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This simple Asian dish is reminiscent of your favorite take-out meal, but with wholesome ingredients! Orange juice and ginger provide the right amount of sweetness and tang to the delicious homemade sauce. This easy peasy dinner requires only 10 minutes of prep time with instructions for the Instant Pot or Slow Cooker! Serve with my super easy 10 minute- rice for a complete meal.
Let’s talk busy weeknight dinner recipes shall we? I feel like years of parenting, writing recipes and cookbooks, I am somewhat of a subject matter expert. My favorites? Typically those that involve chicken breast, veggies, and my Instant Pot! As a nutritionist, building a flavorful recipe around a lean protein and veggie is what I do best. And this recipe is no different! One of the good Instant Pot recipes that always comes through, even on the busiest nights.
Reasons you will love this Instant Pot Orange Chicken
- It’s zingy with a tasty homemade Asian orange sauce made with simple ingredients.
- It comes together with about 10 minutes of hands on time, and then you let the Instant Pot do the work.
- You can also use this recipe for Meal Prep! Make on the weekend and keep on hand to enjoy as lunch all week.
Tips to make this Instant Pot dinner a winner!
The ingredients you need for this recipe: chicken breast, arrowroot starch (to create a sticky coating), coconut aminos or Tamari soy sauce, juice and zest from a fresh orange, rice vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, fresh ginger, crushed red pepper if you want a little spice, fresh broccoli, and sesame seeds and green onion for garnish. I love adding broccoli and you’ll find it in lots of my favorite quick meals for its simplicity and all the healthy goodness it brings.
I have tried this recipe multiple ways to get the right texture for the chicken and the broccoli! Here are some important tips:
- Coat the chicken with arrowroot starch so that you get the sauce to stick better!
- Create the sauce on the side. The orange juice helps to add liquid to the Instant Pot so that you don’t get the burn signal.
- Sauté the garlic and ginger in the Instant Pot so that you get more robust flavor.
- Be sure to add the sauce to de-glaze the Instant Pot, then add the chicken. The mixture cooks in the Instant Pot, use a quick release and remove the lid.
- Now add the broccoli and cover the lid to let the broccoli steam! This makes the broccoli “al dente” as opposed to mushy if you add it with the chicken.
- Top with some optional garnishes and serve with rice using my super easy cook rice like pasta method, or my personal favorite Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice.
Instant Pot Orange Chicken and Broccoli
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1.5 tbsp arrowroot starch*
- 1/2 cup coconut aminos or GF Tamari Soy Sauce
- 1/3 cup fresh squeezed orange juice**
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 3 cloves crushed garlic, divided
- 3 tsp finely chopped ginger, divided
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper, optional
- 3 cups chopped broccoli
- 2 tsp sesame seeds, optional
- 2 tbsp chopped green onion, optional
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sauce ingredients: coconut aminos, orange juice, vinegar, sesame oil, orange zest, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 2 tsp fresh ginger, and crushed red pepper (if using).
- Place chicken and arrowroot starch inside a resalable bag or container. Shake around until chicken is well coated.
- Select the saute function on your Instant Pot. Once hot, add the avocado oil, 1 tsp garlic, and 1 tsp chopped ginger. Stir, then add chicken. Cook for 1-2 minutes until the chicken is slightly browned. Select the cancel function.
- Now pour the sauce on top of the chicken. Secure the lid, ensuring the valve is in the sealed position. Select “manual” or “pressure” function and cook on high pressure for 7 minutes.
- Once cooking is complete, use a quick release. Remove the lid once the steam has been released, and toss in chopped broccoli. Stir, and place the lid back on the IP to let the broccoli steam and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes.
- Serve over rice or cauliflower rice with sesame seeds and green onion (if using).
- For slow cooker, follow the same instructions with the whisking of the sauce. Coat the chicken with arrowroot starch like above and place chicken inside your slow cooker. Pour sauce over the top. Cook on low for 4-5 hours.
Notes
Hello,
Love this recipe so much! Do you know about how many calories per serving is in this recipe? Thanks so much!
This was super delicious. My kiddos even loved it. Thanks so much!! We love your recipes.
You are welcome!! Thank you for stopping by.
You rock! I can’t get over your skill in cooking and I so appreciate your sharing.
This is one of our Favs!!
Another incredible recipe, Amy. We loved this one! The sauce has a delightful citrus, sweet flavor and comes out to the perfect consistency. I added the red pepper and did not regret it. The spice goes so well with the orange and ginger. Adding the broccoli at the end to steam in the pot worked great for me. I saw some people had issues with that but it turned out perfect over here.
10/10
Instructions are all screwed up. Apparently you don’t put the garlic and ginger in the sauce and apparently you use avacado oil and not sesame oil. Really? Put raw broccoli into the finished mix and let it sit for a few and serve? What steam???
Hi, I don’t think these instructions are “screwed up”. Maybe you just need some clarification, so I will kindly do that for you. In the ingredients section, both the ginger and garlic are labeled as “divided”. This means that when you get to the sauce, you will put 2 tsp of garlic for the sauce, and 2 cloves of garlic. Save the remaining 1 clove garlic and 1 tsp of ginger to sauté in the pot. Once you remove the lid from the instant pot, there will be plenty of steam from the heat of the dish. Place the broccoli inside and put the lid back on. Wait another 3-5 minutes before opening the lid again. This softens the broccoli a decent amount, but still has a nice crunch to it. Alternatively, you can place the broccoli in the pot when you add the sauce and cook the broccoli at the same time as everything else. I find this makes a “mushier” broccoli, and prefer the other method. Hope this helps.
How much avocado oil is added to the pot? It isn’t listed in ingredients
1-2 tbsp to coat the pot!
really good flavor. few issues I ran into, due to the thick nature of the sauce and not a lot of liquid content when pressure cooking, I got the “burn” error. had to de-pressurize and then add a cup of water.
Also the “steaming” the broccoli after pressure cooking didn’t work.
So then I had to add more arrowroot and saute the mixture after cooking in order to thicken the sauce and tenderize the broccoli.
Final product very good though!
Thanks for the feedback, Lee! I do like my broccoli more crunchy, and al dente. So, I can add a step that you could steam the broccoli in the microwave if you want it cooked more. Also, haven’t had a problem with burn, BUT, sometimes I get the burn notice on recipes I’ve made often that will work and other times they don’t. Who knows with the IP!
Can you clarify “steam the broccoli” at the end of the recipe? Is this using the IP Steam function (so the total time will be more than 3-4 min) or is it steaming in the steam left over from cooking?
Thanks! I can’t wait to try it )as soon as it finishes steaming!).
Just put the lid on and let natural steam cook the broccoli. Enjoy it!!
OJ is not Whole30 approved, is it? The book says it is not.
Nope, it’s not. Fresh squeezed means to juice an orange, that is what the asterisk is there for, but I forgot to include in the note section of the recipe. I’ll change that now! It takes right around 2 oranges.