Cumin Chicken with Fresh Tomatillo Sauce

We love this Cumin Chicken and Tomatillo Sauce recipe because it is a quick and easy weeknight meal that’s full of flavor. 

The chicken cooks up perfectly tender, with a flavorful sauce that is perfect to serve over rice.

The blend of spices, peppers, and tomatillos give this dish a delicious flavor with just the right amount of mild heat.

Best of all, the tomatillo sauce keeps leftovers nice and tender and freezes well!

This is one you’ll want to add to your meal plan this week!

✅ This easy recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, Cosori, or Power Pressure Cooker XL.

Important Tips for Making Cumin Chicken with Tomatillo Sauce

• Cumin: While cumin is often paired with spices that pack a lot of heat (like chili powder in Mexican food or Szechuan in Chinese food), cumin isn’t spicy on its own. Just 1/2 teaspoon gives this dish an awesome savory flavor.
  
• Choose your chicken: We love using the chicken tenderloins because they cook up so well, but you could use chicken breasts, but you would need to adjust the time to five minutes.
  
• Pick a pepper: This dish gets a lot of flavor and a little heat from the jalapeño pepper. If that’s too spicy for you, some easy substitutes include poblano or Anaheim peppers.
  
• Choose a blender: If you use an immersion blender, your sauce won’t be as smooth. If you use a high-powered blender, the sauce will turn smooth and a lovely pale green color. It will taste delicious either way.

Serving Suggestions

We like to serve this cumin chicken over rice and ladle the tomatillo sauce over the top.

To stretch the meal for guests, we made little quesadillas on the side, with generous helpings of chips, guacamole, and fresh salsa.

More Easy Chicken Recipes for the Instant Pot

The Instant Pot is a perfect way to prep a wide variety of chicken dishes your family will love. Add these ones to your meal plan:

• Thai Chicken Thighs: Fork-tender boneless, skinless chicken thighs in a delicious peanut sauce—cooked and on your table in under 30 minutes!
  
• Easy Creamy Lemon Chicken: Tangy lemon juice, fragrant herbs, and savory parmesan combine for a quick, flavor-packed chicken dinner.
  
• Instant Pot Paprika Chicken: Frozen chicken thighs, tomatoes, oregano, and cream cheese over buttery egg noodles for an easy chicken dinner.
  
• Greek Chicken: Starts with an easy zesty marinade made from lemon, garlic, fresh parsley, and spices—perfect served over rice.
  
• Kung Pao Chicken: Skip take-out and try this easy recipe that starts with bite-sized chicken pieces, soy sauce, and peanuts for a nutty, flavor-packed weeknight dinner.

Cumin Chicken with Tomatillo Sauce

Servings: 4 -6 Servings

Prep Time: 12 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 3 minutes minutes

15 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Course: Chicken

Cuisine: Mexican

This Cumin Chicken features chicken tenderloins simmered with tangy tomatillos, fresh lime, jalapeño, and cumin for a zesty homemade sauce that's perfect over rice.

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Ingredients

• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
• 2 pounds chicken tenderloins
• 1 tablespoon olive oil plus more as needed
• 1 jalapeno chile seeded and finely chopped
• ¼ cup chopped green onions
• 3 garlic cloves finely minced
• ½ cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 8 ounces fresh tomatillos husks, stems, and paper removed and washed
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves roughly chopped, plus more for garnish
• Cooked white rice, for serving
• Serving suggestions: Diced tomatoes or fresh salsa diced avocados or guacamole, tortilla chips, small quesadillas

Instructions

• In a small bowl, stir together the salt, pepper, and cumin. Evenly season the chicken on both sides with this mixture.
• Select Saute to preheat the pressure cooking pot. When hot, add the olive oil and brown the chicken tenderloins on one side. (You may need to brown your chicken in two batches, adding more oil if needed.)
• Add the jalapeno, green onions, and garlic, and cook for 1 minute.
• Add the chicken broth, browned chicken and any juices that may have accumulated on the bottom of the cooking pot. Layer the tomatillos on top of the chicken. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 3 minutes cook time.
• While the chicken cooks, dissolve the sugar in the lime juice.
• When the cook time ends, use a quick pressure release. When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid.
• Remove the cooked chicken to a plate. Add the lime juice mixture and the fresh cilantro leaves. For a chunky sauce, use an immersion blender to blend the sauce until mostly smooth. For a smooth sauce, transfer the contents of the cooking pot to a high powered blender and blend until smooth. Return the chicken to the cooking pot until ready to serve.
• Serve the chicken over rice, drizzled with additional sauce, garnished with cilantro. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with your favorite toppings and sides.

Nutrition

Calories: 324kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 50g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.03g | Cholesterol: 145mg | Sodium: 566mg | Potassium: 1071mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 308IU | Vitamin C: 18mg | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 2mg

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