Soy Sauce Chicken is a beloved Chinese dish that you’ve probably seen before hanging in a Chinatown restaurant window somewhere.
An Easier Version of Soy Sauce Chicken
We have a recipe for the traditional version of soy sauce chicken, which is ridiculously delicious, but in my dad’s attempt to nail down a superior flavor and look, his recipe is a bit time intensive. This riff on Soy Sauce Chicken is super easy. AND it comes together in an Instant Pot! Instant Pot Soy Sauce Chicken. With all mentions of the Instant Pot, magic ensues from here on out.
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs go into the Instant Pot and come out tender and imbued with that umami soy sauce-y goodness. Shred the chicken and serve over bowls of rice with your choice of veg. Spoon some of the braising liquid over and voila–extremely delicious meal in almost no time.
Even without an Instant Pot, this recipe is easy to prepare. My mom would make this for dinner when we were growing up, because she could be sure that we wouldn’t in any way protest and that she could save the liquid for next time.
The chicken would simmer for a couple of hours on the stove, and we’d wait until it got sticky and tender. At the end of the meal, the liquid always went into plastic soup containers and into the freezer. I had many an elementary school lunch of my mom’s Soy Sauce Chicken over rice while the other kids munched on their turkey and ham sandwiches.
Don’t Forget to Save Your Braising Liquid!
This instant pot soy sauce chicken recipe uses the exact same quantity of ingredients as my dad’s soy sauce chicken recipe, but you’ll notice that there are halved measurements in parentheses.
That’s because the great thing about Soy Sauce Chicken is that once you make it, you can save the braising liquid and freeze it for later.
But to make this quantity of chicken, you really only need half the liquid and even then you’d be left with a good amount to make this dish a couple more times. You might need a bit more soy sauce and wine to taste. This Soy Sauce Chicken braising liquid is something that can be replenished several times––which means really fast and easy dinners over and over again!
Before You Start: Quick Recipe Guidelines
- If making the full recipe, you can freeze the reserved liquid and use it again 3 to 4 times.
- If you halve the recipe, you’ll have less liquid, which is good for 1 to 2 additional uses.
- When reusing the liquid, just add more water, more ginger and scallion, and an additional teaspoon of salt, if desired.
- If you’d rather use chicken on the bone, you could also make this recipe with bone-in chicken thighs, chicken legs, wings, and/or chicken leg quarters.
Ok let’s get started! (Scroll down to the recipe card for the full list of ingredients!)
Instant Pot Soy Sauce Chicken Bowls: Recipe Instructions
Grab your instant pot. Turn on the sauté setting, and add the oil and ginger. Let it caramelize for about 30 seconds. Then add the scallions and cook another 30 seconds. Add the star anise, rice wine, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, salt, and water.
Close the lid of the instant pot, and make sure you have your vent set so it is not venting. Cook for 5 minutes on the high pressure cooking setting.
Safely release pressure, open the lid, and carefully lower the chicken thighs into the instant pot.
Cook the chicken for 15 minutes on the high pressure setting. (Update: we originally stated 20 minutes, but some readers have been saying that the chicken is dry. While ours turned out super moist and tender, we’ve reduced the cooking time.) Carefully release the vent when the timer is up. As soon as all the steam has escaped, you can open the instant pot.
Use two forks to shred the chicken into big chunks and serve over rice with sauce spooned over the top. Let the braising liquid cool, and store it in containers in the freezer. When you need it again, let it thaw in the refrigerator and throw it back in the instant pot with more chicken.
Questions about any of the ingredients we used in this recipe?
Here are some helpful links:
- What’s Mei Kwei Lu Rose-flavored Rice Wine?
- What’s star anise?
- What’s the difference between light soy sauce and dark soy sauce? Check out our Sauces, Vinegars & Oils page for an explanation.
Instant Pot Soy Sauce Chicken Bowls
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 7 slices ginger
- 2 scallions (cut into 3-inch pieces)
- 3 star anise
- 1 1/2 cups Chinese Rose Wine (mei gui lu, or Shaoxing wine; ¾ cup or 175ml if replenishing existing sauce)
- 1 1/2 cups light soy sauce (3/4 cup or 175ml if replenishing)
- 1 1/4 cups dark soy sauce (2/3 cup or 155ml if replenishing)
- 1 cup sugar (plus 2 tablespoons/25g; 1/2 cup or 100g if replenishing)
- 2 teaspoons salt (1 teaspoon if replenishing)
- 8 cups water (5 cups/1.2L if replenishing)
- 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
Instructions
- Grab your instant pot. Turn on the sauté setting, and add the oil and ginger. Let it caramelize for about 30 seconds. Then add the scallions and cook another 30 seconds. Add the star anise, rice wine, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, salt, and water.
