How to Cook a Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot
Try this recipe for cooking a whole chicken in the Instant Pot, or contribute your own.
Try this recipe for cooking a whole chicken in the Instant Pot, or contribute your own.
- Carbohydrate 102.870205725 g
- Cholesterol 73.08 mg
- Fat 20.33327875 g
- Fiber 14.5976676554108 g
- Protein 20.834097475 g
- Saturated Fat 11.84874985 g
- Serving Size 1 1 recipe (908g)
- Sodium 1028.16437 mg
- Sugar 88.2725380695892 g
- Trans Fat 1.50240155 g
- Calories 634 calories
Step-by-step
- Prepare your chicken. Remove innards and season with your favorite seasonings. I like to use sea salt, pepper, thyme, sage, and rosemary. I liberally sprinkle and rub it all into every crevice.
- Stuff your chicken. Adding things to the inside of your chicken is going to help it retain moisture. I usually stuff mine with a half an apple, half an onion, a lemon cut in two and squeezed, and crushed garlic.
- Add 1/2 cup of broth to your Instant Pot Pressure Cooker.
- Place the trivot inside of the pot and set the chicken on top.
- Put the lid on your Instant Pot and make sure the valve is in the SEALING position.
- Using the display panel select the MANUAL/PRESSURE COOK function. Make sure the pot is on HIGH pressure and use the +/- buttons to select 24 minutes, add 6 minutes for each additional pound.
- When the time is up let the pot naturally release the pressure, about 30 minutes.
- Your chicken should read a perfect 165F. You can place it underneath the broiler to crisp up the skin. Enjoy!
Home cooks frequently commit the error of sealing unseasoned birds into pressure cookers without utilizing internal aromatics to drive flavor migration outward. Pressurized steam creates a unique environment that rapidly denatures proteins while rendering collagen, yet it inherently lacks the dry circulating heat required for browning lipids on skin. Consequently, achieving a finished product that tastes deeply seasoned rather than merely steamed demands rigorous preparation of both the exterior cavity and the surrounding cooking liquid.
- Rub sea salt, crushed garlic, thyme, sage, and rosemary directly beneath the loosened skin rather than strictly on the exterior surface, allowing lipids to carry fat-soluble aromatics deep into the muscle tissue during the pressure cycle.
- Calculate cooking duration based on mass by allotting twenty-four minutes of high pressure for a three-pound bird, adding precisely six minutes for each additional pound of poultry.
- Incorporate half an apple, half an onion, and halved lemon inside the cavity to release cellular moisture and organic acids that gently steam the meat from the inside out, counteracting the drying effect of intense pressure.
- Allow thirty minutes for natural pressure release after the cooking cycle completes, preventing the rapid internal pressure drop that forces valuable muscle juices out through the puncture sites.
- Transfer the cooked bird beneath an active oven broiler for three to five minutes to render remaining surface fat and achieve a crisp, golden skin texture that pressure cooking alone cannot produce.
- Verify that the internal temperature reaches exactly 165 degrees Fahrenheit at the deepest part of the breast before removing the meat from the heat source.
Proper control over steam venting and secondary dry-heat finishing ensures the meat remains juicy without sacrificing structural integrity. Understanding how moisture behaves under pressure transforms a basic cooking vessel into an efficient tool for whole-poultry preparation.
