Instant Pot Chinese Orange Pepper Chicken

Instant Pot Chinese Orange Pepper Chicken with bursts of sweet orange, spiced peppers in a fantastic sauce over rice.

Super tender and juicy chicken in sweet Orange Pepper Sauce. Learn the trick for tender chicken with my super easy recipe. Bursts of sweet Orange and spiced Peppers make Orange Pepper Chicken a real treat. With my method, you can cook the rice in a pan on top of the chicken in the same pot at the same time!

 

I keep hearing about rubbery and overcooked chicken and that’s no good. My unique method renders juicy, moist and chicken in the Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker every single time! Plus, cooking time is super important. White meat chicken cooks very, very quickly.

Ingredients for Instant Pot Orange Pepper Chicken

• Chicken
• Frozen Orange Juice
• Pineapple Chunks
• Onions
• Chicken Broth
• Peppers
• Sweet/Black Soy Sauce

You will just need these two accessories. One stainless steel flat bottomed insert pan or stainless steel flat bottomed insert pan for Pot in Pot Rice and Desserts and a Stainless Steel Tall Legged Trivet.

 

When creating recipes, there is a balance between amount of water needed to get to pressure, cook time, ingredients and Natural Pressure Release time. I almost always use a shorter cook time with a longer Natural Pressure Release time.

It is important to rinse the rice with water until the water runs clear. This will make the rice cook and taster much better.

 

When I cook rice with my meal, I like to use a stainless steel flat bottomed insert pan. It is flat and wide and help the rice to cook very evenly. A Tall Legged Stainless Steel Steaming Rack/Trivet is needed when cooking above your main course. They are really cheap, don’t fret. 🙂

I know many of you use your 1.5 Quart Stainless Steel “Pot in Pot” Bowl for Pot in Pot cooking. I first tried this recipe using that bowl and much prefer the stainless steel flat bottomed insert pan. The rice cooked more evenly and was totally perfect.

Plus, if you want a larger amount of rice, you could double the recipe and then use a Shorter Stainless Steel Trivet.

 

Since vegetables cook really fast in the Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker, I like to rough chop my vegetables. If you cut them to small, they will disintegrate into the food. Save some of the peppers to use as a garnish.

The carrots should be cut into about one inch chunks, or more, if you like.

After all vegetables are cut, place them all in a Mixing Bowl, so that you can dump them all in at once. Remember, this moves fast and we don’t want the chicken to continue cooking all on its own.

 

As I said, in this recipe, size does matter. The chicken breasts should be cut into large chunks. You don’t want them to be bite size. More like two to three bites….. probably two bites for men. Hehehehehe. Cutting them into large chunks will ensure perfect results.

I love to cook with Potato Starch, rather than cornstarch or flour.

Potato Starch Trick

• When using an Instant Pot or stand alone pressure cooker, more liquid than normal is sometimes needed, so the sauce often times will need to be thickened. Rather than making a slurry after pressure cooking, my method of coating the meat before cooking will make for a nice and thickened sauce.
• The starch on the meat adheres to the meat nicely and allows the pot to come up to pressure with minimal of liquid in the pot.
• As the release of the potato starch is very slow, you will not get a burn notice. During the cooking process, liquid releases from the meat and vegetables. Some starch also releases from the coated meat and will begin to thickens the sauce, without gumming up the ingredients and pot.
• Best of all, with the nice and thickened sauce, you don’t have to worry about making a starch slurry after pressure cooking.

Pro Tip: Coating beef, pork of chicken with potato starch before cooking under pressure, ensures extra juicy meat. It also saves you the step of having to make a slurry to thicken the liquid in the pot.

 

Sprinkle the Seasoned Salt and the True Orange Ginger over the Potato Starch. True Orange Ginger is optional, but will add a burst of Orange flavor.

 

I use the True Crystalized products a lot. The citrus is in crystalized form and tastes like you just went outside and picked an orange off the tree. It’s that good.

I like to use it when I want the citrus taste, but without adding additional liquid. A perfect example is my Mexican Corn on the Cob (Elote). I wanted a strong lime taste in the sauce, but did not want to add any liquid and have a very wet corn.

