Instant Pot Chicken Cacciatore is a classic chicken cacciatore made easier and faster in an Instant Pot. This cooking method using a pressure cooker gives you tender, juicy chicken with a fully cooked savory sauce that seems like it took hours to cook and meld.
We served this Instant Pot Chicken Cacciatore over Wonderfully Creamy Polenta which makes this even more of a comfort food dish. The polenta is perfect to soak up all that amazing tomato sauce that makes the cacciatore so scrumptious. Also, try another Italian classic made quickly with our Easy Skillet Lasagna or our Instant Pot Lasagna.
Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter
Helpful Items For This Recipe
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small portion from qualifying purchases at no extra charge to you.
I know you will want to dive right into this recipe; look at how wonderful that looks. Easy ingredients, and if you have never made polenta before, it is a breeze to make too. This is an easy recipe that you will be wanting to make again and again.
How Do You Make Chicken Cacciatore From Scratch?
Simple ingredients so you will want to find the best that you can. Get good artichoke hearts that are marinated in oil. They are the best and more flavorful.
For this recipe, I like boneless skinless chicken thighs as opposed to bone-in chicken as they have less fat and easily slice up for serving. You can also use chicken breasts as this recipe cooks quickly, and in the instant pot, the chicken breasts won’t dry out.
Red wine adds a deeper, richer flavor into this dish, don’t skimp on that, you won’t taste the wine, but it will just give you a bolder flavor.
An optional ingredient for this recipe is kalamata olives; but they aren’t my fave in this recipe, but they might be yours, so feel free to add them if you enjoy them.
There may be other items also that you would like to add or even omit. Without changing the complete structure of the recipe, feel free with omissions and additions.
Ingredients
Boneless skinless chicken thighs
Olive oil
Medium onion
Cloves of garlic
Diced tomatoes
Red wine vinegar
Rosemary, thyme, oregano, paprika, and Kosher salt (you can use fresh or dried herbs)
Tomato paste
Red bell pepper
Green bell pepper
White mushrooms
Marinated artichoke hearts
Chicken stock
Red wine
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
How To Cook Chicken Cacciatore in an Instant Pot
Cooking in an instant pot gives your chicken a more tender, juicer result than cooking in a slow cooker. I find if you cook it too long in your Crockpot, you can dry the chicken out. It then becomes stringy and unpleasant. That won’t happen with this fast recipe that is made in your Instant Pot.
Set your instant pot to sauté and add 1 tbsp olive oil.
While it is heating, salt and pepper on both sides of your chicken.
In batches, add the chicken and cook the chicken for 1 – 2 minutes per side, adding more olive oil as needed. Remove the chicken from the pot.
Add more olive oil, add the onions and cook for 2 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.
Press the cancel button and pour in the chicken stock and red wine to deglaze the pot, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pot.
Mix together all the dry herbs and spices in a small bowl. To the pot, add the tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, and the mixed herbs and spices from the bowl.
Stir to combine, then place the chicken in the pot.
Add the mushrooms, artichokes, and bell peppers.
Secure the lid, select manual mode, pushing the steam release to the sealing position and cook on high pressure for 8 minutes.
When the cooking cycle is complete, use the quick release as opposed to the natural release for this recipe. Once the steam has been released, open the lid.
Stir the mixture and salt and pepper to taste before serving.
You can serve over pasta, mashed potatoes, or polenta.
What Side Dish Goes With Chicken Cacciatore?
As mentioned previously, we love polenta with chicken cacciatore, but you can also serve this over mashed potatoes, rice or pasta. You could try it with crispy roasted garlic potatoes or crusty garlic bread too. If you would like a more healthy twist, you could serve it with lentils, quinoa, sauteed greens or zoodles also.
For an additional side, a lovely Caesar Salad or Caprese Salad would be divine with this too.
What pasta goes with chicken cacciatore? You can try a few different shapes and types of pasta to go with your cacciatore. Any pasta would work! Some of our suggestions would be a garden rotini for its wonderful colors. Fresh Fettucine as you can make nests out of this broad noodle that will hold your chicken, vegetables, and sauce. Orzo would play like a bowl of rice with this dish, and little bow ties would be a pretty bed to lay your recipe onto. Gnocchi would also be a good hearty choice. You could saute it up to brown to get some additional flavors.
Really the sky is the limit to what shape or style of pasta you can use. Be imaginative and make the dish your own, but I highly recommend to try the polenta if you never have before. It can be made while the chicken cooks and is very simple, creamy and delicious.
Other Great Easy Italian Dishes
After you have made and enjoyed this Instant Pot Chicken Cacciatore, you can try some of our other quick and easy Italian inspired recipes like these:
Best Spinach Cheese Manicotti (great vegetarian meal)
Cioppino (Fisherman’s stew full of wonderful seafood)
Copycat Olive Garden Pizza Bowls (like a meatball pizza in a bread bowl, fantastic and so easy)
Garlic Chicken Pasta with Prosciutto (as good as any restaurant would serve)
Paglia e Fieno (Straw and Hay Pasta) (quick cook and eat pasta)
Pin it HERE!!
Pin it HERE!!
Instant Pot Chicken Cacciatore
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 16 oz of diced tomatoes
- 2 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp each: rosemary thyme, oregano, paprika, and Kosher salt
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 red bell pepper diced
- 1/2 green bell pepper diced
- 8 oz white mushrooms sliced
- 1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts drained and diced
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup red wine
- Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Set your instant pot to sauté and add 1 tbsp olive oil.
- While it is heating, salt and pepper on both sides of your chicken.
- In batches, cook the chicken for 1 – 2 minutes on each side, adding more olive oil as needed. Remove the chicken from the pot.
- Add more olive oil, add the onions and cook for 2 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.
- Press the cancel button and pour in the chicken stock and red wine to deglaze the pot, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pot.
- Mix together all the dry herbs and spices in a small bowl. To the pot, add the tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, and the mixed herbs and spices from the bowl.
- Stir to combine, then place the chicken in the pot.
- Add the mushrooms, artichokes, and bell peppers.
- Secure the lid, select manual mode, and cook on high pressure for 8 minutes.
- When the cooking cycle is complete, use the quick release. Once the steam has been released, open the lid.
- Stir the mixture and salt and pepper to taste before serving.
- You can serve over pasta, mashed potatoes, or polenta.
Comments & Reviews
Jill J says
I like the look of this! I will definitely give it a try when we are ready for a ‘sitck to your ribs’ meal.
Tara Noland says
It is really good for when you are wanting one of those meals.
Jill says
I made it a few days ago but we had it for dinner this evening. Soooooo yummy in our tummies :). FYI, I used 9 skinless bone-in thighs and cooked as the recipe says.
Tara Noland says
So glad you liked it. Having it sit for a bit only makes the flavors better. Thanks for telling us that you enjoyed it.