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
Amy says
Delicious tasting. My noodles weren’t cooked all the way. I would add two minutes to the cook time next time. I added water chestnuts with the veggies at the end for some extra crisp.
Bob says
If I cook the noodles separately should I add less water to the instant pot? Is so how much less would you recommend.
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Bob – unfortunately I have not tried this method myself so I don’t feel comfortable advising. My apologies!
Bob says
No problem Taylor. I went with 3/4 of a cup of water and made separate egg noodles. As suggested, I added a couple of tbsps of peanut butter and thickened the sauce. It was fantastic and the whole family really enjoyed it. Another keeper for sure.
Taylor Stinson says
I’m so happy you enjoyed! And great to know about an alternate way to do it, I’m sure it will help other readers 🙂
Cindy S Osburn says
I think this would be better using chicken stock. I’m not a fan of hot sauce so I didnt use any. Noodles need to actually be in the water/stock. Mine were still hard.
AshZ says
I don’t have an instant pot so I cubed and cooked the chicken in a frying pan, then added the veggies and sauce to cook. I put in only 1 cup water and added 1tbsp cornstarch to thicken the sauce, and cooked the pasta separately. I also added a small onion, and didn’t have sesame oil. It was still delicious! I only used 1tsp siracha sauce and it was perfect heat for my hubby and I but too hot for my mom and kid. So next time I’ll do the same as above but only .5tsp siracha, little less ginger, and a bit higher quantity of veggies!
Taylor Stinson says
I’m so happy you enjoyed!! And thank you for sharing your stovetop directions 🙂
Kristal Lawrence says
I’m so excited to try this tonight! While looking over the recipe I see that it’s two chicken breasts, I don’t have individual chicken breasts but I do have a bag of already diced chicken. Any idea what the approximate weight would be for two chicken breasts? ie 1lb, 2lb etc?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Kristal – I would say about 1/2 lb!
Megan Connell says
Can this be made in a crock pot?
Taylor Stinson says
Unfortunately I don’t think it can be. Sorry about that 🙁
Corinne says
Made in pressure cooker. Cooked chicken, sauce, and noodles for 8 minutes, added veggies and cooked an additional minute. Loved by my family.
Taylor Stinson says
So happy you enjoyed 🙂
RiAnne says
I am not sure what I did wrong, followed the instructions to a T and the dish came out pretty watery. The flavor was still very good but the the sauce didn’t thicken like I would have liked it too.
Beth says
The sauce wouldn’t thicken – there is no thickener. It’s just a nice amount of juice the consistency of broth, though shouldn’t be that much after stirring. You can always put on the sauté setting afterwards with the lid off to get rid of some liquid. We didn’t have to. Just my take – maybe Taylor would give other info.
AZ says
I added cornstarch about 1tbsp and it thickened you perfectly! (Mix with water before adding)
Lora says
Has anyone tried this with regular rice instead of rice noodles? I have yet to try pot in pot, but was wondering if I could cook the rice in the liquid water instead of the noodles?
patti magrann says
I made this and it was really good except for the fact that the noodles were undercooked and stuck together. Any suggestions for next time or why this may have happened?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Patti – sometimes it depends on the way the noodles were placed in the pot or the brand of noodles. Letting them sit an additional 5-10 minutes in the pot with the lid on once you’ve mixed everything together usually does the trick in softening them. Hope that helps!