Chicken thighs are a weeknight workhorse: They're far more flavorful than other cuts (looking at you, chicken breast) and manage to stay juicy throughout cooking. However, when you're exhausted from a long day, the idea of cooking a whole meal — and doing all those dishes — can still feel daunting. Enter: the Instant Pot. Using one of these electric pressure cookers speeds up the cooking process dramatically, meaning you can have dinner on the table in as few as 30 minutes.
To get you started, we've collected five of our favorite recipes that marry the versatility of chicken thighs with the quick-cooking abilities of an Instant Pot.
Our best chicken thigh recipes for Instant Pots
You'd never guess that this butter chicken comes together in 30 minutes — it's just that flavorful. Garam masala (paired with ground turmeric, cumin, and paprika) is key to developing a complex flavor in a short period of time, so don't skimp on the spice blend.
2. Instant Pot Creamy Mushroom Chicken
Rather than relying on a can of cream of mushroom soup, this chicken dish features a simple, homemade sauce consisting of mushrooms and cream, plus aromatics like garlic, onion, and thyme. The final product is a cozy, satisfying dish that's ideal for chilly winter evenings.
3. Instant Pot Chicken in Red Wine Sauce
These chicken thighs braised in red wine take inspiration from the French coq au vin. Instead of the low-and-slow cooking method traditionally used for this dish (which can easily take several hours), this recipe employs an Instant Pot to get the cook time down to 45 minutes.
4. Instant Pot Chicken with Cumin-Chile Sauce
A combination of chile powder and ground cumin serves as the backbone of this chicken dish. Eat it over rice, suggests recipe developer Urvashi Pitre, or shred the meat and use it for tacos.
5. Melissa Hartwig's Instant Pot Chicken Cacciatore with Zucchini Noodles
In addition to coming together in under an hour, this recipe happens to be Whole30-friendly and chock-full of vegetables. Rather than the standard accompaniment of noodles or pasta, this cacciatore gets paired with zoodles, or spiralized zucchini, for a fresh — but still satisfying — version.
