Instant Pot Hawaiian BBQ Chicken: Pressure Cooking Tips and Recipe
Looking for a quick and easy dinner recipe? Try this delicious Instant Pot Hawaiian BBQ Chicken, made with tender chunks of chicken and sweet pineapple, coated in a tangy barbecue sauce—and ready in less than 30 minutes!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: If you love BBQ chicken and Hawaiian chicken teriyaki, you’ll love this mash-up meal, made with tender chunks of chicken and sweet pineapple in a tangy barbecue sauce.
Slow cooker recipes are generally easy to convert to Instant Pot recipes. (Read my How to Convert a Recipe to a Pressure Cooker Recipe.) This recipe was no exception. It already had liquid from the pineapple juice, which is a clear liquid. And since chicken releases a lot of liquid as it cooks, there was no need to add additional liquid.
The slow cooker recipe cooks for on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-6 hours. The cook time in the pressure cooker is only 4 minutes, so it can be ready start-to-finish in about 30 minutes.
✅ This easy recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, Cosori, or Power Pressure Cooker XL.
Frequently Asked Questions about Hawaiian BBQ Chicken
I like to store the rice and chicken separately because the rice will absorb a lot of the sauce if you store them together. This is particularly nice if you’re freezing individual portions.
Place your leftover Hawaiian BBQ Chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Do you LOVE this recipe?
Leave us a review below to tell us why!
Pressure Cooker Hawaiian BBQ Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup BBQ Sauce
- 1 can 8 oz pineapple chunks or tidbits, juice drained and reserved
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 cup green onion sliced
Pot-in-pot rice
- 1 cup white rice
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Generously season chicken with salt and pepper. Select Sauté and when hot, add oil and chicken to pressure cooking pot. Sauté chicken for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute more.
- Turn off the pressure cooker. Add the pineapple juice and stir to ensure no browned bits remain. Place the chicken in a flat layer, then pour the BBQ sauce on top. DO NOT STIR.
- If you are making the rice pot-in-pot, in a 7-inch round cake pan, stir together the rice, water, and salt. Place a tall trivet above the chicken in the pressure cooking pot. Use a sling to carefully lower the cake pan onto the trivet.
- Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 4 minutes cook time. When the cook time ends, turn off the pressure cooker. Allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then use a quick pressure release. When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid.
- Use the sling to carefully remove the pan of rice from the cooking pot. Cover and set aside. Remove the trivet.
- In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water and add to the pressure cooking pot. Select Sauté and simmer until the liquid thickens. Add the pineapple chunks and gently stir to combine.
- Serve over the cooked rice, garnished with green onions.
Notes
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I have made this often and we love it! I want to make it for my convalescing sister at her house, but she only has a 6″ pan. Will that be big enough to cook the rice in? Or should I bring my 7″ pan along for the rice?
PS This is my go-to site for pressure cooking recipes and tips. I’m very happy you guys are here!
I think a 6″ pan should work great, especially for 1 cup of rice.
I am so glad you enjoy our site!
Hello ladies, thank you for the update.
In this version you have “1/2 cup BBQ sauce, divided” but the instructions call for 1/2 to be addd with the option to add 1/2 cup later. (The original recipe called for 1 cup to be divided.) Can you clarify please.
Also there were no ingredients for the rice so I’ll just use the recipe I have of yours from a while ago.
Thank you for this recipe.
Thanks so much for catching this! (I was under the weather this week and clearly not at my best.) I’ve updated the recipe to the amounts we use now—just the half cup of BBQ sauce added before pressure cooking.) I’ve also added the rice to the recipe.