 

Make sure your hands are very dry and coat the chicken well. I use Tongs to move the chicken around, so that the Potato Starch won’t stick to my hands.

 

Into your Measuring Cup full of chicken broth, add in 4 ounces of the concentrated orange juice and the Chinese Five Spice. Genene also wanted me to incorporate Chinese Five Spice in the recipe.

We are going to hold back some of the frozen juice to add after we release pressure, to get another burst of orange.

 

Whisk the sauce together and set it aside. You are now ready to start cooking.

Select Sauté or Browning on your Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker and allow it to fully heat. To make a stainless steel pot non-stick, it is important to allow the pot to heat before adding your fat.

Add about a Tablespoon of Ghee to the cooking pot and it will melt fast. Pressure Slow Cooker Simple Ghee is easy to make and great under high heats, so it won’t burn.

If you don’t want to make Ghee, you can always purchase it by clicking here. Alternatively, Olive Oil will work okay. I just prefer the Ghee taste over the Olive Oil in this recipe.

 

Once the display on your Instant Pot reads “Hot,” use the tongs and add the chicken to your Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker cooking pot. If you don’t have a display, just wait several minutes to make sure your pot is very hot.

Shake any excess Potato Starch from the chicken pieces before placing them into the Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker cooking pot.

 

You can see there is just a little sear on the chicken. The Potato Starch is staying nicely in place. You don’t want a clump of starch in your Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker cooking pot, that is for sure!

You’ll get a nasty mess and the pot won’t come up to pressure if it gets gunked up from excess Potato Starch.

Pro Tip: When searing the coated meat in the Instant Pot, after a few seconds, the meat will release itself from the bottom of the pot and can easily be moved around. That is how you know the meat is properly sealed in the potato starch and will retain its moisture during cooking.

 

Hit the Off button on the Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker. Dump in all the vegetables and mix them in with the chicken to get the chicken off of the bottom.

 

Pour in the sauce and mix it through the chicken and vegetables.

As mentioned above, there is no need to make a slurry at the end of the cook time to thicken the sauce. The Potato Starch on the chicken will thicken it up, just right. Look at the above photo. You can see that there is no starch floating around…it is all nicely stuck to the chicken.

 

If you are making this a One Pot Meal using my Pressure Cooker Perfectly Cooked Pot In Pot Rice recipe, add your Tall Legged Trivet and Rice now.

You are ready to lock on the lid and cook your entire dinner in ONE pot at the same time!!!

 

While the chicken is cooking, dice up the reserved bell peppers. I really wanted to add some bright and fresh color and crunch to the Pressure Cooker Chinese Orange Pepper Chicken.

 

The One Pot Pressure Cooker Chinese Orange Pepper Chicken & Rice, has a short cook time, so we will let the chicken and rice finish cooking and steaming, during a ten minute Natural Pressure Release.

Open the pot and remove the Pan of rice. Fluff it with a fork. It will be perfectly cooked.

 

Dump the rest of the Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice and some pineapple chunks into your Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker and mix through.

Hit the Sauté or Browning button to warm the Orange Juice and Pineapple chunks. The sauce will quickly thicken up as you stir.

This is thanks to the Potato Starch trick you learned above.

 

Garnish with diced peppers for some crunch! Enjoy your One Pot Pressure Cooker Orange Pepper Chicken & Rice! I love that I can make my entire meal all at the same time, in just a few minutes. For another wonderful One Pot Recipe, try my Pressure Cooker Take-Out General Tso’s Chicken

Enjoy! 🙂

More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes to Make:

• Instant Pot Rojo Fiesta Chicken [Pressure Cooker]
• Instant Pot Chicken and Rice + Video
• Instant Pot BBQ Ranch Chicken (Pressure Cooker)
• Instant Pot Japanese Chicken Curry

Kitchen Equipment and Essentials

• Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
• J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
• My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
• Salbree Steamer Basket
• Ekovana Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker Stackable Pans Set
• Stainless Steel Tall Legged Trivet
• Sweet/Black Soy Sauce
• Potato Starch
• Chinese Five Spice
• True Orange Ginger

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