This Instant Pot Chicken Parmesan makes melt-in-your-mouth tender chicken and you’ll only have one pot to clean. But the best part is the work around that we’ve found for breading the chicken. It’s so quick and delicious!
This meal is an easy weeknight comfort food dinner and a great way to make the most out of your Instant Pot.
Using the Instant Pot to make any kind of breaded chicken dish is a bit tricky because any breading will get soggy during the cooking process. But, never fear – we’ve figured something amazing out to work around this problem so you still get that great taste.
Scroll down to read more about how it all comes together or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
Ingredients
I prefer chicken thighs over chicken breasts for this Instant Pot recipe. Go with boneless skinless chicken for chicken parmigiana. We’re seasoning the chicken with Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
We’re also using a jar of tomato sauce and both mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, of course. We’re also going to be creating some seasoned panko breadcrumbs which you can read about below.
How To Make Breaded Chicken In The Instant Pot
So, breading the chicken before cooking it is sadly not possible when cooking in the Instant Pot. Instead, we decided to add the breading AFTER cooking the chicken in a departure from traditional chicken Parmesan. Say what?
Well, what you do is to use the Sauté function on the Instant Pot to toasty some panko breadcrumbs before you do anything else. Then remove the breadcrumbs from the Instant Pot and set them aside. Then you cook the un-breaded chicken in the Instant Pot until it is tender and juicy. After that, you top it with some tomato sauce and cheese and heat it through, again using the Sauté function.
Finally, to finish off the dish and to give it that nice crusty breading feel, you sprinkle everything with your toasted bread crumbs. You get the delicious chicken with tomato sauce and cheese, and you get the nice crunchy breading too. It’s just that you’ve done it in a different order. Pretty cool, right?
I think you’re going to really love this meal. It’s quick and easy and delicious. The best part is that you’ve also learned a new trick that you can use anytime that breading chicken wouldn’t work well. Or, use the panko trick when you’re feeling lazy or are short on time, since this panko topping is much easier to do than to actually bread each individual chicken piece.
Serving Instant Pot Chicken Parmesan
I love serving Chicken Parmesan over spaghetti or any type of pasta noodle really. You could also serve over Zucchini Noodles if you prefer more veggies and less carbs. Or just serve the delicious chicken with a salad on the side. Garnish with fresh basil if you have it!
More Chicken Parmesan Variations
Not convinced using the pressure cooker is the right method for you? Not a problem, I’ve got other methods and some different takes for this classic dish.
Podcast Episode: Making Instant Pot Chicken Parmesan
Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this recipe, with some great tips along the way, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
Print
Instant Pot Chicken Parmesan Recipe
This Instant Pot Chicken Parmesan makes melt-in-your-mouth tender chicken and you’ll only have one pot to clean. But the best part is the work around that we’ve found for breading the chicken. It’s so quick and delicious!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Entrée
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
- 3/4 tsp. salt, divided
- 1 tsp. garlic powder, divided
- 1 cup water
- 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 1 (24 oz.) jar tomato sauce
- 6 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 2 oz. Parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot to sauté on low. Add the olive oil and heat.
- Add the panko bread crumbs, ¼ teaspoon of the salt, and ½ teaspoon of the garlic powder. Cook, stirring continuously until slightly darkened, 2-3 minutes. Transfer crumbs to a plate and set aside. Wipe out the Instant Pot so that no crumbs remain.
- Pour the water into the Instant Pot. Set trivet or steamer basket over water.
- Arrange thighs in a single layer on the trivet. Season with Italian seasoning, remaining ½ teaspoon of salt, remaining ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, and the pepper.
- Set Instant Pot to pressure cook on high for 10 minutes, making sure the valve is in Sealing position.
- After the 10 minutes of pressure cooking, do a natural release for 5 minutes. Then turn the valve to Venting and allow remaining steam to escape.
- Remove lid from Instant Pot. Remove chicken and trivet from Instant Pot. Drain out any water and discard.
- Return chicken to the Instant Pot. Pour the tomato sauce over chicken. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.
- Set Instant Pot to Sauté. Put lid in place. Cook until tomato sauce is hot and cheese is melted, 3-4 minutes.
- Transfer chicken with sauce and cheese to serving plate. Sprinkle with toasted panko crumbs.
Love this recipe? I’d appreciate it if you could scroll down and add a *5 star rating* to help others know they’ll love it as well!
Recipe and blog post by Christine Pittman, photos by Tawnie Kroll.
This post originally appeared in September 2018 and was revised and republished in August 2023.
Tonight is the second time making this recipe in my crockpot express 7 in 1. We LOVE IT! It’s hard to get enough of the “breading” mixture to stick so I end up having to sprinkle and push it on. But it’s delicious!
NOTE: This recipe has been retested and revised since this comment was made.
Courntey, here’s something to try. It’s what I did in a recipe for slow cooker chicken parm on my other website and it works great! https://cookthestory.com/chicken-parmesan/ Basically, don’t bread the chicken at the beginning. Follow all other instructions. While the chicken cooks, toast the breadcrumbs in a skillet. Then when everything is ready, sprinkle the crunchy crumbs over everything. It’s a different take on chicken parmesan but it’s really delicious!
I follow the recipe as described but I keep getting a “burn” notice and the sauce is being burnt on the bottom of the pot. I have a ip-duo60. Is there something I am doing wrong or not following correctly? I am using high pressure and have tried each level less, normal and more with the same results.
NOTE: This recipe has been retested and revised since this comment was made.
Richard, I’m not entirely sure. It’s so weird. There’s a recipe on my other site for a chicken and rice dinner that some people have wonderful success with and others get the burn notice or undercooked food. I can’t figure it out. Here’s the link so you can see the comments to see what i mean https://cookthestory.com/instant-pot-meal-chicken-breasts-from-frozen-with-rice-carrots/ I can suggest a couple of things though. First, after sauteing the chicken, remove it from the instant pot and make sure there are no browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. If there are, wipe them away because they can trigger a burn notice later. Second, after removing the chicken and wiping out the pot, put the tomato sauce in topped with the chicken. Try cooking it then. If that still doesn’t work, the only other thing I can think of is to pour some water or chicken stock into the pot before adding the tomato sauce. Do not stir. Pressure cook as instructed. Afterwards, if the liquid mixture is watery, combine 1/2 cup water with 2 tsp. cornstarch and stir that into the sauce. Set the pot to saute and heat it until sauce is thickened a bit. Hope that helps!