Instant Pot Chicken Pad Thai

A white plate with pad thai, chopsticks, a lime, and toppings

Print Recipe

3.75 from 8 votes

Delicious pad thai whipped up quickly in the pressure cooker, loaded with flavor, and so simple to make.

Prep Time10

Cook Time10

Pot to come to pressure10

Total Time30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian

Keyword: chicken pad thai, easy pad thai, instant pot pad thai, pad thai

Servings:

Calories: 608kcal

Author: Rachael

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 pounds chicken thighs trimmed and diced
4 cloves garlic minced
1 1/2 cups water
7 oz rice noodles
1 cup Carrot matchsticks
1/2 red and yellow pepper sliced
¼ cup bean sprouts

Garnish

4 green onions sliced
1/3 cup peanuts chopped
1/3 cup cilantro fresh chopped
1 lime cut into wedges

Sauce

1 Tablespoons tamarind paste
1/3 cup chicken stock
3 Tablespoon fish sauce
1 1/2 Tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon chili sauce
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
4 Tablespoons brown sugar

Instructions

In a small bowl mix together pad thai sauce. If you can’t find ingredients, or want to speed things up, replace with ½-¾ cup premade pad thai sauce.
To the liner of the instant pot, add olive oil, and turn pot on to “saute” mode.
Once hot, add chicken, and saute for 2 minutes per side, to get a little sear, but not cooked through.
Turn pot off, and add in this order: garlic, the pad thai sauce mixture, water and rice noodles to the Instant Pot liner. Do not stir.
Place lid on instant pot, and lock into place. Set valve to sealing.
Set to manual and pressure, cook on high for 2 minutes. Note: Instant Pot will take about 10 minutes to pre-heat and then 2 minutes to cook.
When cooking time is up, do a quick pressure release, and remove the lid.
Add the carrots, bell peppers, and bean sprouts, and toss with tongs.
Place the lid back on the pot, locking it into place, and let sit for 5 minutes.
After five minutes, remove lid, and top with sliced green onions, chopped peanuts, cilantro, and fresh lime wedges.
Enjoy!

Notes

If you want to use a pre-made sauce, use 1/2-3/4 cup instead of the homemade version in the recipe.

If using vegetable noodles in place of rice noodles, cook separately, and add to instant pot after cook time.

Replacing chicken with other protein will impact cooking time, shrimp for example need far less time, and may be best to cook separately and add at the end.

Nutrition