Instant Pot Chicken Adobo is one of the best recipes. This recipe has such a unique flavor profile. It is an absolutely delicious dish. Tart and savory with a hint of sweetness.
Instant Pot Adobo Chicken
This is a unique Asian flavor that my family loves. The combination of soy sauce, vinegar, and garlic gives this dish its special flavor.
Although this is not actually an AUTHENTIC filipino chicken adobo recipe it is the same flavor without the specialty ingredients that can be hard to find. This recipe uses a little bit more than a 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce. Much less sodium than an authentic recipe.
What Does Filipino Adobo Chicken Taste Like?
I always describe adobo as a unique Asian flavor that is the perfect blend of sweet and salty. The vinegar gives this dish its unique flavor and balance. Everyone in my family and my friends love this dish.
What is Adobo Chicken?
The authentic version of Adobo either uses chicken or pork. The term adobo means to be stewed in garlic bay leaves, peppercorns, soy sauce, and vinegar. This dish is a staple in Filipino culture.
I created this recipe using common ingredients that most home cooks will have in their pantry. This Filipino chicken dish is easy to make and the chicken comes out fork tender and the adobo sauce is so flavorful. This dish will make your entire house smell amazing while cooking.
Filipino Chicken Adobo Instant Pot Ingredients
- Chicken Thighs (Boneless or Bone-in)
- Onion
- Garlic Cloves (Minced)
- Soy Sauce ( I used Low Sodium)
- White Vinegar
- White Sugar or Brown Sugar (use what you have)
- Red Chili Flakes
- Chicken Broth
- Water
- Chopped Cilantro
- Scallions (Green Onions)
- Bay Leaves (Optional)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Black Peppercorns (Optional)
Full Ingredients and Measurements in Recipe Card Below
Chicken Adobo Instant Pot
How to Make Chicken Adobo
This is a great quick meal for any weeknight that the whole family will enjoy. Best of all It can be made very quickly in the Instant Pot. It can be made also with Fresh or FROZEN chicken.
Whatever you choose the cooking time is the same. This can also be made with bone-in chicken thighs.
How to Cook Chicken Adobo in Instant Pot
Step 1 – Season the chicken thighs– Season chicken with salt and pepper. If using frozen chicken skip this step.
Tip: If you are using FRESH chicken and want to boost the flavor even more brown the chicken on the HIGH saute function for a few minutes per side before adding the other ingredients. This is NOT a required step but it makes it even better. If using chicken with skin always start your sear skin side down.
Step 2- Make the Sauce – Mix together in a bowl the soy sauce, white vinegar, sugar, chili flakes minced garlic cloves and chicken broth.
Tip: A shortcut I use is to use the Better Than Bullion chicken base and mix it with water. It has a great flavor and is wonderful in this dish. There is a link below to buy it if you like.
Step 3 – Place Ingredients in Instant Pot – Place chicken pieces in the Instant Pot and top with the sliced onions. Pour the sauce you mixed up over the chicken.
Step 4 – Cook the Chicken – Place the lid on the Instant Pot locking the lid. Turn valve to the SEAL position. Press your poultry button and set the timer for 11 minutes. NOTE: if you do not have a poultry button you will either have a manual button or a pressure cook button.
When using the PRESSURE COOK button make sure that it is set to HIGH PRESSURE. When cooking is complete release pressure and remove the lid. Remove chicken and set aside. Press Cancel on the Instant Pot.
Step 5 – Reduce the sauce – Press the SAUTE button until it is on the HIGH setting. Sauce will come to a bit of a boil. Reduce sauce until it becomes darker.
This takes about 15 minutes. The sauce will also thicken a bit. Do not skip this step or cut it short. This is an important step.
Once the sauce has become darkened and thickened return the chicken to the
Can you Make Chicken Adobo in the Slow Cooker?
Yes, you can. Just start with chicken that is already defrosted. Put everything in your crock pot slow cooker and turn on Low for a cooking time of 4 hours.
When cooking time is complete add a slurry of 2 Tablespoons Cornstarch to 3 Tablespoons water to crockpot and then cook on HIGH 20 minutes longer. Do NOT add cornstarch directly to slow cooker.
