This Instant Pot BBQ chicken is perfect for game days or your next meal prep. You can make everything from sandwiches and nachos to loaded fries or spuds. The possibilities are limitless.
It’s an easy recipe that takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. Each serving has 18 grams of protein with just 3 grams of carbs and 165 calories. And I’ve included plenty of substitution notes for using chicken breast instead of chicken thighs in case you need to make your batch even lower in calories. But enough talk, let’s get into it!
How to Make BBQ Instant Pot Pulled Chicken
You’ll find a recipe walkthrough below so you can see what your Instant Pot BBQ chicken should look like at each step. I’ve included ingredient substitution notes and tips along the way. If you’re a Kinda Healthy Recipes veteran, you can jump down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post and come back if you have a question.
Step 1: Coat boneless skinless chicken in olive oil and a bbq chicken seasoning blend.
The recipe calls for chicken thighs, but you can use chicken breast or half and half. I’ve included nutrition facts for all three variations in the notes section of the recipe card below. But like I mentioned in my chili coconut pulled chicken thighs, the small amount of extra fat in thighs makes for tender, juicy finished product. Go with thighs!
For the bbq seasoning blend, I’m betting you have everything on hand. If not, you could get by with an omission or submission here and there. You’ll be adding some bbq sauce in step 3 to help cover your bases.
Step 2: Cook the chicken for 2-3 minutes per side using the Instant Pot’s sauté function.
Make sure your Instant Pot is completely hot before adding the bbq chicken. Similar to my Mexican shredded chicken thighs, you want a quick sear on both sides to create the food geek friendly Maillard reaction (read: flavor creation)! While you could get away with just throwing everything in and pressure cooking, the few minutes of contact with the heated pot are really worth it.
Step 3: Add bbq sauce, seal, and cook with high pressure for 5 minutes.
To keep the ingredient list and cook time on the short side, the recipe calls for your choice of bbq sauce. I used local-to-me Stubb’s Bar-B-Q sauce. Their original is on the lower calorie side, but the Sticky Sweet is worth the extra calories in my opinion. G Hughes also makes sugar free BBQ sauces that are really flavorful if you’re okay with a few artificial sweeteners. Have fun here—any sauce will get the job done!
I make a homemade Japanese barbecue sauce that’s amazing for making chicken and rice bowls.
Just make sure you move the chicken thighs around and get some sauce on the bottom to deglaze the pot before sealing.
Step 4: Shred the cooked chicken and add back to the bbq sauce.
I like to transfer the chicken to a separate bowl for shredding to keep my delicate hands burn-free. But if you didn’t want to dirty another bowl, you could attack yours with meat claws like I mentioned in my Instant Pot buffalo chicken dip and pork tenderloin carnitas recipes.
Unlike other pulled chicken recipes on my blog, this Instant Pot bbq chicken doesn’t call for reducing the remaining sauce, but that’s always an option. If you want an extra thick bbq sauce, you can use the sauté function on the Instant Pot to reduce the sauce while you shred the chicken in a separate bowl.
Optional: Broil for 8-12 minutes for crispy edges on your pulled bbq chicken.
I use the 8-quart Instant Pot Duo Crisp for recipe development, which has the broil function. I’m sure the air fryer attachment or similar accessories have comparable functions. If you don’t have anything that can do this, you can simply transfer your bbq pulled chicken to a baking sheet and broil in the oven. It’s definitely worth the hassle!
I’ll also add that if you don’t plan on broiling, it’s probably worth taking a few minutes to reduce the remaining bbq sauce a bit.
Serving Your Instant Pot BBQ Chicken
Pulled pork sandwiches are always a good move to keep things simple. But if you haven’t seen my BBQ chicken nachos that uses this chicken, head over there right away. I’ve also made BBQ chicken stuffed sweet potatoes, BBQ chicken sliders, and BBQ chicken mac and cheese using this recipe.
In case you’d like to get creative and incorporate your leftover pulled BBQ chicken into other recipes, I’ve got you covered. I used leftovers from my pressure cooker pulled pork recipe to make things like pulled pork pizza. Swap the pork for your bbq chicken and rock on.
It also works great as a substitute for rotisserie chicken in recipes like my BBQ chicken wraps.
However you end up serving your Instant Pot pulled BBQ chicken, I’d love to hear about it. Come back and let me your thoughts on this recipe and what you end up using it for in a comment at the bottom of the post. Recipe reviews are always helpful!
