This Sticky Sesame Chicken, extra quick in an Instant Pot or the pressure cooker you may have, is an extra special dish for days when I really need to cook an easy dinner,

Fran A's Sticky Sesame Chicken- Pressure Cooker - Instant Pot

The meat is so tender you’ll think you’re dining out rather than at home.

A big thank you to Fran A for the recipe, which I have modified slightly.

Fran A cooked this with chicken breasts.

But, thanks to the likes of the lovely Pip (you will know Pip if you’re a member of the Feisty Tapas Facebook communities) and the awesome Catherine Phipps, writer of the The Pressure Cooker Book (a bit like the bible for us pressure cooking peeps based in the UK), I am very aware of the issues surrounding chicken breasts and pressure cooking so I went for chicken thigh fillets and I’m so glad I did as the meat was so tender.

This post includes an Amazon affiliate link to the Catherine Phipps’ Pressure Cooker Book above and the Philips pasta machine. This means that, if you buy through this link, I will get a small kickback. A big thank you to all of you who have been supporting my work on this blog and my Facebook groups through your Amazon purchases,

Maria

Many of us instantpotters are also thermomixers and thermocookers.

It’s not all my fault, until a few members started raving about their Instant Pots in my Thermo Cooking UK with Feisty Tapas group, I was none the wiser to this fabulous kitchen gadget.

I just contributed by falling in love with it when Instant Pot in the UK sent me one to try.

So in this one I provide both conventional and Thermomix steps for the sauce as I used my Thermomix (the 31 to be exact to help me).

To be fair, British pressure cooking authority Catherine Phipps herself says in her book that it’s important to have a good blender along with your pressure cooker.

Don’t forget that I run the Pressure Cooking UK with Feisty Tapas group over on Facebook.

It’s a UK-focused group so that we have a space where can all use measurements, terminology (ingredients, supermarket names, etc.) and prices that we all are familiar with.

What to serve it with

The first night I served this Sticky Sesame Chicken with vermicelli rice noodles and vegetables as in the photo below.

The next day I ate the leftovers with semolina pasta made in my electric Philips pasta maker.

It went really well together with both.

All my Instant Pot recipes in a visual index

If you haven’t tried Jayson’s Mac and Cheese you really really need to!

Ready for the recipe?

Sticky Sesame Chicken – Pressure Cooker / Instant Pot

Jump to fancy, printable recipe

Serves 4, if you serve with tons of noodles or rice, veg and a starter, it may serve more but be warned that it’s very moreish

Ingredients

6 chicken thigh fillets (boneless)

Sauce

3-4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 big chunk of fresh ginger, peeled, 40-45 g or more

5 tbsp hoisin sauce
5 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce, plus an extra dash for luck
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 and a half tbsp sesame seeds
175 ml (1/2 cup) of stock – I used my homemade vegetable stock paste. Could use chicken stock of course.

Garnish

Spring onions

Method

1.

Place chicken thigh fillets (whole, spreading them a bit) in the inner pot.

2.

Crush the garlic cloves and grate the ginger (Thermomix: place garlic and ginger in bowl: 7 seconds speed 5, scrape down then 2 seconds speed 7).

3.

Add rest of sauce ingredients, i.e., 5 tablespoons hoisin sauce, 5 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce, one and a half tablespoons light soy sauce not forgetting the extra dash for
luck, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 and a half tablespoon sesame seeds and 175ml/half cup of stock), and whisk together (Thermomix speed 4 for 5 seconds), then pour over the chicken thigh fillets, give it all a stir to coat.

4.

Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes (on instant pot press Pressure Cook / Manual button and adjust time to 5 minutes), followed by a natural release (it took about 15 minutes). Want to reduce the sauce? With the lid off, Sauté until reduced.

Serve garnished with sliced spring onions and accompanied by rice or noodles and vegetables, here is another serving suggestion for you.

Sticky Sesame Chicken – Pressure Cooker / Instant Pot

Maria

 Serves 4, if you serve with tons of noodles or rice, veg and a starter, it may serve more but be warned that it’s very moreish   

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 4 people

Equipment

Instant Pot or pressure cooker

Ingredients

6 chicken thigh fillets boneless, approx 500 g

Sauce

3-4 garlic cloves peeled
40-45 g fresh ginger peeled
5 tbsp hoisin sauce
5 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
plus an extra dash for luck 
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 and a half tbsp sesame seeds
175 ml / half cup stock I used 175 ml water + my homemade vegetable stock paste. You could use chicken stock of course

Garnish

Spring onions

Instructions

Place chicken thigh fillets (whole, spreading them a bit) in the inner pot.
Crush the garlic cloves and grate the ginger (Thermomix: place garlic and ginger in bowl: 7 seconds speed 5, scrape down then 2 seconds speed 7).
Add rest of sauce ingredients, i.e., 5 tablespoons hoisin sauce, 5 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce, one and a half tablespoons light soy sauce not forgetting the extra dash for  luck, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 and a half tablespoon sesame seeds  and 175ml/half cup of stock), and whisk together (Thermomix speed 4 for 5 seconds), then pour over the chicken thigh fillets, give it all a stir to coat.
Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes (on Instant Pot press Pressure Cook / Manual button and adjust time to 5 minutes).
Followed by a natural pressure release, which means letting the float valve pop down on its own (you can release the rest of the steam manually after 15 minutes if the float valve is still up, it will also do great on Keep Warm). Want to reduce the sauce? With the lid off, Sauté until reduced.

Notes

Instant Pot Terminology

Quick pressure release (QPR, also called quick release or QR) means venting the steam as soon as the pressure cooking process finishes, i.e. moving the steam release handle from Sealing to Venting.

Natural pressure release (NPR, also called natural release or NR) means letting the float valve pop back down of its own accord, so basically you don’t need to do anything at the end and can keep your feet up. If it takes over 15 minutes, you’re ok to release the rest of the steam (by turning the steam release handle to Venting) that may be left in order to unlock and open the lid.

Sometimes you’ll see me talk of a combination of NPR followed by a QPR. For example a recipe may have a 4 minute NPR followed by a QPR. You wait for 4 minutes at the end of the pressure cooking time and then do a QPR by moving the steam release handle from Sealing to Venting.

Keyword chicken thigh fillets