Made with a flavorful dry rub and sweet and tangy BBQ sauce, Instant Pot BBQ Chicken is a quick and easy recipe filled with extraordinary flavor! It is perfect for a busy weeknight dinner, serving a crowd, meal-prep, and can be served in endless ways.
Looking for more BBQ Chicken Recipes? Don't miss my recipes for BBQ Chicken Salad, BBQ Chicken Pizza, and BBQ Chicken Burger.
I took my wildly popular Instant Pot Chicken Breast recipe and put a BBQ spin on it. And let me tell you, this recipe for Instant Pot BBQ Chicken delivers!
From the sweet and savory dry rub to the tangy BBQ sauce to my uber secret ingredient (spoiler alert--it's pineapple juice!), this recipe for Instant Pot BBQ Chicken results in super tender, super juicy, super flavorful chicken.
Think Instant Pot Pulled Pork but with chicken. Which makes this easy family dinner recipe, lower in fat, easier to make, and more affordable. And you are going to LOVE it!
How to Make Instant Pot BBQ Chicken
The following tips are provided to help you achieve perfect results. You will find the detailed instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Coat Chicken in Dry Rub
In order to give this shredded BBQ chicken the best flavor, don't just rely on BBQ sauce to flavor the chicken. The homemade dry rub, made with brown sugar, salt, and spices, adds great flavor to the chicken, making this the best version of Instant Pot BBQ Pulled Chicken.
Use Pineapple Juice
While you can opt to use water or low-sodium chicken stock in place of the pineapple juice, using pineapple juice as your cooking liquid will help to flavor AND tenderize the BBQ chicken.
Pressure Cook with Natural Pressure Release
After the cooking time has elapsed, do not do a quick release of pressure! This will cause your chicken to be tough and rubbery! Natural pressure release is best any time you are pressure cooking meat of any kind.
Shred BBQ Chicken
To make pulled BBQ chicken, remove the cooked chicken from the inner pot and place it into a large mixing bowl, along with ¼ cup of the cooking liquid. While this recipe produces chicken so tender that it easily shreds using nothing more than two forks, you can opt to shred your chicken using a handheld kitchen mixer on low speed or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on low to make really fast work of shredding your chicken.
Add BBQ Sauce After Pressure Cooking
Now is the time to add the BBQ Sauce of your choice. To do so before pressure cooking would not only water down its' flavor, but also could cause a burn notice to happen.
How to Serve Instant Pot BBQ Chicken
One of my favorite things about this recipe is the endless ways that Instant Pot BBQ chicken can be served. This makes this simple recipe a meal my family never tires of! Below find some of my favorite serving suggestions.
- BBQ Chicken Sandwich: Pile shredded BBQ chicken onto a bun of your choice and drizzle with additional BBQ sauce if desired. If I have it on hand, I love adding a scoop of homemade coleslaw to the sandwich for a nice creamy element.
- BBQ Chicken Stuffed Potato: Top an Instant Pot Baked Potato, Air Fryer Baked Potato, or Instant Pot Sweet Potato with a scoop of this Instant Pot BBQ chicken. Top with shredded cheese and green onions and serve a hearty all-in-one meal. Or you can use the shredded BBQ chicken as a topping for air fryer potato skins or baked potato skins.
- BBQ Chicken Quesadilla: Top a flour tortilla with a layer of shredded cheddar, add a thin layer of shredded chicken, sprinkle with another layer of shredded cheddar, and top with another tortilla. Toast in a dry skillet over medium heat until the tortillas are golden and the cheese has melted. Serve with additional barbecue sauce for dipping.
- BBQ Chicken Salad: Replace the grilled chicken with this shredded chicken in my recipe for BBQ Chicken Salad, for a delicious, quick dinner or lunch.
- BBQ Chicken Pizza. Roll 1 pound of pizza dough into a 12-inch circle. Spread a thin layer of BBQ sauce over the dough, leaving a ½" border around the edge to form a crust. Top with shredded BBQ chicken and a generous layer of shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15-18 minutes until the cheese is melted and the crust is browned.
- Add to Mac & Cheese: Make a delicious mac and cheese bowl by topping Stovetop Mac and Cheese or Instant Pot Mac and Cheese with some of this shredded BBQ chicken.
If you enjoyed this recipe for Instant Pot Shredded BBQ Chicken, I would love for you to leave a comment and review below.
Instant Pot BBQ Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast or boneless, chicken thighs
- 2 tablespoons dry rub recipe below
- ¾ cup 100% pineapple juice see recipe note
- ¾ cup water
- ½-1 cups BBQ sauce
Homemade Dry Rub
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar dark or light
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper optional
Instructions
For the Dry Rub
- In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne together in a small bowl until everything is well combined.
For Instant Pot BBQ Chicken
- Pat the chicken breasts or chicken thighs dry with a paper towel and sprinkle the rub evenly over the chicken on both sides, rubbing the spice mixture into the chicken to coat. NOTE: If your chicken is frozen, skip this step and simply sprinkle the dry rub mixture over the chicken once it is in the Instant Pot.
- Add the pineapple juice and water to the inner pot. Add the seasoned chicken (or frozen chicken) to the inner pot. It is okay if your chicken is overlapping slightly. If needed, sprinkle the dry rub mixture over the chicken inside the inner pot.
- Place the lid on the inner pot and be sure the vent knob is sealed and/or the lid is locked. Set to cook on High Pressure by hitting the manual or pressure cook button and use the +/- buttons to adjust the cooking time. For Thawed/Fresh Chicken: 7 Minutes on High Pressure*For Frozen Chicken: 11 Minutes on High Pressure**If your chicken is really thick or large, increase the cooking time by 1 minute.
- Once the cooking time has elapsed, allow the pressure to release naturally for at least 10 minutes before doing a quick release of any remaining pressure. Once pressure has been released, remove the lid from the pressure cooker.
- Remove the cooked chicken from the inner pot and place it into a large mixing bowl, along with ¼ cup of the cooking liquid from inside the inner pot. Use two forks or a handheld mixer on low speed to shred the chicken, adding more liquid as needed to keep the meat nice and moist.
- Once the chicken has been shredded, add ½ cup of prepared BBQ sauce into the bowl and stir to combine, adding additional sauce as desired.
- Serve the shredded BBQ chicken as desired.
Kara
Served it on top of salad, and it was delicious! Next time I'll use it for quesadillas, that sounds amazing! (Also, thanks for the tip about using natural release on the IP.)
Kristen Chidsey
I am so happy to hear you enjoyed! And I think you will love it in quesadillas.
Sharina
This BBQ Chicken is one of the easiest and most convenient recipes I've tried! Thanks to the Instant Pot! It turned out incredibly delicious and impressive!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks for sharing! I am so happy to hear you enjoyed!
Olivia
We all love BBQ chicken pizza. It was easy to make in the Instant Pot and the chicken tasted amazing on our homemade pizzas!