Instant Pot BBQ Chicken! Sweet, fall-apart tender and perfect for sandwiches, salads, BBQ plates and more!
This Instant Pot BBQ Chicken is an easy recipe you can make for a weeknight meal. You can use in so many ways!
I like serving it on buns for chicken sandwiches or for a delicious meal over rice. It is also one of my favorite recipe for meal prep!
It’s also delicious in a BBQ chicken salad with romaine, black beans, corn, tomatoes, avocado and ranch dressing. This chicken is versatile, easy and delicious!
However you serve it, this easy instant pot barbecue chicken is one of my favorite recipes for busy weeknights!
Table of Contents
Ingredients You’ll Need
This recipe uses a combination of boneless chicken breasts and boneless thighs. I like the texture when
Onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, brown sugar and grated onion give this chicken delicious flavor.
The flavor of this BBQ chicken really depends on what kind of BBQ sauce you use. Use your favorite bbq sauce for this instant pot bbq chicken recipe!
How to Make Instant Pot BBQ Chicken
This instant pot pulled chicken can be made in 4 easy steps.
- Place the ingredients in the instant pot in this order: chicken broth (or water), chicken, onion powder, garlic, powder, paprika, salt, BBQ sauce, grated onion, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. (Do NOT stir. You want the water to stay on the bottom of the pot so the instant pot comes to pressure.)
- Place the lid on the instant pot making sure the valve is in the sealing position. Press manual (high pressure) and set the cook time to 15 minutes.
- Let the pressure natural release for 10 minutes. Then quick release the venting position to remove the remaining pressure.
- Remove the cooked chicken and shred it. Reduce the liquid by pressing the “saute” button and simmering the sauce until thickened if necessary. Add the shredded meat back into the sauce.
Note: This recipe has been updated since the video was published. In recent years I’ve recommended add a cup of water or chicken broth, not stirring, removing the chicken and reducing the liquid, then adding the chicken back in. This ensures the instant pot doesn’t give you the dreaded burn notice!
I like using a combination of chicken breasts and chicken thighs for the meat. The meat turns out so much more moist this way than compared to using all chicken breasts.
I used to make BBQ chicken in the slow cooker all the time, but now I prefer it in the instant pot. It is so easy to throw everything in and walk away. Plus it takes just a fraction of the time.
For an allergy-friendly meal, enjoy this on toasted gluten-free buns with a side of my favorite Dairy-Free Coleslaw! You also might like these bbq nachos.
Expert Tips and Tricks
Use Gluten-Free Worcestershire Sauce: Not all brands are gluten-free so check the label! I use Lea and Perrins which is gluten-free.
Choose a Good BBQ Sauce: The flavor of this chicken is highly dependent on what kind of BBQ sauce you use. I love the flavor of Sweet Baby Ray’s – but lately I’ve been using Stubbs Sweet Sticky BBQ sauce (such a good price on Amazon!) because it doesn’t contain high-fructose corn syrup. Use your favorite barbecue sauce!
Chicken Breasts + Thighs = Yum: I like using a combination of chicken breast and thighs in this recipe. The chicken thighs keep the dish moist and delicious!
More Instant Pot Recipes
I hope you like this recipe as much as we do! If you try it be sure to leave me a comment/rating below. I’d love to hear from you!
Instant Pot BBQ Chicken
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup chicken stock or water
- 2 lbs chicken thighs
- 1 lb chicken breast
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups BBQ sauce
- 1/2 cup grated onion plus juice
- 2-3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Place the ingredients in the instant pot in this order: chicken stock (or water), chicken, onion powder, garlic, powder, paprika, salt, BBQ sauce, grated onion, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Do NOT stir. You want the water to stay on the bottom of the pot so the instant pot comes to pressure.
- Place the lid on the instant pot making sure the valve is in the sealing position. Press manual (high pressure) and set to 15 minutes. Let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes. Then quick release the venting position to release the remaining pressure and open the pot.
- Remove the chicken and shred it. If necessary, reduce the liquid by pressing the "saute" button and simmering the sauce, stirring often, until thickened. Add the chicken back to the sauce before serving.
- Add more BBQ sauce if desired. Shred and enjoy on sandwiches, salads, BBQ plates and more!
This has become one of my all time favorite easy dinners and is definitely going to become a regular meal in my house.
You are my hero. Husband thinks this is better than any restaurant and is super easy for me to do. Very delicious
Easy, good flavor (I used a jarred bbq sauce and skipped the sugar and worcestershire since it was already in the sauce) but I would cut WAY down on the water/broth. It was totally runny — we treated it as soup.
Easy & delicious. Thank you. The thighs were still frozen after a night in the fridge (the breasts sligtly) but the 15 min cook time still turned out delicious cooked chicken. It took a long time to come to pressure.. Used what bbq sauce I had on hand (mix of Sweet Baby Rays and Kraft honey bbq) so not the healthiest but worked well in a pinch.
This was delicious! I followed recipe exactly & served to the grandkids for lunch on mini-naan original flatbreads topped with coleslaw. Super messy & too much liquid. Next time I’ll serve on buns so liquid can soak into the bun. Can I cut back on broth & bbq sauce? I’ve made similar recipe using only breast meat and having the thigh meat really made a difference. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
If I use thawed chicken breasts will it cook the same amount of time or will it have to be changed?
Turned out really good!! Sauce was thin, but I used the sauté function to thicken it up. Thank you!!
This recipe was a big hit! So easy, moist and flavorful – will definitely be making again.
To note: I used frozen chicken breasts and still did the 15 minute cook time, omitted the brown sugar as my bbq saw was already sweet, and didn’t put in the grated onion since I made caramelized onions to go with the sandwich. I also took chicken out and shredded it (did not put back in instant pot with the remaining liquid) and just topped with more bbq sauce. So delicious!
How long would I need to cook it for if I used frozen chicken?
Make sure the frozen chicken is someone broken up (and not in one big clump). You can defrost it in the microwave to break it up before adding it to the instant pot. If you do it this way the cook time will actually be the same!
Is there a change in cooking time if you use 1.88 lvs of frozen chicken breast tenderloins?
Make sure the frozen chicken is someone broken up (and not in one big clump). You can defrost it in the microwave to break it up before adding it to the instant pot. If you do it this way the cook time will actually be the same!
Is there a substitute for brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce? I just happen to not have those ingredients in my pantry and don’t know if they are needed to make the recipe work.
You can use another sweetener like regular sugar or honey. The worcestershire sauce just adds more flavor but you can skip it if needed.
Erin, thank you! This recipe is great because it’s not super fussy – you don’t have to be exact in your measurements, and you can sub other meats (I did the chicken and I’ve done brisket, which came out divine!.)
Perfect recipe. This one is a keeper! Made it exactly as written, with frozen chicken breast. So good! THANK YOU!
you put the frozen chicken in the insta pot or defrosted before?
You can put frozen chicken in the IP. Others have reviewed this saying they did it frozen. I think this person wouldn’t have said frozen if they’d defrosted it, first. 🙂 If you do frozen chicken, make sure it’s not in one big clump and it’ll have the same cook time as thawed chicken.
Yes I agree! Make sure it isn’t one bit clump (I defrost it just enough to break the chicken into individual pieces). I hope this helps!
This was really good! Sauce a little thin, but still good. I sauteed for a bit but didn’t help much. Next time I will add some cornstarch while sauteing. Will make again!
I made thus twice for my family and it was so good there was nothing left