. I miss out on all the fun with you! Ugh!
In just a couple short weeks, Paleo Kids Cookbook is releasing and will be in your hot little hands. I’ve been super excited about its launch and working on a new business just as exciting that I hope I can tell you about around that time too! On top of that I’ve been working on all the better beauty stuff (and LOVING it) with Beautycounter, Crunchi, and 100% Pure (I’m feeling really good about the fact that I am finally not putting so much caca doody on my skin)!
And then on top of THAT, I’m getting the kids ready for school -but not before a surprise getaway to the beach for 2 days this week, which was wonderful! In the midst of all this hubbub, I have not been blogging much. It’s always nice to take a little break and pursue other things but then again, blogging is how it all started! It was 3 years ago when I was stashing my recipes and chronicling them online so I basically had an online filing cabinet, and never imagined sharing them with the world. Now here we are two and a half years after I took this puppy public, and it’s a little sad when I don’t spend as much time on here!
So tonight when my husband pulled frozen chicken thighs out of the freezer and said, “Can THESE go in the Instant Pot?” I said “YEP! They sure can!” It was then that I literally tossed them in with a bunch of other saucy stuff and crossed my fingers. I told my family, including my visiting mom, that dinner might really suck. Honestly, I said that.
But my hope was it would turn out so I could blog a new recipe! Imagine our surprise when dinner didn’t suck AND tasted REALLY REALLY GOOD! You win some, you lose some but tonight we won. Unfortunately I used up all my creativity on the recipe, so you’re left with Chicken Yum Yum as the title. But at least it doesn’t suck…right?! PS this recipe isn’t in my Instant Pot cookbook but don’t miss out on that one if you haven’t preordered!:
Instant Pot Chicken Yum Yum
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless chicken thighs (frozen or fresh)
- 3 tablespoons homemade or high quality store-bought ketchup
- 1.5 teaspoons sea salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder (or minced)
- 1/4 cup ghee
- 1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons gluten free organic tamari or 1/4 cup coconut aminos
- 1/4 cup local honey
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in your Instant Pot
- Stir to combine and coat the chicken
- Secure the lid, close the pressure valve and press “Manual”
- If using frozen chicken, press the “+” button until 40 is displayed
- If using fresh chicken, press the “-” button until 18 minutes is displayed (this could vary slightly)
- Allow the chicken to cook then quick release the pressure valve once complete
- Remove the lid when safe to do so and shred the chicken slightly with two forks (this is a suggestion not a requirement)
- Now remove the chicken from the stainless steel basin and press the “Cancel” button followed by pressing the “Saute” button
- Allow the sauce to reduce by allowing it to saute for 5 minutes
- Serve over vegetable of your choice, we ate ours on roasted cauliflower. Or if you can eat rice, do it up starchy style!
This looks so good. I just recently found you and watched you do a video on your new book. I’m sold! I’m curious if you will be joining Real Plans. I’d love to have your recipes in my rotation. I just signed up for it but haven’t used it yet. There are a lot of paleo authors connected to it it seems.
Hi Sandy, Welcome aboard, I’m so glad to have you here. I don’t know anything about Real Plans, I’ll have to look into it!
I ordered your kids cookbook! I can’t wait!
Would you consider doing a paleo ketogenic cookbook? Please!
I am no expert in keto but there are a couple out there right now – have you purchased either of them?
Looking to try this simple recipe. I’m very pleased with my IP but still a newbie. Out of curiosity, is the honey factored in as part of the liquid required for pressure cooking? For example, if I reduced it or replaced it with a less liquidy source of sweetness, will this affect the cooking process?
You could probably use an alternative sweetener and have it work
It just so happens that I accidentally purchased coconut nectar instead of coconut aminos, so I might try that 🙂 …and not to worry, I have enough coconut aminos…. :p
Could this be made in a slower cooker instead of an Instant Pot?
Yep! Not sure from frozen but thawed you could do 6 hours on high or 8 on low.
Thank you!!
Do you think it would need extra liquid? I’m going to be setting it & leaving :-/ Not sure I can rely on the teenagers to monitor this.
Extra liquid if made in a slow cooker? You shouldn’t. It should be okay as is!
New to cooking instant pot cooking… when I saute this sauce do I need to stir?
You can stir periodically!
