These Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken Noodle Bowls are ready in 20 minutes and will satisfy all your takeout cravings with way less calories.
Ingredients and substitutions
- Chicken breasts — you can just as easily swap the chicken out for boneless pork chops, or go plant-based with some extra firm tofu or tempeh.
- Honey — if you want to avoid honey, switch it for agave or maple syrup. No syrup at all? Feel free to use brown or regular white sugar.
- Soy sauce — if you need to avoid gluten, use tamari instead. And if you want to skip the soy, coconut aminos are a great choice!
- Sriracha — any hot sauce will work here in a pinch: Texas Pete, Louisiana, or Mexican hot sauces are great. Or stay with the Asian flavours and use Korean gochujang.
- Sesame oil — avocado or grapeseed oil are wonderful substitutes for sesame oil.
- Rice noodles — you can use wheat noodles instead. Try angel hair, linguini, or fettuccini. If you use wheat noodles, you'll probably have better luck cooking and draining them separately before stirring in at the end, though.
- Bell pepper — try another veg that's a little sweet and pleasantly crunchy. Chunky chopped zucchini and yellow squash are great. Thick sliced sweet onions are also delicious!
- Snap peas — perfectly fresh chopped green beans make a wonderful sub for snap peas.
- Scallions – green onions would be best or you can leave this out altogether.
- Sesame seeds — poppy seeds are a great replacement! You can also use roasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds for a nutty crunch.
How to make honey sesame chicken
- Add everything but the snap peas, bell peppers, scallions and sesame seeds to the Instant Pot in order.
- Cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.
- Do a quick release of the pressure.
- Stir in the snap peas and bell peppers.
- Add the lid back on for 5 minutes.
- Garnish with scallions and sesame seeds and serve!
How to get the perfect noodles
Cooking the noodles in the Instant Pot this way does make them a bit soft, and lots of folks might prefer the noodles to have a bit more bite to them.
If you prefer your noodles to be firmer, it's super easy to cook your noodles to perfection on the side:
- Boil water.
- Add to noodles.
- Soak for 1-2 minutes.
- Drain and serve!
Tada! So easy, right?
Frequently Asked Questions
The main ingredients of this dish are all in the name – honey, sesame oil (and sesame seeds!) and chicken. I like to make this chicken into noodle bowls and add some extra veggies for crunch!
This recipe is sweet with a hint of spice thanks to the sriracha sauce. If you don’t want your dish to have any kick, you can cut down on the sriracha or leave it out completely.
These noodle bowls are a great complete meal on their own, but serving with a fresh salad on the side is never a bad idea. Or, maybe an Asian side like hot and sour soup!
Storing and reheating
Portion out leftovers into some glass meal prep bowls and store in the fridge for 4 to 5 days. Reheat in the microwave for two minutes, stir, and then reheat at one-minute intervals with quick stirs between until it reaches your preferred temperature. Garnish with fresh sesame seeds and scallions and voila!
Freezing the rice noodles
Rice noodles actually freeze super well! Just cook them a little underdone if you plan on freezing so they don't go mushy when you reheat. You can freeze them for up to 3 months then let them thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat in the microwave or eat them cold.
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More Instant Pot noodle recipes
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- The Instant Pot DUO Plus 60
is the version I use in this recipe. - I use these Thai Kitchen Rice Noodles too.
- This is the brand of tamari I like, and I love this low-sodium soy sauce.
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls for your leftovers.
- I get all my free-range chicken from Butcher Box.
is the version I use in this recipe.
too.
Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken Noodle Bowls
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts, diced
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce or tamari
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp Sriracha
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1/2 (454g) package rice noodles
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1/2 each red and yellow pepper, chopped
- 1 cup snap peas
- 3 scallions, sliced
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds (for topping)
Instructions
INSTANT POT INSTRUCTIONS
- Add all ingredients except for snap peas, bell peppers, scallions and sesame seeds to Instant Pot. Leave noodles sitting on top of other ingredients just above the liquid. Set to manual and pressure cook on high for 3 minutes. Instant Pot will take about 10 minutes to pre-heat and then the 3 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.
- Stir in snap peas and bell peppers, then place lid back on and let sit for 5 minutes. Serve and top with scallions and sesame seeds. Enjoy!
STOVETOP INSTRUCTIONS
- Mix together honey, soy sauce, minced garlic, minced ginger, sriracha and sesame oil in a small bowl and set aside.
- Add 1 tbsp olive oil to a large pot over med-high heat. Add chicken breasts, seasoning with salt and pepper and sauteeing for 3-4 minutes until browned.
- Meanwhile, add rice noodles to a large bowl filled boiling water (disregard the 1.5 cups of water in the ingredient list as that is meant for Instant Pot instructions). Soak the noodles for 2-3 minutes until al dente. Drain and set aside.
- Once chicken is browned, add peppers, snap peas and sauce, cooking for 2 minutes until veggies are softened. Add noodles, tossing to coat, cooking another minute. Serve in large bowls with scallions and sesame seeds for garnish. Enjoy!
Comments & Reviews
SUSAN says
This is one of my favorite recipes! Easy to make and simply delicious!
Sue says
This is by far my favorite instant pot recipe! So easy and so good! Highly recommend.
Sharon says
If I’m making the noodles separately then adding them at the end with the veggies, do I still need the 1 1/2 cups water at the beginning of the recipe with the rest of the ingredients?
Taylor Stinson says
I haven’t tried making this sort of change to the recipe myself so unfortunately I’m unable to advise. My gut tells me that is probably too much liquid though, and without testing the recipe with this change I can’t tell what the end result will be.
Phoebe says
My whole family loves this recipe. I’ve made it at least 10 times now. It’s so easy and delicious. I’ve made it in it’s original form and I’ve also swapped for what veggies I’ve had on hand. It works no matter what combination I’ve used.
Karen says
The rice noodles I buy come in packages that are 227g. The recipe says 1/2 (454g) package rice noodles.
Are you saying this calls for 1/2 of 454g OR is 1/2 of the package you buy 454g? I bought two boxes of 227 each to equal 454g. Do I use both boxes or half of that, which would be one box at 227g?
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Karen – it is half of a 454g package of rice noodles (that is the size I most frequently find). So your 227g package will work perfectly here, just use the one package 🙂
Kara E. says
Great recipe! I need more recipes like this due to a variety of family allergies and this was perfect! I didn’t have to adapt the recipe to accommodate everyone’s diets. I added shredded carrots because I had them, and had to substitute red onion for the green onion. Even my 2 year old loved it!
Laura says
My husband and I proclaim this a Home Run! Excellent! Seeing comments about soupy/brothy noodles, I cut the water to 1 cup, but it turned out great so the additional water would not have been a problem. This is going into our regular circulation of heathy and flavor-packed quick dinners! Thank you for a great recipe!
It’s perfect as-is but I might mix it up next time with different veggies like mushrooms, water chestnuts, broccoli or baby corn.
Taylor T. says
Seems like an awesome recipe! Do you have to cook the chicken before?
Tamara says
What modifications can I make to this to make it in a slow cooker? I really want to make this but I don’t own an instant pot.
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Tamara – unfortunately I have not tried it in a slow cooker myself so I don’t feel comfortable advising, and I’m not sure that it would work. My apologies!