Frozen Chicken Breasts in an Instant Pot! Frozen chicken breasts cook up perfectly in an Instant Pot!! No need to spend time defrosting.
Frozen Chicken Breasts in an Instant Pot!
Please excuse the terrible photos in this post! I wasn't planning on blogging cooking frozen chicken breasts in an Instant Pot, I just took the photos so that if it worked I could show Mr. Sidewalk Shoes.
It worked so well, I decided I just had to blog it. I know the photos are horrible, and perhaps I'll do it again and update them, so if you are looking at this sometime in the future and the photos are gorgeous, that's what I did.
But really this was just so easy and such a game changer!
A little while ago, I started seeing Instant Pot recipes showing up in my Facebook feed. It sounded like a gimmick to me, one of those things you buy at 3 am when you're watching infomercials on TV. Except they were showing up on well known food bloggers feeds. People I trusted.
They were raving about them. Still I hesitated. I already had a slow cooker that I loved and I had a stove top pressure cooker that I used, but didn't really love.
I found myself actually looking for Instant Pot recipes and I was hooked. The only decision to be made was between the 6 Quart or the 8 Quart. Since I am a bigger is always better person, I went with the 8 quart.
Shortly after getting my Instant Pot, I needed to come up with something for dinner. I found a recipe for some Peanut Noodles that sounded good, but I wanted to make it more substantial with some cooked chicken meat.
Only problem, I didn't have any cooked chicken meat and didn't feel like driving to the store to get a rotisserie chicken. No worries, the Instant Pot came to the rescue. You can use these breasts in any of my recipes calling for cooked chicken - like this Tarragon Chicken Salad Veronique or how about this Tabbouleh Salad with Chicken!
Seriously. In about 30-45 minutes, I had perfectly moist, cooked chicken breasts from frozen breasts!! While the breasts were cooking, I was chopping the veggies for the noodles (that recipe will be up soon!)
The frozen chicken breasts only required 10 minutes at high pressure and then 10 minutes of cooling down (also know as NPR - natural pressure release - where you let the pressure cooker switch over to keep warm and it reduces pressure naturally.)
Once the 10 minutes of cooling down are over, you do a quick pressure release and open to perfectly cooked chicken breasts! The reason I say that it takes 30-45 minutes, is because I didn't pay any attention to how long it took the cooker to come up to pressure. I put the chicken breasts in about an hour before I needed them, figuring it would all work out and it did.
Now, I used 4 chicken breasts because that is what I had. It is my understanding that more or less chicken breasts would not change the pressure time (10 minutes), but that the time for the pressure cooker to come up to pressure would change. More frozen breasts would take longer to come up to pressure.
Frozen Chicken Breasts in an Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- water
Instructions
- Pour 1 ¼ cups of water into Instant Pot
- Add frozen chicken breasts.
- Lock lid in place and make sure vent valve is set on sealing.
- Select manual and adjust the time for 10 minutes.
- When pressure cooker is finished, let rest for 10 minutes and then do a quick release by turning vent valve to venting.
- Open lid and admire your chicken!
Nutrition
This post was originally published in 2016 and has been slightly updated for 2020.
Scott says
Got the 8 qt dou for Christmas. I think we've used it nearly every day since. I was looking up frozen thighs when I found this. Should be about the same I guess. 4 thighs marinated in just chunky picante for a recipe.
Jan says
I do this all the time. (BTW, I'm one of those people that bought my PC from TV at 2 in the morning years ago!) I don't put it on more than 8 minutes. (I've cooked shredded chicken for 85 people in 3 instant pots in an hour. Came out perfect!)
Pam Greer says
Sometimes those late night purchases don't turn out so well! 🙂
Eileen Kelly says
Such a great way to defrost chicken! I am going to do this with some frozen chicken breasts tomorrow!
Kendra says
I am hoping you have some insight for me. I'm relatively new to the IP world. A few things have worked but some not so much. Whenever I cook chicken in my IP (8qt duo) wherever the chicken is touching doesn't cook. It has happened with frozen breasts, thawed breasts and fresh tenderloins. I want to be able to cook several frozen breasts at a time for meal planning as well as feeding my husband and three boys but by the time I'm finished I could have cooked them more quickly in the oven. Any ideas would be appreciated. I'm so disappointed.
Pam Greer says
That doesn't happen to me at all! That is really strange because the instant pot seems to cook everything so evenly. Does it come up to pressure correctly?
Kendra says
Yes, it comes to pressure fine and I only seem to have the issue with chicken. I pulled out the crock pot this morning instead of waiting until this afternoon to use the IP because I was afraid it would happen again. Could it be that the meat just looks different where it is touching? That seems like a silly question to ask but I'm just not sure where else to go with this. 🙁
Pam Greer says
I have no idea. I never really noticed the chicken looking any different where it was touching. If you are only having the issue with chicken, then maybe it does look different. When you cut it open does it look like it cooked all the way through?
Kendra says
It would be mostly cooked through but the thicker parts of the pieces were not. I cooked six pounds last night but ran the IP twice to avoid stacking the chicken breasts. I was taking a meal elsewhere and did not want to deliver tough overcooked chicken. I used the poultry setting and it was fine so I guess I'll have to default to that until I figure out what's happening when I stack the pieces. Thank you so much for your feedback. I really appreciate you trying to help and not being snarky about it. 🙂 Have a great weekend!
Pam Greer says
I hope you figure it out! Have a great weekend too!
Christopher says
I always use an instant read thermometer to check the internal temp. If your thermometer reads 165 or higher your good, regardless how it looks.
Kimberly Hutchins says
First time making frozen chicken. Turn out very tough, hard to eat. Added a can of onion soup with the frozen breasts. Followed your directions. Ugh. Wasted chicken, no one will eat. What went wrong???
Pam Greer says
Did you keep the same amount of liquid? That might change how long it takes to come up to pressure. I've done this recipe several times and it always make tender, moist chicken.
Kevan says
I shread my chicken breasts in the liner with an electric hand mixer. Quick and easy.
Jessica says
Is there a way to season the chicken at all before cooking??
Pam Greer says
Yes you can salt and pepper it. Since I was using it in another recipe and it would be seasoned then, I just wanted basically plain cooked chicken.
Liesl says
I did as directed and it was very dry. I'll try it again and shorten the times.
Pam Greer says
Mine was super moist! Let me know if shortening the time works for you.
Dale says
One can cream of celery one can cream of onion. 4 chicken breast. Amazing
Marjie says
No salt? No seasonings? That doesn't sound like you. But I surely do admire the fact that you went ahead and bought one of these electric pressure cookers. I'll look forward to seeing how you use it before I decide whether to buy one.
Chris says
I hadn't even heard of these yet, I'm totally behind the times lol. I'll check them out.