In preparation for the family holiday dinner I started brainstorming how to make whole chicken in Instant Pot, tender juicy inside and crispy outside.
My husband and I love to cook and entertain and our family usually come to our house for Christmas dinner. My husband loves to cook chicken, or sometimes two or three chickens. The usual way he would cook it in the oven and the results were fine. But the process was quite messy and time consuming.
I was always horrified to make the whole chicken in Instant Pot, but after checking out multiple recipes, I was on a mission to make the Instant Pot whole chicken while being tender and juicy inside with fall of the bone and crispy skin on the outside. And by fall off the bone I don’t mean for the meat to be so soft that it falls of the bone and you eat it with the fork.
I’ve made multiple whole chickens in Instant Pot, including the Amy & Jacky’s method with Zero minute pressure cook time, but mostly pressurizing it and cooking it inside the water and then releasing the pressure naturally for 20 minutes. This method was a fail for me. While some part of the chicken were ok, the inside didn’t cook all the way through.
I decided to give the Chicken wings Instant Pot method a try and apply this method to the whole chicken. A lot of people tried my Instant Pot crispy and tender wings recipe and it received a good amount of positive feedback, reviews and even photos!
Below I outline the process and it is pretty simple. No need to be afraid. All you need is a whole chicken, favorite spices, Instant Pot and the oven with the broil function.
Please save this photo-pin below ( I made it Pinterest friendly) If you don’t cook the whole chicken in your Instant Pot right now, you will find later.
Ingredients:
Whole chicken up to 5 and 1/2 pounds or whichever can be fit into your Instant pot. The one I use is Instant Pot 6 Qt 9 in 1
1 TBS oil. I use Avocado oil
Favorite spices and seasoning
Chicken stock or bouillon
Optional: Stuffing of choice, like stuffing, onion, apples, garlic, thyme, rosemary…etc
Tips how to make your chicken juicier and more flavorful – Brine method
Before you proceed, I wanted to give you a heads up how to make the chicken meat super juicy and not dry while being super flavorful. About a year ago I read on the web that in order for meat to be juicier and more flavorful it is best to soak up chicken (or chicken breast) in salty water for at least 2 hours. I tried this method, but my husband over-salted the water. While back then we cooked the chicken breast on the grill and the meat was incredibly juicy and tender inside with the crispy grill marks on the outside, the chicken breast came out super salty and practically un-edible. Yikes!
So if you want to give the soak chicken method a try, I recommend instead of the salty water, use chicken stock or bouillon. It has already a good amount of sodium or you can control your sodium by adding more or less flavored bullion cubes. The one I use is Better than Bouillon. For each cup of hot water you add 1 tsp of Better than Bouillon paste. Let the stock cool, cover it 100% of the chicken and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (Best overnight)
The soaking chicken method is completely optional. Below I outline the process of making whole chicken in Instant Pot. Follow step by step directions and you will have the whole chicken made in Instant Pot which is like rotisserie style. The meat will come out tender and juicy and we will crisp up the skin at the end in the broiler. If you decide to soak your chicken for 2 hours, take it out of the stock and proceed with below directions.
Directions
1. Wash your chicken. Wash the inside.
2. Rub and season your chicken with salt, pepper and seasonings of your liking
3. Place Instant Pot on Saute mode, let it heat up. Add a TBS of oil and place chicken inside of your Instant Pot and let brown (about 5 minute per each side)
3a. Note – the step 3 may not be convenient method to brown the chicken. It is quite difficult to flip the whole chicken inside the Instant Pot. Unless you have rubber or silicone gloves. But to make it easier, I will recommend to brown sides of your chicken in a separate pan on the side.
4. If you brown the chicken in IP, take the chicken out. Add half a cup of water while still being on saute mode. At this time it will best to start de-glazing the bottom of your pot by scraping the bottom with wooden spatula.
