Instant Pot Shredded Chicken

Instant Pot shredded chicken is easy to make and can be used in a variety of different ways. Make delicious shredded chicken whenever you need a quick way to pack in some protein!

Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Recipe

If you’ve ever come across a recipe that calls for cooked chicken, then you know how important it is to have an easy way to quickly cook up some chicken. Being able to throw chicken into the pressure cooker and have it ready in just minutes is a total game changer.

Tender chicken shouldn’t have to be difficult to make! When you cook it in the Instant Pot, it truly turns out so juicy and easy to shred. Then you can toss it into loads of different recipes, like easy pesto chicken salad and buffalo chicken spaghetti squash.

It’s also a super simple way to add protein to soups and other dishes! Seriously, there’s essentially endless uses for a big batch of chicken made in the Instant Pot. When a recipe calls for cooked chicken, you don’t have to grab a rotisserie chicken anymore!

Instead, save some money and make your own pulled chicken instead. This quick recipe makes the best shredded chicken in literally just a few steps. It’s going to be your best friend — especially when you need something easy on busy weeknights.

Why You’ll Love this Recipe

This is truly the easiest way to cook up a bunch of chicken. Who wouldn’t love this recipe:

• You only need four simple ingredients to make this recipe. You can find everything at your local grocery store — in fact, you may actually have everything in your kitchen already!
• This is a wonderful recipe for meal prep. You can cook up a bunch of chicken and then store it away for later use.
• There are dozens of different ways to use plain shredded chicken. Whatever recipe you’re making, this quick chicken prep will fulfill your needs!

Ingredients

These four ingredients are all that you need to make Instant Pot shredded chicken breast:

• chicken breast: You’ll need about one pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts for this recipe. You can also use boneless skinless chicken thighs if you prefer. It is important to clean the chicken well before placing into the Instant Pot.
• chicken broth: To keep the sodium level in check, feel free to use low sodium chicken broth. I love homemade chicken broth, but store-bought works great as well! Bone broth would add more protein and depth of flavor, so you can use that too.
• salt: Season this chicken with a bit of salt. You can also use a seasoned salt if you want. I like to add different herbs and spices sometimes to change up the flavor.
• black pepper: A bit of ground black pepper adds warmth and depth of flavor to this easy shredded chicken.

You can also add your favorite premade marinade or sauce to this and cook the same way. It works great for salsa chicken too!

How to Make Instant Pot Shredded Chicken

Add all of the chicken to the Instant Pot liner and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add broth to the bottom of the Instant Pot bowl.

Optional: If you’d like to add a sauce to your chicken, feel free to do that in this step. We like to add about ½ cup of whatever sauce we are going to use and then add a bit more after shredding. We love Primal Kitchen sauces or jarred salsa to make shredded salsa chicken.

Cook the chicken on high pressure for 15 minutes. Once the timer goes off, do a quick release instead of waiting for a natural pressure release.

Remove chicken from broth and shred chicken. Use as needed, or allow to cool and then store!

How to Shred Chicken

There are a few different methods to shredding cooked chicken.

Choose whichever works best for you:

Easily shred chicken with two forks. Just place the forks in the center of the chicken and pull them away from each other. The chicken will pull into strands pretty easily!

Use a stand mixer or hand mixer. I love to shred chicken in my stand mixer, especially if I’ve made more than one pound. Just place the chicken into the bowl of a stand mixer and place the paddle attachment onto the mixer. Use a splatter guard or a kitchen towel around the bowl and then turn the mixer on low, then medium, until all of the chicken is shredded.

How to Store Shredded Chicken

Allow chicken to cool completely and then transfer to an airtight container or plastic zip top bags. Then store in the fridge for up to 4 days or freezer for up to 3 months.

How to Use Shredded Chicken

There are essentially endless uses for tasty shredded chicken. Add it to things like buffalo chicken dip, pesto chicken spaghetti squash bake, and even use it on top of Greek chicken salad.

I love using this in shredded chicken enchiladas too! You can even make a super quick soup when you have cooked chicken. Just toss it in with some vegetable stock, veggies and seasonings and voila — a tasty soup is ready to go. Or make a yummy chicken alfredo soup with tortellini!

Tips for Success

Check out these few tips and tricks to ensure that your chicken turns out yummy:

• If you have a trivet that came with your Instant Pot, use that with this recipe to ensure the chicken doesn’t stick to the bottom and burn. This is not a necessary step, but is helpful if you have it!
• Always use the quick pressure release when making chicken in the pressure cooker. If you wait for a natural release, the chicken will likely turn out tough.
• Make sure that each chicken breast is an even thickness so that you don’t have some that are fully cooked and others that are undercooked — or even overcooked.

FAQ

More Instant Pot Recipes

• Instant Pot Chicken Fajitas
• Instant Pot Butter Chicken
• Instant Pot Potato Soup
• Instant Pot Spaghetti Squash