Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot
on Jan 16, 2023, Updated Jun 28, 2024
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Cooking a Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot is quick, easy and tastes even better than the rotisserie chicken you can buy at the grocery store.
I love when I can throw ingredients or in this a case, a whole chicken, and the Instant Pot does all of the work for me. Cooking a chicken this way results in a tender and extremely juicy chicken that is sure to be devoured.
Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot
Let me give you the scoop on why you should learn how to cook a whole a chicken in the first place. It is extremely budget friendly. You only need a handful of ingredients and you are on your way. I wait until I find deals on whole chickens and then snag a few to put in the freezer.
Cooking a whole chicken is a great way to feed a crowd. It stretches nicely and the leftovers are just delicious. It is a convenient way to provide protein to the people you are feeding.
Once you have cooked a whole chicken the meal options are endless. You can serve it as a traditional Sunday dinner with delicious sides or you can use the meat for tacos, sandwiches, salads, soups or casseroles. SO many possibilities.
Ingredients
- Whole Chicken: I love recipes that use whole chickens! They are a great economical meat and I often have home butchered chickens in the freezer that do very well in the pressure cooker.
- Spices for a homemade spice rub: you’ll make this with salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder. It’s a delicious flavor blend that cooks right into the meat.
- Water: this goes in the bottom of the Instant Pot and helps to create the pressure in the pot that cooks the chicken.
Recipe Instructions
- Get your chicken fully thawed.
- Mix up your spices and rub them all over the chicken.
- Cook it up in your pressure cooker.
- Enjoy! This meat turns out like a rotissery chicken, so use the meat for dinner one night and leftovers for whatever else you’d like. Save the bones to make homemade chicken stock (recipe for Instant Pot Chicken Broth here).
Frequently Asked Questions
This is something you definitely want to consider when selecting your chicken. Make sure that the entire bird will fit in the Instant Pot. As a general rule, a 5.5 pound chicken will fit in a 6 quart Instant Pot.
I recommend completely thawing the whole chicken prior to cooking it in the Instant Pot. You don’t want to run the risk of the center being partially frozen.
The safest way to be sure that the chicken is fully cooked is to use a meat thermometer. You want the internal temperature to be at least 165 degrees F.
What to serve with whole chicken:
- The Perfect Steakhouse Baked Potato
- The BEST Crispy Homemade Sweet Potato Fries
- Deli-Style Broccoli Salad
- Easy No-Bake Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
More Chicken Recipes
- Garlic and Herb Whole Chicken in the Crock Pot
- Whole Roasted Chicken
- The Best Baked Chicken Legs
- Stove Top Chicken and Rice
If you’ve tried this Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot or any other recipe on Bless this Mess, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some pictures of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories.
Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, (4-5 pounds)
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 2 teaspoon paprika, (smoked paprika preferred)
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Prep your chicken by making sure it’s thawed all the way if it was frozen and if it came with any extras in the body cavity (neck or gizzards) remove those, dump out any extra juices and set the chicken on a large plate.
- In a small bowl mix together the salt, black pepper, poultry seasoning, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder. I like to use a fork to combine them.
- Your chicken should still be a little wet after removing it from the package, you don’t need to pat it dry, that will help the spices stick.
- Rub the spice mix all over the outside and in the inside cavity of the chicken.
- Place a rack in your pressure cooker or Instant Pot (it should have come with this rack or trivet), place 1 cup of water in the bottom of the pressure cooker.
- Place the chicken on the trivet in the pot.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot and turn the value to closed. Set the Instant Pot to 25 minutes at high pressure on the pressure cook setting.
- Allow the Instant Pot to come to pressure, do the cooking time, and then allow it to rest at pressure for an additional 20 minutes and THEN you can flip the gauge to release any remaining pressure.
- Remove the chicken from the pot and place on a cutting board or a serving platter. You can cut the chicken into pieces before serving or just serve the whole chicken and cut it up on the table. I often cut the breast meat from the bone and separate the chicken legs from the thighs so that I have breast meat, 2 legs, and 2 thighs to serve.
- Enjoy right away.
- Pick any remaining chicken from the bones and use in a soup or stew later in the week. Save the bones that have been picked clean to make Instant Pot chicken broth.
Notes
- If you aren’t using kosher salt, reduce the salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt.
- I really like smoked paprika for this recipe and recommend using it if you have it on hand.
- If you are working with a smaller chicken, reduce the cook time by 5 minutes.
- This makes fairly ugly chicken, it just isn’t much to look at but the taste is amazing. You’ve been warned, she’s no looker.
Nutrition
Once you discover the ease and tastiness of cooking a Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot you’ll never go back. The chicken is tender, juicy and oozing with flavor.
Thank you Melissa, I wasn’t sure about a whole chicken in my insta pot. It turned out perfect, I didn’t add any seasonings at all. I had a organic whole chicken 80 sodium already added. I prefer to add after tasting and I share with my two brother cats who don’t need it. I see many more of your recipes that I want to check out.
I haven’t been able to find the recipe booklet that came with it. You made it so simple for me : ) the taste was of wonderfully cooked chicken.
So disappointed in how much sodium processors are adding to fowl these days.