Instant Pot Chicken with Paprika and Butternut Squash

I love pushing the limits of the Instant Pot and I love Instant Pot chicken recipes. This Instant Pot Chicken with Paprika and Butternut Squash recipe starts with a well looked-after Instant Pot.

How can the pressure cooker reach pressure with so little added liquid?

Chicken releases a lot of liquid so, as long as your Instant Pot is in tip-top shape (make sure you read what I mention in the previous paragraph!), you can get away without adding extra liquid other than the Worcestershire Sauce.

Go on, give it a try.

What does deglazing mean?

Don't forget to deglaze well if you sauté and don't forget that a loved Instant Pot loves you back!

Deglazing basically means removing any caramelised or burnt-on food by adding a bit of liquid and scraping with a wooden spoon.

Why pressure cook chicken thigh fillets

Pressure cooked boneless chicken thigh fillets take very little time to be super tender and delicious.

In general, Instant Pot chicken recipes with chicken thigh fillets require very little cooking time and do great on Keep Warm.

Other recipes with Chicken Thigh Fillets

• Baharat chicken
• Chicken and Chorizo Stew
• Chicken Stew with Dumplings
• Pressure Cooker Chicken and Chorizo Orzo / Risoni Pasta
• Instant Pot Creamy Chicken and Pancetta Rigatoni Pasta

You might also like my collection of Pressure Cooked Stew recipes.

Want to make this dish with Chicken Breasts instead?

Pressure cook for 3 minutes instead if diced, 5 minutes if whole, and 8 minutes if whole and very big.

Hate peeling and dicing Butternut Squash?

Me too! If you have a whole butternut squash, you could use this clever trick before starting, it will making peeling a doddle.

Easy-to-find ingredients

This recipe for Instant Pot Chicken with Butternut Squash uses ingredients easily found in UK supermarkets with UK measurements.

Have you joined my Pressure Cooking Facebook group?

📖 Recipe

Instant Pot Chicken with Paprika and Butternut Squash

Such an easy and quick dish that will see you mainly put your feet up!

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine British

Servings 4 people

Equipment

• 1 Pressure Cooker

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or oil of your choice
• 500 g chicken thigh fillets each cut into about 3 pieces (or you can leave them whole if you prefer)
• 1 onion sliced
• 3 garlic cloves chopped
• 2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 500 g butternut squash peeled and diced
• 2 tablespoon paprika sweet (if you would like a spicy kick you could use 1 tablespoon sweet paprika + 1 tablespoon smoked paprika)
• 1.5 tablespoon dried parsley

To serve (optional)

• Tabasco

Instructions

 

• Sauté the chicken in the oil until sealed, use a medium heat for this.
  1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 500 g chicken thigh fillets
• Add the onions, garlic and Worcestershire sauce and stir, scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon to deglaze as you do this (you can add a bit of liquid to help with this)
  1 onion, 3 garlic cloves, 2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• Add the butternut squash, paprika and parsley. Stir to make sure everything is well coated. Deglaze if necessary.
  500 g butternut squash, 2 tablespoon paprika, 1.5 tablespoon dried parsley
• Press down on the sealing ring following its circumference several times to make sure it's properly inserted in the rack that holds it. Lock the lid in. Steam release Sealed.
• Pressure cook, high pressure, for 5 minutes and do a natural release* at the end of cooking, which means doing nothing until the float valve pops back down.
• Serve and enjoy with a sprinkle of Tabasco for an extra kick.
  Tabasco

Notes

Hate peeling Butternut Squash? Me too! If you have a whole butternut squash, you could use this clever trick before starting, it will making peeling a doddle.

Notes

Deglazing means scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon and the help of some liquid to remove any caramelised bits

Short of time? Add all the ingredients except the Tabasco to the inner pot, stir to combine and had straight for step 4.

Want to double it up? Feel free. The timings remain the same.

*Terminology

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

Natural release (also called natural pressure release or NPR) 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 say 4 minute NPR followed by QPR. That means that 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 all-in-one, butternut squash, chicken, Instant Pot, stew

Tried this recipe?Mention @feistytapas or tag #feistytapas!

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