Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken
Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken is a healthy twist on P.F. Chang's Sweet and Sour Chicken. This recipe involves no deep frying, get's ready in 15 mins and the Sweet and Sour Sauce tastes just like your favorite Asian Take-out.
Ingredients
- 1 poundboneless skinless chicken breasts diced into 1" chunks (453 g)
- ½ cupgreen bell pepper made into 1/2 inch squares
- ½ cupred bell pepper made into 1/2 inch squares
- ½ cupyellow bell pepper made into 1/2 inch squares
- 1 cupfresh pineapple diced into 1/2 inch chunks (or canned pineapple drained)
- ½ cuponion diced into 1/2 inch squares and petals separated (use yellow or white onion)
- 2 tbspcornstarch (diluted with 4 tbsp water)
- 3 tbspavocado oil (or use any neutral oil)
- ¼ cupwater (read notes below)
- ½ tbsplight soy sauce
- ¼ tsppaprika
- ¼ tspground black pepper
- salt (to taste)
- ½ cupbrown sugar (you can add more sugar if you prefer very sweet sauce)
- ½ cuptomato ketchup
- ⅓ cupcider vinegar or rice vinegar
- 1 tbsplight soy sauce
Directions
Quick marination, saute chicken
- 1
Flash marinate the chicken with the ingredients listed above in the "For Flash Marinating" chicken section. **Read NOTES BELOW.
- 2
Set the Instant Pot on SAUTE and set it on NORMAL. Add oil and when the oil becomes moderately hot add the marinated chicken and saute until they are nicely golden around the edges.
Deglaze pot
- 1
Add water & also diced fresh pineapple chunks and de-glaze the pot very well so that there are absolutely no bits and crumbs stuck at the bottom of the pot. This will prevent the BURN error.
Pressure cook
- 1
CANCEL the SAUTE function. PRESSURE COOK on HIGH for 1 min if using farm fresh ORGANIC CHICKEN and in case of normal chicken set the time for 3 mins.
- 2
Once the pressure cooking cycle is over the Instant Pot will begin to beep. Immediately do a quick pressure release by moving the valve manually from the SEALING to the VENTING position. Open the lid carefully and add all the sauce ingredients like the brown sugar, ketchup & vinegar. Give everything a good mix.
Thicken sauce
- 1
Press the SAUTE function and keep it on LOW.Add the corn starch slurry and mix well. Simmer the sauce until it thickens. It takes roughly 2-3 mins for the sauce to thicken beautifully. You can adjust the consistency of the sauce according to your preference. Simmer less for a slightly thin sauce.
Add veggies, serve
- 1
Add the soy sauce, the bell peppers and the onion (read notes below for tender onions) and mix everything very well. Turn off the Instant Pot and cover the pot with a lid. Rest for 4-5 mins. The residual heat will help cook the bell peppers and the onion and you'll have them crisp tender at the end. If you prefer softer well cooked veggies read notes below. Serve hot with rice or noodles. Enjoy!