Quick & Easy Instant Pot Sesame Chicken Thighs: Your New Weeknight Favorite

Craving a delicious, takeout-style meal without the long wait or extra cost? Look no further! Our quick and easy Instant Pot Sesame Chicken Thighs recipe delivers tender, succulent chicken coated in a rich, sweet, and savory sauce, all prepared in less than 15 minutes using your pressure cooker or Ninja Foodi. If you’ve enjoyed our Crockpot sesame chicken, prepare to be amazed – this version is just as delicious, but significantly faster!

Imagine serving your family a restaurant-quality meal tonight, bursting with flavor and packed with protein. This easy sesame chicken recipe, featuring tender chicken pieces enveloped in a thick, sweet sauce, is absolutely amazing when served over a bed of fluffy rice. It’s consistently one of our most popular Instant Pot recipes, renowned for its simplicity and incredible taste.

Have you ever savored that delightful sweet sesame chicken at a restaurant and wished you could recreate it at home? We certainly have! That yearning led us to experiment in the kitchen. Our journey began with a successful air fryer sesame chicken, which was incredibly delicious. But we pushed further, seeking an even quicker method to achieve that perfect tender texture and deeply infused flavor.

For this recipe, both boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs work wonderfully. While breasts offer a leaner option, we often prefer thighs for their inherent juiciness and rich flavor, which truly shines under pressure cooking. To ensure rapid cooking and maximum sauce absorption, we highly recommend dicing the meat into bite-sized pieces. This technique not only speeds up the process but also allows every piece of chicken to become thoroughly infused with the irresistible sweet and savory sesame glaze. Whether you own a Crockpot Express, a classic Instant Pot, or a versatile Ninja Foodi, this recipe is perfectly adaptable to your electric pressure cooker.

Can You Make Sesame Chicken with Frozen Chicken?

While fresh or thawed meat always yields the best results for texture and flavor, you can certainly adapt this recipe if all you have are frozen chicken thighs in your Instant Pot. The key is to ensure the chicken is already diced into bite-sized pieces. If your frozen chicken is in larger chunks or stuck together, make sure to separate the pieces before cooking to ensure even doneness. For small, frozen chicken breasts, the timing will need adjustment. Cook them with 1 cup of broth for 12 minutes under high pressure, followed by a 3-minute natural release.

• After the pressure cooking cycle, drain any excess liquid and shred the chicken meat.
• You won’t typically need to use the high-pressure function further at this point.
• Once shredded, you can add the sesame sauce and use the “Sauté” setting to gently bubble and coat the chicken, allowing the flavors to meld beautifully.

No Asian-inspired recipe is complete without the aromatic essences of fresh ginger and garlic, and our sesame chicken is no exception. We’ve included just the right amount to infuse every bite with an authentic depth of flavor. Chances are, you already have most of the ingredients for this incredible sauce in your pantry, with the possible exception of hoisin sauce. Trust us, a bottle of hoisin sauce is a fantastic investment – its unique sweet and tangy profile is absolutely amazing and elevates this dish to new heights. Plus, any leftover hoisin sauce won’t go to waste! After you’ve mastered this pressure cooker recipe, you’ll be eager to try our Instant Pot spicy teriyaki chicken thighs, which also utilizes this versatile sauce, creating another quick and flavorful meal.

Mastering Ninja Foodi Sesame Chicken

It truly doesn’t matter which brand of electric pressure cooker you own at home. As long as your appliance features both a “Sauté” function for browning meat and a high-pressure cooking setting, you’re perfectly equipped to make this delicious sesame chicken. If you’re specifically using a Ninja Foodi, remember to use the pressure cooking lid (the one that is not attached) for this particular recipe. For those who love a bit of texture, the Ninja Foodi offers an extra advantage: you can achieve wonderfully crispy sesame chicken! Simply use the “Air Crisp” lid for a few minutes after pressure cooking to get that desired golden-brown finish, adding another dimension of flavor and crunch.

Diced vs. Whole: The Secret to Tender Sesame Chicken

Why do we dice the chicken into smaller pieces? This seemingly small step makes a huge difference in the final dish. Firstly, smaller chicken pieces cook much faster and more evenly in the pressure cooker, ensuring every morsel is perfectly tender. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, bite-sized chicken allows the rich, savory-sweet sesame sauce to thoroughly soak in. This means each piece is bursting with that incredible sesame chicken flavor, not just coated on the outside. Finally, it makes the meal incredibly convenient and enjoyable for everyone, especially for kids (and adults!), as the chicken is already cut into easily manageable portions. If you choose to cook whole chicken thighs, you would need to adjust the cooking time to approximately 12 minutes under high pressure, followed by a natural release.

Transforming Leftovers: Sesame Chicken with Pre-Cooked Chicken

Looking for an even faster meal? You can absolutely use pre-cooked chicken, such as shredded rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken from another meal, to make this sesame chicken! The process is slightly altered to account for the chicken already being cooked. Instead of sautéing raw chicken, you’ll simply mix your diced pre-cooked chicken pieces with the diced onions, garlic, and ginger directly in the pot. Once combined, you can skip ahead to the step where you add the homemade sesame sauce. For this variation, close the lid, set to high pressure for just 2 minutes (instead of 3 for raw chicken), and then perform a quick release. Including all the time it takes to prep your ingredients, this method should have your delicious sesame chicken ready from start to finish in under 30 minutes – significantly quicker than preparing it in a slow cooker, which often requires hours!

