Instant Pot Apricot Chicken

If you’re looking for a family friendly meal that even your kids will love, this pressure cooker apricot chicken is it! Tender chicken swimming in a sweet sauce served on a bed of rice, it’s now one of our favorite Instant Pot recipes.

Have you ever had this dish?? It. Is. So. Good. I’m talking it’s a meal your kids will ask you to make over and over again. With a sweetness that is not too extreme but satisfied the sweet toothers in your house it is cheap and will have your fam asking for seconds. 😉

If you’re new to this kind of cooking we will make it easy on you. You can use any brand you might have at home including a Ninja Foodi, Mealthy or make as an easy Crockpot Express recipe some night. Find what you need at your grocery store or defrost some frozen chicken to get started.

Ingredient Notes

The sauce is made with French or Catalina salad dressing and some apricot jam you can coat your bite size poultry pieces with a sweet sauce your kids will love. If you cannot find this style you can make homemade apricot jam or the closest would be either peach or orange marmelade (but would vary the fruity flavor of course).

Your boneless skinless chicken breasts should be cut into bite size pieces, you could use chicken thighs instead if you prefer dark meat.

Chicken broth or stock works better than water to thin out the sauce a bit. You don’t want it too thick or you may cause the machine to display the burn function.

To add a whopping of flavor I add a packet of Onion soup mix like you would to make that famous dip, but just what is in the little pouch.

Optional add ins would be to add an Onion sliced, and/or a bit of cornstarch if you want to thicken sauce

Variations and Substitutions

You are going to use jam for the sweetness and fruit here. You could alternatively use orange marmelade and it would be more similar to our Instant Pot orange chicken recipe too. Add a bit of heat if you like with red pepper flakes or a bit of Sriracha and go!

How Long to Cook Apricot Jam Chicken in Instant Pot

You literally only need 6 minutes of cook time! Now with that said it takes about 10 minutes to reach pressure and start cooking and the last few is used to thicken the sauce so really it is way faster than other methods and turns out better if you ask me. The high pressure makes the meat as tender as possible so it almost melts in your mouth coated with the sweet sauce kids love.

How Long to Cook with Frozen Chicken

For frozen chicken in the Instant Pot you wouldn’t be able to cut it into small pieces like you see here. What you would want to do is follow the instructions above to cook with broth for 12 minutes. Then you’d drain, shred the meat, set to saute and add the ingredients for this sauce. Allow to bubble and thicken and then serve!!

Some like to add a bit of soy sauce to cut down the sweetness even more, either way is good to us. Serve over a bed of Ninja foodi white rice with some steamed broccoli on the side.

Tips

If at the end you want the sauce thicker then use 1 tbsp cornstarch whisked together with 3 tbsp cold water. Set pressure cooker to saute and add this in, stir and it won’t be as thin.

You could transition this Instant Pot chicken recipe into this if you wanted to? I would boil egg noodles to al dente in another pot and then when this is done, fold them together. There is enough sauce to coat everything without a problem.

Printable recipe below with nutritional information included as well. Keep in mind I do not calculate these, the system does and it accounts for exactly what I have listed below. Then try our creamy pressure cooker chicken and rice which turns out great every time.

FAQ

That depends on the serving but in the printable recipe card below there is information for this. Thighs would have more fat than white meat so you need to keep that in mind. Different brands of jam and dressings will vary too so refer to the back for the most accurate calculations.

No there are no whole apricots inside, but it uses apricot preserves so it has the same flavor and coats the meat so it is sweet. I mean you could add chunks of sliced fruit in there too but I would add at the end or it will get too soft.