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 stock to inner pot and scrape up any browned bits on bottom of inner pot.
- 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 cook time has elapsed, do a quick release of pressure after 10 minutes of natural pressure release.
- 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.
Nutrition
I did not find this confusing, and and if experienced at cooking as claimed by a viewer, one glance you know what your in for. ty for the great vids to explain steps i found this important for me. My 7 kids loved this Thank you . I did some altering, I used (4 spoons) sugar free preserves, apricot, peaches or orange we made it a few times, then i only added 1/2 can of sugar free pineapple and 1/2 the peppers and onions, but when came time to thicken I added the second half of pineapple and peppers, i also added thin sliced angle carrots and slight thicker celery too. Too bulk it up for my family and add more veggies to the dish. we loved this. ty. looking forward to trying more dishes. i love rice vinegar i found white Vinegar was great in this dish to and cheaper is key for me. I’m hopping to find a southwest soup/stew my next goal to find. ty again.
Hi Amber! So glad you enjoyed. You may enjoy my Instant Pot Beef Stew recipe.
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.
Hi! I followed the recipe aside from omitting the ginger, and I did add an extra 1/4 cup of stock because I have an 8qt instant pot. I don’t feel like the sauce got as thick as I’d have liked even after adding the cornstarch. Any advice about where I went wrong?
Hi Gina! I am sorry your sauce did not thicken as desired. It may have been a couple things. One, you may have needed to let it saute a bit longer to activate the cornstarch and thicken the sauce. Or it may have been the chicken, vegetables, and fruit gave off a bit more liquid that typical. In the future, whisk together another 1 tablespoon cornstarch with water and add that in if you need to thicken your sauce further. Hope that helps.
What is the serving size for this dish?
Hi Nicole, each serving size is about 1.5 cups. I hope you enjoy!
Hello! The video has fresh grated ginger, but ginger is not stated in the written recipe. How much does that change the flavor and what would the dried ginger (powder) equivalent be (fresh is better, but we can’t always get it in our store!)? Thank you!
Hi Anne! I will update the recipe card asap. I used 1 teaspoon freshly minced ginger. If you don’t happen to have fresh, omit completely. The dried overwhelms the flavors. Enjoy!
This was easy and delicious! I used coconut aminos in place of soy sauce to decrease sodium content as much as possible.
Wonder if I could replace chicken with extra firm tofu?
Hi MFL! I am so glad you enjoyed. I have not tried this recipe with extra firm tofu–but would love to know how it goes if you give it a go.
Can I make this in my instant pot with cooked chicken? What do I need to change?
I there Marsha! You can make this in your Instant Pot, but would be just as quick to do stove-top since chicken is cooked. I would saute onions and peppers, then add chicken and ingredients for sauce (expect for cornstarch). Bring to a boil on the stove and then add in dissolved cornstarch mixture. And simmer until thicken. If using instant pot, saute peppers and onions using saute function, add in ingredients for sauce (expect for cornstarch), turn off saute and put lid on instant pot. Cook for 1 minute on high pressure in instant pot. Do a quick release after 5 minutes. Turn Instant Pot BACK to saute function and add in cornstarch mixture. Let mixture come to a boil and thicken, for a few minutes.