Pressure Cooker Chinese Simmered Chicken {Instant Pot}

Pressure Cooker Chinese Simmered Chicken is an old Foster Farms recipe, cooked in a spicy sweet sauce. Now, it’s what’s for dinner in less than 30 minutes!

Pressure Cooker Simmered Chinese Chicken

If you buy Foster Farms Chicken, then you may remember when they used to put recipes on the back of their packages. This Pressure Cooker Chinese Simmer Chicken is adapted from the original Foster Farms Simmered Chinese Chicken recipe.

While I don’t consider this recipe Chinese at all, this Pressure Cooker Chinese Simmered Chicken with Rice was very delicious and very easy to make. The ingredients are not strange or fancy and most of us already have them in our pantry.

Cast of Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Simmered Chinese Chicken

The original recipe calls for one whole chicken. I took liberties by using chicken parts. My husband likes boneless/skinless white meat and I prefer bone-in dark meat. For this recipe, I used two large boneless and skinless chicken breasts and four bone-in chicken thighs.

I removed the skin from the chicken thighs and cut out as much fat as possible.

You can use all bone-in chicken, boneless chicken, all white meat chicken, all dark meat chicken or a combination of whatever you like. You can even cut up a whole chicken. I opted not to use the wings, as I didn’t want to have strain the fat before thickening this recipe.

Pressure Cooker Perfectly Cooked Pot In Pot Rice

If you would like to cook your rice at the same time and in the same pot with your Pressure Cooker Simmered Chinese Chicken, please check out my Pressure Cooker Perfectly Cooked Pot In Pot Rice recipe for step by step instructions.

Turn this Pressure Cooker Simmered Chinese Chicken recipe into a one-pot meal!

You will just need these two accessories. One stainless steel flat bottomed insert pan and a Tall Legged Stainless Steel Steaming Rack/Trivet.

Mix together all sauce ingredients

While you are getting your sauce ingredients together, heat up your Pressure Cooker by pushing the Sauté or Browning button. Mix all the sauce ingredients together, keeping the Sherry to the side.

Allow Pressure Cooker to Fully Heat

It is important to heat up your Pressure Cooker prior to adding a fat. Adding the fat to a hot pot, renders a stainless steal pot, non-stick! After the pot is hot, add your oil.

Add the dark meat first and sear

If using a whole chicken that you have skinned, remove fat and cut apart, add the dark meat in the pot first and after lightly searing the first side, add the white meat, turn over the dark meat and then the white meat.

If doing part bone-in chicken and part boneless/skinless chicken, add the meat with the bone first. If using all the same type, toss it all in at the same time and push around to lightly sear.

Lightly sear both sides of chicken

You don’t need a heavy sear on the chicken. Just enough to lock in some flavor. The Pressure Cooker Chinese Simmered Chicken will be super flavorful!

Pour in the Sherry (or apple juice if using) and deglaze the pot. Deglazing is just scraping any stuck on bits off the bottom of the pot.

You probably won’t have any stuck on bits. Since we are using Sherry and cooking inside a Pressure Cooker, I thought it better to use Sherry to deglaze, rather than water. This way, we will allow the alcohol to cook off! Pretty smart, no?

Pour in the Simmer Sauce

Pour in all of the Simmer Sauce and mix it into the chicken and liquid that is in the Pressure Cooker cooking pot. I like to add carrots and mushrooms when I add the sauce.

Place Pan on Top of Trivet

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. If you don’t want rice, add some quartered potatoes instead.

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

Perfectly Cooked Rice

Open the pot and remove the Pan of rice. Place a cover or a piece of foil on top of the rice to allow it to keep it warm.

Remove the White Meat Chicken

If using a whole chicken or both dark and white meat, pull out the white meat and set it aside while you thicken the wonderful “Simmered” Sauce. The dark meat chicken will finish cooking while we are simmering and thickening the sauce.

Turn off the Pressure Cooker!

Remove some of the liquid from the cooking pot

Select Sauté or Browning on your Pressure Cooker. It is time to thicken the “Simmered” Sauce. We’ll make a slurry.

You never want to add Potato Starch, cornstarch, flour or any thickening agent to hot liquid. It will clump up and you won’t be able to correct it. Take your Measuring Cup and dip it into the hot liquid and pull out about half a cup. Add the Potato Starch (or cornstarch) to the cup and Whisk it in really well to make a Slurry

Add the Slurry to the cooking pot and Whisk it in well. If you used all white meat, you should have already removed it from the Pressure Cooker cooking pot. Since I used both white and dark meat I left the dark meat in the Pot to simmer with the Sauce.

