Pressure Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken & Noodles is the best 30 minute Pressure Cooker recipe you will make! Lean chicken breasts are cooked in a homemade spicy Thai peanut sauce and finished off with rice noodles and peas for an easy and healthy one-pot meal made in your Instant Pot.
Pressure Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken & Noodles
I’m not going to lie, I am quite proud of this recipe! It is so good on so many levels. The idea came to me after using my Instant Pot for a bit realizing that the extra liquid was always boiling after cooking the meat. I put that together with the fact that rice noodles are cooked by letting them set in boiling water as opposed to how traditional noodles are boiled. That resulted in this Pressure Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken & Noodles recipe where you cook the chicken in a thai peanut sauce, open your electric pressure cooker to add the noodles and peas and then cover it back up and leave it on the slow cooker mode.
The end result is the most tender and flavorful chicken with a rich Thai peanut sauce with just enough noodles for a healthy and semi low-carb recipe. The peanuts and peas are optional, but they add a nice crunch and color to the otherwise brown dish. This wholesome meal is something that you will not only feel good about eating, but you will keep coming back for more, because it tastes so good!
While I love making simple roasts or chicken in my Instant Pot, it is fun and challenging for me to come up with complete one-pot meal. Whether I am cooking up Pressure Cooker Turkey Verde & Rice or this Pressure Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken & Noodles, the electric pressure cooker is hard to beat in the convenience it provides as well as the tender fall apart meat it produces!
Pressure Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken & Noodles
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 c. Thai peanut sauce
- 3/4 c. chicken broth
- 5 oz. stir-fry rice noodles
- 1 c. sugar snap or snow peas
- optional garnishes - chopped peanuts red pepper flakes, green onions & cilantro
Instructions
- Turn your electric pressure cooker to saute and lightly saute the peas for 1-2 until just slightly cooked. Remove peas and set aside. Turn off of saute.
- Add the chicken, Thai peanut sauce and broth to the pot. Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes.
- Release the steam by turning the nozzle and remove the chicken from pot, leaving the sauce. To the sauce, add the noodles and ensure all of the dry noodles are submerged in sauce. Top with the peas and replace the cover as quickly as possible. Change the settings to slow cooker (normal), and cook for 10 minutes or until the noodles are soft but firm.
- Meanwhile, shred the chicken breasts and set aside.
- Remove the lid of the pressure cooker and give the noodles a good stir. Add the chicken back to the pot with the noodles. Cook on slow cooker mode for an additional 10 minutes. Serve warm.
More delicious Thai Peanut recipes!
Turkey Thai Peanut Lettuce Wraps
Light Thai Peanut Chicken Tenders
Julie Evink says
August 22, 2016 at 9:18 pmI seriously need to embrace my Instapot more often! Please make some more recipes like this 🙂
Nicole Johnson says
August 30, 2016 at 10:02 pmYou, my friend, are a genius. This is amazing. I need to do an Instant Pot version of my garlic chicken rice noodles!
Danielle Green says
August 31, 2016 at 9:57 amThanks Nicole! I am dreaming up so many recipes that I could use rice noodles with in my pressure cooker. It really doesn’t get much easier.
Rebecca Sherman says
November 8, 2017 at 6:37 pmSo Nicole Johnson … have you created this IP recipe with Garlic Chicken Rice Noodles?
Marina Moreno says
September 17, 2016 at 1:59 pmWould stir fry noodles just be like rice noodles?
Danielle Green says
September 19, 2016 at 8:38 amYes, rice noodles are what you would want to use!
Shanna Tingom says
November 7, 2016 at 8:26 pmThough the flavor is good, the this felt like it needed twice the amount of sauce and another 8 minutes of pressure cooking as written. I made it exactly as written. I had to add more broth each time I opened it to keep it from scorching, ,the noodles overpowered the dish, and the peas weren’t cooked. Next time I will cut the noodles in 1/2, cook the 2nd time frame (after the beans are added) at pressure and add 1/2 to the sauce recipe. Thank you!
Danielle Green says
November 8, 2016 at 9:06 amHi Shanna, I am happy to hear you enjoyed the flavors. As for the cooking time, I have made this on multiple occasions and these cooking times worked well for me. Perhaps its a different in electric pressure cookers or preference in noodle bite? Hope it works well for you next time with your adjustments!
