This is the thing we make most in our Instant Pot. Fabiola buys a family-size pack of chicken breasts, cooks the whole pack at once, shreds it, and that chicken turns into different meals for the rest of the week.
There's no video for this one. We asked Fabiola how she does it, she wrote it out in an email, and everything below comes from that.
Why there's no seasoning
Fabiola doesn't season it at all, and that's deliberate. Plain chicken can go anywhere afterward. Her examples were tacos, pasta and wraps.
Instant Pot shredded chicken recipe
Cook time: 25 minutes in the Instant Pot, then a natural release
Ingredients
- 1 family-size pack of chicken breasts, thawed
- Water, enough to cover the chicken
Steps
- Put the chicken breasts in the Instant Pot. Fabiola prefers them thawed.
- Add water until the breasts are covered. No seasoning.
- Close the lid and cook for 25 minutes.
- When the time is up, let the steam release on its own. Don't use the quick release valve.
- Shred the chicken.
USDA's safe minimum internal temperature for chicken is 165°F, measured with a food thermometer in the thickest part of the breast (USDA safe temperature chart).
Frozen or thawed
Both work, Fabiola says. Frozen chicken may take longer and can come out a little tough, so she thaws it first.
Where these numbers come from
Everything on this page is Fabiola's, from her email: the family-size pack, water to cover, no seasoning, 25 minutes, letting the pressure come down on its own rather than quick releasing, and her preference for thawed over frozen. Nothing here is estimated.
A few things she didn't give, so we've left them out rather than guess: the weight of the pack (family-size packs vary from store to store), how many meals it makes, and how much longer to cook it from frozen.
The pot
Ours is the Instant Pot Duo Plus 8 quart, and it runs on our solar and batteries. More about cooking with it with no hookups is on the Instant Pot we cook with off-grid. When Fabiola wants a full dinner out of it instead of a week of starting points, it's usually her from-scratch beef stew or, after a long drive, the travel day version.