Pressure Cooker Apricot Glazed Herb Chicken turns ordinary chicken thighs into a 5 star meal. Little effort yet fancy enough for a dinner party or date night.
One of my favorite meals to make for company and Friday night meals is Apricot Glazed Cornish Game Hens. It always impresses!
Cornish Game Hens can be made in the oven or on the barbecue grill, so I thought I would change it up a bit, use chicken thighs and use the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker to make a quick meal. Oh my gosh, was I surprised at the wonderful meal with so little effort.
Pressure Cooker Apricot Glazed Herb Chicken is such an easy recipe to make and you can use individual seasonings or a seasoning blend.
The Orange Liqueur such as Grand Marnier or Triple-Sec add so much flavor to this apricot chicken!
If you don’t have all the individual spices on hand, Herbes de Provence will work in a pinch.
The seasonings are very potent and flavorful and pair so well with the apricot flavor.
Jump to Section
Can Chicken Breast Be Used Instead?
- Yes, this recipe works very well with chicken breasts too. White meat chicken is a bit leaner and drier than dark meat chicken.
We’ll add some extra butter and the Apricot Glazed Herb Chicken will be fantastic, juicy and delicious, just like the juicy thighs.
The apricot glaze can be made on the stove using a 1-1/2 Quart Stainless Steel Saucepan over low heat, but with this easy recipe, I’ll show you how to make the glaze right in the Instant Pot cooking pot.
What Kind Of Orange Liqueur?
- Grand Marnier or Triple-Sec are perfect to use.
- If there is another brand you like, no problem. As long as it is an orange liqueur, you are good to go.
As much of the alcohol content will burn off during cooking, there isn’t much of a chance of becoming drunk and falling over. 🙂
I like this Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk for whisking the glaze ingredients . It does a great job of breaking up the apricot into tiny pieces. If you check out my Easy 5 Minute Apricot Glaze Recipe, you will get an idea of how to make this apricot glaze on the stove top.
There are a few ways to crisp the chicken skin with the apricot glaze.
The quickest and easiest way is to use a crisping lid.
Crisping Lid – Which to Use
- Mealthy Crisplid will fit on all 6 and 8 quart pressure cookers regardless of brand.
- Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid will only fit on specific Instant Pot models, so please check my article Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid to see if this brand will fit your model.
- Each lid can be purchased from Amazon, which I have linked below.
- Mealthy CrispLid (buy from Amazon)
- Instant Pot Crisping Lid (buy from Amazon)
Pro Tip: Buy a crisping lid. ^^^^^ It saves so much time and no need to turn on the stove or oven!
A cast iron skillet or a good baking/cookie sheet can be used as well. You will need to use your oven’s broiler.
The glaze is easily applied with a Silicone BBQ Basting Brush. You will need to do both sides.
Now if you like you can also use a stand alone air fryer too and I recommend this Ultrean 8.5 Quart Air Fryer model.
When the glaze starts to caramelize, you are good to go!
After crisping up and charring the chicken skin, you’ll want to give the chicken another coating of the apricot glaze before serving.
If you want to make rice at the same time as your chicken, just use my Pressure Cooker Perfectly Cooked Pot In Pot Rice method!
This chicken brings back so many memories every time I make it. It pairs very nicely with my Pressure Cooker Thai Triple Coconut Rice or Mashed Potatoes with Glistening Sauce and a green vegetable.
Finish off your meal with a wonderful Instant Pot Apple Crisp. Your date night will be perfect.
More Chicken Recipes You Will Love.
- Air Fryer Hamburger Hamlet Fried Chicken Wings & Secret Apricot Sauce
- Pressure Cooker Bang Bang Chicken
- Low Carb Chicken Schnitzel {Chicken Cutlets}
- Air Fryer Bacon Wrapped Chicken Jalapeño Poppers
Kitchen Equipment and Essentials
- Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
- J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
- Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
- Simply Gourmet (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
- Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
- Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk – a MUST have, probably my most used utensil
- My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board
- Mealthy CrispLid (buy from Mealthy) / Mealthy CrispLid (buy from Amazon) or
- Instant Pot Crisping Lid (buy from Instant Pot) / Instant Pot Crisping Lid (buy from Amazon) or
- Lodge 10.25″ Cast Iron Skillet
- Silicone BBQ Brush
Caring is sharing! If you would like to support This Old Gal, please share this recipe on Social Media, so that I can continue to bring you more wonderful recipes!
If you share a picture of something you make from our blog, tag it with #thisoldgalcooks so we can see it. We might feature it on Instagram! It makes my day when I see you’ve made one of our recipes!
Here is the handy printable recipe.
Pressure Cooker Apricot Glazed Herb Chicken Thighs
Print Pin Save RateIngredients
- 4 Chicken Thighs
- 3 Tablespoons Salted Butter
- 1/4 teaspoon Dried Rosemary
- 1/4 teaspoon Dried Tarragon
- 1/8 teaspoon Ground White Pepper
- 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
Glaze
- 1/4 cup Apricot Preserves
- 2 Tablespoons Orange Liqueur such as Grand Marnier or Triple-Sec
- 2 Tablespoons Butter
Recommended Products
Instructions
- Add lemon juice to Instant Pot pressure cooker.
- Pat dry chicken thighs and place into a bowl.
- Mix together rosemary, tarragon, salt and white pepper and rub into chicken thighs.
- Place seasoned chicken thighs, skin side down into Instant Pot pressure cooker.
- Place pieces of butter on top of chicken.
- Lock on lid and close pressure valve. Cook at high pressure (most machines default to high) for 6 minutes.
- When beep sounds, wait 10 minutes and then release the rest of the pressure.
- Remove chicken thighs from cooking pot and set aside.
- Dump out excess liquid from cooking pot and wipe out with a paper towel. Place cooking pot back into Instant Pot pressure cooker.
- Select Sauté or Browning on the pressure cooker.
- Add apricot jam, orange liqueur and butter to cooking pot.
- Whisk well until the jam becomes liquidy, about two minutes and then turn off or unplug Instant Pot pressure cooker..
- Place chicken thighs back into cooking pot and roll chicken through the glaze, so that both sides are covered well. Use a pasty brush to get into all the crevices of the chicken.
- Start out with chicken facing skin side down.
- Place a crisping lid like Mealthy Crisplid or Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid over cooking pot.
- Set temperature to 400 degrees and cook for 5 minutes.
- Flip chicken over so the skin side is up. Use a pastry brush and make sure the skin is coated with the glaze.
- Cook another 5 minutes at 400 degrees or until the skin is browned and the glaze is bubbling.
- Roll chicken around in the glaze and remove to a plate. Brush with any remaining glaze from the cooking pot if desired.
Notes
Crisping Lid - Which to Use
- Mealthy Crisplid will fit on all 6 and 8 quart pressure cookers regardless of brand.
- Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid will only fit on specific Instant Pot models, so please check my article Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid to see if this brand will fit your model.
- Each lid can be purchased from Amazon, which I have linked below.
- Mealthy CrispLid (buy from Amazon)
- Instant Pot Crisping Lid (buy from Amazon)
Glazing in the Oven
- Place chicken onto cookie sheet skin side down.
- Brush Apricot Glaze onto chicken and place under broiler for five minutes, or until Glaze is bubbling.
- Remove from oven, flip chicken and brush Glaze onto chicken skin and place back under broiler for five minutes, or until skin starts to char.
- Remove from oven, brush with the remainder of the Glaze.