This Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe is a great idea for weeknight dinner. Made easily in your pressure cooker, tender chicken is flavored with pineapple chunks, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic and ketchup to make a restaurant quality dish the whole family will enjoy!
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We Love Chinese Takeout Food!
Every so often, we love to have Chinese Carryout food. There are so many classic Chinese dishes that we love to get, but one of our favorites is Sweet and Sour Chicken. There is just something about this complex flavor with the tender chicken on a bed of fresh white rice that I just love. The only problem is that we REALLY try to refrain from ordering food from restaurants as much as possible. This save us money and, when I can make something at home, I know it will be a little healthier for me and my family.
Lately, it occurred to me to make this popular Chinese carryout recipe. And, my using my Instant Pot, it was super easy!
What Is An Instant Pot?
Instant Pots are taking the home cooking world by storm and more and more people are jumping on board this pressure cooker bandwagon. An Instant Pot is a small kitchen appliance that uses superheated pressurize air to cook your food. Due to the fact that nothing can escape the airtight chamber while your food is cooking, there are no flavors that can escape either! So your results are always rich, flavorful and tender! Using an Instant Pot can save on time as well, so you can get “slow cooker” results without all the waiting! You can make so many things in your Instant Pot, including soups, desserts, tacos, vegetables and even yogurt!
Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken
Let’s dive into this fun recipe and see what we need to get started! I love that we only need to use one pot to make this dish. Everything is cooked right in your pressure cooker! This is another reason why I love Instant Pots!
Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken Ingredients:
- 1 lb chicken breast, cut into cubes
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 can, 20 oz, pineapple chunks (do not drain)
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- chopped green onions (optional)
- cooked white rice for serving
Cornstarch Slurry
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup cold water
Directions:
- Add chicken, oil and garlic to the instant pot and saute until chicken is no longer pink on the outside.
- Add vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, soy sauce, pineapple (with juice) and red pepper. Stir.
- Place the lid on the instant pot and seal shut. Close the pressure release valve.
- Set the instant pot to manual, high pressure for 10 minutes.
- When cooking is complete, quick release pressure and open pot.
- Set the pot to saute and add the cornstarch slurry until mixture is bubbly and thick.
- Serve on top of white rice with a green onion garnish (if desired).
Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken Tips and Notes
This recipe serves four people. I use cornstarch for the slurry and I’d recommend staying with that and not substituting flour if possible. You can certainly adjust the amount of cornstarch to how thick you want your sauce to be. You can also do this with the brown sugar, some may like their dish to be sweeter than the others. I don’t like mine terribly sweet.
I also mentioned that green onions are optional, and they are, but I really love the way the way the look on this dish when I’m ready to serve it.
I hope you enjoy this Instant Pot version of this classic Chinese takeout dish. Let me know what you think in the comments!
- 1 lb chicken breast cut into cubes
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 can 20 oz, pineapple chunks (do not drain)
- 1 red bell pepper chopped
- chopped green onions optional
- cooked white rice for serving
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup cold water
-
Add chicken, oil and garlic to the instant pot and saute until chicken is no longer pink on the outside.
-
Add vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, soy sauce, pineapple (with juice) and red pepper. Stir.
-
Place the lid on the instant pot and seal shut. Close the pressure release valve.
-
Set the instant pot to manual, high pressure for 10 minutes.
-
When cooking is complete, quick release pressure and open pot.
-
Set the pot to saute and add the cornstarch slurry until mixture is bubbly and thick.
-
Serve on top of white rice with a green onion garnish (if desired).
This recipe serves four people. I use cornstarch for the slurry and I’d recommend staying with that and not substituting flour if possible. You can certainly adjust the amount of cornstarch to how thick you want your sauce to be. You can also do this with the brown sugar, some may like their dish to be sweeter than the others. I don’t like mine terribly sweet.
I also mentioned that green onions are optional, and they are, but I really love the way the way the look on this dish when I’m ready to serve it.
