Instant Pot Creamy Cilantro Chicken Thighs

Tender chicken thighs cooked to perfection with a rich, savory and vibrant creamy cilantro sauce, all in your Instant Pot. It’s an easy recipe with simple steps and ingredients to create a new favorite dish.

Fresh Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs Perfect for Instant Pot Cooking

For this recipe we start with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of any excess fat. Chicken thighs are ideal for Instant Pot pressure cooking as they are more forgiving than many other cuts of meat. We won’t make shredded chicken with this recipe, but rather we add a seasoning mix to the meat and sear it first, before it gets a quick 5 minutes pressure cooking, followed by a 5 minute release time. The seasonings are all simple too – paprika, cumin, salt, garlic powder, with a little flour and oil to create a thick, rich seasoning which we let marinate for just a few minutes, while we prepare the other ingredients.

While our chicken is marinating in the seasonings, we can begin to prepare the other ingredients. Start with a nice fresh bunch of cilantro. Take approximately half the bunch, pull the leaves from the stems and chop it up. Then chop up a small yellow onion, or enough to fill a ½ cup. And finally we want a tablespoon of chopped garlic. You can certainly use a couple of cloves of fresh garlic. I often keep those jars of chopped garlic on hand, it can be a nice step saver. And finally, take a jalapeno pepper and slice it in half lengthwise. You don’t need to slice it into rings or dice it, just split it right down the middle. The pepper is going to pressure cook in the liquid, infusing the perfect amount of heat and flavor, without overwhelming the dish.

Now we’re ready to get cooking. With the Instant Pot on sauté mode, add one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of olive oil and let it get hot! This is important. The pot will indicate when it’s hot. Carefully place the marinated chicken thighs into the pot and let it sear for about 3-5 minutes. Flip them over and sear the other side for an additional 3 minutes. Remove the chicken and set aside. Add the chopped onion and the jalapeno pepper and sauté for about 3 minutes or until the onions start to become translucent. Then add the garlic and cilantro and sauté for another 1 minute. You want to add the garlic last because it will burn if sautéed too long. Add a cup of chicken broth and use a wooden spoon to scrape any bits off the bottom of the pot. This is very important. It’s called “deglazing” the pot. And those little bits will be full of flavor! Now it’s time to place our chicken directly into the pot and into the liquid, secure the lid, set the vent to the sealing position and pressure cook for 5 minutes. When the 5 minutes are up, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, then quick release the rest and remove the lid. Press cancel to stop all cooking and warming and carefully remove the chicken to a plate.

Create the delicious creamy sauce with yogurt

Now it’s time to create our creamy cilantro sauce. After we’ve removed the chicken and pressed cancel, let the sauce cool for about 1 minute. Then take the ⅓ cup of yogurt and mix it with just a tablespoon of water. Then slowly whisk the yogurt into the liquid in the pot. Now press the sauté button and let the sauce come to a simmer. After a few minutes it will begin to reduce and thicken. Then it’s ready to be served over the chicken. Add some additional fresh cilantro for garnish.

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