Marge says
January 1, 2017 at 5:04 pmThere are three different settings for the Instant pot slow cooker option. Are you using “normal”?
Danielle Green says
January 1, 2017 at 5:19 pmYes, the normal setting.
Laura says
November 7, 2017 at 6:10 pmMe too. This is the only Instant Pot fail I’ve ever had. The sauce scorched to the bottom of my pot, so I dumped what was left into my second pot, had to make another batch of sauce, and then did the noodles, which took 20 minutes instead of ten. I think I probably salvaged it, but that was stressful as all get out.
Having said that, the sauce is good enough to drink straight out of the blender, so I will totally be making that part of it again!
A.D. says
January 4, 2017 at 9:14 amDo you think this would work using canned tuna instead of chicken?
Danielle Green says
January 4, 2017 at 9:55 amI think it would have an entirely different flavor. I wouldn’t personally be a fan of the mixture, but if you like tuna with Thai Peanut sauce I would recommend just adding it before the last 10 minutes in slow cooking mode.
A.D. says
January 4, 2017 at 1:34 pmThanks!
Calista Mejia says
January 30, 2017 at 7:17 pmFrozen chicken breasts?
Danielle Green says
January 31, 2017 at 8:56 amFrozen chicken breasts would work great, just cook them for 13 minutes instead of 8!
Dana says
April 16, 2017 at 4:40 pmI have been planning to make this recipe for weeks but it wasn’t as easy as detailed above. I made it word for word but I had some issues. The chicken was tough after only 8 minutes under high pressure and difficult to shred. I put the rice noodles into the remaining liquid in the instant pot but it didn’t even come close to covering them, so I wound up adding more thai peanut sauce and broth, then cooking the noodles and peas under high pressure for an additional 2 minutes. The noodles were scorched on the bottom of the pot. I added the shredded chicken back to the noodles and the mixture was dry–nowhere near enough sauce. I added the rest of the thai peanut sauce I’d made, plus more broth, and placed it on slow cooker mode for 10 minutes. In the end, the texture was pretty near pad thai and the chicken was cooked fairly well. The flavor was good but it was too spicy for my kids, even though I added less red pepper flakes than the recipe called for, and even though I like spicy dishes, the heat in the sauce kind of overpowered the peanut flavor. All in all I do think I would make this recipe again, just knowing it’s going to take a few more steps than the recipe requires.
Julie Coughlin says
May 3, 2017 at 4:58 pmUnfortunately this recipe was a huge flop and I made it on a school night when we were crunched for time. The chicken was not done after 8 minutes but I had already put the noodles and peas back into the pot and started them on slow cook. I had to remove them and cook the chicken some more without enough liquid. I improvised and just used chicken stock because there was not time to make more sauce. The flavors are good but the recipe proportions and cooking time is all off : (
Dana says
May 8, 2017 at 8:57 pmI thought this was delicious. I might cook the chicken for 2-3 minutes longer, as it didn’t shred as easily as I would have liked. But I’ll definitely make this again.
Kit says
May 16, 2017 at 1:09 pmDo you think this could be done with frozen edamame in place of the peas? Should I defrost the peas first before adding to the dish? Thanks.
Danielle Green says
May 16, 2017 at 1:13 pmYES! I think that would be a great swap. If you add them frozen, I would put it under pressure for 1 minute to cook the edamame.
Kit says
May 16, 2017 at 7:40 pmAt the beginning cook the edamame on their own for 1 min, then follow the rest of the instructions?
Danielle Green says
May 24, 2017 at 7:28 amSorry I didn’t clarify better. I would actually add the edamame after the chicken cooks and add 1 minute pressure for the chicken and edamame together.
Allyn says
May 25, 2017 at 6:10 pmOMG, this was so very delicious! My husband and I devoured it, and I will make this again! I will add a little more sauce next time (the sauce is SO delicious) and will include some chopped dry-roasted peanuts as a garnish. A winning recipe!
Danielle Green says
May 25, 2017 at 6:47 pmHappy to hear you loved it Allyn! I agree the sauce is one of my favorites.
