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.
What Makes This Instant Pot Chicken Adobo The Perfect Weeknight Dinner
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 to make it crispy.
Drop and cook makes this easy enough for a weeknight dinner, and clean up is super easy as well! This turns out so amazing that it’s it nice enough to serve to guests. 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.
Tips And Tricks For making Instant Pot Chicken Adobo
- 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.
Looking For More Great Instant Pot Chicken Recipes? Check These Out!
- This Indian Curry Recipe made in the Instant Pot is a savory comfort food that you’re sure to love!
- Make dinner easy and delicious with this mouth-watering Pesto Chicken recipe! It’s a dinner everyone will want on regular rotation each week.
- If you’re looking for an Instant Pot Chicken Korma Recipe, this one is so easy that you can make it on a weeknight in less than an hour, start to finish.
This Instant Pot Chicken Adobo recipe comes out tasting so authentic and delicious that you’re unlikely to have any leftovers. Make sure to share this recipe with your friends on Pinterest and Facebook so they can enjoy it as well!
★ Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below! Just click on the stars in the recipe card to rate.
Ingredients
- 1 pound (453.59 g) Bone-in Skin-on Chicken Thighs
- 1/2 cup (127.5 ml) White Vinegar
- 1/4 cup (58 ml) Regular Soy Sauce
- 2 tablespoons (2 tablespoons) Vegetable Oil
- 2 tablespoons (2 tablespoons) Minced Garlic
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) brown sugar or 1 teaspoon splenda
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Whole Black Peppercorns, roughly crushed
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Red Pepper Flakes, optional
- 3 (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.
- 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.
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Nutrition
Don’t forget to check out my Instant Pot Fast & Easy Cookbook!
Suzanne Laycock
I love this recipe! Tastes just like the adobo I grew up eating. Thank you!
Susan
What time for boneless?
URVASHI PITRE
Usually just a minute or two less does the trick
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.