What to Serve with Adobo Chicken
- White Rice
- Brown Rice (This is a good recipe)
- Quinoa
- Jasmine Rice
When i make this recipe I usually make a double batch. I sometimes will individually freeze portions of this recipe in storage bags. This makes it even easier to make dinner quick and easy. Just remove the portion from the bag place in the Instant Pot and cook.
If you choose to cook the whole batch at once that is also fine to do. In fact adobo chicken is even better the the next day. Belive it or not this is a great recipe for meal plan or if you are low carb. There really are only about 3g of carbs.
How to Reheat Adobo Chicken
Of course you can always take the easy route and reheat the adobo chicken in the microwave but if you are like me food reheated in the microwave is really not that good. Stick with me there is a better way.
Stovetop Method
Reheating on the stove top is simple. Place adobo chicken in saucepan or skillet and reheat on medium heat about 15-20 minutes until hot.
Reheat Adobo Chicken in Instant Pot
Not sure if you’re familiar and if you are not I am about to show you a great trick. Not only is your instant pot great for cooking food but it is also wonderful for reheating food. Are use the steam function for this and food that is reheated using this method is as good as the day it was made.
- Place chicken in Instant Pot
- Close lid and valve on Instant Pot
- Press STEAM Button and set timer to about 7-8 minutes
- When timer beeps release pressure.
- Serve
Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think about the recipe.
Matty.
Other Recipes:
Instant Pot Soyaki Chicken
Instant Pot Chicken Lo Mein
Instant Pot Mongolian Chicken
Chicken Lettuce Wraps (Instant Pot)
Kitchen Essentials and Items Used to Make This Recipe
Instant Pot Duo Nova 6 Qt. Pressure Cooker
Better Than Boullion Roasted Chicken Base
365 Everyday Value Shoyu Soy Sauce
Imarku Chef Knife – Pro Kitchen Knife 8 Inch
Instant Pot Chicken Adobo Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 Boneless Chicken Thighs (Fresh or Frozen
- 1 Half an Onion Sliced
- 2 Cloves Garlic Minced
- 5 Tbsp Low sodium soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp White Vinegar
- 2 Tbsp Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Red Chili Flakes
- 1/2 Cup Chicken Broth
- 1/2 Cup Water
- 1 tbsp chopped cilantro set aside for garnish
- 1 tbsp chopped scallions set aside for garnish
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Salt and Pepper the chicken Put chicken in Instant Pot. I used FROZEN chicken for this recipe but you can use fresh chicken and the cook time is the same. Top chicken with the sliced onion. Mix together in a bowl soy sauce, white vinegar, sugar, chili flakes garlic and chicken broth (I use the chicken base) and water. Add all the liquid to the Instant Pot.
- Put the lid on the Instant Pot and turn valve to SEAL. Press Poultry button and set time to 11 Minutes. When cooking is completed release pressure of Instant Pot by opening the valve. Remove chicken from Instant Pot and set aside. Press cancel on Instant Pot. The press the SAUTE button and set to the High setting. Let sauce reduce until it becomes darker in color. This takes about 15 Minutes. Then Put chicken back in pot with reduced sauce to warm it up a bit. Then serve chicken and spoon sauce over it and enjoy. I serve the chicken over rice.
Nutrition
Super Good I crave it.
this can also be made in a crockpot
You forgot to say when the garlic is added. I can assume, it’s not hard. But letting you know that’s missing.
This was soooooo good. I ended up cooking at high pressure for 2 more minutes and doing an NPR. I highly recommend it — yumm!
I am so glad to hear that you enjoyed it. I love it. Makes the house smell great too.
Matty
Very nice flavor. I made rice in the InstantPot, in a smaller bowl. Thanks for the recipe. I am new to your site, and will try another.
Thanks so much. Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the rating and the comment.
Hey, could I use boneless chicken breast instead?
Well, Yes you could, but the cooking time would be less. I recommend using thighs. Breast can easily be overcooked. Cooking time for breast is about 6 mins with 10 NPR. But again I reccommend thighs.
Matty
Delicious and savory. (I bumped the garlic because we are garlic freaks.) Keep making good “stuff” Matt. 🙂
Thank you. Please come back and keep visiting.
This looks yummy. I’ll definitely be making this soon
Thanks. You will dig it. It is one of my most popular.
Matt
Do you use 1/2 cup of chicken base or enough base diluted with water to equal 1/2 cup broth plus the additional water?
