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It’s creamy, perfectly spiced and oh-s0-delicious! This Instant Pot Butter Chicken is a great weeknight dinner at the end of a busy day. This gluten and optionally dairy-free dinner is a one pot meal, thanks to the rice that cooks alongside the chicken. It’s guaranteed to be a new family favorite. Made in partnership with my friends at Farmer Focus!
Instant Pot Butter Chicken Recipe
This Instant Pot Butter Chicken recipe is a great short-cut to a flavorful weeknight dinner! Boneless chicken breasts are cooked in a velvety smooth spiced tomato sauce and served alongside rice. This delicious dinner uses the pot in pot cooking method, which means cooking the butter chicken and the rice all together right in the pressure cooker! This gluten and optionally dairy free dish also reheats well for meal. Go ahead and add this to your favorite Instant Pot Recipes list!
Ingredients for Butter Chicken
- Chicken Breast
- Oil
- Fresh Garlic
- Fresh Ginger
- Tomato Paste
- Tomato Puree
- Garam Masala
- Turmeric
- Cumin
- Cinnamon
- Chicken Stock
- Butter or Ghee (for dairy-free)
- Cashew Cream or Heavy cream
- Cilantro
What is Pot in Pot Cooking?
What is Pot in Pot Cooking?This recipe uses the pot in pot method of cooking two different meal components in the Instant Pot at the same time. The ‘Pot in Pot’ method (or PiP) allows food to cook in a separate bowl that’s placed on a trivet on top of the other dish. Steam generated from liquid below the steam rack is used to build pressure and cook the food. In this case, the butter chicken cooks below the trivet and the rice cooks in the bowl on top.
What type of trivet to use
The trivet that typically comes with the purchased Instant Pot will not work for PiP. You must have a trivet that creates at least 2.5″ of space between the bottom of the pot and the trivet. We purchased the egg trivet, that works not only for evenly cooking eggs, but it also works as a steam trivet for PiP cooking. The one we purchased came with two trivets, use the one that will allow the bowl to fit over the chicken.
What type of bowl to use
There are two important factors to consider when choosing the bowl for PiP cooking. The first is whether or not the bowl is safe to use under pressure. Generally speaking, any stainless steel bowl will work. Also, oven safe glass such as pyrex can work. This is what we’ve primarily used for PiP cooking.
Why Farmer Focus Has Been our Chicken Choice for Years
I am so happy to continue my partnership with my friends at Farmer Focusto bring you today’s easy Instant Pot chicken recipe! Farmer Focus has been my go-to, trusted chicken for years now, because they pride themselves in producing the highest quality meat grown on family-owned farms. I love being able to grab up a package of Farmer Focus chicken at the grocery store and not having to question whether it is truly coming from meat raised in a humane way.
Farmer Focus is building partnerships with growers through their innovative Farmer Focus Business Model
Farmer Focus is a company that supports their farmer partners and that is working hard to do things right and truly raise and produce the highest quality chicken! Every Farmer Focus product includes a 4-letter farm I.D. that traces your chicken to the farm that raised it. Buying meat from Farmer Focus also gives me peace of mind that I am supporting hard working family farmers.
Farmer Focus chickens are humanely raised and fed a diet free from animal byproducts, pesticides, and antibiotics. On their website you can see where all of the farms are located, so you know just where your chicken was raised! How awesome is that?!
You can also use their easy store locator to find where you can get this amazing quality chicken near you.
Don’t have an Instant Pot?
Don’t have an Instant Pot?You can make this soup in the slow cooker too! Though, you’ll have to cook the rice separately.
To Make in the Slow Cooker:
- Place all of the ingredients except the cashew cream and butter in the slow cooker. Cook on high for 4-6 hours, or low for 6-8 hours.
- 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time, remove the chicken and whisk in the butter and cream. Place there chicken back inside and continue to cook without the lid until the sauce has slightly thickened.
If you like this Instant Pot Chicken recipe, check out these others:
- Instant Pot Chicken Adobo
- Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala
- Instant Pot Chicken Cacciatore
- Instant Pot Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli and Rice
Watch the video:
INSTANT POT BUTTER CHICKEN
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons avocado oil
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 2 ” piece fresh ginger grated
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 1 cup tomato puree
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- 1 cinnamon stick or 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 lbs. boneless and skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup long grain or jasmine rice rinsed and drained
- 1 cup water or broth
- ¼ cup butter or ghee
- ½ cup cashew cream can also use heavy cream or coconut cream
- Cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Add oil to the insert of a 6 or 8 quart Instant Pot. Press the saute function, and heat the oil. Once hot, add garlic and ginger and cook while stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add tomato paste, tomato puree, garam masala, turmeric, salt and cumin and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Shut off the saute function and add in cinnamon stick, chicken stock and stir together. Place the chicken breasts inside.
- Arrange a 2.5-inch trivet over the chicken and place a 7-inch oven-safe bowl on top. Add the rice and water to the bowl. Secure the lid and move the steam release valve to Sealing. Cook on manual high pressure for 12 minutes. Move the steam release valve to venting to quickly release the steam pressure. When the floating valve drops, remove the lid.
- Remove the rice and the trivet. Fluff the rice, cover to keep warm and set aside. Remove the chicken and dice into bite-sized pieces and set aside.
- Press the saute function and whisk in the butter and cream and cook until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Add the diced chicken back to the pot to heat through.
- Serve the chicken with the rice, and garnish with cilantro, if desired.
Can i use chicken thighs instead?
Can you convert this to a stovetop recipe?
Do you think I could use “riced” cauliflower instead of the rice? Or leave out the rice altogether? Thank you!
Hi! Go ahead and leave out the traditional rice and cook the mixture with just the butter chicken. You can serve the butter chicken with cauliflower rice cooked outside of the instant pot.
Holy moly I expected this to be yummy, but it BLEW OUR MINDS. Plus, I didn’t even have real ginger on hand (used a bit of ground instead), so I cannot even imagine how phenomenal it must be with the real thing. Super duper easy and just a fun change on flavor profile when it comes to chicken. My husband tends to shy away from anything even remotely Indian-inspired and he could not get enough. And to top it all off, INSANELY easy to come together. This will be in our regular rotation.
We’re so glad you liked it Allison!!
This is a must make!! SO easy to make, comforting, and delicious. It is a great mix of spices and something different for a weeknight dinner. You won’t be disappointed!
Everyone needs to try this dish!! So delicious and comforting. The mix of spices and the ease of cooking rice on top of the dish makes it a must have for a weeknight dinner 🙂 You won’t be sorry!