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Easy Instant Pot Chicken Dinner

This 3 ingredient Instant Pot Chicken dinner is great for pressure cooker beginners and anyone in need of a quick and delicious meal. If you can open a can you can make this!

If you’re out of the loop the Instant Pot is a crockpot for people who can’t plan ahead. It’s a countertop electric pressure cooker that can be used to cook food quickly.

It’s not actually instant, it takes time to build up the heat and pressure needed to cook the food, but it can knock a lot of time off your meals.

I’m not a fan of the ‘let’s make everything in the instant pot’ movement (you can pry my cast iron out of my cold, dead hands!) but when you’re doing a ‘wet’ cooking method it’s hard to beat. I haven’t made a soup on the stove since I brought mine home.

Like most moms, I have a rotation of meals that I can always fall back on and this one is perfect for last minute meals. I’ve made this Instant Pot chicken dinner recipe a few times and it always turns out perfect.

In general, we eat a lot of chicken (not our chickens), my go-to is Maple Chicken & Potatoes One Pan Dinner but sometimes I’m not in the mood to peel things or I have chicken nuggets in the oven. Enter, the instant pot. I have the 8qt Duo Instant Pot but there are a lot of different brands and sizes out there.

The instant pot cooks via steam pressure so they should work out to be about the same but the smaller pots may cook faster or not be able to hold all of the ingredients. I’m not an expert, just a chick in the kitchen with a pressure cooker. From the time I close the pot to the end of the Natural Pressure Release was 55 minutes.

white bowl filled with instant pot chicken dinner with tomatoes and pineapple on an orange towel with two small white bowls filled with shredded cheese and greek yogurt

Everything in this dish is stuff I always keep around. I cleaned my pantry the other day and found 14 cans of fire-roasted tomatoes from Aldi’s. I must buy 2 or three cans every time I go in. They’re cheap and I use them constantly.

I put them in soup, I use them when I cook chicken in the crockpot. It’s an easy way to add flavor.

Crushed pineapple is another thing I always seem to have. I’m not quite as sure on that one. I think it’s because my moms zucchini bread recipe calls for crushed pineapple so I buy a can every time I plan on making it.

This chicken dinner recipe combines both of those with a few pounds of chicken breast. The resulting dish is moist, flavorful and adaptable.

You can serve it over rice or quinoa. Strain the chicken & tomatoes and it’s a great filling for soft tacos. Or add a carton of chicken broth it’s a flavorful bowl of soup.

white bowl filled with instant pot chicken dinner with tomatoes and pineapple on an orange towel with two small white bowls filled with shredded cheese and greek yogurt

I ate it on it’s own topped with left over plain Greek yogurt from the Caramelized Onion Dip and shredded cheese.

Yield: 4 servings

123 Chicken in the Instant Pot

white bowl filled with instant pot chicken dinner with tomatoes and pineapple on an orange towel with two small white bowls filled with shredded cheese and greek yogurt

Make a delicious, healthy dinner in under and hour. All you need to do for this instant pot chicken dinner is open 4 cans, pour them in the pot, add chicken and push a button. You'll have a delicious dinner ready to serve in an hour

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 can Crushed Pineapple (20 oz)
  • 2ish pounds Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast, The amount isn't really important, anywhere from 2-4 pounds will work
  • 3 cans Fire Roasted Tomatoes (14.5 oz)

Instructions

  1. Plug in Instant Pot, make sure liner is in place
  2. Pour pineapple and tomatoes into pot, stir together
  3. Add Chicken breast and put on lid. Move the vent to closed
  4. Select Poultry setting (High Pressure, 15 Minutes) and walk away
  5. Use a Natural Pressure release (aka, ignore it until the pin drops)
  6. Open up the pot and pull out the chicken, it's very tender and a slotted spoon will work better than a fork
  7. Press Cancel and then select Saute, the liquid in the pot will quickly simmer and cook off some of the extra liquid while you shred the chicken
  8. Return the shredded chicken to the pot and stir into the tomatoes
  9. Serve with Greek yogurt and shredded cheese

Notes

*Calories calculated for pineapple, tomatoes and 2.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast

Nutrition Information:


Amount Per Serving: Calories: 482

Make sure you PIN it for later and check out these recipes before you go:

caramelized onion sip in a glass jar with fresh dill on green tile
chicken dinner, cast iron recipe, sweet potato dinner

Sue Larkin

Monday 26th of February 2018

Aloha...what size tomato (14 or 28 oz) and pineapple (8 or 16 oz) cans do you use for the 123 chicken? I'm looking forward to trying the recipe. Mahalo...

Alecia

Monday 26th of February 2018

Hi Sue! The tomatoes are 14.5 oz and the pineapple is 20 oz. Thanks for commenting, I've fixed the recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

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