A delicious 15-minute Instant Pot Lemon Chicken the whole family will love! Crispy chicken thighs with potatoes and asparagus and a lemony sauce.
People on Instagram went absolutely nuts over the Slow-Cooker Lemon Chicken I posted a couple weeks ago. It’s an incredibly delicious recipe and I’ve had several requests to convert it to an Instant Pot recipe.
Turns out it’s actually super easy to make Instant Pot Lemon Chicken. The best part: it only needs 15 minutes + natural pressure release. Then another 2 minutes of steaming with a quick release during which you will have enough time to put those chicken thighs under the broiler so the skin crisps up and gets nice and brown.
How to Make Instant Pot Lemon Garlic Chicken
So the one “issue” I had with converting the slow-cooker version into this Instant Pot version was the liquid situation. The slow-cooker can pretty much cook with like close to no liquid. The pressure cooker, however, needs to be filled with the minimum required liquid so it can come to pressure.
For my 6-quart this happens to be 1 cup of liquid. From what I’ve been told, for the 8-quart it’s even 2 cups. If you are making this in an 8 quart I actually recommend doubling the whole recipe.
In order to not “water down” the delicious lemon sauce, I opted for chicken broth and only as little as possible. For that, I recommend adding your oil and lemon juice to a measuring cup and only then pour in some chicken broth until you just reach 1 cup (see video).
Remember the chicken will also release quite some liquid during the cooking process.
Be generous with your garlic to make it a real Instant Pot Lemon Garlic Chicken and the smell drool-worthy.
How to Thicken the Instant Pot Lemon Chicken Sauce
Something I didn’t show in the video is how I ended up thickening the sauce so it’s like a nice gravy.
I keep going back and forth with wanting to and not wanting to add corn starch to gravies. It’s not a clean ingredient. Corn starch is highly processed.
However, I just haven’t found any alternative that works as well as a corn starch slurry.
In some recipes, I opt to simply leave sauces liquid and in others, I choose to not care that corn starch isn’t a clean and unprocessed ingredient.
One thing is for sure, if you want a creamy gravy that sticks to your food, remove all food from the pot, leaving the juices behind, add a tablespoon corn starch and a tablespoon of cold water to a small bowl and whisk until completely smooth and then pour the slurry into the juices and bring everything to a boil while constantly stirring or whisking.
After about 3 minutes of boiling your gravy will be amazing!
Instant Pot Lemon Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 lemon
- 4 chopped cloves garlic
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp honey
- sea salt
- pepper
- 1/2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves (optional but recommended)
- 3/4 cup chicken broth
- 1 sliced red onion
- 1-1.5 lbs halved baby potatoes (or new potatoes) - important! NO OTHER potatoes
- 4 large bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 1 Tbsp corn starch
Instructions
- Add the zest of the lemon, lemon juice, olive oil, honey, garlic, and thyme (if using) to a measuring cup and add sea salt and pepper to taste.
- Then add just enough chicken broth to the measuring cup until you reach exactly 1 cup (if using a 6 quart). (If using an 8-quart I recommend doubling the recipe or using the pot in pot method).
- Add sauce to the bottom of your Instant Pot, then add sliced onion and halved baby potatoes and then place chicken thighs on top in one layer.
- Put on the lid and turn the valve to the sealing position and set the Instant Pot to 15 minutes on high pressure.
- After the 15 minutes let pressure release naturally.
- Once the safety pin dropped, open the pot and remove the chicken thighs and put them on a baking sheet under the broiler for 3-5 minutes or until the skin is nice and brown and crisp.
- In the meantime, add asparagus to the instant pot, put on the lid and seal it, and depending on the thickness of the asparagus "steam" it for 1-2 minutes and manually release the pressure.
- You can now serve everything with the liquid sauce OR you can create a more gravy-like sauce by adding 1 Tbsp corn starch and 1 Tbsp cold water to a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Then add slurry to the sauce in the instant pot, hit the soup or saute button and bring the sauce to a boil while constantly stirring or whisking. Within a couple of minutes, the sauce will thicken up. Serve over chicken and potatoes.