I really appreciate the kind way you let me know about it. Grateful to have you here. ❤️
We have a great supply of fresh pineapple and I haven’t bought “canned” pineapple in any form (including juice) in ages. Any tips for adjusting this recipe using *fresh* pineapple only? Could I substitute a certain amount of water and/or chicken broth for the pineapple juice or would it lose the pineapple flavor enough to be a no-go? Perhaps puree or “mash” more fresh pineapple chunks and add that in? Would the 8-ounce can of pineapple chunks translate equally to 8 ounces of fresh pineapple chunks? Heck, I’d likely add more pineapple anyway since we love it! 😀
Hi Tonya! This is a great question! Since we haven’t tried it, I can’t guarantee how it’ll turn out, but this is what’d I’d start with during recipe testing:
Fresh pineapple generally has a stronger flavor than canned, so I’d probably mash just enough pineapple to get 4 oz of juice and then use 4 oz of chicken broth or water to make up the rest. I’d toss in the mashed solids, but I’d probably add them on top of the chicken and BBQ sauce without stirring, just to ensure they don’t mess with the heating element sensors.
As for the pineapple, I’d dice enough pineapple chunks to fill about 2/3 cup.
Also, fresh pineapple will release more liquid as the chicken cooks, so you may need to add a little more cornstarch/water slurry to get the sauce thickened.
I’d love to know how it turns out if you try it!
Did it with *fresh* pineapple for last night’s dinner (and leftovers tonight—there are only two of us!). For others’ benefit trying it this way, I used a total of 1/2 standard size pineapple for the “chunks” and juice. I quartered the pineapple, cut out the core and cut the outer rind off. I squeezed the two outer rind quarters by rolling it together in my hand and squeezing hard! Then I mashed 1/8 of the pineapple and added the juice from this, getting about five ounces of juice total. Brought the liquid amount up to 8 ounces with chicken broth.
Made as directed above, putting the “pulp” on top of the mixed liquid/chicken before sealing. No “burn” warning whatsoever.
Note: We really prefer a pineapple flavor so did *not* add the remaining barbecue sauce at conclusion—just left it out. Resulting meal was a “fresh” flavor, bright with pineapple but the barbecue sauce added a savory depth. I’d definitely do this one again!
Recipe here is different from the one to print
I used the recipe you sent out before you finished the update and it was excellent! I did use two (2) 8 oz cans of tidbits and the juice from both. I did the quick pressure release too. Chicken was tender and juicy. No update was needed! 🙂
I’m so glad you liked it! The changes we made were pretty minor—my kids like it better with the less BBQ sauce. (They say it tastes more “pineapple” this way.) But I made sure to keep the original ratios in the notes of the recipe so you can make it this way every time. 🙂
Thanks so much for letting us know how it turned out! ❤️
The Printed recipe was not updated. I just did a pen correction.
I will use a teriyaki sauce recipe instead of BBQ sauce as it was too sweet.
Is the cook time 3 or 4 minutes? Both are mentioned. Three minutes in the blog and comments and four in the recipes.
Hi there! Thanks so much for catching that—I’ve been under the weather and the brain fog definitely came through with this post! 🙂
The cook time was one of the things that we updated with this post. I’ve found I like how the rice turns out better with a 4-minute cook time, so we changed the recipe to reflect that.
(If you’re curious, however, the chicken will be completely cooked through after 3 minutes, so you’d be good to go either way.)
Thanks so much for reading! ❤️
We made this last night, before correction. It came out wonderful.. I sauted it a little longer.
I’m so glad to hear that you made this and enjoyed it! Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know!
I used chicken thighs and Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey Mustard BBW sauce and it was fabulous. This will be on my permanent rotation,.
Thanks Deborah! I’ll have to give that a try.
Is it much different if cooking this with frozen chicken breasts and pineapple chunks?
This sounds amazing, I’d rather not wait until tomorrow when I’ve had time to thaw it all.
Hi Kristy – if your chicken is already diced, then you don’t need to make any changes. If your chicken is frozen, I have a great post that helps explain how to cook it https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/how-to-pressure-cook-frozen-chicken-breasts/
I tried to make the recipe, but multiple pop up ads kept blocking the entire screen. As soon as I closed one another would pop up. Rinse. Repeat. I thought you might like to let your ad network know. MacBook Pro running 10.13.5 and Safari.
