Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot) Hawaiian BBQ Chicken
If you love BBQ chicken and Hawaiian chicken teriyaki, you’ll love this easy-to-make Pressure Cooker Hawaiian BBQ Chicken. A mash up of flavors with tender chunks of chicken and sweet pineapple in a tangy barbecue sauce.
Often I see recipes shared on Facebook and think to myself that would make a great pressure cooker recipe. That’s the case with this recipe. It’s adapted from a slow cooker recipe from The Salty Marshmallow.
Slow cooker recipes are generally easy to convert to Inst Pot recipes. (Read my How to Convert a Recipe to a Pressure Cooker Recipe.) This recipe was no exception. It already had liquid from the pineapple juice, and since chicken releases a lot of liquid as it cooks there was no need to add additional liquid.
Nichole and I both used Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce in this recipe. Costco sells it, so I always have some on hand.
The slow cooker recipe cooks for on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours. The cook time in the pressure cooker is only 3 minutes.
This Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot) Hawaiian BBQ Chicken is ready from start to finish in less than 30 minutes.
An Instant Pot is one of the most popular brands of electric pressure cookers. They are easy to use and your Instant Pot can help you create this Hawaiian BBQ Chicken!
Add this to your menu this week, you’ll be glad you did.
Pressure Cooker Hawaiian BBQ Chicken
If you love BBQ chicken and Hawaiian chicken teriyaki, you'll love this easy-to-make Pressure Cooker Hawaiian BBQ Chicken. A mash up of flavors with tender chunks of chicken and sweet pineapple in a tangy barbecue sauce.
Ingredients
- 4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup BBQ Sauce, divided
- 1 can (8 oz) pineapple chunks or tidbits, juice drained and reserved
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 cup green onion, sliced
Instructions
- Generously season chicken with salt and pepper. Select Sauté and when hot, add oil and chicken to pressure cooking pot. Sauté chicken for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute more.
- Turn pressure cooker off and stir in 1/2 cup BBQ sauce and pineapple juice to the pressure cooking pot. Lock lid in place, select High Pressure and 3 minutes cook time. When timer sounds, use a quick pressure release. When valve drops, carefully remove lid.
- In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water and add to pressure cooking pot. Select Sauté and simmer until liquid thickens. Add remaining BBQ sauce and pineapple chunks to the chicken in the pressure cooking pot and stir to combine.
- Serve over rice garnished with green onions.
Notes
Note: If necessary, add a little water to the pineapple juice to equal 1/2 cup. You can cook rice at the same time you cook the chicken. Here’s how I to do it. Use a 7×3 inch round cake pan or similar dish, and add rice ingredients – stir to combine. Skip sautéing the chicken in the first step and just sauté the garlic then add the raw diced chicken with the ingredients in step two. Place a rack on top of the chicken in the pressure cooking pot, and place the cake pan on top of the rack. Use this rice recipe https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/pressure-cooker-white-rice/ and be sure and do a 10 minute natural release.
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I used chicken thighs and Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey Mustard BBW sauce and it was fabulous. This will be on my permanent rotation,.
Thanks Deborah! I’ll have to give that a try.
Is it much different if cooking this with frozen chicken breasts and pineapple chunks?
This sounds amazing, I’d rather not wait until tomorrow when I’ve had time to thaw it all.
Hi Kristy – if your chicken is already diced, then you don’t need to make any changes. If your chicken is frozen, I have a great post that helps explain how to cook it https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/how-to-pressure-cook-frozen-chicken-breasts/
I tried to make the recipe, but multiple pop up ads kept blocking the entire screen. As soon as I closed one another would pop up. Rinse. Repeat. I thought you might like to let your ad network know. MacBook Pro running 10.13.5 and Safari.
Thanks for taking the time to let me know you’re having trouble with the ads. I’ll definitely forward your comment to my ad network. Are you having the same problem on other sites? I’ll upgrade my MacBook Pro and see if I’m having trouble as well.
Is it really only a 3min cook time? I’m so weird with chicken and short cook times….I’ve had to many not cooked completly…is it bc its chopped in peices?
Hi Allison – yes, the cook time is shorter because the chicken is in pieces. The chicken is also cooking as it’s coming to pressure so the overall cook time is longer than 3 minutes. Enjoy!
I tried this recipe tonight. Used boneless skinless chicken thighs as that is what I had on hand. A 7 inch foil pan, with tin foil used to make it deeper, was used to cook the rice. It was delicious and will definitely be made again with some alterations, red pepper, will be tried.
Thank you for this recipe.
Thanks for sharing that tip Patricia! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
How much chicken is in a large chicken breast? I’ve seen some recently that are 12-16 ounces.
Hi Natalie – the large breasts from Costco often weigh 12 ounces. But in this recipe, since the chicken is diced, it doesn’t really as much. Just cook enough diced chicken to feed your family. Enjoy!
This was amazing!! As picky as my family is, they all loved it. I would love to be able to make the rice in the same pot, but wasn’t sure how to do it with basmati rice because of how much more water it takes than white rice. Great recipe! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Lisa – so fun to hear your family loved it! In my experience, white basmati rice cooks in the same amount of time.
Well this recipe crashed and burned and I do mean burned. There was blackened shards of burnt sugar candy in the pot. Won,t be making this one again. Went right in the garbage.
Hi Tina – sorry you had trouble with the recipe. Sounds like you didn’t have a good seal and all the liquid was lost.
Can I cook this in a regular pressure cooker? Cooking in electric appliances is not my forte. I have a gas range and oven. Also the main factor is I am currently overseas. where electricity is not stable, not too mention an electric pressure cooker is not even sold in this area. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes.
Hi Daniel – yes, you can cook all my recipes in a stove top pressure cooker. An electric pressure cooker doesn’t start counting down the cook time until it reaches pressure. So bring your stove top pressure cooker to pressure like you normally would and start a timer when you reach pressure and reduce the heat to the minimum needed to maintain pressure. With a cook time this short, there’s no need to adjust the time. Enjoy!
Barbara, another hit! Thank you. As usual, I can’t leave a recipe alone. I use half Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and half BR’s Teriaki maranade/sauce. In the first sauté, I add a yellow onion, diced & bell pepper. Perfecto!
I love that you made it already Drew! Sounds like delicious changes! Thanks for sharing.
How could we cook the rice at the same time?
Hi Barbara – I have added the directions for cooking the rice at the same time at the bottom of the recipe in the notes section. Enjoy!
I noticed that when cooking rice you say leave for 10 minute NR, but the chicken itself you say QR? So just go with the 10 minute?
Hi Heather – the rice needs the natural release to steam and finish cooking. So although the chicken doesn’t need the extra time if you want to cook them together, you need to use the 10 minute npr. You can cut the chicken pieces a little bit larger to account for the extra time if you’d like.
Looks good. Would it work as noted if the recipe was cut in half for 2 people? Also, if I were to add some red bell pepper chunks, would you recommend putting them in during the first sauté or the Second? Thanks
Hi Cary – you can cut everything in half, except the pineapple juice. I would add the red bell pepper to the first sauté when you’re sautéing the chicken. Enjoy!
That looks SO good Barbara. I think I’d be able to make it for us if I don’t add the pineapple pieces…Bob isn’t a fan of pineapple but as long as he doesn’t SEE it and I just use the juice I think I’ll be good to go. Shoot, I can eat the pineapple myself-I love it!
Thanks Carol! What Bob doesn’t know won’t hurt him 🙂 I’d probably eat the pineapple on cottage cheese.