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Instant Pot Thai Lemongrass Chicken.
I haven’t talked much about this, and I don’t know how I haven’t, but you guys, I’ve basically stolen Asher’s dog, Merle, and taken him in as my own. If you follow along on Instagram, then you may have wondered about his frequent appearances, as he makes it into my stories often. Asher, who is nine, somehow convinced my parents to get her a dog towards the end of last summer. She’s the last child, so I think you can see why this wasn’t hard for her to do…
My mom and Asher found Merle, who is a mini Australian Shepard in September. For a while, I didn’t spend much time with Merle since he is Asher’s dog. But then that whole trip to South Korea happened and I came back to the states about two weeks before my parents. This meant that I took Merle in, and in those two weeks I discovered that Merle is probably the best dog ever. No seriously, the best. He did literally everything with me those entire two weeks. We hiked every morning, he’d sit at my feet while I worked, and hang with me in the kitchen while I cooked. I took him with me everywhere I went, because again, he’s just the best dog. AND he listens to me, which I find greatly satisfying.
Since then, Merle spends a lot of time at my house. If you are a new…ish reader, my house neighbors my parents house, so I just pick Merle up every morning, we hike and then he spends the day with me until Asher gets out of school. At which time Asher demands that he come back home to hang with her. This week however, Merle is with me full time again, and I can’t lie, I love having him here. He’s cute, cuddly, kind, and again, he listens to me, which I love. And as I type this, Merle is sitting not an inch away. I finally get that whole saying that, dog is man’s best friend. That’s Merle!
Anyway, that little story has not a thing to do with today’s recipe, but I thought we needed a fun intro, because it’s Wednesday and I think all Wednesdays could use a bright little story.
Plus, I clearly just had Merle on my mind…
OK. OKAY.
Moving on.
Let’s talk all things Thai chicken and instant pot.
As I have said, when I first got my Instant Pot, I wasn’t really that crazy about it. I think I tossed the first two, three, maybe even four recipes I made out. But once I got past the learning curve, I slowly began to really love the instant pot, like I do my slow cooker. There are certain foods that I find the instant pot cooks better than others, and if you ask me, the instant pot cooks chicken perfect every single time. And that’s where this Thai chicken comes into play.
I’m a huge fan of Thai anything, but especially Thai food with a little lemongrass. It’s comforting yet fresh at the same time and full of so much flavor.
As with most instant pot recipes, you pretty much just add everything to the pot, set it, and dinner is done in about twenty or so minutes. No dirtying up too many dishes or even the stove, a major bonus in my book (if you didn’t already know, I hate doing dishes and cleaning the stove!). The chicken is tender, a little on the spicy side, hinted with coconut, and finished off with plenty of lime. It would be delicious packed into a wrap or maybe even served in a salad, but I personally like to serve my chicken up over a bed of steamed rice and top it simply with carrots and greens.
It’s nothing too fancy, but yet it’s incredibly delicious. The major plus, is that it takes no time at all to make. Perfect for busy nights, or nights when you really just don’t feel like cooking.
Oh, and if you have any leftovers, they’d be great packed up for lunches!
Instant Pot Thai Lemongrass Chicken
Servings: 6 servings
Calories Per Serving: 516 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 can (13.5 ounce) full fat coconut milk
- 1 small yellow onion, quartered
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 inch piece fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoons lemongrass paste
- 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- kosher salt and black pepper
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 red fresno pepper or jalapeño, seeds removed and chopped
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, roughly torn
- juice of 1 lime
- peanuts, shredded carrots, and green onions, for serving
- steamed rice for, serving
Instructions
- 1. In a blender, combine the coconut milk, onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, curry paste, fish sauce, and a pinch of both salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. 2. In the bowl of your instant pot, combine the chicken, coconut sauce, bell pepper, fresno pepper, and cinnamon stick. Cover and cook on high pressure/manual for 8 minutes. 3. Once done cooking, use the natural or quick release function. Set the Instant pot to sauté and bring to a boil, boil 5 minutes or until the liquid reduces slightly. Remove and discard the cinnamon stick. Shred the chicken using two forks. Stir in the cilantro, basil, and lime juice. Season with salt.3. Serve the chicken over rice and top with peanuts, carrots, and green onions. Enjoy!Â
Slow Cooker
- 1. In a blender, combine the coconut milk, onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, curry paste, fish sauce, and a pinch of both salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. 2. In the bowl of your slow cooker, combine the chicken, coconut sauce, bell pepper, fresno pepper, and cinnamon stick. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-7 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours. Once done cooking, remove and discard the cinnamon stick. Shred the chicken using two forks. Stir in the cilantro, basil, and lime juice. Season with salt. Finish as directed above.
Dinner in minutes. Can’t beat that.