Whisk the Chinese Simmered Sauce to Thickness Perfection

Continue mixing until your Sauce becomes a bit thick and a bit sticky. It will only take a minute or two.

Remove the rest of the chicken from the pot (if you have left in the dark meat) and place it with the white meat chicken on your serving platter. For a thicker sauce, continuing whisking until you have reached the desired consistency. You can see how yummy the “Simmered” Sauce looks and there is not much fat since I removed all skin and did not use the wings. Time to plate it up.

Oh, first, toast some Sesame Seeds. I use my cast iron skillet with a touch of Homemade Ghee and cook for a few minutes on medium heat. If you don’t want to bother with the Sesame Seeds, don’t worry about it. It really doesn’t add much to the flavor.

Garnish the Pressure Cooker Chinese Simmered Chicken with Toasted Sesame Seeds and Scallions

I actually added some carrots and mushrooms to the Pressure Cooker cooking pot, before I locked on the lid. They were perfect.

One Pot Pressure Cooker Chinese Simmered Chicken with Rice

This Pressure Cooker Chinese Simmered Chicken with Rice was very delicious and very easy to make. The ingredients are not strange or fancy and most of us already have them in our pantry.

If you don’t want to cook your rice with the Pressure Cooker Chinese Simmered Chicken, you can make it in a separate pot, using this recipe, Pressure Cooker White Rice.

Other one-pot recipes to try are my One Pot Pressure Cooker Chinese Orange Pepper Chicken & Rice, Pressure Cooker Chinese Take-Out Beef & Broccoli and Pressure Cooker Healthy Inside Out “Eggrolls.”

Kitchen Equipment and Essentials

• Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker
• J.A. Henckels Classic 7-inch Hollow Edge Santoku Knife
• Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
• Culina Stackable (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
• Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
• Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk – a MUST have, probably my most used utensil
• Bellemain Porcelain Ramekins
• My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board
• Ekovana Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker Stackable Pans Set
• Tall Legged Stainless Steel Steaming Rack/Trivet
• Pressure Cooker Perfectly Cooked Pot in Pot Rice
• Potato Starch

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Here is your handy printable recipe:

Chinese Simmered Chicken

5 from 3 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: American Chinese, Asian, Asian inspired, Chinese, Chinese Take-Out

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 6 minutes

Total Time: 21 minutes

Servings: 6 servings

Author: Jill Selkowitz

Ingredients

• 4 pounds White and/or Dark Meat Chicken boneless or bone-in, skin removed
• 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sauce

• 1/3 cup Soy Sauce, Low Sodium
• 1/3 cup Light Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup Fresh Water
• ¼ cup Dry Sherry Wine or Apple Juice
• 1 Tablespoon Ketchup
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes crushed
• 1 clove Fresh Garlic minced
• 1 Scallion sliced

Other

• 2 Tablespoons Potato Starch or Cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons Natural Sesame Seeds toasted (optional)

Rice

• Pressure Cooker Perfectly Cooked Pot Pot Rice recipe

Recommended Products

Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker

J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef's Knife

Liquid Measuring Cup Set

Instructions

• Remove skin and fat from chicken.
• Combine Sauce ingredients and whisk together well.
• Select Sauté or Browning on your Pressure Cooker and allow to full heat.  Add 1 Tablespoon of oil to Pressure Cooker cooking pot and lightly sear chicken pieces, doing the dark meat first.
• Deglaze the cooking pot with the Sherry and then add the Sauce and mix through.
• If making this a One Pot Meal, add the Prepared PIP Rice now.
• Lock on Lid and close Pressure Valve.  Cook at High Pressure for 6 minutes.
• When Beep sounds, allow a 15-minute Natural Pressure Release.
• Turn off Pressure Cooker and then select Sauté or Browning button.
• Remove rice and trivet and cover rice.  Remove white meat chicken to a platter.
• Remove 1/2 cup of Sauce, add Potato Starch and whisk until smooth. Add the Slurry to the cooking pot and incorporate.
• Remove dark meat chicken to the platter. Continue whisking until sauce is sticky and thick.
• Pour sauce over chicken and garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

Notes

You can use all bone in chicken, boneless chicken, all white meat, all dark meat or a combination of whatever you like. You can even cut up a whole chicken.

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