Once your raw chicken has been sautéed and is no longer pink on the outside, it’s time for the magic of the sauce. You’ll whisk together all the ingredients for your homemade sesame sauce and pour it directly into the pot. Make sure to stir everything thoroughly, ensuring all the chicken pieces are beautifully coated and can fully absorb those incredible flavors. This is also the perfect time to start cooking your rice, so everything finishes simultaneously and is ready to be served together. (Having multiple pressure cookers or dedicated rice cookers can certainly streamline this process!)

Achieving the Perfect Thick Sesame Chicken Sauce

After the second pressure cooking cycle is complete, perform a quick pressure release. Your chicken will be tender and cooked through, but for that irresistible, ooey-gooey restaurant-style sauce, thickening is essential. This is where cornstarch comes in! We recommend whisking together 4 tablespoons of cornstarch with 4 tablespoons of cold water in a small bowl until completely smooth, ensuring there are no lumps. Then, with the Instant Pot set back to “Sauté,” add this cornstarch slurry to the bubbling sauce. Stir continuously for 1-2 minutes as the sauce heats and thickens to a glossy, delectable consistency. You can, of course, adjust the amount of cornstarch if you prefer a thinner sauce, but in our opinion, this ratio creates absolute perfection! For a gluten-free alternative, arrowroot powder can be substituted for cornstarch, yielding a similar thickening effect.

Key Ingredients in Sesame Chicken

Traditionally, sesame chicken often features chicken thighs due to their flavor and tenderness. However, for the vibrant photos you see here, we opted for chicken breasts, and both cuts work beautifully. Many classic restaurant versions of sesame chicken are deep-fried, often with a breading. Our recipe offers a healthier, low-fat alternative by skipping the breading and deep frying. The sauces for sesame chicken can vary, with some recipes adding a touch of heat, while others, like ours, emphasize a sweeter, milder profile. The signature glossy texture at the end is typically achieved by using cornstarch to thicken the sauce.

This recipe provides a simple yet effective framework for making a delicious easy Instant Pot chicken recipe that your family will adore. Don’t forget to cook Instant Pot white rice separately to serve alongside your chicken. For a healthier alternative, brown rice also makes an excellent choice, adding nutty flavor and extra fiber to your meal.

Expand Your Menu: More Irresistible Instant Pot Chicken Recipes

The beauty of pressure cooking extends far beyond sesame chicken. You can follow similar steps and timings with different sauces to create an array of exciting dishes. One excellent option to try next is our Easy Instant Pot Butter Chicken. Dark meat, like chicken thighs, is particularly well-suited for this recipe, resulting in exceptionally tender and flavorful results.

For something slightly different, our pressure cooker apricot chicken offers a delightful sweet and tangy profile, reminiscent of orange chicken but simplified. It uses apricot jam as a natural sweetener and requires far fewer ingredients than a homemade sauce, making it a fantastic choice when you’re short on time. Alternatively, for ultimate speed and convenience, whip up our Instant Pot teriyaki chicken using just chicken and your favorite bottled teriyaki sauce.

Our spicy honey Instant Pot chicken is probably our most popular chicken dish, closely followed by Instant Pot Korean chicken. We can’t emphasize enough how much this magical appliance has transformed our mealtimes. Since incorporating the Instant Pot into our kitchen, we’ve found ourselves eating together more often, and cooking more meals from scratch has become a joy rather than a chore. Even chicken tinga has made its way onto our dinner rotation!

This quick and efficient cooking method means we eat healthier, and it’s truly amazing to witness how much our children’s palates have expanded. They are now wonderfully adventurous eaters, eager to try new flavors and dishes, which is a fantastic outcome!

Sesame Chicken vs. Sweet and Sour Chicken: What’s the Difference?

While both are beloved Asian-inspired chicken dishes, our sesame chicken and sweet and sour chicken recipes are distinctly different. Our Instant Pot sweet and sour chicken typically utilizes breaded frozen popcorn chicken, which contributes to a higher carbohydrate content. In contrast, this sesame chicken recipe is a lower-carb option as it features no breading at all. Furthermore, the sauces themselves offer unique flavor profiles. Sweet and sour chicken often has a tangy, sometimes sharp, fruity sweetness, whereas our sesame chicken leans into a richer, more profound sweet and savory balance with the distinct nutty note of sesame. Both, however, are excellent choices for delicious homemade Chinese-style meals.

If your family thoroughly enjoyed this recipe, be sure to also try our Instant Pot hoisin chicken for another fantastic flavor experience. We’ve served this versatile dish over Ninja Foodi rice or even mashed cauliflower for a satisfying low-carb meal, and it’s just as delicious as when served with traditional brown or white rice. Are you ready for an easy, family-friendly meal that consistently receives rave reviews? As a mom of three girls, I can confidently tell you that this sesame chicken is an absolute “bomb” in our household! There’s nothing quite like the joy of discovering a meal that truly wows everyone at the dinner table. What’s the most “over the top” meal your family has loved lately? Don’t forget to serve this amazing chicken on a bed of rice, garnished generously with your remaining sesame seeds and a sprinkle of diced green onions for that perfect finishing touch.

Orange Chicken vs. Sesame Chicken: A Flavor Comparison

The primary difference between orange chicken and sesame chicken lies in their distinct sauces! In our Instant Pot orange chicken recipe, the flavors are bright, citrusy, and often have a tang. This sesame chicken recipe, however, is characteristically sweeter and offers a deeper, more savory profile without any inherent heat. Unlike some orange chicken variations or dishes like General Tso’s at Panda Express that pack a spicy kick, this sesame chicken is mild and universally appealing. Of course, the presence of toasted sesame seeds is another defining characteristic of this dish. Regardless of the sauce, we consistently use boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, diced into bite-sized pieces, to ensure maximum tenderness and flavor absorption for both recipes.