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.
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
Megan Pardy says
I always enjoy trying new recipes and made this for my husband and I tonight. It was sooo delicious! I only used 1tsp of sriracha and it was the perfect amount of heat. My only issue was that my noodles clumped together quite a bit so some weren’t quite cooked through, but that didn’t stop us from gobbling it down!
Nanci says
Thanks for the recipe. I saw snap peas at the farmer’s market and thought of your dish. I made it with tofu. I found it to be a little dry after I added the veggies and had it sit for 5 minutes. To loosen it up, I added vegetable broth. Delicious. One son said it was too sweet. I found it just sweet enough
Taylor Stinson says
So glad you liked it Nanci! Sorry to hear you found it a little dry, maybe it turned out differently because of the tofu!
Sharon says
Hi!
I was wondering if you couldn’t just add the rice noodles in with the fresh veggies at the end to have a firmer noodle?
Thanks
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Sharon – I think the noodles would be a little too firm because adding so many cold ingredients in with the hot sauce won’t help the veggies cook a little bit. If you’re worried about the noodles getting mushy then I would advise you cook them separately and cut the water in half that you add to the pot then mix everything together.
Brittany says
Hi Taylor! Im excited to try this out! So before you place the ingredients in the instant pot you just used the manual function? I dont have to use any other function? Sometimes I make things harder than they are haha!
Thank you,
Brittany
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Brittany! 🙂 Yes you just use the manual function! You and I may have different Instant Pot models…the one I have is the Duo Plus so I select manual, high pressure and then punch in 3 minutes. It should take about 10-15 minutes to build pressure, then pressure cooks the 3 min, then you do your quick release at the top (just flick it open). I know it sounds like it should be more complicated hahaha. Hope you like the recipe, let me know how it turns out!
Sarah says
Could I substitute spaghetti or fettuccine for the pasta?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Sarah! I haven’t tested it this way myself so I can’t guarantee how it will turn out, but I assume you could! Just make sure to leave the noodles raised slightly above the liquid. Let me know if you give it a try!
Jenn says
So you also leave the noodles above the liquid in the recipe as written, with rice noodles? I didn’t notice that in the instructions anywhere! This looks delish, making it for my in-laws tonight!
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Jenn – you’re right, I only had that particular instruction in the video, sorry about that! You do leave the noodles slightly above the liquid, they will get immersed with everything during the cooking process. Hope you enjoy 🙂
Adrianne says
Wow! This was really good. Just the right amount of spicy! Made the house smell so good. I ended up using lo mein noodles cause I wasn’t sure was kind of rice noodles to get but it still turned out great! We substituted peas for broccoli.
Kristin says
I think this is going to be my very first instant pot recipe today. I don’t have fresh veggies but I do have a bag of frozen stir fry veggies on hand, do you think I could dump that in you with everything else?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Kristin! You could definitely dump it in towards the end! I’m not sure that I would recommend pressure cooking them as they will be softer in texture already when they defrost, but you may need to heat the bowls up a bit after stirring in the frozen veggies because they will probably cool everything down a bit more than fresh veggies would. Let me know how it turns out if you try it!
Beth says
Very nice recipe. Like some others, the Thai rice noodles weren’t 100% cooked and the snap peas were warm but almost as crispy as when raw, so I put the IP on sauté for a few minutes, with lid on. Next time I may go right to sauté. But very nice, thank you.
Question – the instructions say the noodles should be above the liquid. I’m using a 6-quart Duo Evo Plus, and some – not all – of the noodles are in the liquid. I assume what you meant was to not submerge them, stir them, etc? I did spread them out so they wouldn’t clump so much,, which is what I was taught to do for spaghetti and has always worked well. These did stick just a bit but nothing that bad.
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Beth – yes, what I meant was not to stir or completely submerge them! It does depend on the noodles you use, so I’m sorry there seems to be such a discrepancy out there among different brands.
Laurie says
Looking forward to trying this recipe! If we soak noodles outside the instant pot, would you recommend decreasing the amount of water added to the pot with the chicken and other ingredients? Thanks!
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Laurie! I haven’t tested it this way myself but I would maybe cut the water in half – let me know how it goes 🙂
Barn says
Probably a good idea. I had a little bit larger package of noodles then called for so I added extra water and after 3 mins at pressure plus 2 mins npr plus 6 mins lid on, the noodles were half hard and uncooked. The veggies were totally raw (even spinach!) After the 6 mins with lid on. Trying 2 more mins at pressure hoping I don’t end up with mush for veggies!
Sharon says
Quick question – when you say rice noodles – are you referring to lo mein noodles?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Sharon! I’m referring to sticky rice noodles that you usually use for stir fries (here’s an example of what I mean: https://www.amazon.com/Thai-Kitchen-Gluten-Free-Stir-Noodles/dp/B003VYDE00/ref=br_lf_m_pnmqggnq62958bg_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&s=grocery&th=1) You could try lo mein but they have a different texture so I’m not sure how they would turn out!
Veronica says
Hey there! I just realized I accidentally bought thin rice noodles and they seem so tiny. Do you think they will work?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Veronica! They should definitely work but I might cook them separately so they don’t get overcooked. Make sure to leave out half the water when cooking the chicken then mix it all together in the end!
Andrea says
Do you mean half of a 454g package of rice noodles or does 454 g = half a package?
FYI- my supermarket sells an 8 oz/227 g package
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Andrea! Yes I mean half of a 454g package so the whole 227g package that your grocery store sells should be perfect for this recipe 🙂