I have been making easy Instant Pot recipes for years now, and I’ve slowly been making my normal recipes inside of the Instant Pot with trial and error.
When making this recipe, be sure to add your cornstarch AFTER your chicken as already cooked. Don’t pressurize the cornstarch because it will kill your recipe!
After I mastered Mongolian Beef I thought I would give this Orange Chicken a try!
WHAT IS AN INSTANT POT?
Haven’t jumped on the Instant Pot bandwagon yet? Well, you may want to consider it just for this recipe alone!
Instant Pot is a seven-in-one multi-cooker that works as an electric pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker, steamer, warmer, and sauté pan all in one.
Sounds a little too good to be true, but we promise it’s worth every penny! I haven’t used my slow cooker in weeks, which is saying a lot for this 3-4 times a week slow cooking girl!
Check out the reviews on the Instant Pot on Amazon and join the 1000’s of people who LOVE it! You can read about it HERE.
One of our favorite Instant Pot recipes is our Creamy Chicken Soup – our readers give it rave reviews!
HOW TO MAKE ORANGE CHICKEN IN THE PRESSURE COOKER
1. Put 4 chicken breasts on the bottom of the Instant Pot.
2. Mix the BBQ sauce, water and soy sauce on top of your chicken.
3. Cook the Chicken. Put lid on Instant Pot and turn vent knob to the sealed position. Hit manual and then adjust the cook time by using the plus or minus buttons to 20 minutes. After cook time is done do a quick release.
4. Finish your orange sauce. Turn Instant Pot to saute. Make a cornstarch slurry by mixing cornstarch with 1/4 cup of the liquid from your instant pot. Add cornstarch slurry, Orange Maramalade and orange juice to the Instant Pot and stir for 2-3 minutes.
5. This Orange Chicken is great served over steamed rice or with cauliflower rice.
Can you make orange chicken with frozen chicken?
Yes, you can absolutely make Orange Chicken with frozen chicken. However, you will need to keep a few things in mind.
- Instead of cutting up your chicken, you just add the ingredients for the sauce along with the frozen whole chicken breasts.
- Increase cook time from 7 minutes to 22 minutes.
- Once the cook time has elapsed, Do a quick release and remove chicken breasts to cutting board and cut into large chunks or shred chicken.
- Turn Instant Pot back to saute. Make a the cornstarch slurry. Add cornstarch slurry to pressure cooker and stir and boil for 2-3 minutes. Mix the chicken into the sauce and serve.
Turn this into a freezer meal:
- Place chicken, BBQ sauce, orange juice, and soy sauce into a gallon-sized freezer bag. Place freezer bag into freezer and it will last up to 90 days.
- When ready to use, dump ingredients from bag into Instant Pot and add 1/2 cup of water in with the frozen food. Place the lid on top, move the valve to SEALING, and press the MANUAL button. Set timer for 25 minutes. Do a 5 minute NATURAL RELEASE when the timer is done. Follow the rest of the instructions as written.
Related recipe: This Instant Pot Sesame Chicken tastes better than take out and is so easy to make! Get the recipe HERE!
Need some help making this in the Instant Pot? Watch exactly how I make it HERE:
Sometimes the Instant Pot can be intimidating. Every Monday I share a new Instant Pot Recipe on our Youtube channel so you can actually watch how each recipe is made.
Watch how to make Orange Chicken on our YouTube Channel!
OUR NEWEST COOKBOOK:
Have you heard about our newest cookbook, Copycat Cooking? We took over 100 of our favorite restaurant recipes and simplified them so that you can make them right at home!
This cookbook includes copycat recipes from Wingers, Texas Roadhouse, Starbucks, Panera, Cheesecake Factory, Kneaders, and so much more.
We are so excited to share these recipes with you. Order your copy today!
Six Sisters’ Stuff COPYCAT COOKING <—– Click here to order!
Be sure to not miss another recipe!
Follow Six Sisters’ Stuff on Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest | YouTube
More Instant Pot recipes you will love!
