Cook your chicken and potatoes together at the same time in the Instant Pot in just 6 minutes. Add your favorite sauce or use the homemade honey adobo sauce included below. The potatoes can be quickly re-crisped in a skillet for amazing crisp-tender texture.

The sauce for Instant Pot Honey Adobo Chicken is spicy, smoky, and sweet. Add your favorite toppings like sliced avocados or a dollop of creamy sour cream.

January at our house has been pretty delicious and, with the exception of a few nights where we had to scramble and cook from the freezer or eat popcorn (just the adults – kids had an actual meal), we’ve had a home-cooked or semi-home-cooked dinner every night.

Back to the next in this week’s lineup of meals from the Ultimate Guide to 6-Minute Instant Pot Meals. Be sure to check out that post if you want more ideas for mix-and-match meals to make in the Instant Pot. This one is sort of a twist on nachos. Sweet and smoky chicken spooned over crispy potatoes. 

It all cooks at once in just a few minutes. Here’s how to do it!

Ingredients

• Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast – I found that chicken breast makes for a better protein in this recipe than chicken thighs. They are more lean and don’t affect the texture of the sauce. I find that chicken thighs make the sauce slightly heavy tasting and a bit greasy.
• Stock – I like to use store-bought vegetable or chicken stock (sometimes labeled “broth”) to add extra flavor to the sauce. In a pinch, you can also use water. 
• Tomato Paste – Tomato paste is notorious for causing the burn error in dishes cooked in the Instant Pot, but it’s important in this recipe for adding body and richness to the sauce. There is a sufficient amount of liquid to balance this out, so I never got the burn error in testing. If you know your machine is prone to the burn error, you can wait until after cooking and stir the tomato paste in at the end. 
• Adobo Sauce – This is the sauce from a small can of chipotles in adobo sauce. It is smoky, spicy, and a tiny bit sweet. See below for more on this delicious ingredient.
• Honey – The sweetness of honey balances the spiciness of the adobo sauce. You can substitute another sweetener if you prefer.
• Garlic and Paprika – Use these ingredients to add depth of flavor to the sauce. 
• Lemon Juice – This adds brightness to the sauce after cooking. You can skip it in a pinch, but the tart, fresh flavor really brings the sauce together.
• Garnishes – Finish this dish however you’d like, but avocado (or guacamole), sour cream, and chopped green onions / scallions are great options.

How to Make Pot-in-Pot Potatoes

Use the Pot-in-Pot (PIP) Method to cook potatoes at the same time as the Instant Pot Honey Adobo Chicken and you can make amazing crispy home fries to serve with the dish. Not familiar with this handy method that allows you to cook two things in the Instant Pot at the same time? Check out this post on the Pot-in-Pot Method for the Instant Pot.

For this recipe, the potatoes are steamed at the same time as chicken cooks. Use very small potatoes like baby, new, or fingerling potatoes and they will come out tender just as the chicken is finished cooking. But it’s in the next step that makes these potatoes really special. Take the potatoes out and slice them in half. Saute them in oil in a skillet for about 8 minutes, until golden brown and crisp. Then season with some salt and pepper. 

What are Chipotles in Adobo Sauce?

Look for canned Chipotles in Adobo Sauce in the international aisle of the grocery store. Usually the cans contain larger pieces or whole chipotle peppers surrounded by a smoky, spicy red sauce. The peppers and sauce can be pretty spicy, so a little goes a long way. They add a deep smoky, spicy flavor to any dish you use them in. 

For this recipe you’ll just use the sauce that surrounds the chipotle peppers. You can freeze leftover chipotle peppers and sauce. Freeze them in an ice cube tray so that you can just use a bit at a time.

Wondering what to do with the leftovers? These smoky, spicy peppers are great stirred into soups, taco meat, Latin-style sauces, or queso to serve with chips.

More Spicy Dinner Favorites

Honey Chipotle Chicken Tacos

Crispy Tofu with Thai Chili Paste, Cashews and Kale

Slow-Cooker Mango Sriracha Pulled Chicken

Thai Red Curry with Chicken