5. Once you deglazed your Instant Pot, add another half a cup of water place the trivet on the bottom and then place the whole chicken inside Instant Pot (on top of trivet)
6. Set the Normal High pressure and timer to 10 minutes. Don’t let the time fool you and do not worry, the chicken will cook through. You may set the pressure cook for longer if you wish, but you don’t want to end up with over-cooked chicken.
7. Once the timer beeps, let it be natural release. The natural release should last about 15 minutes.
8. Once you release the pressure, open the lid, take out your chicken and place it the prepared sheet that will go inside the oven to broil and crisp the skin.
9. At this time it will be a good idea to stuff your chicken with your favorite stuffings.
10 Season it more on the top and place it in the middle rack and set the oven setting to broil. I have HI/Low broil setting and used HI. Broil it on high broil for 7 minutes on each side.
11. You can broil it for longer than 7 minutes, but keep an eye on your chicken inside the oven as the top may get burned, when it gets closer to 7 minutes. At this time I would recommend to place a sheet of aluminum foil on top of the chicken to prevent burning.
12. Take out the chicken and flip it on the other side and repeat step 10 and 11
Once done, you may enjoy your chicken IMMEDIATELY! Voila! Whew!
Let me know if you are going to give it a try and how did it come out. I would love to hear your thoughts and see photos. Please tag me in the Instant Pot group or on social media @TheBigAppleMama and use hash #TheBigAppleMama
Below is the handy printable recipe and the video of making the whole chicken in Instant Pot, entire process in action. Including the clip when my husband was helping me to flip the chicken for broiling the other side, and broke the chicken leg while I was filming. In this video bit you can already clearly visually see how juicy chicken was. I did get mad at him for breaking the leg but we sorted this out and it came out a good visual bit. But do learn from my mistake – do not flip your chicken using thongs, it is best to use your own hand, secured with kitchen gloves or silicone gloves and flip it nicely with your hands. Or flip the chicken using wooden spatulas. Whichever method worked good for your when you were flipping the chicken.
Instant Pot whole chicken, tender juicy inside and crispy outside.
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Irina Davey of TheBigAppleMama.com
Recipe type: Main course
Cuisine: Any
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- Whole chicken up to 5 and ½ pounds or whichever can be fit into your Instant pot.
- 1 TBS oil. I use Avocado oil
- Favorite spices and seasoning
- Chicken stock or bullion
- Optional: Stuffing of choice, like stuffing, onion, apples, garlic, thyme, rosemary...etc
Instructions
- Wash your chicken. Wash the inside.
- Rub and season your chicken with salt, pepper and seasonings of your liking
- Place Instant Pot on Saute mode, let it heat up. Add a TBS of oil and place chicken inside of your Instant Pot and let brown (about 5 minute per each side)
- a. Note - the step 3 may not be convenient method to brown the chicken. It is quite difficult to flip the whole chicken inside the Instant Pot. Unless you have rubber gloves. But to make it easier, I will recommend to brown sides of your chicken on a pan on the side.
- If you brown the chicken in IP, take the chicken out. Add half a cup of water while still being on saute mode. At this time it will best to start de-glazing the bottom of your pot by scraping the bottom with wooden spatula.
- Once you deglazed your Instant Pot, add another half a cup of water place the trivet on the bottom and then place the whole chicken inside Instant Pot.
- Set the Normal High pressure and timer to 10 minutes. Don't let the time fool you and do not worry, the chicken will cook through. You may set the pressure cook for longer if you wish, but you don't want to end up with over-cooked chicken.
- Once the timer beeps, let it be natural release. The natural release should last about 15-20 minutes.
- Once you release the pressure, open the lid, take out your chicken and place it the prepared sheet that will go inside the oven to broil and crisp the skin.
- At this time it will be a good idea to stuff your chicken with your favorite stuffings.
- Season it more on the top and place it in the middle rack and set the oven setting to broil. I have HI/Low broil setting and used HI. Broil it on high broil for 7 minutes on each side.
- But keep an eye on your chicken inside the oven as the top may get burned, when it gets closer to 7 minutes. At this time I would recommend to place a sheet of aluminum foil on top of the chicken to prevent burning.