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Lisa says
Love this recipe in the crockpot! It is my go to meal when bringing dinner to friends….I was wondering if you have ever done it in the oven? I don’t love thighs so I got some tenders and was thinking about trying it in the oven? Thank you!
Lorena Grater says
Here you go :) https://greenhealthycooking.com/lemon-garlic-chicken/
Ayme says
I made this recipe for dinner tonight. Family loved it. They said I can make it again !!! Thank you
Annette says
Fast, easy and delicious! I used chicken breasts and sautéed them first, then followed the recipe.
Cindy Feldt says
I changed up the recipee a little bit. Used Burson and orange juice to make the liquid. Also used boneless skinless thighs. Turned out great!
Paola says
Whst about using the instant pot with the slow cooker option? Woukd you avise us to get the jam cover to ur instant pot??
Im thinking about OTHER recipies wich call for a slow cooker wich Im reluctant to buy….
Lorena Grater says
I own both because I feel the Instant Pot doesn’t do such a good job as the slow-cooker. I prefer using the Instant Pot for pressure cooking and the slow cooker for slow cooking, especially considering you can get a slow cooker for as little as $30. Kitchen space is obviously an issue in that case I think the Instant Pot will be a better investment over the slow cooker and you can slow cook on the stove or oven.
Shelly Stamps says
So delicious, and we were very happy to have a one pot meal on a hot day!I followed the recipe almost exactly, but I sauted the chicken for 3 minutes or so. Since the broiler worked really well, I’ll skip that step next time. Also, there was more than enough liquid, so I might add a little less chicken broth. Yummy.
Julia says
Could I sauté the potatoes and asparagus and chicken all first and then cook accordingly to recipe? All done in the instapot?
Lorena Grater says
You can, but the skin won’t be crispy. It has to go under the broiler after to be crispy. If you don’t plan on eating the skin you can simply omit that step. No need to even brown ahead of time.
Michelle says
About how long does it take to naturally release pressure?
Lorena Grater says
It depends on the size of the chicken, how much is in there, how big your instant pot is, and what mood your instant pot is in. Ha. There is no exact time but if after 30 minutes the pin hasn’t dropped yet you can manually release the rest of the pressure and everything will be perfectly cooked through.
Gini says
Can you use frozen thighs in this recipe? Would it change any of your instructions?
Thank you
Lorena Grater says
Hi Gini, in theory, yes. I’ve tried it before in another recipe and used the exact same timing and it turned out, the pot simply needed a lot longer to get to pressure because it needed longer to get to the proper temperature and I think that’s what made the chicken thaw. I do however have to say that it tastes quite different. Cooking chicken from frozen is NOT the yummiest….
Cliff says
Instead of using cornstarch, my grandmother would use instant mashed potato mix to thicken sauces and gravies, or freeze dried potato flakes!!
Lorena says
Yes! You basically just need any starch. It can be corn starch or potato starch or tapioca starch….
brittany says
If I have the 3 quart- do I half the recipe?
Lorena says
I want to believe it would still all fit in a 3 quart. Maybe not the asparagus but you could roast that in the oven or in a pan while the other things are pressure cooking :)
AT says
This recipe took an HOUR from start to finish. This was my first time using the instantpot and I thought I was going to have a fast meal, but it took 10 minutes for it to even start the 15 minute timer, and then at 10 minutes I released the pressure because I didn’t know how long it would take to naturally release and I was getting hungry and then the 2 minute steam again took another 5 minutes before the timer started…. plus the chopping and mixing at the beginning. It honestly would have been faster if I just put everything in the oven … did I do something wrong???
Lorena says
Hm, 10 minutes to come to pressure is really long. Was your chicken frozen? I don’t see how this could have been made any faster in the oven. The oven takes about 10 minutes to preheat and bone-in chicken thighs need at the very least 35 minutes in the oven. If your sealing ring isn’t positioned properly it can take the Instant Pot longer to get to pressure. I recommend making sure the sealing ring is really well positioned and once steam comes out from the sealing valve you can press down a little on the handle of the lid to help your pot along to seal. To speed up the dinner-making process and if you don’t mind washing one extra pan, you could boil your asparagus in some water in a pan while the chicken and potatoes are cooking.
Georgie says
Incredible 😍 so easy to follow and cook and tastes amazing!