4 Easy Steps to Cook Frozen Chicken Breasts in an Instant Pot
Can you cook a frozen chicken in an Instant Pot? Why, yes, you can! (And it’s super duper easy.)
You know I love my air fryers … but I also have enough love in my heart for my Instant Pot. I don’t use it quite as often as the air fryer, but when I do, it feels like I’m performing a bit of magic.
Take the other day when I was making chicken enchiladas but had forgotten to defrost the chicken breasts. The Instant Pot says, “No problem! Gimme that piece of rock-hard chicken and I’ll make it tender in a matter of minutes!”
So that’s what I did. Here are the quick and easy steps for cooking IP frozen chicken breasts in sauce. …
- Put in the chicken breasts with ~1 cup of water and half a jar of store-bought enchilada sauce.
- Seal the lid and cook it on high pressure for 10 minutes.
- Let it sit for another 5 minutes (what they call natural release) before releasing the remainder of the pressure. For those unfamiliar with the IP, you can check out our how-to article here, but essentially “releasing the remainder of the pressure” just means hitting the release knob to let the rest of the steam out.
- Using two forks, shred the chicken right in the pot and season it with some salt.
That was all I had to do to get my enchiladas ready to be filled with delicious, flavorful, and tender chicken! Considering that 20 minutes before, all I had was frozen chicken … it was magic.
If you’re still trying to get the hang of the Instant Pot you bought 2 Black Fridays ago, check out our Instant Pot eBook Bundle. It includes conversion tables for how to easily convert regular recipes into Instant Pot ones, timetables for all the things you’d want to pressure cook, links to our IP glossary, and more! You’ll make so much magic for just $9.99.
And if you just do 1 thing in the Instant Pot, let it be this magic trick — it’s my favorite:
If these Instant Pot frozen chicken steps are useful to you, stay tuned for more infographics and how-to articles by signing up for our weekly email below. Or sign up for a free 14-day trial of our meal plan service for a variety of quick and delicious dinners, like Instant Pot Mushroom Risotto!
