Cooking Frozen Chicken in the Instant Pot — What You Need to Know (2024)

FAQs

Can you cook chicken from frozen in the Instant Pot? ›

Place the frozen chicken breasts in the Instant Pot inner pot. If you are cooking more than one, make sure they are separated to achieve even cooking throughout. To separate frozen chicken breasts, place them in cool water until they have thawed enough to pull apart. Add one cup of chicken broth to the pot.

You can cook chicken breasts in whatever size instant pot you have. Just make sure you add at least 1 cup of liquid, and then place the chicken in the pot in a single layer.

The key to getting perfectly juicy boneless chicken breasts is to cook them on a trivet, above the liquid. I find that this results in a better texture than cooking them on the bottom of the pot. I also think their texture is best when you quickly release the pressure, rather than letting it naturally release.

Why is my Instant Pot shredded chicken rubbery? Rubbery Instant Pot shredded chicken is usually the result of overcooking the meat.

Yes, it is safe to cook frozen food in a pressure cooker or an electric pressure cooker like an Instant Pot.

You can safely pan fry with small amounts of oil in the Instant Pot. You can also stir fry. But do not attempt deep frying. You cannot use an Instant Pot in the pressure cooking setting with large amounts of oil.

Carefully open the lid and check the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer at the thickest part of the chicken. If your chicken is bone-in, make sure the thermometer doesn't touch the bone. The chicken should register 165 degrees F. If it is below 160 degrees F, reseal and cook a few additional minutes.

Not adding any liquid to the Instant Pot.

It's necessary for steam to build up, ultimately creating a high-pressure environment used for faster cooking. Without sufficient liquid, pressure won't build — and you'll likely get the dreaded “burn” error.

Because chicken breast is so lean, just a couple of extra minutes of cook time turns them from juicy to overcooked and dry. Thighs, on the other hand, are a fattier cut, and not prone to dry out as quickly even after an extra minute or two of cooking.

Why did my chicken burn in Instant Pot? ›

There are a number of reasons your Instant Pot will display its burn message. Most of these involve mishaps that may occur during the cooking process, like not adding enough liquid or forgetting to adjust the steam valve to the sealing position. Once you figure out what you've done wrong, correcting the error is easy.

Unfortunately, once you overcook a piece of meat in the pressure cooker, there's no going back. You'll be left with a pile of dry, crunchy, tasteless fibers and no amount of additional pressure cooking is going to put that moisture back into the meat. Earlier, I explained how ingredient size affects the cooking time.

Any time you're handling raw meat, whether frozen or fresh, safety should be top of mind. Fortunately, we can all take a collective sigh of relief, because the USDA says it is fine to cook chicken from frozen, just keep in mind that the cooking time will be about 50 percent longer.

The frozen pieces will make things colder, longer and cause the pot to take longer to create steam, and thus pressure. What is this? Bargain for at least 10 extra minutes for the pot to come to pressure when using frozen meats. Sometimes up to 40 extra minutes, depending on what you are making.

If your recipe calls for diced, thawed chicken, but you didn't defrost the chicken breasts in advance, there's an easy fix! Pour 1 cup water into your pressure cooking pot and place a trivet in the bottom. Balance the frozen chicken breasts on the trivet, stacking crosswise if necessary. Lock the lid in place.