Rochelle says
August 9, 2017 at 5:53 pmI had 2lbs of chicken, so adjusted the quantities accordingly (with extra since some people reported dry noodles) – my liquids were double (2c of sauce, 1.5c of broth), and the noodles were 8oz. At the end of cooking, all the liquid had been absorbed, and the noodles were perfectly cooked. But do know that this is not a saucy pasta dish – all the flavor sticks to the noodles and chicken. My husband actually added a dollop of the peanut sauce to his dish as he likes it saucier.
I didn’t change the cooking time, and my chicken was still perfectly shreddable after 12 minutes.
Great Instant Pot recipe – easy to make with pretty much zero hassle! Thanks!
Danielle Green says
August 30, 2017 at 12:43 pmHappy to hear it worked great doubling it for you!
Heather Paulocsak says
September 21, 2017 at 6:40 pmI found that you need more liquid than just the broth and sauce called for. I had to add about 2 cups of water additional.
Avery says
March 22, 2018 at 11:55 amIf you were to add tofu (extra firm) or red bell pepper, at what point would that be done? Made it the first time, with double sauce and extra noodles and added bean sprouts. It was very good, but I think I’d like to try it with tofu and peppers….
Danielle Green says
March 23, 2018 at 5:07 pmI have honestly never cooked tofu, so I’m not very familiar with it. From what I understand from tofu, you want to get a good sear on it, so I would saute it in the IP in some oil first and then remove it. Cook the dish according to the instructions, adding in the bell peppers with the noodles, then stir in the seared tofu at the end with the peas.
Ingrid says
April 10, 2018 at 5:46 pmthis has become one of my favorite go-to dinners! the rice noodles i use call for being soaked in warm water before adding to a dish…..once i did that, everything came out of the IP just perfect.
Denise says
May 8, 2018 at 10:13 amAre the nutritional counts available?
Danielle Green says
May 20, 2018 at 10:28 amYou can quickly get all the nutritional info by plugging it into My Fitness Pal!
Christy says
November 24, 2018 at 7:50 pmI made this tonight without using the instant pot. I got scared off a little bit by some of the negative comments, but I had told my boyfriend I was making Thai peanut chicken and felt like I needed to follow through. So I decided that I would use your recipe but stir fry it in a pan with shredded chicken I already had in the fridge.
I hate to be that person who leaves a review on a recipe that they completely changed. But it didn’t feel right to enjoy this as much as I did without telling you. I kept all the ingredients the same and just cooked it by more traditional methods. We really loved it and will be having it again soon I’m sure! Thanks so much!
Danielle Green says
November 25, 2018 at 8:25 pmHaha, always happy to hear you enjoyed it, even if you changed it! 😊
Lauren says
December 13, 2018 at 7:59 pmI made this last night and it was super yum! I did find that I had to cook the chicken for 17 minutes rather than 12 minutes to get it cooked all the way through. Also the chicken to noodle ratio was way overwhelmed by the chicken so next time I would definitely either cut down on the chicken or add more noodles- or just omit the chicken altogether and make the noodles with just veggies. The sauce is also missing a little something and I think it might just need some lime zest for a bit more of a bite? Can’t wait to try this again.
Lauren says
December 13, 2018 at 8:02 pmI made this last night and it was super yum! I did find that I had to cook the chicken for 17 minutes rather than 12 minutes to get it cooked all the way through. Also the chicken to noodle ratio was way overwhelmed by the chicken so next time I would definitely either cut down on the chicken or add more noodles- or just omit the chicken altogether and make the noodles with just veggies. The sauce is also missing a little something and I think it might just need some lime zest for a bit more of a bite? There wasn’t enough sauce either with just a cup so I added another half cup. Can’t wait to try this again with the tweaks
Denise says
February 11, 2019 at 7:42 pmMy instant pot only slow Cook’s for 30 minutes and up. Did you set it for 30 and then quick release at 10?
Danielle Green says
February 12, 2019 at 11:10 amYou can just stop it at 10 minutes and won’t need to do a quick release. No pressure should be building during the slow cooker mode.
Cierra says
April 26, 2019 at 7:04 pmIs slow cooker mode the same as low pressure? I have a cuisine art pressure cooker that has high, low and warm
Danielle Green says
April 27, 2019 at 10:14 amI don’t believe it is the same. Low pressure is actually cooking under pressure, whereas slow cooker is not. I would just turn it to warm and pop the lid on!