Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken is a simple chicken recipe made with a naturally sweetened sweet and sour sauce, fresh veggies, and tender chicken. You can permanently put down the take-out menu, and enjoy a more wholesome version of Sweet and Sour Chicken thanks to the Instant Pot!
For a complete meal, serve this Sweet and Sour Chicken over Instant Pot Brown Rice or Cauliflower Rice.
My kids’ favorite Chinese meal is Sweet and Sour Chicken. The sweet sauce and the tender chicken win them every time.
While absolutely delicious, the restaurant version is super high in sodium and often fat, since the chicken is deep-fried.
Most people assume making Sweet and Sour Chicken at home is difficult or time-consuming. BUT NOT SO!!
This recipe could not be easier and blows any take-out Sweet and Sour Chicken out of the water. With a few simple ingredients, this recipe comes together without much effort of much time. There is no wok, no stir-frying–just the Instant Pot and an easy meal that your family will love is ready to go! Not to mention, my version is lower in fat, calories, sodium, and sugar. YAY!!
Sweet and Sour Sauce
My recipe for sweet and sour sauce has a surprising ingredient that keeps this sauce sweet without adding refined sugars.
Apricot All-Fruit
The apricot jam is sweetened only with fruit juice. And the flavor of the apricot replicates a Chinese Duck Sauce–just without tons of sugar, sodium, and preservatives. It is a great substitute and gives this sweet and sour sauce a perfect flavor.
When paired with low sodium soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, this easy Sweet and Sour Sauce is a perfect flavor combination and creates just the right base for Sweet and Sour Chicken.
Tips For Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken
- If your children don’t like peppers/onions in their sauce–omit them. And serve with steamed veggies on the side.
- Feel free to use all green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, or a mix.
- This sauce is on the sweeter side, which is GREAT for my kids. Personally, I like to add Sriracha to my serving. If you want your whole dish to be spicier, add 1/2 tablespoon Sriracha or hot sauce during the cooking process.
More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
- Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
- Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup
- Instant Pot Chicken Tacos
- Instant Pot Butter Chicken
Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1/2 tbsp canola oil
- 1 onion, diced into 1 inch chunks
- 1 red pepper, cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1 yellow pepper, cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1 cup fresh pineapple, cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1/2 cup chicken stock see note
- 1/2 cup apricot all fruit jam
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot function to saute and heat the oil.
- Add chicken and saute just until lightly browned on all sides--about 2 minutes. Turn the Instant Pot off.
- Add the peppers, onions, pineapple, apricot jam, soy sauce, ginger, rice wine vinegar, and garlic to Instant Pot and thoroughly stir.
- Close Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. Hit manual or pressure cook and use the +/- buttons to adjust until it reads 5.
- Once chicken has cooked, do a quick release method after 10 minutes.
- Turn Instant Pot back to saute and add the cornstarch that has been mixed with 1 tablespoon water back into the Instant Pot. Bring to a boil and let sauce thicken. Serve over rice or as desired.
Equipment Needed
Notes
- The peppers, onions, and pineapple release a lot of liquid, therefore along with the soy sauce, vinegar, jam, and stock, you will have more than enough liquid for a 6 quart Instant Pot. For an 8 quart Instant Pot, add in an additional 1/4 cup chicken stock or double the recipe.
- If you have a corn allergy, you can substitute the cornstarch for tapioca starch (be sure to fully dissolve the tapioca starch before adding to the sweet and sour sauce first.)
- If you can't find Apricot All Fruit, feel free to use apricot preserves.
- I used reduced sodium soy-sauce for my sweet and sour chicken sauce, regular soy sauce/tamari can be used as well--it just may be saltier.
- If you do not have fresh ginger, do NOT use powdered ginger, just skip the ginger.
- If you need this to be Gluten-Free, be sure to use gluten-free soy sauce.
Recipe was OK tasting ~ nothing really that special.
Time to prep, cook and put on table was not as quick with Instant Pot as cooking on stove top. I am experienced @ cooking ~ raised a family and
Knows what quick meals mean & having nutrition . The more I use a Quick Pot ~ the more I realize this is something that is being promoted with false promise 😔.
I don’t like recipes that give false time saving promises to young women that work, child rear & try to provide good meals in less time.
Plus the hpicture you provide ( is it your true picture from Instant Pot) ?
Thank you
Carol Fisher
Hi Carol. I understand completely your frustration in saying that some meals are much faster on the stovetop. I include a pressure time in each of my instant pot recipes to help people gauge how long it will take to come to pressure and release pressure. For recipes like this, time is not the advantage–it is more being able to walk away instead of watching the sauce simmer, etc. But I would never want to give people false expectations or promises and try to be exceptionally clear about estimating total time. And I assure you–my pictures are all the exact recipe followed to a T.
Instructions for Instant pot sweet & sour chicken says to add ginger.
The ingredient list does not list ginger ?
Does recipe include ginger or not ?
Thank you
Carol
Hi Carol! I am sorry for any confusion, there is 1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger in this recipe. If you do not have, you can omit with delicious results.
Making this today, I have balsamic vinegar and apple cider and olive oil, will those work? Thanks
Hi Regina! I would not use balsamic vinegar or apple cider for this recipe–the flavor would be much too different. Olive oil will work in place of canola oil.