This Instant Pot Chicken Adobo brings an authentic Filipino Chicken dinner to your table in under 30 minutes! All the original flavors of Filipino Chicken Adobo you love in a fraction of the time. This recipe is perfect for weeknight cooking or impressing guests.
Instant Pot Chicken Adobo (Filipino Chicken)
Chicken Adobo is one of those recipes that normally takes a lot of time to cook. Typically, you’d combine the tangy sauce made of regular soy sauce (see recipe notes for additional information), vinegar, and spices, and marinate it overnight for the chicken to tenderize. Then, you’d simmer it for hours and hours to get that amazing flavor.
That’s why this is a great Instant Pot Recipe and I know you will love it too! The Instant Pot allows me to make traditional recipes accessible to cook on a regular basis. Cook time is only 8 minutes for this (not counting time to come to pressure, and pressure release) and then a few minutes under the broiler makes it crispy.
Easy Instant Pot Chicken Adobo
Drop and cook makes this easy enough for a weeknight dinner, and easy clean up! The fact that this turns out so amazing also makes it nice enough to serve any guest. If you’re making it for company, I’d make it the day before because this chicken adobo recipe actually tastes better the next day. You may have to reheat and blend the sauce together once more to serve.
What is in Chicken Adobo Sauce?
Chicken Adobo Sauce is made up of white vinegar, soy sauce, vegetable oil, garlic, brown sugar, peppercorns, red pepper flakes, and bay leaves. The flavors meld so much better with a little rest time, so this makes a great make ahead Instant Pot chicken recipe. And you can double the recipe to plan to have leftovers, or freeze it for another night.
Tip for Searing the Chicken
Another interesting characteristic of this dish–the chicken is browned after cooking. And here you thought reverse searing was some kinda hipster way of cooking. Turns out, Filipinos have been doing this well before it became popular!
I used my air fryer to reverse sear the chicken, but you can also do it under a broiler of course, and that’s how I wrote the recipe below.
If you’re looking for more great chicken recipes to make in your Instant Pot or pressure cooker, check out my 37 Best Instant Pot Chicken Recipes post!
LIKE THIS RECIPE? CHECK OUT MY PRESSURE COOKER CHICKEN CONGEE RECIPE TOO!
Serve this with rice to make it a complete meal if you’re not low-carbing. If you’re low carb, I found simply steamed bok choy or cauliflower rice to be a great accompaniment to this Instant Pot chicken adobo.
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Ingredients
- 1 pound Bone-in Skin-on Chicken Thighs
- 1/2 cup White Vinegar
- 1/4 cup Regular Soy Sauce
- 2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
- 2 tablespoons Minced Garlic
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar or 1 teaspoon splenda
- 1 teaspoon Whole Black Peppercorns roughly crushed
- 1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes optional
- 3 Bay Leaves crushed
Instructions
- In a large bowl or ziplock bag, combine vinegar, soy sauce, oil, garlic, sugar, black and red pepper, and bay leaves. Place the chicken thighs in the mixture, and coat them well with the sauce. Allow the chicken to marinate for 30 minutes, or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.
- Place the chicken and marinade into the inner liner of the Instant Pot. Set Instant Pot at High pressure for 8 minutes. When cook time is complete, allow the pot to sit undisturbed for 10 minutes, and then release all remaining pressure.
- Remove chicken thighs and set on a foil-covered sheet pan. Broil under high heat for 3-5 minutes until the skin crisps.
- Meanwhile, set the Instant Pot on Sauté and cook until the sauce has bubbled and thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Pour this thickened sauce over the chicken and serve.
Notes
- Crisping the chicken skin after cooking is the best way to get that crispy skin! If you crisp it before cooking, it will get soggy in the Instant Pot during cook time.
- This recipe uses regular soy sauce. Lite often doesn’t mean low salt, just lite colored and thin in consistency. Dark soy sauce is aged longer and has molasses added to it, and tends to be less salty.
Nutrition
Don’t forget to check out my Instant Pot Fast & Easy Cookbook!
Julie
This is amazing. My household currently consists of 2 very picky eaters and 2 low carbers. This Chicken Adobo was a HUGE hit with everyone. Thank you for bringing me dinner peace!!!
URVASHI PITRE
Yay for dinner peace! Glad to hear it
Heather from Ohio
Do you Not add water to the Instant Pot….just the marinade?
URVASHI PITRE
That’s correct. Unless you’re using an 8 quart in which case add 1/4 cup of water
Jill
I have an 8 quart, I tripled the recipe and did not add any water. It tasted better than what we buy from the Filipino food truck!
Jill
I tripled this recipe for my 8 qt IP. At the same time I did 3 cups of Jasmine Rice PIP in the same IP. Everything was perfectly cooked! Another winner from Urvashi!
Maria Rudolph
Can I double it?
Christine Fink
Do you think it would come out good if I substituted apple cider vinegar for the white vinegar?
Jeff Frane
I made this for dinner last night! I was a little skeptical going into it because it’s so darn simple but it was delicious and done before I knew it. Steamed bok choy was perfect as a side dish.
URVASHI PITRE
So glad to hear this!
cj
loved this. didn’t bother with broiling. used trimmed boneless/skinless chix thighs. put meat in the liner pot w the marinade a few hours before it was eating time; then pressure cooked, removed meat from pot, and boiled the liquid down to concentrate and thicken. delicious gutsy flavor. I second guessed the cooking time, cooked for 9 minutes instead of 8. A mistake!! 8 and paying attention to do a QR after 10 minutes, as instructed, would have been perfect.