- Take out the chicken and flip it on the other side and repeat step 10 and 11
Notes
Before you proceed, I wanted to give you a heads up how to make the chicken meat super juicy and not dry while being super flavorful. About a year ago I read on the web that in order for meat to be juicier and more flavorful it is best to soak up chicken (or chicken breast) in salty water for at least 2 hours. I tried this method, but my husband over-salted the water. While back then we cooked the chicken breast on the grill and the meat was incredibly juicy and tender inside with the crispy grill marks on the outside, the chicken breast came out super salty and practically un-edible. Yikes!
So if you want to give the soak chicken method a try, I recommend either do not oversalt your water and use 1 TSP per 2 cups or instead of the salty water, use chicken stock or bouillon. It has already a good amount of sodium or you can control your sodium by adding more or less flavored bullion cubes. The one I use is Better than Bullion. For each cup of hot water you add 1 tsp of Better than Buillion paste. Let the stock cool, cover it 100% of the chicken and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (Best overnight)
The soaking chicken method is completely optional. Below I outline the process of making whole chicken in Instant Pot. Follow step by step directions and you will have the whole chicken made in Instant Pot which is like rotisserie style. The meat will come out tender and juicy and we will crisp up the skin at the end in the broiler. If you decide to soak your chicken for 2 hours, take it out of the stock and proceed with below directions.
So if you want to give the soak chicken method a try, I recommend either do not oversalt your water and use 1 TSP per 2 cups or instead of the salty water, use chicken stock or bouillon. It has already a good amount of sodium or you can control your sodium by adding more or less flavored bullion cubes. The one I use is Better than Bullion. For each cup of hot water you add 1 tsp of Better than Buillion paste. Let the stock cool, cover it 100% of the chicken and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (Best overnight)
The soaking chicken method is completely optional. Below I outline the process of making whole chicken in Instant Pot. Follow step by step directions and you will have the whole chicken made in Instant Pot which is like rotisserie style. The meat will come out tender and juicy and we will crisp up the skin at the end in the broiler. If you decide to soak your chicken for 2 hours, take it out of the stock and proceed with below directions.
Irina is a NYC area food blogger and recipe developer, loves to cook, travel and entertain. Follow her blog and enjoy her tips on Food & Travel, Lifestyle & Healthy delicious recipes.
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Looks fantastic! Did you cook from fresh or frozen? Also what size Instant pot did you use?
The Instant pot size I have is 6.9 quarts. Didn’t try frozen, I cooked from fresh, since I needed to sear the sides of the chicken.
Is it better to cook the chicken in the instant pot breast side up or down? Does either way keep the breast meat jucier?
I was thinking to save the final cooking water to add to bone broth I will make later after we eat the chicken. I chopped up small some celery, onion, carrot, & garlic and sauteed them in the IP after removing the browned chicken. Then I added the 1C of water and deglazed. The whole chicken then sat on the trivet on top of this water veggie mix.
I cooked breast side up, but i don’t think it really matters at all…. Your idea is wonderful to make a gravy veggie mix… Glad you enjoyed!
I brined the chicken in stock (in a freezer bag so I only needed 2 cups), and reserved that stock for deglazing /cooking. Skipped the broil to save time & energy, still turned out great!
Next time I will add the veggies for gravy too!
I did want to say our poultry board (Canada) says not to wash your chicken, as they are washed before packaging, and you will just end up spreading salmonella all over your sink/counter etc. Just a thought.
Glad it came out great! As for washing the chicken and spreading salmonella…yuk!! I would wash kitchen sink every time after raw meat… thanks for bringing this up
What temerature is the chicken when you take it out of the IP? I have been using 6 minutes per pound about 25 min. total and 10 min slow release, then broil. If I understand your instructins you state 10 min total and full slow release, just checking befor I try it
Didn’t measure the temperature and the chicken is fully cooked inside. This is correct, 10 minutes high pressure and full natural release.. please let me know if you try and how yours came out