Thanks for taking the time to let me know you’re having trouble with the ads. I’ll definitely forward your comment to my ad network. Are you having the same problem on other sites? I’ll upgrade my MacBook Pro and see if I’m having trouble as well.
Is it really only a 3min cook time? I’m so weird with chicken and short cook times….I’ve had to many not cooked completly…is it bc its chopped in peices?
Hi Allison – yes, the cook time is shorter because the chicken is in pieces. The chicken is also cooking as it’s coming to pressure so the overall cook time is longer than 3 minutes. Enjoy!
I tried this recipe tonight. Used boneless skinless chicken thighs as that is what I had on hand. A 7 inch foil pan, with tin foil used to make it deeper, was used to cook the rice. It was delicious and will definitely be made again with some alterations, red pepper, will be tried.
Thank you for this recipe.
Thanks for sharing that tip Patricia! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
How much chicken is in a large chicken breast? I’ve seen some recently that are 12-16 ounces.
Hi Natalie – the large breasts from Costco often weigh 12 ounces. But in this recipe, since the chicken is diced, it doesn’t really as much. Just cook enough diced chicken to feed your family. Enjoy!
This was amazing!! As picky as my family is, they all loved it. I would love to be able to make the rice in the same pot, but wasn’t sure how to do it with basmati rice because of how much more water it takes than white rice. Great recipe! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Lisa – so fun to hear your family loved it! In my experience, white basmati rice cooks in the same amount of time.
Well this recipe crashed and burned and I do mean burned. There was blackened shards of burnt sugar candy in the pot. Won,t be making this one again. Went right in the garbage.
Hi Tina – sorry you had trouble with the recipe. Sounds like you didn’t have a good seal and all the liquid was lost.
Can I cook this in a regular pressure cooker? Cooking in electric appliances is not my forte. I have a gas range and oven. Also the main factor is I am currently overseas. where electricity is not stable, not too mention an electric pressure cooker is not even sold in this area. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes.
Hi Daniel – yes, you can cook all my recipes in a stove top pressure cooker. An electric pressure cooker doesn’t start counting down the cook time until it reaches pressure. So bring your stove top pressure cooker to pressure like you normally would and start a timer when you reach pressure and reduce the heat to the minimum needed to maintain pressure. With a cook time this short, there’s no need to adjust the time. Enjoy!
Barbara, another hit! Thank you. As usual, I can’t leave a recipe alone. I use half Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and half BR’s Teriaki maranade/sauce. In the first sauté, I add a yellow onion, diced & bell pepper. Perfecto!
I love that you made it already Drew! Sounds like delicious changes! Thanks for sharing.
How could we cook the rice at the same time?
Hi Barbara – I have added the directions for cooking the rice at the same time at the bottom of the recipe in the notes section. Enjoy!
I noticed that when cooking rice you say leave for 10 minute NR, but the chicken itself you say QR? So just go with the 10 minute?
Hi Heather – the rice needs the natural release to steam and finish cooking. So although the chicken doesn’t need the extra time if you want to cook them together, you need to use the 10 minute npr. You can cut the chicken pieces a little bit larger to account for the extra time if you’d like.
Looks good. Would it work as noted if the recipe was cut in half for 2 people? Also, if I were to add some red bell pepper chunks, would you recommend putting them in during the first sauté or the Second? Thanks
Hi Cary – you can cut everything in half, except the pineapple juice. I would add the red bell pepper to the first sauté when you’re sautéing the chicken. Enjoy!
That looks SO good Barbara. I think I’d be able to make it for us if I don’t add the pineapple pieces…Bob isn’t a fan of pineapple but as long as he doesn’t SEE it and I just use the juice I think I’ll be good to go. Shoot, I can eat the pineapple myself-I love it!
Thanks Carol! What Bob doesn’t know won’t hurt him 🙂 I’d probably eat the pineapple on cottage cheese.