Instant Pot Chicken Pad Thai
This Instant Pot Chicken Pad Thai is a super quick and easy one pot pad thai recipe that is perfect for your weekly meal prep – the noodles cook in the pot along with the other ingredients for minimal clean up too!
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So, I've made quite the miraculous discovery that I'm going to share with you all (besides this Homemade Hamburger Helper or these Yakisoba Noodles of course…)
You can make CHICKEN PAD THAI NOODLES in your Instant Pot (if you still don't have one by the way, you can get your Instant Pot DUO Plus 60
here)
OMG, my life is forever changed.
The idea actually came about quite by accident while I was first tinkering around with my Instant Pot and I made these amazing Honey Sesame Chicken Noodle Bowls.
I was *actually* trying to make regular old sesame chicken, and I had this dream of making this crispy coated chicken by sauteeing it in the Instant Pot first and then making the sauce separate, and the rice…and then I realized that there were just waaaaaay too many steps to the recipe I was trying to create. Like who has time for 4 separate steps when the Instant Pot is made for the convenience of dumping all the ingredients in and cooking?
So, I knew there had to be a better way, and round two of sesame chicken turned into me adding rice noodles (I buy Thai Kitchen Rice Noodles
) at the very last second and hoping they would not get overcooked.
Turns out, if you set them just above all the liquid and cook for only 2 minutes on high pressure, you're good to go. And it was then that I had found out, by mistake, that you could do noodle stir fries in the Instant Pot.
Don't you just love my accidents in the kitchen?
They're so delicious!!!
So of course given how easy it is to work with rice noodles, I knew I had to try my hand at Instant Pot Chicken Pad Thai. And yes, it turned out very similarly to the sesame chicken noodle bowls, except you have to know that I've cheated a bit when it comes to the sauce.
But I think you're going to thank me for it, because this is the simplest pad thai recipe ever and it tastes pretty authentic too.
The secret is pre-made Pad Thai sauce LOL.
But seriously.
I actually love Thai Kitchen's Pad Thai sauce (this is not a sponsored post, I just love this product), and I have made a version of homemade Pad Thai sauce that's relatively easy, but when you're looking to throw dinner together in a hurry sometimes you don't wanna haul like 5 to 10 sauces out of your pantry.
And really, tamarind is the secret ingredient to Pad Thai sauce and you can't always finds tamarind paste at the grocery store. But you can usually find Pad Thai sauce in the Asian and rice section. If you do want to try your hand at a homemade sauce though, you can always check out these Spiralized Pad Thai Meal Prep Bowls and add the ingredients to the Instant Pot instead!
Add a little bit of that, some soy sauce and garlic, and you're on your own to Pad Thai land.
And what I also love about this Instant Pot Chicken Pad Thai is that you can use up whatever veggies you have on hand in the fridge, as long as they are veggies that will get tender fairly quickly because the veggies themselves don't go in with the chicken, sauce and noodles or they'll get overcooked.
You could always sub in finely chopped broccoli, spinach, red cabbage and more – I used matchstick carrots and thinly sliced bell peppers because you can buy the carrots pre-chopped, and I really only like my peppers barely cooked so I find everything gets tender-crisp and not too overdone.
Top your Instant Pot Chicken Pad Thai bowls chopped peanuts, green onions and cilantro and you're set! Now enjoy the most delicious dinner or lunches all week long!!!
Will you be making this Instant Pot Chicken Pad Thai?
This recipe is SO perfect for your weekly meal prep and will have you feeling as though you're eating takeout all week long!
If you try any of my recipes be sure to let me know on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or in the comments – I’d love to see what you come up with!
The Instant Pot DUO Plus 60 is the version I use in this recipe.
I use these Thai Kitchen Rice Noodles, and buy this Pad Thai sauce.
I get grass-fed chicken from my monthly Butcher Box – it's a great way to enjoy healthier meats and poultry and they're even offering 2 free ribeyes and bacon!
Instant Pot Chicken Pad Thai
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 chicken breasts, diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce or tamari
- 1/2 cup jarred pad thai sauce (I like Thai Kitchen brand)
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 7 oz rice noodles
- 1 cup Carrot matchsticks
- 1/2 each red and yellow pepper, sliced
- 4 green onions, sliced
- 1/3 cup chopped peanuts
- 1/3 cup fresh chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Add olive oil, chicken, garlic, soy sauce, pad thai sauce, water and rice noodles to Instant Pot in that order, leaving noodles floating slightly above other ingredients. Set to manual and pressure cook on high for 2 minutes. Instant Pot will take about 10 minutes to pre-heat and then 2 minutes to cook. When complete, press cancel and do a quick release of the steam, waiting until the pressure gauge drops back down and the lid is safe to open.
- Add carrot matchsticks, bell peppers and half of peanuts, tossing carefully with tongs. Place lid back on and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Remove lid and serve, then top with green onions, remaining chopped peanuts and cilantro. Enjoy!
Sarah says
April 29, 2019 at 20:58Hi Taylor! I made this recipe and really enjoyed it. I’d like to try it with basmati or Jasmine rice next. How would you recommend doing that?
Taylor Stinson says
April 29, 2019 at 21:45Hey Sarah – I’m so happy you liked it with the noodles! Wish I could help with the rice but this would mean varying the cook time and liquid amounts. I just don’t know how to make this substitution without testing it myself. I’m sorry!
Crystal says
May 14, 2019 at 20:56This was my first meal made in my Instapot. First, thank you so much for the very clear directions. Super helpful for an Instapot newbie like me 🙂 Second – it was delicious! I would not change a thing. The noodles, chicken, and veggies – everything was cooked perfectly. Thanks!
Heather says
July 1, 2019 at 16:02Two questions:
1) I bought thin rice noodles – is this going to screw everything up?
2) Would frozen bell peppers work too?
Taylor Stinson says
July 2, 2019 at 07:26Hey Heather – you may want to try cooking the rice noodles separately according to the package directions outside the Instant Pot to make sure they don’t overcook. Otherwise, you can follow all the rest of the instructions as listed. Frozen bell peppers should also work 🙂
Josephene says
July 9, 2019 at 17:48I noticed that the order of ingredients put into the IP liner in the video are different from the written instructions. In the video, you put in the chicken after the olive oil, garlic, sauce, soy sauce. Does it matter, then? Looking forward to cooking this!
Taylor Stinson says
July 10, 2019 at 08:04Hi Josephene! As long as you put the olive oil in first to prevent sticking and place the rice noodles in last above the rest of the ingredients, you will be fine 🙂 Those are the main things. The ordering of the rest of the ingredients in the middle doesn’t matter as much!
Leslie says
July 9, 2019 at 21:46Just made this and three 5-year olds gobbled it up (including a picky neighbor kid)!! This will be in our rotation for sure. Good job!
Alexandra says
July 9, 2019 at 22:27Made this tonight. It turned out fantastic. I tossed some red pepper flakes in my bowl for a little heat.