- Close the lid of the instant pot, and make sure you have your vent set so it is not venting. Cook for 5 minutes on the high pressure cooking setting.
- Safely release pressure, open the lid, and carefully lower the chicken thighs into the instant pot.
- Cook the chicken for 15 minutes on the high pressure setting. Carefully release the vent when the timer is up. As soon as all the steam has escaped, you can open the instant pot.
- Use two forks to shred the chicken into big chunks and serve over rice with sauce spooned over the top. Let the braising liquid cool, and store it in containers in the freezer. When you need it again, let it thaw in the refrigerator and throw it back in the instant pot with more chicken.
Hi! I’m doing this with bone-in chicken thighs – there’s no reason those shouldn’t work just fine, right?
I’m curious what I’ll be missing out on by using shaoxing wine instead of the rose wine. Would adding a tiny bit of (culinary) rose water help bring in that complexity or is the flavor a bit different? So excited to give this a try!
Hi, made this and it was great. Glad i was able to find the rose wine because it adds a lovely subtle flavour. I just made it on the stove top and it was lovely and tender, just not quite as instant ;) !!!
Are there other recipes could i use my carefully frozen sauce for?
Can you adapt to non instant Pot?This is new comment by me. Hope you can respond.
Hi Carl, here is our soy sauce chicken recipe cooked on the stove.
This looks very good but I don’t have an instant pot. How would you adapt this to a slow cooker. Ie. Time cooked, liquid amounts etc.
Hi Kaitlin, this looks amazing. My husband is not a fan of dark meat – do you think I can sub chicken breast and cut the cooking time?
Love this recipe and have used it several times already. I see that the suggestion is re-using 3-4x after the initial batch. Do you recommend tossing after the 4th time and starting anew?
Hi E, personally I think you can use your own judgment on this, but after multiple uses even if you try to reinvigorate it with salt / wine / etc. it won’t have quite the same flavor as when you’ve got a fresher batch.
I made this last night, following instructions to the letter (using the reduced amounts). It was amazing! But I’m left with about 2 quarts of sauce. Should I freeze the entire amount, or make two or four parcels of it? If I freeze the entire batch, I just thaw and re-use with another ~2 lbs of thighs, and then refreeze leftover sauce? And repeat? Seems like the gift that keeps on giving!
Thanks, Brooke, so glad you loved it! Yes freeze the whole amount of sauce. You do need to re-enrich the sauce as you use it with salt and maybe more wine for flavor, but it’s not a lot. Definitely the gift that keeps on giving!
I’m sorry I didn’t see your comment back in January! Sometimes they slip through the cracks.
Do I need to reduce the quantity of liquid if using a 6 qt instant pot? And can I substitute the rose wine with something non-alcoholic? If so, can you suggest a good substitute? Thanks!
Hi Ping, you should be okay with a 6 qt. you could try cooking sherry or shaoxing wine which has a much lower alcohol content
Do you have any non-alcoholic recommendations? I know on your ingredients page for shaoxing wine, you recommend using broth (chicken, vegetable, mushroom) in a 1:1 ratio or non-alcoholic wine/beer (but warn that there may be some trace amount of alcohol) if the recipe calls for 2 Tbsp or less of shaoxing wine. However, I’m not sure what to use in this recipe since this recipe calls for 1.5 cups of rose wine or shaoxing wine.
I am okay with cooking with alcohol for myself and my SO, but I am also cooking for a child and I read that alcohol doesn’t cook off in a pressure cooker due to the seal, so I’d like to replace it.
Thanks!
Hi Laura, Sarah and I grew up eating this chicken and the small amount of alcohol in Shaoxing wine and other Chinese cooking wines was never a problem. If you’re still concerned, you can also simply make it on the stove top in a covered pot and solve the problem that way. We didn’t have a fancy Instant Pot when we were little :) The chicken will still be very tender.