These Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken Meal Prep Bowls are made with common ingredients and utilize the “pot-in-pot” cooking method! An entire meal prep recipe made in the Instant Pot: rice, chicken, veggies, and sauce!
equipment: Instant Pot, trivet, oven-safe bowl; *see notes for specific equipment I use
Instructions
Mix sauce ingredients: In a small bowl or mason jar, add honey (1/3 cup), soy sauce (1/3 cup), Sriracha (1 tablespoon), oil (1 tablespoon), broth or water (1/2 cup), garlic (4 cloves, mined), and red pepper flakes (1/2 teaspoon). Shake or whisk until well mixed.
Instant Pot setup: Place your chicken thighs (1 pound) directly into the Instant Pot liner pot, seasoning with a bit of salt and fresh ground black pepper if desired. Pour the sauce over the chicken and stir briefly. Place your trivet over the chicken, ensuring the trivet legs are directly on the bottom of the pot and not resting on the chicken. Place your oven-safe “pot-in-pot” bowl on top of the trivet. Add white rice and broth in a 1:1 ratio to the bowl (up to 1 1/2 cup of each).
Do not use brown rice, as it has a significantly longer cook time.
Pressure cook: Place the lid on the Instant Pot and make sure the steam release valve is sealed. Set to Manual or Pressure Cook for 5 minutes. After pressure cooking is done, let the Instant Pot do a Natural Pressure Release (NPR) for 10 minutes. Release the remaining pressure after 10 minutes.
Shred chicken & add peas: Safely but swiftly remove the rice bowl and trivet from the pot. Fluff the rice with a fork. Hit the Sauté button on the Instant Pot. Shred the chicken – it should be tender enough to pull it apart without removing from the pot. If adding a cornstarch slurry for thickening (1 TB cornstarch + 1 TB water), do that now. Finally, add the snow peas (3 ounces – about a handful) to the pot and stir. Cook for 1 minute or so, until the peas are bright green and just barely cooked through, and then turn off the Instant Pot. The sauce will thicken as it cools.
Serve & store: Enjoy now or portion for later. Store in airtight containers like these 2 compartment glass meal prep containers and enjoy within 4 days. Reheat in the microwave, covered, for 90 seconds to 2 minutes, checking at 90 seconds. Add 1 tablespoon water to the rice when reheating to create steam.
No Instant Pot instructions: Cook rice by the box directions or in a rice cooker. In a large non-stick pan, heat 1TB oil then add chicken thighs. Brown on each side for 2-3 minutes. Shake/whisk sauce ingredients together, then add sauce to the pan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and let simmer for 10-15 minutes or until cooked to 165F. Shred chicken, add peas and cornstarch slurry, cook for another 2 minutes on low. Portion out with cooked rice and eat within 4 days.
Equipment: I own an Instant Pot Duo Plus 6 Qt(affiliate link!). I use this tall stainless steel trivet (affiliate link!), and this 7 inch silicone loaf pan (affiliate link!) for pot-in-pot cooking, though any trivet and oven-safe dish will work. These items are shown in the photos above.
Nutrition information estimated with My Fitness Pal. Recipe video added 4/02/19.