Instant Pot Jerk Chicken Recipe

Easy Instant Pot Jerk Chicken Breast Recipe

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Oh mates. Dave and I LOVE kitchen small appliances and we’ve tried many over the years, but there has not been one that we have adopted so quickly and used as frequently as our Instant Pot, which was kindly gifted for review.

A new arrival in New Zealand in 2020, the Instant Pot proved instantly popular, selling out quickly and leaving aspiring home chefs waiting (impatiently!) for the next shipment.

Dave has fully embraced this fab slow-cooker-sized appliance, which totally suits our F45 diet (our family eats at least 6kg of chicken breast a week lol) and often rushed, harried lifestyle. The absolute convenience of being able to quickly cook healthy protein from frozen is something that has made a huge difference to our household at busy mealtimes.

In our experience, the secret to getting the most from your Instant Pot is nailing a method of cooking that you will use all the time and then expanding on that and getting more inventive. This recipe is the perfect example. We need to cook a kg of chicken breast every 2 days, so being able to do so quickly, from frozen if necessary and with endless flavour options is a big win.

Basic Method for Cooking Chicken Breast in the Instant Pot

  • Fill the bottom of the Instant Pot with enough stock (we used chicken stock in this recipe, but vege would work fine) to sit just below the top of the trivet insert.
  • Liberally season the chicken breast (frozen or fresh) with Jerk It rub from Pepper & Me
  • Place chicken on top of trivet
  • Close lid
  • Set pressure level to high and timer at 20 minutes for fresh chicken, let pressure release naturally for 5-10 minutes and 25 minutes under high pressue if cooking from frozen with 5-10 minutes pressure release.
  • Please note, cooking times can vary depending upon the thickness of the breast etc. The beauty of the Instant Pot is that because you’re cooking with steam the chicken stays moist and tender, so feel free to adjust cooking timings once you have got a few cooks under your belt.

This chicken is super moist and SO tasty. We shred it right away and refrigerate to use in lunch and dinner wraps and salads.

Other easy flavours that we have tried and loved are; Taco mix dry rub, Italian seasoning dry rub, lemon pepper dry rub. Get creative with whatever you have on hand.

At time of writing, Harvey Norman NZ has Instant Pot in stock and ready to ship.