Instant Pot Chicken and Gravy Recipes

Don’t touch the cornstarch just yet; we want the best outcome with our Instant Pot chicken and gravy recipes. Every gravy recipe will require cornstarch, but the Instant Pot won’t play well with it. Instead, we want to use the right tips to make the best Instant Pot chicken dinners.

Instant Pot chicken and gravy recipes pack chicken breasts with flavorful gravy, giving us a delicious meal that the whole family will love. There are plenty of ways to cook dinner these days.

We can cook on the stove, in the oven, using a crockpot, air fryer, or toaster oven. But the fastest way to cook a meal is to use an Instant Pot. Instant Pots are pressure cookers that combine heat, high pressure, and steam to cook food.

You may think that increasing the heat means dry food. But this pressure cooking method also uses steam, which helps keep things nice and moist. That moisture lends well to many dishes, even the more liquid-heavy recipes like gravy.

Instant Pot chicken and gravy recipes showcase how we can combine the sauté function with pressure cooking and a natural release to get a delicious recipe the next time we have some frozen chicken to cook.

Most Instant Pot recipes require a bit of liquid in the recipe to provide us with that steam. However, most of the liquid will evaporate due to heat and pressure, even with a natural pressure release.

That is why one of the first tips for making any gravy-type recipe in an Instant Pot is to put the cornstarch down, which will be saved for the end. Of course, avoiding the cornstarch slurry is not the only thing we want to do with our Instant Pot dinners.

We also want to ensure it comes out well the next time we cook anything in our Instant Pot.

Instant Pot Chicken and Gravy Recipes

We can go with a couple of options for an easy dinner with chicken. Chicken breasts or thighs are the two most people would go with for chicken and gravy recipes. An easy Instant Pot chicken breast recipe will provide plenty of meat that soaks up the gravy mix.

Chicken breasts are also very affordable, though not the cheapest cut. We can also find many ways to use chicken breasts in chicken and gravy recipes. The basic Instant Pot chicken and gravy idea uses chicken breasts.

There are also some unique takes on the recipe, like an Instant Pot chicken with mushroom gravy recipe. Chicken thighs, on the other hand, do come with a lot of natural flavor; they just might have a bit more fat.

But that fat can be rendered down and provide us with juicy chicken; some even say thighs are the best part. Instant Pot chicken thighs and gravy are just as easy to make as chicken breasts. But choosing just one chicken cut isn’t the only way to get the job done.

Whole Roasted Chicken and Gravy Instant Pot Recipes

Picking a cut of meat is a great way to make the process easier and cook dinner for a few people. However, there is another way: the whole chicken. We can choose from plenty of Instant Pot roasted chicken and gravy recipes.

We will still use the saute setting to brown parts of the chicken, but we can’t expect perfection here. It will be impossible to brown every part of the chicken in an Instant Pot. Luckily, there is a trick around this: roast it first if you want to use all of the meat from a chicken.

We can make Instant Pot chicken and gravy recipes without cooking the chicken. This method requires us to get a whole rotisserie chicken from our local grocery store, pick apart the meat, and add it to the recipe.

In fact, this is an excellent way to get creative with the gravy, changing the entire idea of what we think a chicken and gravy recipe can become. Using a whole chicken is basically like cooking a mini Thanksgiving turkey, just with chicken.

Roast chicken in an Instant Pot can be achieved, but it will be a bit of a messy undertaking. Still, we can’t deny the flavor, and the cooking time is still low, even if you cook a whole chicken and gravy recipe in an Instant Pot. 

Tips for Instant Pot Gravy

We already know that Instant Pots use high pressure, heat, and steam to cook food. However, how can these things work together to make gravy? The answer is simple: the juices from the meat and the abundance of liquid at the bottom of the pot.

This is why we avoid using corn starch too early in the recipe. Corn starch isn’t the first thing anyone reaches for when making gravy, but it is essential to thicken the liquid. Still, we need to add more liquid than usual and corn starch at the end to thicken it up.

The chicken broth in a classic chicken and gravy recipe will be increased in an Instant Pot version. However, we want to ensure that we use low sodium chicken broth since plenty of salt is already in the recipe.

Low-sodium Instant Pot chicken and gravy are healthier than most other chicken tenders recipes. The delicious gravy will still be delicious, even with less salt. These recipes will provide you with your new favorite way to use any cream of chicken soup or cream of anything.

Of course, you could use nothing more than the juices from the chicken and some gravy packets. Either way, you will have tender chicken breast and delicious gravy to drizzle on top.

What Happens if You Put Cornstarch in an Instant Pot?

We want our Instant Pot chicken and gravy recipes to be saucy and delicious. To make a thick gravy, we add cornstarch or flour. However, cornstarch in an Instant Pot is not a good idea, at least not initially.

We can get a delicious, garlicky gravy to go with our easy recipe. But adding cornstarch at the beginning will ruin the gravy in one of two ways. In the beginning, cornstarch will ruin things by clumping in the Instant Pot, causing the sauce to separate.

We will end up with an oily mess. Another way is simply preventing the Instant Pot from getting to full pressure and heat. The thicker liquid won’t release enough steam to build pressure or heat.

The delicious smothered chicken recipe will be far less smothered when it comes out, maybe even undercooked. Basically, add the cornstarch last if you want the savory gravy to come out of the same pot as your succulent chicken.

What to Serve with Chicken and Gravy

The most obvious side dish for our Instant Pot chicken and gravy recipes is mashed potatoes or cauliflower mash. However, we may want to add extra flavor to the meal, making it a true comfort food dish.

We will need some veggies for that and some greenery on our plates. Asparagus is a good call, especially if you have a crockpot to make some crockpot asparagus dishes, and then you just have to clean the Instant Pot and crockpot afterward.

Greenbeans are another great side dish with these delicious Instant Pot chicken recipes. However, let’s not forget about the good old-fashioned, classic rice side dish. Rice is a great side dish with chicken and gravy, regardless of type.

You can even make the rice with a cup of chicken broth instead of water for a meal with a solid throughline. Ultimately, chicken and gravy is a great idea for dinner tonight, but making it in an Instant Pot makes this idea even better.

More Instant Pot Recipes

Healthy Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken | Teriyaki chicken is a recipe that is filled with flavor and can be made to be healthy and even more delicious.

Instant Pot Sausage and Kale Soup Recipe | Sausage and kale go together perfectly in this soup recipe that can be made in minutes.

Instant Pot Sour Cream Scalloped Potatoes | Scalloped potatoes are easier to make with an Instant Pot, especially if you want to make them from scratch.

Chicken Pot Pie Casserole | Chicken pot pie has a ton of flavor but the heat in the crust makes it harder to enjoy. You can turn things around by turning the pie into a casserole.

No Sugar Instant Pot Cinnamon Apples | Instant Pots are great at making dinners and even meal prepped lunches. But did you know that you can make sweets in your pressure cooker as well?