Instant Pot Pulled BBQ Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
- 2 Tbsp 32g Olive Oil
- 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
- 2 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1 tsp Dry Mustard
- 1 tsp Chili Powder, optional
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 C 140g BBQ Sauce of Your Choice
Instructions
- Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Coat the chicken in the oil in a large bowl before adding the bbq seasoning blend. Stir to coat.
- Set a pressure cooker’s sauté function to high. Once hot, add the chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes before flipping and cooking an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Add the bbq sauce and move the chicken around to get some sauce to the bottom of the pot. Seal and pressure cook for 5 minutes* on high with quick release pressure.
- Transfer the cooked chicken to a bowl to shred before going back in the sauce.
- Optional for Instant Pot Duo Crisp: Use the broil function for 8-12 minutes or broil on a baking sheet in the oven for crispy edges.
Notes
For Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Chicken
My slow cooker BBQ chicken thighs recipe uses a similar seasoning blend, just one tablespoon of olive oil, and no additional BBQ sauce. You could take the extra step of searing the chicken in a large skillet before slow cooking for 2-3 hours, but that’s optional.Nutrition Facts Notes
- Each 3-ounce serving of pulled BBQ chicken has 3 WW SmartPoints (blue).
- Per serving with chicken breast: 135 calories, 21g of protein, 3g of carbs, 4g of fat, and 1 SmartPoint
- Per serving with 1 pound of chicken breast and 1 pound of chicken thighs: 150 calories, 19g of protein, 3g of carbs, 6g of fat, and 2 SmartPoints
I made the instant pot BBQ pulled chicken using half reduced sugar Ray’s BBQ sauce and half Ray’s regular sauce with chicken thighs,. I just purchased the top to broil with the Instant Pot Duo (since Mason recommends it in several of his recipies), I used it and it kicked this recipe up through the roof!!! Amazing, game changer. The wife and the baby Loved it! We had the chicken with some leftover Mason’s Air Fryer Roasted Potato and Carrots. My wife said it was the best Mason meal yet. Thank you for all the amazing recipes that you share.
Appreciate it, Humberto! Keep cooking up a storm over there.
I made this tonight in my slow cooker, sooo good! I loved the spice mixture and I found a sugar free bbq sauce at our Walmart. Meat was very tender. This will definitely be on a regular rotation for meal prep!
Thanks, Hilary! Happy to hear the slow cooker worked for you.
I tried this recipe the day that it was released on Patreon and BOY am I glad I did! I used chicken breast because its what I had on hand and the flavor/JUICINESS held up like a champ!
I stuffed Mason’s Empanada Dough recipe with this stuff and served it with pickles and sliced red onion.
ADULT HOT POCKET GONE WILD
I made this one day to have some leftovers for a few days. My non-chicken eating husband took some to work and loved it so much he ate the rest the next day! So now I’m making another batch…hopefully I get to eat some of this one!
Made this last week & enjoyed it so much, I’m making it again this week! I LOVED the flavor combo going on here- a little sweetness with the honey bar-b-q / brown sugar, and a little punch with the chili powder- but not super spicy! I used chicken breast in a crock pot on low and left for work- came home to a house that smelled so good & meat that fell apart in tender pieces- thanks again- I’m looking forward to all the things I can do with this recipe!
I’m a huge fan of anything bbq and this recipe did not disappoint. I was worried it wouldn’t be as yummy as it looked because I don’t have an instant pot. Fortunately, the cold crockpot worked just fine!
I forgot to brown the thighs before putting them in to cook but I did shred the chicken and put in a sheet pan to broil 15 min. Turned out perfectly!!!
This recipe would be so good in so many ways but I love to top off my air fried sweet potatoes with it and a drizzle of more Stubbs sf hickory sauce. This recipe is a keeper!
My son is a meat eater. So this is perfect for us. I can make a huge batch and use it during the week. Best of all is the ideas for ways to use it. I’m not creative so I never would have thought to put it on nachos but it was a hit!
So easy and delicious! We substituted chicken breasts for thighs.😊
Who doesn’t love BBQ chicken? This recipe is so easy and versatile, but best of all delicious. Different bbq sauces equals different flavors. I use my instant pot all the time, and chicken thighs in the pot are the best! The possibilities are endless…
I made this chicken on Wednesday night and it was amazing! I used all chicken breast because I’m trying to keep my fat down and it was fantastic! Other than using all chicken breast I made it exactly like he said and didn’t skip the broiler option. My daughter came home from college and said “that chicken is great!” This will definitely be in my meal prep rotation from here on out!