This Instant Pot Chicken is cooked in decadent lemon butter sauce that tastes perfect over pasta, with rice, or simply on its own!
When we lived in England year before last I ordered myself an Instant Pot. It was when they were getting super popular on Pinterest and blogs and I knew I wanted to be able to share Instant Pot recipes with you all here. However, because the voltage was different in our UK house than with our US Instant Pot, I'd have to lug out a big electric transformer to use it so of course it got stashed in the back of a cabinet most of the time. Then, when we moved back to the US somehow the cord didn't make the trip with us so again, my Instant Pot sat unused in a cabinet until I finally ordered a new cord last winter and took that baby out of hiding, and let me tell you, I'm so glad I did! You'll be seeing a lot more Instant Pot recipes from now on thankfully, starting with this absolutely delicious Instant Pot Chicken recipe with Lemon Butter Sauce I'm sharing today!
(If you're new to the Instant Pot, check out my Instant Pot 101 post here!
First, please forgive my inside-the-Instant-Pot photography, obviously I have a learning curve going on there! I normally don't show a lot of "in process" pictures of my recipes but I thought it would be helpful for others who might not use their Instant Pots a lot because I found them a little intimidating at first as well. This Instant Pot Chicken recipe starts with using it on the Saute setting to caramelize the onion and get a really good flavor to the butter base.
After that, we add the chicken and sear it on both sides to make sure it stays nice and juicy and gets all that good flavor in it. Once the chicken is seared, we switch over to the pressure cooking portion which has the chicken done in just 8 minutes if thawed, 15 if you are starting from frozen. (I prefer to start from thawed but we all have those days we forget to take the meat out of the freezer, don't we?!)
After the meat is cooked you thicken up the sauce and serve with your choice of starch. My boys love it over farfalle pasta, it's also great with mashed or scalloped potatoes, and I like to eat mine with zoodles to stay lower carb. (Each serving is only 3 Weight Watchers Freestyle Smart Points!) This Instant Pot chicken and lemon cutter sauce
Instant Pot Chicken with Lemon Butter Sauce
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 18 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: dinner
- Method: pressure cooker
- Cuisine: American
Description
Flavorful chicken in a buttery lemon sauce, perfect for serving over pasta, zoodles, rice or potatoes! Ready in just 30 minutes, this Instant Pot chicken recipe is a weeknight staple.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ½ red onion, diced
- 3 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon parsley
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- juice of two lemons
- ¾ cup beef broth or beef bone broth
- 3-4 chicken breasts (about 2 lbs)
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
- Turn the Instant Pot to Saute mode and add butter, onion, garlic, and spices. Allow butter to melt and cook until onions are translucent and tender.
- Add chicken breasts and sear on 4 minutes each side or until outside is golden brown.
- Pour broth and lemon juice over chicken and shut Instant Pot lid. Turn to Pressure cooking mode for chicken. Set to 15 minutes if chicken was frozen, or 8 minutes if chicken was thawed. When finished cooking allow steam to release naturally, this should only take about 5 minutes.
- Remove chicken to plate. Return Instant Pot to Saute mode.
- In a small bowl mix cornstarch with about ¼ cup water and slowly add to liquid while stirring with a wire whisk. Bring to a boil then turn off heat and allow to thicken.
- Serve over pasta, zoodles, rice, or potatoes as desired.
Notes
Each serving is 3 Weight Watchers Freestyle Smart Points.
Keywords: lemon, chicken, instant pot
I hope you enjoy this easy weeknight dinner recipe, I know at my house any time I can get dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less is a success!
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Ashley says
Instant hit! I doubled the recipe using frozen chicken and did 30 min on poultry to make sure the chicken was completely cooked. Came out juicy and falling apart with loads of broth to make the sauce. So good!
★★★★★
Melissa Riker says
awesome, I'm so glad you liked it!
Di says
I made this today and it was delicious… The only change I made and would make in the future is that there’s way too much cornstarch. Instead of using 3 tablespoons I would use one because using the 3 tablespoons with the water the gravy ended up being like jelly. I added more beef broth and it was fine…..So the next time I would use maybe 1 tablespoon if not maybe only 2 teaspoons of cornstarch. But other than that it was delicious.
Rita says
I just made this tonight. I tweaked it adding wine, italian seasoning and pecorino Romano cheese on top. Also threw in frozen broccoli. Yum!
★★★★★
Melissa Riker says
Sounds like delicious add ins!
Brandy says
This is a great recipe, though I did employ some minor changes due to the amount I needed to make. I used chicken legs because that is what I had available, and was cooking for 7 people. (almost 2 legs a person.) In using them though, I had to sear the chicken in batches of 4, so after the first set of four were browned, I removed most of the onions/garlic from the pot, making sure to scrape the bottom to keep it from sticking, and adding just a bit more butter to help keep the mix from sticking, I cooked the others in about four batches, adding a bit of the onion mixture in each batch. I will say I did have to stop and clean out the bottom of the pan after the second batch because it was charring and didn't want that flavor in the dish. Not sure if it was due to differences in Instapots, or if it was just mine. I also doubled up on the beef broth, (used the concentrated liquid kind of beef bone broth). Paired it with white rice cooked in chicken bone broth, and it was very delicious. Definitely one to make again!
Melissa Riker says
So glad you liked it, thanks for sharing your adjustments for feeding a crowd!
Katie says
Dumb question but if it’s frozen chicken do you still sear it?
★★★★★
Jenna Bishop says
I had this same thought. Does frozen chicken sear?
★★★★★
Michele Sutin says
This was great. Next time I will add the garlic and parsley right before pressure cooking instead of the beginning.
Melissa says
This is addictive, I can't wait to make it again!
★★★★★
Emma says
This turned out great!!!
rabia says
can we use red pepper instead of black
★★★★★