Instant Pot Cashew Chicken

5 from 7 votes

Made with pantry staples, this cashew chicken made in an Instant Pot comes together quickly and easily! Just as delicious as take-out, this homemade cashew chicken is so flavorful and cooked faster than heading out to the restaurant.

Prep Time10

Cook Time10

Total Time20

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Chinese

Servings: servings

Calories: 627kcal

Author: Justin Coit

Equipment

Instant Pot

Ingredients

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tbsp sesame oil divided
7 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp honey
1 garlic clove minced
2 tsp ginger minced mince
2 tbsp arrowroot flour divided
1 tsp red pepper flakes
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 cup cashews
2 tbsp water
sliced green onion for garnish
sesame Seeds for garnish

Instructions

In a bowl, whisk together 1 tbsp sesame oil, soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, honey, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
Trim any excess fat from the chicken breasts and cut into approximately 1” pieces.
Place the chicken pieces in a bowl with 1 tbsp arrowroot flour and salt and pepper. Toss to coat the chicken.
Set your Instant Pot to Saute mode and add 1 tbsp of sesame oil. Add the chicken pieces and cook until browned. Turn off Saute mode.
Add the cashews into the pot and pour in the sauce from earlier and toss to coat the chicken and cashews. Give it a quick stir and place the lid on the Instant Pot and set to Pressure Cook on high for 6 minutes. When the timer is done do a quick release on the pressure.
In a small bowl, whisk together 1 tbsp arrowroot flour and the water. Add it slowly to the pot while whisking until the sauce has thickened.
Garnish with sliced green onion and sesame seeds.

Video

Notes

To make this cashew chicken gluten-free, you can swap the soy sauce for tamari.
When sauteing the chicken, there’s no need to cook the chicken all the way through as it will continue cooking in the Instant Pot.
Make sure to set the lid valve to sealing so the pressure can build in the pot. It’ll take a couple of minutes for the pot to come up to pressure before it starts counting down from 6 minutes.
To prevent a burn notice, make sure there isn't anything stuck to the bottom of the liner before you pressure cook. If needed, deglaze the bottom of the pot with the sauce before pressure cooking.
To mince the ginger, scrape the skin off the knob of ginger with the back of the spoon beforehand.
You may have to brown the chicken in batches if your Instant Pot is smaller than 8qt.

Nutrition