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 by following every step in the Give your Instant Pot some love section of the Instant Pot UK Beginners’ Guide.

But Maria, there isn’t enough liquid in this recipe, what about the Golden Rules?

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.

Deglazing

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.

Pressure cooked chicken thigh fillets

Pressure cooked 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.

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.

Easy-to-find ingredients

This recipe uses ingredients easily found in UK supermarkets with UK measurements.

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Print Recipe

Instant Pot Chicken with Paprika and Butternut Squash

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

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: British

Keyword: all-in-one, butternut squash, chicken, Instant Pot, stew

Equipment

• Instant Pot

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp 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 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 500 g butternut squash peeled and diced
• 2 tbsp paprika sweet (if you would like a spicy kick you could use 1 tbsp sweet paprika + 1 tbsp smoked paprika)
• 1.5 tbsp dried parsley

To serve (optional)

• Tabasco

Instructions

• Press Sauté and seal the chicken in the oil.
• Add the onions and garlic. Add the Worcestershire sauce and stir, scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon to deglaze as you do this.
• Press Keep Warm / Cancel. Add the butternut squash, the paprika and the parsley. Stir to make sure everything is well coated. Deglaze if necessary.
• 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 handle pointing to Sealing. Press Manual / Pressure Cook, use the – and + buttons to programme 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.

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.