I followed the directions exactly and I have to say this looked like slop and doesn’t resemble anything I’ve seen in Thailand or the photo above. There was more liquid than necessary and it looked like a soup or at least a curry.
Hi! I am really sorry to hear that. Are there any questions I could help you out with? Please let me know! I hope you love other recipes on my blog! xTieghan
Usually love your recipes but this missed the mark. It was watery, over-cooked, and lacking in flavor depth. We made it once with chicken (12 min high in the pressure cooker) and again with 1 lb shrimp (3 min. low in the pressure cooker). Everything was over cooked and the dish is bland, even with just cooking the peppers for 3 min on low. I imagine a mince on the garlic and ginger, instead of eviscerating in the blender, would go a long way so those flavors don’t get lost. Also wish we had known the carrots were in vinegar, we thought it was water before we read the comments and soaked them in water (blech). I don’t mean to be overly negative, your site is awesome and we’ve made dozens of delicious recipes thanks to you, this one just wasn’t a winner for us!
Hi! I am so sorry to hear that this did not turn out well. Are there any questions I could help you with? I hope you still enjoy other recipes on my blog! xTieghan
Just wondering why you cook your chicken so long? Many bloggers would cook the chicken breasts for 8-10 minutes and some are even recommending less than that. I’ve noticed your cooking time for breasts to be long in at least one other recipe. I only cook my chicken breasts for 8-10 minutes, depending on the thickness.
This looks like a yummy recipe that I plan to make this week.
Hey Leslie, this is what I have found to work nicely. Please cook the chicken to your preference. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
Absolutely delicious- will add a bit more curry and some more chili. We love everything spicy!
Thank you so much Megan! I am so glad you loved this! xTieghan
Sadly, this didn’t work out well for me. The coconut milk split to water (yep full fat) and the flavour just sort of disappeared. No Thai red paste, lemongrass or coconut flavour. I think next time I’ll saute the chicken and add the purred sauce over it to quickly simmer. I’m actually a red seal chef, so not a total dolt;) just trying to find some awesome instant pot recipes.
EVERYTHING else I’ve made of yours has turned out fantastic!
Hi! I am sorry this did not turn out well for you, but I hope it turns out better for you next time. Are there any questions I can help you with? xTieghan
I made this last night in the instant pot – it’s soooo good. I love your recipes and this one is full of flavor and we all really enjoyed it over brown rice. I think it would be good over noodles as well or even in a wrap…yum.
Thank you so much Stefanie! I am so glad you loved this recipe! xTieghan
This came out closer to curry water for me – had to transfer to the stove top to reduce and by that time the peppers were mush. I’d be more inclined to use your curry base on the stove with a rotisserie chicken next time.
Hi Emily! Oh no, I am so sorry this did not turn out well for you! Are there any questions you have or anything you may have missed? I would love to help you out! xTieghan
This was super disappointing which is a shame because I love all the ingredients. It was pretty bland and the sauce had a grainy texture, no matter how much I blended it. The lemongrass, I think.
Hi Michelle! I am so sorry to hear that! Are there any questions I can help you with? xTieghan
Why do I need a cinnamon stick? Ingredients can get quite pricey… can I leave this or anything else out?
HI Tracy, the cinnamon is used to flavor the chicken. You can use 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon in place of the cinnamon stick if that works better for you. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
What are the shredded carrots soaking in in the picture?
HI! They are pickled carrots and sitting in their vinegar. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
I’m making this as we speak! Quick question, please:: if I plan to keep this in the fridge for a few days, should I still stir in the cilantro and basil when I’m done cooking, or should I just add those things to each portion after reheating?
HI! YOu can add the herbs as you are cooking and then just top the chicken with some fresh herbs when you are ready to eat. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
This came out super watery and not good. I used full fat coconut milk but decided to add more veggies (an extra pepper, green beans, carrot). The veggies were way over cooked (like the peppers almost disintegrated) at 10 mins on manual. Not sure how I’d fix this other than adding the veg after the chicken cooks. The sauce was disappointingly thinneven after dumping some off and adding an extra can of coconut milk. Ugh. Will try again but with some major modifications.
This was delicious, and quite easy! I served it over rice noodles instead of rice. We had my parents over for dinner and all agreed the recipe was a keeper. I think next time I’ll add bean sprouts in. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thank you so much Amelia! I am so glad you loved this recipe and it turned out amazing for you!
I made this recipe and it had potential to be awesome, but it came out pretty thin and tasted watered down. I followed the recipe, I’m not sure what made it came out this way/: any idea on what might have happened?
Hey Elise! Did you use full fat coconut milk? Can you give me any info on how you made this? That would be really helpful in problem solving what might have happened.
Thanks for this great recipe. I made it exactly as instructed and it was very well received at a dinner party. The spices were perfect and the presentation made me look like I knew what I was doing!
I am so glad this recipe turned out amazing for you, Cynthia! Thank you so much for making this!