Instant Pot Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs (From Fresh Or Frozen)
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Instant Pot boneless skinless chicken thighs come out so tender and juicy, they literally melt in your mouth! What a perfect simple dinner!
Chicken thighs are a staple in my house. They are cheap, easy to make, moist, tender and don’t dry out. I often make pan-fried chicken thighs and baked chicken thighs, so the next logical thing to do what of course make them in Instant Pot :)
A great advantage of the Instant Pot is that you can cook meat from frozen and it tastes amazing! This recipe works for both completely thawed or frozen solid chicken thighs. The only difference is the pressure cooking time – longer, of course, for the frozen ones!
How To Cook Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs In The Instant Pot
Very easy! All you need is a package of boneless skinless chicken thighs (fresh or frozen), your favorite seasonings and a cup of water. Pour 1 cup of water in the Instant Pot, add chicken thighs and sprinkle or rub them with your favorite seasonings (if chicken thighs are fresh, I rub them with seasonings before putting in water, but it’s hard to rub the frozen ones so I just sprinkle them on top). Close the lid of the Instant Pot, turn the vent to a Sealing position, press the “Pressure Cook” or “Manual” button and set the time to 15 minutes for fresh chicken thighs or 30 minutes for frozen. When it’s done cooking, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, then quick release (QR) the remaining steam. The chicken thighs are ready – juicy and tender!
As you can see on the above picture, I put chicken directly in the water without a trivet. If you’d like, you can use the trivet – the outcome will be the same. I’m just lazy and find the trivet to be one extra thing to wash :) There are some recipes that truly require a trivet (for example, Instant Pot salmon, Instant Pot portobello pizza and Instant Pot banana bread), but unless trivet is necessary, I’m known to dump the ingredients directly in the pot (I even have a recipe called Instant Pot dump chili).
What to make more than 1 package of boneless skinless chicken thighs? You can add as much chicken as you’d like, as long as it fits below the “Max Fill” line of the Instant Pot. The cooking time remains the same and the amount of water remains 1 cup.
Instant Pot Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs (From Fresh Or Frozen)
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs fresh or frozen
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Recommended Kitchen Tools (click the links below to see the items used to make this recipe)
Instructions
- Rub the chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
- Pour water in the Instant Pot. Add the chicken thighs to the Instant Pot (you can use the trivet or put them directly in the water).
- Close the lid of the Instant Pot and turn the valve to a Sealing position. Press the "Pressure Cook" or "Manual" button and set the time to 15 minutes for fresh chicken thighs (or 30 minutes for frozen chicken thighs).
- When the timer beeps, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, then quick release (QR) the remaining steam.
- Remove the chicken thighs from the Instant Pot and serve. (You can reserve the cooking water to make chicken-flavored Instant Pot rice).
Notes
Nutrition
If you are looking for more Instant Pot chicken recipes, you will love these:
Instant Pot BBQ Chicken – turn these chicken thighs into BBQ chicken thighs! This recipe is so easy and everyone loves it!
Instant Pot Frozen Chicken Breast – got a package of chicken breasts in your freezer? Throw it in the Instant Pot and have yourself a delicious dinner!
Instant Pot Frozen Chicken Legs – chicken legs + lemon + garlic in the Instant Pot = yummy yum yum! This is the first dinner that I made when I got my Instant Pot!
Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken – you can cook a whole chicken in your Instant Pot! It’s so tender, the meat just falls off the bone!
Instant Pot Salsa Chicken – you can eat this salsa chicken in so many different ways! Use on salad, tacos, burritos, with rice, you name it!
OMG!
Thank you soooooo much,
For whatever reason this turned into an easter egg hunt BUT I found you. Ty. You answered all of my questions in just a few SIMPLE sentences.
This may be a stupid question: How do you dispose of the fatty liquids left from cooking chicken in the instant pot? I have struggled to find a simple solution. (I rent and dont want to clog any plumbing, etc.)
Hmmm I just pour it out into the garbage disposer sink, haven’t even thought of it twice and haven’t had any plumbing issues there. If you don’t want to use the sink, you can pour it out into a ziploc bag, seal the bag and throw in the trash.
You should never dump any type of oil into the water system. It may not plug up your household plumbing but can have adverse effects with the city/county sewers. This is one of their biggest problems along with disposable wipes. We use old milk jugs to collect oils & them dump the enclosed jugs into the trash.
We save old glass containers, like salsa or pickles come in. You can pour grease in these, even when the grease is still pretty hot. People may say we shouldn’t do this to glass because it’s recyclable. Guess what? If you bury glass in a landfill, it recycles to sand, eventually. Much better than throwing plastic… well, anywhere.
I tend to use it to make chicken gravy..sounds silly but has its use ?
Easy! Pour the liquids into a mason jar, two cup measuring cup, just about anything and stick in fridge overnight. Next morning, the fats will have solidified on top, just scrape them off with a spoon into your garbage can and pour the rest of the broth down the drain (or use as chicken broth). Easy as can be!
Thanks for the recipe – nice and simple!
Used more water seasoned with bouillon, bay, etc. 2.5 lb. frozen, layered with seasoning.
Cooked egg noodles. Used IP liquid for gravy base adding sliced mushrooms, lemon zest and juice, cornstarch slurry and a bit of heavy cream. Served from a huge platter to oohs and aahs all around! A miracle meal thanks to your recipe!
This is so tasty and I love the boneless chicken thighs
Why do you have so many ideas in the kitchen? Then, super easy, your tips, and your recipe are so amazing. Every time I cook I’m looking at your website. Thanks :)