Yay! Something simple & awesome to make with the frozen bag of thighs I buy at Trader Joes! Thanks Jennifer 🙂 Looking forward to your pressure cooker book.
Thanks Laurel, hope it’s a hit!
I had a bag of Trader Joe’s frozen skinless, boneless chicken thighs (2.5 pounds). Threw all of it and the rest of the ingredients into the Instant Pot. Cooked for 40 minutes on high. Easily shredded. Served it over roasted cauliflower.
Very good recipe. It really was “yum, yum!”
Thanks for posting.
Awesome!
Made this tonight over riced cauliflower. Huge hit with the family and I didn’t have to go to the store!
Counting down the days until your IP cookbook.
Love it! So exciting when something is that big of a hit!
I had a problem with mine burning a bit the sauce… should I have cooked it at low pressure? I used frozen chicken.
I did not use low pressure. Did you mix everything thoroughly first? You can always add a bit of water if you think that will help too.
Made it! Loved it! Threw some extra cumin and salsa on it for Day 2 and tossed it into burritos with rice and other fixings YUM!!!!
Great idea!!!!
Is there a reason why it’s 40 minutes for frozen chicken? Every other Instantpot recipe I’ve used or seen calls for around 15-20 minutes. Even Instantpot’s own timetable says 10-15 min: http://instantpot.com/cooking-time/meat-poultry-beef-pork-and-lamb/
I just want to make sure I don’t overcook the chicken with the extra 25-30 minutes in the instantpot.
Thanks!
I made 2+ pounds and 40 worked for me. You can cook for less if you prefer. Mine was not dried out or anything.I should mention that when cooking 1 pound of thawed/fresh chicken, I just use the 15 minute preset poultry button.
Ah that makes sense. 2lbs is a lot.
Thanks for clarifying.
This was my first Instant Pot recipe! My whole family devoured it. We had it with roasted broccoli and carrot – SUPER YUM!
Fantastic!!
If I double the recipe do I need to increase the time from 40 min? Thank you
It should still work at 40, if you make it from fresh instead of frozen chicken you can reduce it!
My son said the name was perfect for this dish. I actually reduced the cook time to 12 minutes and did NPR for 10 minutes and the chicken was melt in your mouth and the sauce was so good!
What can I substitute for ghee butter? I couldn’t find any.
thanks!
You could use another oil and just reduce it!
So you suggest less oil if using something like coconut or avocado? Not a full 1/4 cup? Thanks!
Yeah just a little bit since it’s for flavor.
Cool, thanks! I’m making this tonight. I’m AIP, so using beet ketchup and probably coconut oil. Looks delicious!
This sounds relish! I have a 5# whole chicken in fridge. How much time would I need? Should I make extra sauce? Thanks!
Also, is there a substitute for ketchup? I’m on AIP.
I think there are nomato ketchup recipes you could use or maybe omit!
I was going to try it with tamarind paste. I use that in certain recipes that call for tomato.
OH INTERESTING! Would love to hear how that turns out!
Made this tonight – it was my first Instant Pot meal – EXCELLENT! Didn’t even bother shredding the meat. From start to finish, the aromas were so rich. The flavor was even better. Thanks so much!
So happy to hear it was a hit! Love my Instant Pot!
This was also my first instant pot recipe. Hot damn. It was amazing. Thank you so much.
Wahoo!
Made this this afternoon and it is quite good. It took me longer to clean the unappealing “stuff” off the chicken than it did to make the whole dish. I am glad to have another delicious recipe to add to my rotation!!
Oh, and because I’m terribly lazy, once it was done cooking, I dumped a bag of frozen riced cauliflower on top, put it back on for 5 minutes, did a QR, stirred it all together and called it supper because why dirty 2 pots if I don’t have to!
Could I do this with boneless skinless chicken breasts? If so, how would it change the cook time? My kiddos only like breasts. 🙂
Trying tonight and myinstpot for the first time too!! Can’t wait to see how this turns out!!
Hope you liked it!!!
Mmm, this does look delicious! So glad this turned out to be a success so you could share it here with us!
Great recipe. I swapped the ketchup for mustard and the honey for maple syrup and omitted the tamari. Yum!
how was that??????? not a huge ketchup fan (nor honey! LOL)
SO freakin good! Omg
You didn’t make this. You made Honey Mustard Chicken. Not the same!
