Ever since I was lucky enough to receive the Instant Pot as a Christmas gift from my parents, I’ve been happily playing around with different recipes. Especially recipes that I used to make exclusively in my slow cooker. Things like bone broth, meatballs, and corned beef. While my slow cooker did and still does a great job with these, the Instant Pot does it quicker and often times the final product is more tender and sometimes more flavorful. Today I’m going to share with you how to make shredded chicken in an Instant Pot.
This recipe makes a large amount of shredded chicken. Even if you are a single person or a two person household, I love the idea of batch cooking to save valuable time. Making five pounds of chicken may seem excessive, but this recipe freezes up perfectly! Portion it out, freeze it, and you will have a basic protein for future meals when you are in a hurry or just don’t feel like cooking. I love making this recipe and using the shredded chicken for work lunches throughout the week – adding it to salads, making a quick chicken soup, or adding it to some steamed vegetables. This is a great potluck meal as well! Add a couple of batches of my sister’s BBQ sauce and you have the perfect picnic food!
We have a local natural foods shop that sources pastured chicken directly from a Michigan farmer. They often run sales on boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I’ll stock up with this recipe in mind. Why not save some money and prep for future meals at the same time!!
Shredded chicken made in the Instant Pot comes out incredibly tender and juicy. Not something you typically hear of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Although I tend to use breasts for this recipe, boneless, skinless thighs or a combination of the two would also work well. Go with your preference.
- 1/2 cup homemade chicken bone broth
- 5 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thighs, or a combination of the two
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- Pour the bone broth into the bottom of the Instant Pot.
- Place half the chicken into the broth in a single layer and season with half of the salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
- Place the rest of the chicken in another layer on top of the first and season with the rest of the salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
- Place the lid (with the sealing ring in place) on your Instant Pot and twist it in place to lock it.
- Place the steam release handle to the "sealing" position. It will not lock into place, but will remain loose. Just make sure it's pointing in the right direction.
- Press the "poultry" button. It will light up for 15 minutes. Press the "+" until you reach 20 minutes cooking time. Within a few seconds, the Instant Pot will beep and display the word "on". This means that the cycle has started and the pressure is building. It can take a bit of time to reach full pressure - anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Once full pressure is reached, the display will switch to a countdown timer.
- While the cycle is running, it is totally normal to hear some sputtering and clicking. You may even see some steam or water spurts coming from the steam release handle.
- After the cycle is complete, the Instant Pot will beep again and the display will switch to L0:00. It's now in the keep warm setting. It will slowly depressurize in this setting (also referred to as Natural Pressure Release or NPR). For this recipe, I like to let the Instant Pot NPR for 15-20 minutes. If I'm busy, I will just let it hang out in the keep warm setting until I'm ready to shred it up.
- Remove the chicken to a large bowl. Using two forks or a hand held mixer, shred the chicken until it is the consistency your prefer. Add the liquid from the Instant Pot to the chicken to keep it moist.
- Enjoy!!
Do you have an Instant Pot? Do you use it to batch cook? Tell me about your favorite ways to use your Instant Pot in the comments!
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There is so much you can do with shredded chicken. I can’t wait to try this in my IP.
Enjoy!!
I love my Instant Pot! I like using it for rendering tallow and lard; much less messy than the stovetop!
I haven’t tried making tallow or lard yet. It’s such a great tool!
I love the Instant Pot for shredded chicken! We usually use thighs and I put in a jar of salsa verde – instant taco meat.
Sounds awesome! Thanks for the quick meal idea 🙂
I love making whole chicken in my IP too! It’s a great time saver!
I know! I love mine too!
these pots sound really cool
They are!
That chicken looks delicious!
Thank you!
Everyone has been talking about the Instant Pot lately – I definitely think I need to get one! I love how quickly you can make healthy foods for dinner.
It’s changed my meal prep completely! I hope you get one soon!