Lemon Basil Chicken Thighs
This Instant Pot Lemon Basil Chicken is a refreshing weeknight dinner made with chicken thighs in a flavorful sauce of parsley, shallots, lemon, and cumin.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This is a fast and easy family-friendly chicken dinner recipe that’s not too spicy and is packed with flavor from fresh herbs and citrus.
We’re always on the hunt for new flavorful chicken dinner recipes to make in the Instant Pot. We’ve mastered the technique for cooking up juicy, tender chicken thighs in a silky, creamy sauce.
This is a wonderful Instant Pot chicken recipe recipe to make in the spring and summer. We love to serve it with buttery egg noodles, mashed potatoes, or rice.
INGREDIENTS YOU NEED
Here’s what you need for this lemon basil chicken recipe:
- Chicken thighs. We use boneless, skinless chicken thighs with the fat trimmed away.
- Seasonings. Season your dish with parsley, garlic, cumin, and coriander.
- Shallot. In a pinch, you can use red onion.
- Lemon. You’ll need the juice and zest to add tons of brightness to this dish.
- Broth. We use low-sodium chicken broth. You can use homemade if you like.
- Cornstarch. This helps thicken up the sauce for your lemony chicken.
- Butter. Enrich your sauce with a bit of unsalted butter.
How to Make Lemon Basil Chicken in an Instant Pot
✅ This easy recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or Power Pressure Cooker XL.
First, season your chicken thighs well with salt and pepper. Then heat the Instant Pot pot with the Sauté setting. Add the oil, and when the oil is hot, work in batches to brown the chicken on one side. Transfer the browned chicken to a plate.
Then add the shallot and garlic to the pot and cook for a minute or two. Stir in the cumin and coriander for another minute, then stir in the chicken broth and lemon juice, deglazing the pot with your spoon.
Return the chicken to the pot, along with any juices on the plate. Stir in the salt, pepper, and parsley, then add the lid and cook on high pressure for 9 minutes. When the cook time ends, do a quick pressure release.
Remove the lid and use tongs to remove the chicken thighs from the pot. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Next, in a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch with cold water to make a cornstarch slurry. Add your slurry to the sauce in the pressure cooking pot, stirring constantly. Turn on Sauté and bring the sauce to a boil, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.
Return the chicken to the pot and stir to coat them completly in the sauce. Now turn off the pressure cooker and whisk in the lemon zest and butter. If you’d like, season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Serve the lemony chicken with your favorite starch, and enjoy!
Important Tips for Making Instant Pot Lemony Chicken
It’s very important to whisk the sauce well after you add the cornstarch slurry. This will prevent lumps from forming.
Also, be sure to bring the sauce to a simmer after adding the slurry. This ensures that the raw starch gets fully cooked.
When you add the chicken broth, be sure to scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pot. This deglazing step will add more flavor to your sauce and will prevent anything from burning on the bottom of the pot.
Frequently Asked Questions about Lemon Basil Chicken
Allow the chicken and sauce to cool to room temperature, then pour into an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
My favorite way to serve our lemon-basil chicken is with egg noodles. However, mashed potatoes or white or brown rice, or even traditional pasta will work well.
Yes, you can use boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of the thighs and make no changes to the recipe.
Sometimes chicken that has been cut into small pieces can dry out in the freezer. We didn’t have a problem when we tested it because the sauce coated the chicken and helped keep it tender. Definitely don’t recommend freezing it without the sauce.
MORE Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
Try these other quick and easy chicken dinner recipes next:
- Chinese Lemon Chicken has a sweet and sticky Asian-inspired sauce.
- Chicken Lazone is a creamy, lemony chicken dish that’s delicious with pasta.
- Artichoke Chicken is a fast elevated dinner with jarred artichoke hearts.
Do you LOVE this recipe?
Leave us a review below to tell us why!
Lemon Basil Chicken Thighs | Instant Pot recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed (about 8)
- 1 to 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 shallot minced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon parsley
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 10 large basil leaves washed, dried, and cut into very thin strips
- Prepared egg noodles or prepared white rice for serving
Instructions
- Season chicken with salt and pepper to taste.
- Select Sauté to preheat the pressure cooking pot. When hot, add the oil and brown the chicken thighs on one side in small batches. Do not crowd the pot! Set the browned chicken aside.
- When all the chicken is browned, add the shallot and garlic and cook, stirring frequently 1 to 2 minutes. Add the cumin and ground coriander and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute more.
- Add the chicken broth, lemon juice, parsley, lemon zest, salt, and pepper, and stir to combine and scrape up any stuck-on bits on the bottom of the pot.
- Add the browned chicken to the pot, along with any juices that have collected on the platter. Add the salt, pepper, and parsley Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 9 minutes cook time.
- When the cook time ends, use a quick pressure release. Remove the chicken thighs from the pot, leaving the sauce. Dice into bite-size pieces, then cover.
- In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in cold water. Add the cornstarch mixture to the sauce in the pot, stirring constantly. Select Simmer and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens.
- Add the cooked chicken thighs and stir to coat in the sauce. Turn off the pressure cooker.
- Whisk in the lemon zest and butter. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.
- Place the chicken on a bed of rice or pasta, drizzle additional sauce to taste, and top with basil. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
FOR MORE FROM PRESSURE COOKING TODAY
🥘 Browse our collection of the best pressure cooker / Instant Pot recipes.
💬 Follow Pressure Cooking Today on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates.
👥 Join our Electric Pressure Cooker Facebook Group. Our positive community of pressure cooking fans use all brands of electric pressure cookers, so it’s a great resource if you have questions about your particular brand.
Some recipes are good and some are exceptional – this is exceptional. Great for every day and great for company as well.
I’m a sauce/gravy kind of gal so we increased the liquid, hence more sauce. Made an extra cup of Better Than Bouillon Chicken broth. You may wish to do the same. Make sure you have plenty of lemon. I haven’t ever tried it, but I wonder how it would be with oranges. Chinese restaurants serve orange chicken but that’s breaded and fried.
I served this over spaghetti squash and it was delicious!
Thanks Karen! I’ll have to give that a try.
I am definitely going to give it a try with guests coming next weekend. I just have one question about a step in the recipe and that is, how would you wisk in the lemon zest and butter when the chicken pieces are already in the pot? Do you wisk before you add the lemon/butter and then add it to the mixture in the pot? I love your site!
Hi Chris – perhaps it should say stir in, the butter and zest will incorporate easily into the hot sauce, but you could also whisk it in before adding the bite size pieces of chicken. Enjoy!
Made this today and it was delicious. I’m a lemon fan so the lemon flavor was great but also nice and herby. Will be doing this one again.
Thanks for the rave review Richard!
We’ve now tried Lemon Basil Chicken Thighs and it was delicious. The lemon gives the dish such a nice fresh flavor. We had the dish over rice but it would be good over noodles or mashed potatoes. Do give this dish a try.
Am eager to try this recipes. So many recipes are for chicken breasts not thighs and we prefer chicken thighs.
So the only basil is what you top it with?
Hi Linda – yes, fresh basil really shines through.