Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken in the Instant Pot

This brown sugar garlic chicken is one of those recipes that sounds as though it should have a huge list of ingredients, but it really doesn’t. The sauce gets most of its flavour from garlic, light brown sugar and smoked paprika, with chicken stock bringing everything together while the chicken cooks.

It’s made in the Instant Pot or another electric pressure cooker and takes around 30 minutes altogether, so it’s a useful one for those evenings when you want something different without making anything particularly complicated.

It isn’t a recipe I’d describe as especially low in sugar – there are 85g of brown sugar in the recipe, after all! – but that’s absolutely fine. Not every meal needs to be designed around weight loss, and if you’re looking for an easy chicken dinner with a sweet, garlicky sauce, this is a nice change from the curries, pasta dishes and tray bakes you might usually make.

If you’re looking for more ideas, I’ve got plenty of healthy chicken recipes too, so you can mix and match depending on what you fancy.

What is brown sugar garlic chicken?

As the name suggests, the main flavours here are brown sugar and garlic. It gives you a sweet and savoury chicken dish rather than something particularly spicy, although I’ve added smoked paprika as well because it gives the sauce a little more depth.

The chicken breasts are browned briefly using the sauté function first, then cooked under pressure in chicken stock with the brown sugar and seasonings.

I usually serve it with rice because that works well with the sauce, but there are plenty of other options further down if rice isn’t what you fancy.

Ingredients you’ll need

You don’t need anything particularly unusual for this recipe:

• 650g chicken breast fillets
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 480ml chicken stock
• 85g light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic granules
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Spring onions to garnish, if you like

The combination of fresh minced garlic and garlic granules might look like a lot of garlic on paper, but they work slightly differently in the sauce. If you’ve come here looking for garlic chicken, you might as well actually be able to taste the garlic!

How to make brown sugar garlic chicken in the Instant Pot

Start by switching your Instant Pot to the sauté setting and allowing it to heat up. Add the olive oil followed by the chicken breasts.

Cook the chicken for three minutes before turning the breasts over. Add the minced garlic and cook for another two minutes, then switch off the sauté function.

Pour in the chicken stock and give the bottom of the pot a good stir. This helps lift anything that has caught on the bottom while you’ve been browning the chicken rather than leaving all that flavour behind.

Add the light brown sugar, smoked paprika, garlic granules and salt and stir everything together. Make sure the chicken is sitting in the liquid before putting the lid on and sealing your Instant Pot.

Cook using the manual pressure setting for 12 minutes. Remember that the 12 minutes doesn’t include the time the Instant Pot takes to come up to pressure.

When the cooking programme has finished, use the quick-release valve following the instructions for your particular pressure cooker. Once the pressure has released completely and it is safe to open, remove the lid.

Serve the chicken with some of the sauce spooned over it and scatter over chopped spring onions if you’re using them.

What should I serve with brown sugar garlic chicken?

Rice is probably the obvious choice because it soaks up some of that sweet garlic sauce. If you’re cooking rice separately, my guide to cooking rice has plenty of tips if you need them.

It would also work with mashed potatoes, roast potatoes or chips, depending on what sort of dinner you’re in the mood for. Add some vegetables on the side and you’ve got a very straightforward family meal.

I wouldn’t add vegetables such as broccoli directly to the pressure cooker unless you’ve tested the timing yourself. Twelve minutes under pressure is very different from cooking vegetables conventionally, and I’d much rather cook them separately than ruin perfectly good broccoli!

Can I make the sauce thicker?

The sauce straight from the Instant Pot is quite liquid because the recipe uses 480ml of chicken stock.

If you prefer a thicker sauce, you can remove the cooked chicken first and use the sauté function to reduce the remaining liquid. Keep an eye on it and stir it as it reduces because the sauce contains sugar.

This also means you can decide how thick you actually want it rather than changing the tested pressure-cooking liquid at the beginning of the recipe.

Can I use chicken thighs instead?

Chicken thighs would work well with brown sugar and garlic flavours, but different cuts of chicken don’t necessarily need the same pressure-cooking time.

The 12-minute pressure-cooking time in the recipe below is the timing for the chicken breasts I’ve used. If you want to substitute thighs, I’d follow reliable pressure-cooker guidance for the size and type of thighs you’re using rather than simply assuming the timing will be identical.

Can I add soy sauce?

If you like that sweet-savoury combination, a little soy sauce is an obvious flavour that could work with the brown sugar and garlic.

I haven’t included it in the main recipe because this is the version the recipe card is based on. If you decide to experiment with soy sauce, remember that both soy sauce and chicken stock can contain quite a lot of salt, so I’d be cautious about adding extra salt as well.

Can I make brown sugar garlic chicken ahead?

You can make it ahead and refrigerate it once it has cooled.

When reheating chicken, make sure it is thoroughly reheated all the way through rather than simply warming the sauce around it. I would only reheat the amount you’re actually going to eat rather than repeatedly cooling and reheating the whole batch.

What about leftovers?

If you have leftover chicken, cool it promptly and put it into the fridge rather than leaving it sitting out for hours. Current Food Standards Agency advice is to refrigerate or freeze leftovers within one to two hours and eat refrigerated leftovers within 48 hours.

You could serve the leftovers with rice or potatoes again, but you don’t necessarily have to recreate exactly the same dinner. Have a look at my leftover chicken recipes for some more ideas.

If you’re serving this with rice and saving that too, have a look at the Food Standards Agency rice food safety tips, as cooked rice needs a little extra care when cooling and storing.

Can I use frozen chicken?

For this particular recipe, I’d use fresh or properly defrosted chicken rather than simply adding a few minutes to the pressure-cooking time.

Frozen chicken changes the cooking process and the time required can depend on the size, thickness and whether the pieces are frozen individually or together. Unless you’re following tested instructions specifically designed for frozen chicken, defrosting it first removes that uncertainty.

If you need it, I’ve got a guide to defrosting chicken safely that explains the different options.

A quick note about chicken safety

Raw chicken needs a bit of care in the kitchen. Keep it away from foods that won’t be cooked, wash your hands and anything that’s been in contact with the raw chicken, and don’t wash the chicken itself. Washing raw chicken can spread bacteria around your sink and nearby surfaces rather than making it safer.

Chicken should be thoroughly cooked before serving. The Food Standards Agency’s recent review found cooking to be the most reliable way of dealing with Campylobacter, with temperatures of 70°C or above effective at reducing the bacteria.

More easy chicken recipes

If this is the sort of simple family dinner you like, have a look at my healthy chicken recipes, where I’ve put together loads more ideas in one place.

For another easy dinner with very little washing up, try my chicken tray bake with potatoes and vegetables. My chicken and bacon dirty rice is another good option when you want chicken, vegetables and carbs all together in one meal.

If you’re specifically looking for something to make in your pressure cooker, I’d also have a browse through my other Instant Pot recipes rather than buying an appliance and only ever using it for one recipe. I think we’ve all owned at least one kitchen gadget that’s spent rather too much time sitting in a cupboard!

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