- Instant Pot BBQ Country Ribs
- Instant Pot Creamy Chicken Fajita Soup
- Instant Pot Pork Chile Verde
- Instant Pot Easy Sesame Chicken and Rice
- Instant Pot Mississippi Pot Roast
Instant Pot Orange Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- ½ cup BBQ Sauce
- ⅓ cup orange juice
- ½ cup water
- 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon cornstarch
- ⅔ cup orange marmalade
Equipment
Instructions
- Combine chicken, BBQ sauce, water and soy sauce in the pot and stir to combine.
- Secure the lid, making sure the vent is closed.
- Push MANUAL or PRESSURE COOK and set the timer for 12 minutes (20 if frozen).
- When the time is up, quick-release the remaining pressure.
- Carefully remove the chicken from the pot to a cutting board and cut into bite-sized chunks.
- Remove 1/4 cup of cooking liquid and mix with cornstarch.
- Stir cornstarch slurry, chicken, orange juice and orange marmalade into the pot for 5-6 minutes until sauce has thickened, returning to SAUTE mode as needed.
- Serve over cooked rice and garnish with sesame seeds or green onions
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
What happens in the IP if we double the recipe? I imagine longer cook time (which I would have no idea what it would be) but what about the quality of the food? Does the IP accommodate doubling recipes? #tryingtofeedalargefamily 🙂
You would need the biggest instant pot if you are doubling a recipe.
20 minutes left my chicken so dry
Is the chicken frozen or thawed chicken?
Question on the pressure cooking part hi or low for the setting? Thanks
This recipe sounds delicious! Question. In the notes, it states that if using frozen chicken to increase cooking time from 7 minutes to 22 minutes, however in the recipe it states to cook fresh chicken for 20 minutes, 25 minutes if using frozen. Can you clarify? Thank you! It seems 20 minutes for fresh chicken in the IP would be too long!
I really wanted this to be good…but all we could taste is the marmalade. If I was to recreate this recipe, I would likely omit the marmalade and use hoisin instead of BBQ sauce. Maybe more soy sauce if needed.
May I cut this recipe in half for the 3 qt IP?
Yes, that will work great.
When you call for rice, I’m assuming you mean regular rice, not instant. Just checking. And, I’m thinking that wild rice would take longer than regular rice but not being familiar with the Instant Pot, I’m not certain.
Thanks for ALL the good stuff you make!
Yes, we usually use white rice in our instant pots.
Tried this recipe, and it was delicious!!! Even the husband said it was a “keeper” !!!
I came back to see if you responded to my comment/review regarding brands of various ingredients… only to find my review gone! What a shame. I think people need to be wary of this recipe as the brand/type of sauces/juice you use could have a huge impact on the outcome. Unfortunately our leftovers are still in the fridge as nobody wants to eat them. Anyway, I was going to leave a positive review on a different recipe that I tried but now I’m put off. I think I’ll stay away from your site from now on.
We are so sorry that this recipe didn’t appeal to your tastes. It’s one of our favorites. You can always tweak the ingredient amounts to your own liking. Have a terrific week.
I had exactly the same question, and it is a MAJOR flaw. Can’t believe it was ignored and not answered. When cooking boneless skinless chicken breasts in an IP, the CORRECT cooking time is 7 minutes, with a quick release. Frozen should go 15-20 minutes, with quick release. Author needs to fix this.
We like to cook thawed chicken breasts about 10-12 minutes in the instant pot and frozen chicken breasts for about 20 minutes.
This is an easy and delicious recipe! It worked well for my mother in law who doesn’t eat anything spicy or tomato based.
I kinda agree with Danica….I really really wanted to like it, but was left unsatisfied. I think your copycat Walt Disney chili is rockin’ love love love that one!
This recipe was very good. My family liked it and was all for me making it again.
I accidentally mixed in the orange marmalade in freezer bag. Will I get a burn notice??
You should be okay, but you can add a little extra liquid before cooking to make sure it works!