Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken

I made this dish with the instant pot for my husband's pot luck. I doubled the sauce ingredients.

Honey Sesame Chicken

https://rasamalaysia.com/instant-pot-honey-sesame-chicken/

Ingredients

Ingredients:

·        1 1/2 lbs boneless and skinless chicken thighs (used ~3 lbs cut up)

·        Salt

·        Ground black pepper

·        1 1/2 tablespoon oil

·        2 cloves garlic minced

·        1 teaspoon toasted white sesame

·        1 tablespoon chopped scallion

Honey Sesame Sauce

·        1/2 cup chicken broth

·        2 1/2 tablespoons honey

·        2 tablespoons soy sauce

·        1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce optional

·        1 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar

·        1 teaspoon Sriracha or chili garlic sauce Rooster brand

·        1 teaspoon sesame oil

·        1 teaspoon corn starch

Instructions

1.     Wash and rinse the chicken thighs with cold water. Pat dry with paper towels. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Set aside. Mix all the ingredients in the Sauce together, stir to mix well. Make sure the honey and corn starch are completely dissolved. Set aside.

2.     Turn on the Saute mode on your Instant Pot. As soon as the pot is fully heated (to make sure the chicken doesn’t stick to the pot), add the cooking oil. Pan sear the chicken thighs until they turn slightly brown (if they stick to the pot too much, you may use a non-stick skillet for pan-searing or skip this step.) Add the the garlic and saute a little bit. Pour in the sauce and top with the white sesame. Cover the pot and select Manual and set to High pressure for 8 minutes.

3.     When it beeps, turn to Quick Release. When the valve drops, remove the cover carefully, add the chopped scallion and serve immediately. If the sauce is too watery, make sure you set the Instant Pot to Saute mode to reduce the sauce, for about 2 minutes or so. If the sauce is lighter in color compared to the pictures, you might add some dark soy sauce to make the sauce darker in color. Different soy sauce has different color, some lighter and some darker. If you use a lighter color soy sauce, the sauce will look lighter but the taste should be about the same.

4.     After cooking, there was a lot of soup and didn’t think it was salty enough. I took out some of the sauce, mixed with more corn starch and honey, and then poured it on top of chicken. Then sprinkled with sesame seeds and scallions.

Recipe Notes

I used a 6-quart Instant Pot.

If your sauce turns out light brown in color, that's because I used dark soy sauce, to add color to the sauce. The taste will be the same nonetheless.

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can make this honey sesame chicken in a slow cooker, or on your stove top.

If you use a slow cooker, use high heat and cook for 3 hours. For stove top, just pan-fry the chicken and then add in the Sauce. Simmer on low heat and cook until the chicken meat is tender.

You can pan-fry the chicken on a non-stick skillet instead of using the Saute Mode. You can also skip the step.

If you use chicken breast, you can cook for 10 minutes so the chicken is more tender