Ha ha.
I came across this after a long week and wanted to do some meal prep without having to take a trip to the store. This recipe was a HUGE hit with my husband (generally a super picky eater) and I made it as is. Served it over rice and it made enough for us to have 1 bag of frozen meat for later, 1 dinner and 2 lunches. Thanks for the great “this dinner might really suck” idea that ended up being amazing! Anytime I can make the hubs clean his bowl it is a win. 🙂
So happy to hear this!!!
YUM x 5! Thank you!
What adjustments would I need to make if using frozen chicken breasts?
None! I used frozen for this recipe.
This recipe tastes just like what my Japanese mother used to make. Yum Yum for sure! Thanks!
Wow thank you that’s amazing!
A massive hit with my fussy hubby! Yay!
I used 1 tbsp. coconut oil instead of 1/4 cup ghee and chose coconut aminos for a lighter, sweeter taste.
Divine, melt-in-the-mouth heaven. Plus plenty of chicken left for 2 lunchboxes.
We’ll be cooking this regularly.
Thank you!
Awesome!!! Thanks!
Keeper! Doubled the sauce, used regular salted butter instead of ghee and omitted the salt. Added 5 frozen bone-in chicken thighs, 40 minutes high pressure, natural release. Once the pin dropped, removed the chicken and shredded it off the bones. Meanwhile, I let the sauce reduce a bit on sauté, and then whisked in 1 tablespoon of arrowroot flour to thicken it. Stirred the chicken back in to warm it up. Ate it over cauliflower rice. Delish!
Yum!
Looks delicious! Any suggestions for someone who can’t have liquid aminos? Soy sauce and that alike are all fermented and have a similar flavour, it’s hard to find something to replace it when intolerant to ferments, soy and coconut. Can’t wait to see what else you have here that I can eat!
You could try a little bit of Worcestershire instead?
I doubled the sauce and used Trader Joe’s Buffalo Ghee, holy CRAP was this good! I’m quickly becoming an Instant Pot addict, and your site has been my go to for what’s good. Now I’m off to buy your cookbook…
Yum! Thanks Lia!
Hi! The IP manual says that when pressure cooking there shpuld be at least 500mL of liquid. Is there enough in the recipe to do this in the IP. Just worried about running the pressure cooker without an adequate amount of liquid.
You can add more if your pot won’t come to pressure. This is enough with my chicken which releases its own juices while cooking for my IP but you can add more sauce ingredients if you need to.
This was my concern also, It does not seem like adequate liquid from review of the recipe, unless cooking using covered PIP.
How long would you cook it for 1 lb of frozen, boneless/skinless chicken breast?
I’m guessing around 20 min high manual pressure.
How many will this recipe feed?
3-4 adults.
It was 4:30pm and I was looking for a quick paleo InstantPot recipe for frozen boneless chicken thighs and I’m so glad this popped up because it will now be my go-to meal for those nights I forget to prep enough in advance! The sauce reduced down beautifully and wasn’t too sweet. I served it with roasted broccoli and green beans and it was a huge hit. Sometimes you just need a practically, no-frills recipe that will wow everyone, and this is it!
So good and so simple!!!
Made this tonight! Delicious!! Couldn’t stop eating it! The kids and hubby loved it too!!
I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to make this recipe, when I’ve made so many of your other outstanding recipes but DANG! Easy and amazing! Thanks so much!
Wahoo!!!
Delicious! Best meal yet in my instant pot. Even my picky son loved it! Whole family loved it 🙂
Wow! Thanks Michelle!!!
This recipe has been in our rotation for a while now. It’s delicuous and super kid friendly! Thanks for sharing!
This is one of my go to recipes when I don’t want to think to hard about dinner. I almost always have all the ingredients on hand.
Made this for the first time tonight. My very picky 12-year-old said, “Wow, I expected to hate this but it’s actually really good.” That’s a huge compliment!
I love when picky folks eat my food, thank you!
I’ve been making this for a couple of years now because we just love it! My BF bought some Heinz Honeyracha (a honey/sriracha blend sauce) that we had no idea what to use it on. I’ve been substituting this for the ketchup and cutting back a little on the honey. It gives just a little bit of a kick that we really enjoy!