Instant Pot Korean Chicken is a flavor-packed recipe with bone-in chicken that’s marinated in a vibrant Korean-spiced sauce made with gochujang chile paste. Serve the gochujang chicken and sauce as part of a rice bowl with sauteed vegetables or grill it to make Korean bbq chicken and serve the sauce on the side, for dipping! [Stovetop version of the recipe also included.]
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I’ve found that this Instant Pot Korean Chicken recipe is perfect for bringing global flavors to our family dinner table without having to eat out or spend hours in the kitchen.
If you haven’t tried my Instant Pot bulgogi recipe yet, you’re going to love that one too!
What I love about both recipes is that you blend the marinade ingredients, marinate the meat, and then pressure cook. They’re so easy and are great make-ahead recipes for busy days.
The recipe uses a Korean spice called gochujang, a thick, fermented spicy chile paste. The paste can be quite spicy but has a sweet component to it. Some brands are spicier and/or sweeter than others; you can experiment and find one you like the best.
I’ve adapted this gochujang chicken recipe for the Instant Pot and am pleased with the result. The recipe card at the bottom of the post also gives you stovetop instructions.
Although I prefer to make this recipe with chicken thighs and drumsticks, you can use boneless skinless chicken too. I like to serve it with Instant Pot Fried Rice or Instant Pot Brown Fried Rice.
If you’d like to try other grilled chicken recipes, you might enjoy Instant Pot Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Instant Pot Thai Grilled Chicken, Peri peri chicken, or Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken Wings.
Ingredients and Tips
🧂 Ingredients You’ll Need for Korean Chicken
💡 Recipe and Ingredient Tips
🧅 Marinade: Blend ingredients for a smooth consistency. You could also mince the ingredients very finely. If short on time, pressure cook directly in the sauce without marinating.
🍯 Sweeteners: Substitute granulated sugar with brown sugar or honey to taste. Add half an Asian pear or apple to the marinade instead of sugar for a more authentic flavor.
🍶 Mirin: This Japanese rice wine adds a sweet and tangy flavor. Many stores sell ‘aji mirin,’ which is similar. If neither is available, use a small amount of rice vinegar with a pinch of sugar.
🌶️ Gochujang: This Korean fermented red chili paste is sweet and spicy. Use the paste, not the sauce (which is thinner). Recommended brands: Chung Jung One Gochujang or Mother-in-law’s, available at Whole Foods and Amazon.
🍗 Chicken options: Use bone-in thighs or drumsticks for best flavor. For boneless chicken, adjust cooking time: whole thighs (7-8 minutes), bite-size pieces (4 minutes).
🍖 Chicken wings: Follow the Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken Wings recipe, substituting the Korean chicken marinade for the teriyaki sauce.
🍽️ Serving suggestions: Serve over rice with sautéed vegetables and sauce drizzled on top, or finish on the grill for Korean BBQ Chicken with sauce for dipping. Broil in the oven if no grill is available.
🕰️ Make ahead: Pressure cook and refrigerate chicken and sauce separately. Grill chicken and reheat sauce just before serving.
🔥 Burn message: If your Instant Pot is prone to getting the food burn Instant Pot message, add an extra ¼ cup of broth.
Learn more about your Instant Pot…
- Start Cooking Later: If you want to have dinner piping hot, set your Instant Pot Delay Start.
- Deglaze and avoid food burn message: Learn how to deglaze Instant Pot and avoid the burn message.
- Symbols on Display: What do all those Instant Pot symbols mean on your Instant Pot display panel?
- Elevate Your Food: What is a trivet and why should you use it?
- Cook Two Dishes at Once: The Instant Pot Pot in Pot method allows you to cook multiple dishes at once, make cheesecakes, casseroles, lasagna, and hard boiled eggs in your Instant Pot.
- Soak Dry Beans Hack: If you forget to soak dry beans ahead of time, this Instant Pot hack allows you to quick soak beans in no time!
Cooking Instructions for Korean Chicken
⏲️ Instant Pot Method
- Marinate the chicken.
- Pressure cook and release pressure.
- Thicken the sauce and grill the chicken.
- Add onion, garlic, ginger, gochujang, soy sauce, sugar, mirin, sesame oil, black pepper, and chicken broth to a blender.
- Blend the ingredients into a smooth paste.
- Marinate chicken in the sauce for about 2 to 4 hours.
- Transfer chicken and sauce to the Instant Pot inner pot.
- Close the lid.
- Select Pressure Cook mode and cook on high pressure for 9 minutes.
- The display will go from On to 09:00. The float valve will go up after a few minutes. The display will count down to 00:00.
- Do a natural release of pressure. Once the float valve goes down, the lid can be opened.
- Remove the chicken from the inner pot using a slotted spoon.
- Reduce the remaining sauce in Saute mode (see below) until thickened, about 7 to 10 minutes. Use a splatter screen if needed.
- Grill the chicken in an air fryer or grill or broil in the oven for a couple of minutes to crisp it up. This step is optional.
♨️ Stovetop method for gochujang chicken
- Marinate chicken.
- Brown the chicken in oil in a heavy-bottomed medium pan.
- Add reserved marinade, more broth, and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat, cover, and simmer.
- Cook until chicken is tender.
- Let the sauce thicken.
- Serve chicken and sauce over rice.
See the recipe card below for detailed instructions.
