Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe

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!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Keyword instant pot, Sweet and Sour chicken

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Servings 4 people

Calories 520kcal

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

Instructions

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).

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.