I use enough base with water to equal a 1/2 cup. Maybe a tsp. of base.
How can it be done in a crock pot??
Instant Pot Adobo Chicken recipe says 3 chicken thighs. It serves 2. So each person gets 1.5 chicken thighs?
I guess it really depends on the size of the chicken thighs. I usually buy the frozen thighs from Trader Joes and they are all different sizes.
Can you substitute chicken breasts instead of thighs?
Thanks Matt, great recipe, tried a few of yours. Seems too simple, but really works.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Im excited to tackle this recipe tomorrow for dinner!! Question… I don’t have a “poultry” setting on my instant pot and I’ll be making about 4x more chicken than the recipe calls for. How do I know how much cooking time and water that it needs?
i was going to double the recipe as well. i assume double up on all the ingredients so there is enough sauce for all the chicken. cook time not sure. probably same amount of time. make sure chicken temp at end of cooking is desireable. 165????
Double the recipe and cook time will be the same. It will just take longer to pressurize. Do not let liquid go over fill max line.
Poultry setting is high pressure for 15 mins (you can add or subtract to that), so if you’re using a Duo with no Poultry setting, set to high/normal for 11 mins and then just follow the recipe.
Hey Matt,
Is there a carb, protein, fat, break down on this by any chance?
I made this for dinner tonight using a large chicken breast instead of thighs. After the first bite my husband said, this is REALLY good. The breast was not dry like it can be sometimes.
That’s great to hear. Glad your husband liked it too.
Matty.
If i double the chicken should i double all of the sauce ingredients as well?
Yes you should. Just keep in mind cook time stays the same but it will take longer to pressurize.
Matt
Family loved it, thanks for another great recipe
Im so glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the rating and comment.
Matt
I have only chicken thighs on the bone. Would the recipe need to be tweaked in any way? I plan to strip off the skin and discard before cooking.
The only thing I would do is increase the cooking time 1 minute. Then maybe I would brown the thighs a few minutes each side in the Instant Pot first. Hope that helps.
Easy, delicious, tangy spicy and sweet! Love this recipe!
Thanks so much I am really glad that you love it. Thanks for the comment.
What a great looking recipe! I will definitely be adding this to my dinner line up this week!
It is really tasty I am sure you will love it.
Always love a good IP recipe, thank you so much!
You are very welcome.
I love how this can be made in an instant pot! The flavors were spot on!
I really love this one myself.
I went to the Philippines a few years back and fell in love with adobo. Haven’t had it since so thanks for this recipe, will have to tryit out!!
Thanks for the kind words
You only say boneless thighs. So, they should not be skinless. Yes? No?
Well I say yes to skinless
Yum! I need to try this recipe out, it looks so delicious.. oh my!
You should try it it is deelicious.
I’ve never had Adobo Chicken before, but I will try it next. Thanks for the recipe.
I’ve never had Chicken Adobo before, but this IP version looks so delish I’m gonna have to try it! 🙂
This is one of those great, cozy recipes that is great on a cold night!
What an amazing dinner recipe! Has easily become a new family favorite; it was delicious!
What a fabulous recipe! It had so much flavor and was super easy. Will definitely be making again and again!
Hi Matt
I love chicken adobo. As a matter of fact, I am a half filipino, and this is one my favorite chicken dishes in the Philippines. I personally love adding a lot of garlic to make it flavorful. Thanks for sharing the recipe
Not a problem I am glad that you enjoyed it….This is not the traditional version but it is a version that used common ingredients most have on hand.
I made mine with chicken part wings since I didnt have boneless thighs. But it seems theres so much liquid even after the saute setting. What am I doing wrong? Oh….I NPR for 30 mins….could that be the mistake?
Well did you do the reduction at the end where you remove the meat and let it boil and reduce?
Yeah i did…for about 20 mins. So I decided to add a little slurry into and let it reduce more and then it was good. Thank you for the recipe. It was delish.
Takes about 20 to 30 on the high saute setting. Glad you enjoyed. Thanks for your complement. Have a great day.
Matty
If I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts do I need to change cooking time?
Cooking time for breast is definitely different. Cook time is about 8 minutes
I made this last night and it was a big hit! The recipes is easy to follow and you probably have all the ingredients in hand already! Thanks Matt!
So glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the nice complement. I’m always making new stuff so come back and visit
This was by far the BEST recipe yet! I made it tonight for dinner and my family is loving it..even my picky daughter
I made two small tweaks to the recipe.
1. I used rice vinegar instead of white vinegar, because I didnt have any. It gave it a little added sweetness but that always works for me.
2. My instapot doesnt have a poultry button do I just hit manual and set it to 9 minutes instead of the recommended time.
It turned out AMAZING!
The only thing I would change next time is I would double the recipe!!
Thanks so much for the amazing recipe. I am new to instapot and this is by far my favorite recipe so far!!
I am so happy you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks so much for the nice complement.
Matty
What size instant pot do you use? I have an 8qt and would love to make this recipe but not sure how much of the ingredients to use as I know 8qt requires at least 2 cups liquid, or can I just double the recipe and it should be fine?
I use the 6 quart model. You can easily double the recipe. Cooking time would be the same.
This was great… Two picky eaters in the group and everyone loved it! Thank you, we tried your recipes two weeks in a row now and I see us coming back for a third soon!
I’m so glad you liked it 🙂 I love hearing that people enjoy the recipes especially two weeks in a row that’s great. Thanks for the kind comments
Thanks for another terrific recipe! We had never had this dish before. My son is now a huge fan. Thumbs up Matty!
So glad that you and you family enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for participating on my site. Also thanks for the kind complement.
Matty.
My family and I loved this! The recipe is definitely a keeper! It is the perfect combination of sweet and spicy, and I love that it was so simple! I used 8 boneless thighs and doubled the sauce recipe. I also made a slurry with the sauce and cornstarch to slightly thicken it while on the sauté setting. The only other thing I did differently was season my chicken with a garlic and onion powder in addition to the salt and pepper. This was so yummy served over jasmine rice! I am looking forward to checking out some of your other recipes. Thanks for sharing!
Glad that you and your family enjoyed the recipe. I love the unique flavor of this recipe. The cornstarch slurry was a good idea. It is faster than waiting for the sauce to reduce. I was just trying to keep it more low calorie by reducing than thickening. I love to see people using their own ideeas on my recipes. Thanks for the nice comment.
I made this last night. My husband and I both LOVED it, but I made the mistake of making it with regular soy sauce – holy cow, it was salty, but still excellent! I can’t wait to try it again with the low-sodium SS. Thanks for another great recipe!
Yes regular soy sauce would make it too salty. I generally only eat and use low sodium soy sauce. I even like the taste a lot better. Truth is this can be made with anything including coconut amino’s.
Matty
My family enjoyed this dinner. I doubled the recipe and made a slurry using cornstarch instead of taking the 15 – 30 minutes necessary to sautee and thicken. I would suggest not doubling the sauce when doubling the chicken thighs as I had waaay too much sauce. Looking forward to trying this recipe again but with 1/2 the sauce
This was fantastic! My eldest son recently did a project on Filipino culture and immigrants coming to Canada, and this seemed like a nice capstone for him. My kids are pretty picky, so I minced the onion instead of slicing. It was great!! A touch on the spicy side for the youngest, but we all gobbled it up! I will definitely make this again!
So glad you enjoyed. Thanks so much for the nice review. You made my day.
Matty.
Great recipe
Thanks so much.
This was good and definitely going on my list. I like that it made lots of sauce for my rice. I look forward to checking put some more of your recipes.
Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it. Yes, the sauce is great on the rice. Thanks for checking out my recipes.
Matty
Do you use 1/2 cup chicken broth AND 1l2 cup water?
Matt, You answered me on Facebook. I used 1 cup total liquid. Thanks
We are gluten free and always looking for good recipes we can make gf. I doubled this one, used gf soy sauce and cheated in the end a little by thickening the sauce with a cornstarch slurry. It was so delicious. My husband wants this in the rotation to eat often. Leftovers were just as good if not better. The sauce was the perfect mix of sweet, spicy, and tangy.
I have made this many times now and it has become an easy instant pot favorite. I haven’t found a need to double the sauce when doubling the chicken. I just add a bit more of everything. My husband and I do love onions, so I do at least double those.
Glad to hear that you and your husband enjoy the chicken adobo. It is one of my favorites too.
Matty.