This Whole30 instant pot teriyaki chicken is pressure cooked in a flavorful sauce with only a few simple ingredients for a quick weeknight meal! It’s paleo, gluten free, and can be on the table in under 30 minutes. With only a 10 minute cook time, this is the perfect set and forget it meal to make for you and your family or can also be meal prepped for the week!
Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken Ingredients
Making this meal is so simple and requires just a few of your kitchen staples tossed into your instant pot. For the best teriyaki chicken you’ll want to skip the store bought sauce and make your own. You’ll need 100% apple juice (no added sugar), coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, minced garlic and ginger, and sesame oil. This paleo recipe also calls for a sweetener, like honey but if you’re trying to keep it Whole30 compliant you can substitute 3 pitted and blended medjool dates.
In addition you’ll need boneless, skinless chicken thighs and also arrowroot flour as a thickener. You can easily swap chicken thighs for chicken breasts, but I prefer the tender and juiciness of thighs for this recipe. If you don’t happen to have some of these ingredients on hand you can find them at any of your major local grocers like Target or Walmart. You can also buy them online on Amazon or at a discount from Thrive Market.
If you don’t want to make your own teriyaki sauce, Primal Kitchen offers a Whole30 Approved teriyaki, which you can get from their website (use code PALEOBAILEY for 15% off), or from Thrive Market. You can also get it from Amazon, but it’s much more expensive so I wouldn’t recommend that option!
How to Make Whole30 Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken
Start by adding your sauce ingredients into a bowl then incorporate the ingredients altogether. Put your chicken thighs in the instant pot, cover them with your sauce mixture, and set to cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Once it’s done, remove you chicken, transfer to a cutting board or plate, and shred with two forks before adding back to your sauce.
To thicken the sauce, while the chicken is out of the instant pot, put it on saute mode. Dissolve the arrowroot flour with a bit of water and pour it into the sauce. Let the sauce come to a simmer, stir for 1-2 minutes, and it will thicken! Mix the chicken back in and serve! You can garnish with sesame seeds or chopped green onion.
If you’re planning on using medjool dates instead of honey in this recipe be sure to blend the pitted dates with 3 tbsps of VERY hot water. Use this paste in place of honey.
This teriyaki chicken recipe is so tasty it could be served solo (we agree) but if you’re trying to knock it out of the park you can pair it with additional yummy cooked vegetables or on top of rice. To keep this recipe Whole30 compliant and Paleo use cauliflower rice instead. It’s also great as leftovers over greens in a salad.
Other Whole30 Instant Pot Recipes That You’ll Love:
Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken
40 Whole30 Instant Pot Recipes
PrintInstant Pot Teriyaki Chicken: Whole30, Paleo, GF
This Whole30 instant pot teriyaki chicken is pressure cooked in a flavorful sauce with only a few simple ingredients for a quick weeknight meal! It’s paleo, gluten free, and can be on the table in under 30 minutes. With only a 10 minute cook time, this is the perfect set and forget it meal to make for you and your family or can also be meal prepped for the week!
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6 1x
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 1/2 cup 100% apple juice (no sugar added)
- 1/3 cup coconut aminos
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp minced ginger
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp honey (substitute 3 pitted and blended medjool dates for Whole30)
- 2 tsp arrowroot flour dissolved in 1 tbsp water to thicken
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients (except for the arrowroot and water) into the instant pot and stir to incorporate the ingredients together, then add in the chicken.
- Close the lid, put the valve to sealing and set the instant pot to cook on high pressure for 10 minutes.
- Once it’s finished, do a quick release and remove the chicken thighs, transferring to a cutting board.
- Add in the arrowroot water mixture and set the instant pot to “sauté”. Stir to mix in the arrowroot and let the sauce come to a simmer to thicken. While it’s thickening, shred the chicken thighs using two forks and add the shredded chicken back into the instant pot.
- Press “cancel” once it’s thickened, and serve. Garnish with sesame seeds or chopped green onions.
Notes
- To use dates in place of honey, blend the pitted dates with 3 tbsp very hot water to make a paste, and use that instead.
Nutrition Facts:
- Serving Size: Serves 4
- Calories: 284
- Fat: 11.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 16 g
- Fiber: .5 g
- Protein: 28.7 g
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Jamie Gorham says
One of my FAV recipes! I actually crave it:) Plan on making tonight but with Chicken Breasts
Leah says
Wow – so good! This was the first recipe I made in my instant pot and the whole family loved it! Served with steamed green beans, cauliflower rice and salad – a perfect meal for a busy week night. We are kinda new to Whole30/ paleo diet and it seemed overwhelming, but now that I found your website I am super excited to try all the other recipes. And I think my family will be on board too! Thank you so much for sharing all these great resources 🙂
Jill says
This is hands down the best teriyaki chicken recipe I’ve ever tried! Doubled the recipe since we love leftovers, but made no other changes. Absolute perfection!
paleobailey says
I’m SO glad to hear this!! Thank you so much for giving it a try and taking the time to let me know! <3 - B
BBrown says
I’m not one to write reviews. However, this needed a review because it was delicious!!! Flavors were on point. Printed this recipe out for my whole30 recipe book. Definitely will be making this again.
Kirby Haines says
I’m half Japanese and therefore have high expectations for “teriyaki” flavor. I’ve never been a fan of the super sweet store bought stuff and this was delicious and SO easy! It is very similar in flavor to my Grandmother’s traditional teriyaki sauce and so awesome that it’s Whole30 compliant! I loved it so much I sent it to my family to try!
paleobailey says
Oh good!! I’m SO glad to hear this. Thank you so much for giving it a try, and taking the time to come back and let me know how it went! I really appreciate it!!
Lesley says
Hi, this looks delicious but how can it be Paleo with all that sugar?
paleobailey says
Paleo includes natural forms of sugar (fruit, honey, coconut sugar, etc. etc.). Eating no natural sugar would technically make it a keto/low carb diet being natural forms of sugar convert to carbs. Paleo has no restriction on how much natural sugar you can have as long as it’s not processed sugar (white sugar, corn syrup, etc. etc.). As far as “all that sugar”… There’s zero grams of added sugar in this recipe, and only 10g of total sugar (naturally occurring). The recommended standards say to stay under 25 grams of added sugar per day for women, and says that naturally occurring sugar doesn’t count toward that total.
Hannah Ellenwood says
Could I substitute the arrowroot flour with a rice flour?
paleobailey says
I’m not too familiar with cooking with rice flour. If you are, and it’s used as a thickener, then sure 🙂 Sorry I can’t be more helpful there – just don’t want to give you wrong advice!!
Christine says
Wow this was so simple and so good! Thanks!!
paleobailey says
Thrilled you enjoyed it! Thank you!