30 Minute Instant Pot Orange Chicken (Paleo, Whole30)

This quick and easy Instant Pot orange chicken makes a perfect weeknight meal that's ready in just 30 minutes. Tender chicken meets asian flavors the whole family will love.

If you're completely intimidated by your Instant Pot, this Sesame Orange Chicken is the perfect recipe for you.

It just has SO MANY BUTTONS. For the first six months I had it, I only cooked sweet potatoes (¼ c. water per potato, 12-14 minutes, high pressure, natural release) and eggs (1 dozen, 1 cup of water, 4 minutes, low pressure, quick release). 

Those were the only two things that I knew well and knew I could get right every time. Because lets be honest - no one wants to cook a meal and have it be a total bust. Then you've wasted the ingredients and you still don't have dinner. Fail.

Just recently, in the interest of saving time, I've started venturing out with my Instant Pot recipes. I tested out and then included Instant Pot instructions for my Pumpkin Turkey Chili, and although I haven't had a chance to verify them myself yet, I've seen others try my Buffalo Chicken Casserole in the Instant Pot as well.

When I realized how not scary it actually was, I went ahead and wrote you a complete guide to your Instant Pot, so that you wouldn't be scared of it either, and you might venture out and try some of these new recipes! Here's the beauty of it - it does everything in one pot. You brown your meat on the sauté function, then switch functions for pressure, add your sauce, and walk away for a bit. 

No pan to watch on the stove, no eight hours of planning ahead. And if you know me, you know I am a Lazy cook. L-A-Z-Y. If there's a shortcut to getting a meal on the table in less time, I'm going to take it. If there's not, I'm going to make one. 

Right now I'm all about 30 minute instant pot meals. This Short Rib Ragu from over at Pinch of Yum was my first realization that I was overcomplicating and over thinking the IP. Since making that one, I'm working on faster, easier, 30 minute meals - and this Instant Pot orange chicken is the first success!

How to make Instant Pot orange chicken

Like I said - easy peasy orange chicken squeezy. (Don't actually squeeze your chicken. That would be weird.) 

For reals, though. Cut up your chicken and your onion, mix up your sauce, and you can have dinner on the table in half an hour. If you're still scared of your Instant Pot, don't be. This recipe will make you Instant Friends.

I like to chop up my chicken and onion first, so it's ready to go. From there, I make my sauce.  

Sauce ingredients include: 

• orange juice + orange zest: I prefer to use fresh oranges for this. The flavor from fresh orange juice is always superior to what you buy in a bottle.
• coconut aminos: This is a common substitute for soy sauce in the paleo-sphere. If you're not paleo or not avoiding soy, you can sub soy sauce in a 1:1
• chiles: I use Bird's Eye chiles. Thai Kitchen seem to be the easiest brand to find by me, but I'm sure there are other brands out there as well.
• fish sauce: This is a potent sauce, so use sparingly. It's strong (and kind of stinks) but it adds umami and a depth of flavor that you can't get anywhere else.
• minced ginger: Again, you can use fresh or jarred here. Fresh ginger will pack a bigger punch of flavor, but the jarred kind will do in a pinch. I use something similar to this - make sure you're not getting the pickled kind! 
• minced garlic: Fresh is always superior to jarred, but if you don't have the time, the jarred stuff is fine too! See recipe notes for subs.

Combine all of those in a small bowl and whisk it up.  Now, it's time for our Instant Pot to get to work!

Set your Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker to sauté and add the toasted sesame oil to the bottom of the pot.  (If you don't have toasted sesame oil, you can use olive oil or other cooking oil you have on hand. Here's a guide to some of my favorites! Once the oil is heated, add the chicken and onion to the pot.  Sauté for 4-5 minutes, stirring once or twice, until everything starts to brown. 

Pour the sauce mixture into the pot and stir to coat everything well, scraping up any browned bits off the bottom with a wooden spoon. Then, close and lock the lid, making sure the steam release valve is in a closed venting position. Switch the Instant Pot to the manual setting and cook on manual at high pressure for 10 minutes. Before you close it up it should look something like this:

While the chicken is cooking, you'll need to make your slurry for thickening. A slurry is used to thicken stews and sauces, and that's exactly what we're going to use it for here. 

Traditionally, you make a cornstarch or flour slurry. I don't typically use cornstarch or flour due to paleo, I sub tapioca starch as a paleo and Whole30 substitute. You can use either one - it's a 1:1 swap. Combine the starch with the water, and whisk quickly until smooth. It's important to make this as a liquid instead of just putting the tapioca starch straight into the pot. If you just put the starch straight in, it will congeal and turn chunky, which will ruin the meal you just worked so hard for. 

When the cook time is up, do a quick pressure release on your IP to get out the remaining pressure. Be very careful with this- you are releasing a lot of hot steam. Consider this your burn notice - get out of the way of the stream of steam. This is how people tend to hurt themselves with pressure cooking. 

Remove the lid carefully, then turn the pot back on to sauté. Add the smooth slurry you made while it was cooking and stir. Sauté for 5-10 minutes until sauce begins to thicken.  You're looking for a sticky orange sauce coating tender bites of chicken. Once it's reduced it will look something like this:

Turn off your Instant Pot, remove chicken, and serve your Instant Pot orange chicken topped with sesame seeds, green onions, and red pepper flakes if you like a little bit of extra spice.

Ways to Serve

If you're not paleo or looking for keto/low carb, you can serve this over rice - white rice or brown rice both work great. (Jasmine rice is my favorite for asian dishes!) If you are paleo, go for cauliflower rice.

I love to serve with a side of broccoli or green beans for a serving of veg and a punch of color to the plate. If you're feeling froggy, make extra sauce and toss the broccoli into the sauce before serving, Panda Express style! 

if you have leftovers, you can store in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. This is a great recipe for meal prep to divide up into these meal prep containers, or prep the whole thing and stick it in the fridge for those busy weeknights when you can't even. 

Recipe Notes

• While this recipe calls for boneless chicken breasts, you can also use skinless boneless chicken thighs (which is what I used in the photos.) Just make sure whatever you're using is cut up into bite size pieces before you place it into the pot. 
• If you like spicy food, and you want to step your spice level up a bit, add some hot sauce to your sauce mixture before you put it in the pot. I always remind my son - you can put more in, but you can't take it out, so taste as you go until you're at a spice level you like. 
• Conversely, if you want less spice, cut it down to 1 or 2 bird's eye chiles. They provide a depth of flavor you won't get without them, but you can easily adjust amounts.
• The original recipe calls for fresh - fresh ginger, fresh garlic, and fresh orange. That said, we can shortcut this recipe and sub jarred garlic and ginger as well as store-bought oj. This is shortcut cooking and a great way to make an easy recipe at the last minute with what you have on hand. 
• Cornstarch can be used in place of tapioca starch for the slurry. They're a 1:1 swap. 

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