Instant Pot Korean Chicken with Gochujang
Ingredients
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 2 tablespoon garlic minced
- 2 tablespoon ginger minced
- ¼ cup gochujang paste
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar or 2 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Mirin
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon black pepper powder
- ½ cup low sodium chicken broth (add 2 extra cups for stovetop recipe)
- 6 chicken thighs or drumsticks
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions
- For the marinade, add onion, garlic, ginger, gochujang, soy sauce, sugar, mirin, sesame oil, black pepper and chicken broth to a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Transfer chicken and marinade to a medium bowl and refrigerate for about 2 hours.
- Transfer chicken and sauce to the Instant Pot inner pot. Close the lid and pressure cook for 9 minutes at High Pressure. Note: If you're not planning on grilling the chicken after pressure cooking, increase the pressure cooking time to 11 or 12 minutes.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally (NPR). [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods]
- Use a slotted spoon to transfer chicken pieces to a plate or bowl and set aside.
- Select Saute mode and reduce the sauce until thickened, about 7 to 10 minutes. Use a splatter screen if needed. Reserve the sauce.
- Preheat grill to 350 degrees. Grill chicken for 2 to 3 minutes on each side (optional).
- Serve gochujang chicken thighs and drumsticks with Instant Pot Fried Rice, Instant Pot Jasmine Rice, or Instant Pot Brown Fried Rice, and sauteed vegetables and reserved sauce on the side.
Stovetop Instructions
- For the marinade, add onion, garlic, ginger, Gochujang, soy sauce, sugar, mirin, sesame oil, black pepper and chicken broth to a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Transfer chicken and marinade to a medium bowl and refrigerate for about 2 hours.
- Remove chicken pieces and reserve marinade.
- In a heavy-bottomed medium pan over medium-high heat, add oil and when the oil is hot, add the chicken. Brown the chicken, turning once. To avoid over-crowding, saute in batches, if needed.
- Add reserved marinade, bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add additional 2 cups broth and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat, cover, and simmer. Cook until chicken is tender, 45 to 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more broth if needed.
- Towards the end, take the cover off and let the sauce thicken. Serve chicken and sauce over rice.
Notes
- Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. chopped onions, minced garlic, etc.
- To double the recipe, double all ingredients except the broth.
- Adapted from Bon Appetit magazine.
Nutrition
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I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
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I’m Neena, and I have a lifetime of experience working with pressure cookers. I know how to maximize the potential of a pressure cooker to consistently produce delicious and easy meals. With my Instant Pot expertise, I can provide valuable insights, troubleshooting advice, and innovative recipe ideas so you can trust me on all things Instant Pot!
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Frances says
Delicious! One of our favorite recipes and a go-to for our family. To make it more similar to dakdoritang (a Korean spicy chicken stew), I usually cut a few carrots and potatoes into big chunks and mix them in before pressure cooking and then skip the optional grilling step.
Neena Panicker says
Frances, thank you so much for commenting and sharing your tips!
Deb says
This had great flavor, was easy to make, and was a crowd-pleaser! I will definitely make again.
My feedback relates to doubling the recipe. I will omit the chicken broth next time, since doubling the other ingredients and including a cup of broth made the resulting sauce far too diluted. No amount of simmering thickened it.
I don’t see any real reason to grill them – they were tender without, and cooked beautifully with increasing the pressure cook time as suggested. I would recommend putting that note higher up in the recipe instructions, however, as that info got buried, and I almost missed it.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Deb, thank you for sharing your experience – that makes sense. I have incorporated your comments into the recipe card.
Diane Moyer says
A very tasty sauce for chicken. My husband and I both enjoyed. So nice to find an instant pot recipe with flavor.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thank you so much, Diane! I’m thrilled that you like the recipe and found it flavorful. Gochujang does that for you!
Chris says
Delicious! So flavorful with just the perfect amount of heat. Will be making again. Thank you Neena!
Alain Rostain says
Hi. I was planning to make this tonight (your recipes are outstanding!), but am confused by the photo. It seems to show sesame seeds sprinkled on the chicken, and cilantro too. Could you clarify? Thanks!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Alain, you can sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on the chicken for some flavor and a more finished look – but not necessary. The cilantro just added color to the photo lol! Hope you enjoy the recipe.
Alain Rostain says
The recipe and meal were delicious. Thank you!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Great to hear – thank you, Alain!
Sue R says
Totally a 5 star recipe. We licked our bowls! We skipped putting it on the grill as we were happy with it as is over rice all lovely and saucy.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thanks, Sue! I’m very happy you tried the recipe out because I am not too happy with the photograph for the dish – need to redo it 🙂 Thank you so much for taking the time to comment.
Marnie says
I will confess that I bypassed the pot and put my chicken legs straight on the grill, as I was also cooking plain chicken for my spice resistant little guy. But regardless of cooking method, the marinade is insanely good! Spicy, sweet, salty, incredible! I boiled mine again, and will freeze more chicken with it to toss in the pot on a busy weeknight.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Marnie, most of my recipes are regular recipes that I change up for the Instant Pot. So the only thing might be the spices can be stronger because I do increase the spice quantity due to pressure cooking. I’m so happy you liked the recipe 🙂
Erin says
Hi, enjoyed making this for the family. Even the kids enjoyed.
Erin
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Awesome, Erin! Happy kids make happy mama 🙂