Instant Pot Whole Chicken is the fastest way to cook a rotisserie chicken. Cooking Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot is so juicy, and you’ll love the easy 3-ingredient chicken gravy made from the drippings, which you can make right in the Instant Pot.
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We love the instant pot not just for the speed of making dinner but because it comes together in one pot. One and done – just like our Instant Pot White Chicken Chili and Instant Pot Chicken and Rice. Explore our best Instant Pot Recipes Here.
Instant Pot Whole Chicken Video
I hope this Instant Pot Whole Chicken recipe becomes a new favorite Instant Pot recipe for you. It will change the way you make chicken. If you enjoyed this video tutorial, please subscribe to our Youtube Channel and click the bell icon so you can be the first to know when we post a new video. THANK YOU for subscribing!
Ingredients for Instant Pot Whole Chicken Recipe
The ingredients here are so simple, and you will probably have everything you need in your refrigerator and pantry. The combination of seasonings makes for the best-tasting gravy you can make from the pan drippings.
- 1 whole chicken (4 to 4 1/2 lbs) – be sure it’s fully thawed.
- Chicken stock – you can use vegetable broth, chicken bone broth or even turkey stock.
- Seasonings – We combined fresh garlic, thyme, and rosemary with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika.
- Butter and Lemon Juice – we were inspired to add lemon juice and butter from our famous Roast Turkey Recipe. Butter helps to spread the seasonings under the chicken skin and keeps the chicken juicy.
Tips for the Best I.P. Rotisserie Chicken
- Weight the chicken and cook the chicken for 6 minutes per pound and allow a 15-minute natural pressure release. The gradual release of pressure will ensure your chicken is fully cooked through and rested for the juiciest chicken. It also prevents foam from shooting out of the valve.
- Thaw the chicken completely if frozen – it will cook more evenly.
- Use the correct size instant pot. Make sure your chicken fits your instant pot size. Our 6 qt instant pot fits up to a 5 lb chicken. An 8 qt pressure cooker is better for the larger sized chickens.
- Use a Trivet for even cooking and to help remove the chicken from the instant pot.
- Broil the chicken for a crisp and salty skin
- Keep the drippings – they make the best gravy to pour over your chicken.
- Keep the carcass and bones for Instant Pot Chicken Broth.
How to Cook a Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot
- Prepare Chicken: Separate the skin over the chicken breast using a spoon.
- Set up Instant Pot: Place the trivet inside the Instant Pot and pour in 1 cup chicken broth. Add the chicken breast-side-up and stuff the cavity with garlic cloves and half of the squeezed lemon.
- Make Butter Sauce: Combine melted butter with all of the seasonings. Pour half of the mixture under the skin and pour the remaining mixture all over the outside of the chicken.
- Pressure Cook Chicken: Cover with the lid, set the lever to the “sealing” position, and cook on high pressure for 6 minutes per pound, followed by a 15-minute natural pressure release before manually releasing the remaining pressure.
- Broil for Crisp Browned Skin: Transfer chicken to a foiled lined baking sheet, season with more salt, pepper, and paprika and broil in the center of the oven 4-5 minutes or until the desired color is reached.
Cooking Times for Instant Pot Whole Chicken
As a general rule of thumb, cook your chicken on high pressure for 6 minutes per pound, then do a natural pressure release for 15 minutes before manually releasing the remaining pressure.
- 3 lbs = 18 minutes on high pressure with 15-min natural release
- 3 1/2 lbs = 21 minutes on high pressure with 15-min natural release
- 4 lb = 24 minutes on high pressure with 15-min natural release
- 4 1/2 lb = 27 minutes on high pressure with 15-min natural release
- 5 lb = 30 minutes on high pressure with 15-min natural release
Avoid overcooking the bird, which will cause it to fall apart and make it difficult to transfer out of the instant pot.
How to Make Chicken Gravy
In considering the dish factor, as we call it (fewer dishes to wash!), we make the gravy directly in the instant pot after removing the chicken. The gravy is amazing poured over creamy mashed potatoes and drizzled over the sliced chicken.
- Strain the drippings – Pour all of the liquid from the pot into a bowl or measuring cup and skim off the excess fat at the top. You should have about 2 cups after straining off the fat.
- Make the Gravy – Set the instant pot to the sauté function and melt in 3 Tbsp butter. Whisk in 3 Tbsp flour, whisking for 1 minute until golden. Add the remaining drippings and whisk until simmering and thickened then remove from heat. Serve with chicken.
Can I Cook a Frozen Whole Chicken in the Instant Pot?
For this recipe, a fresh or thawed chicken works best. You can cook a frozen whole chicken, but it will take significantly longer (60-70 minutes on high pressure), and we found a thawed or fresh chicken will cook more evenly. Also, you won’t be able to pour the flavored butter under the chicken skin. If you want to use a frozen chicken, a dry rub would work better.
Recipes for Leftover Rotisserie Chicken
We love cooking a whole chicken because the options are endless for easy dinners using diced or shredded leftover chicken. Don’t forget to keep the carcass to make the best homemade chicken stock.
- Avocado Chicken Salad
- Chicken Fried Rice
- Autumn Chopped Chicken Salad
- Chicken Bacon Avocado Sandwich
- Leftover Turkey in Gravy (with chicken!)
- Chicken Noodle Soup
- Chicken Salad
- Chicken Patties
Instant Pot Whole Chicken
Ingredients
Instant Pot Whole Chicken:
- 4 lb whole chicken
- 1 cup low sodium chicken broth
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly smashed
- 2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 sprig of rosemary, leaves stripped and minced
- 1 sprig of thyme, leaves stripped and minced
- 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 lemon, (squeeze 1 Tbsp juice and use same lemon to stuff chicken)
For the Chicken Gravy:
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
Instructions
How to Make Instant Pot Whole Chicken:
- Take out the giblets bag from inside the chicken. Pat dry inside and out with paper towels. Place chicken breast-side-up. Starting from the drumstick side, loosen the skin from the breast, using the back of a spoon to help. Set aside.
- In a small bowl combine: all of the seasonings, the minced rosemary and thyme and 1 Tbsp lemon juice and one stick of melted butter. Stir to combine. Set aside.
- Place a rack in the inner pot of your instant pot and add 1 cup of chicken broth. Add chicken breast-side-up. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with crushed garlic cloves and half a lemon.
- Pour half the butter mixture under the skin, (you can use your fingers to massage the chicken and distribute the mixture) then spread the remaining butter mixture evenly over the top of the chicken.
- Pressure cook for 24 min with 15 min natural pressure release, remove the chicken with trivet, allowing any excess juice to drip into the pot (keep that liquid for gravy).
- Transfer to a foil-lined baking sheet, season with more salt and pepper and paprika if desired for a little color then broil at 500˚F, or air fry 5 min or until the skin is browned. Rest 10 minutes before slicing.
To Make the Chicken Gravy:
- Pour all of the liquid from the pot into a bowl or measuring cup and skim off the excess fat at the top. You should have about 2 cups after straining off the fat.
- Set the instant pot to the sauté function and melt in 3 Tbsp butter. Whisk in 3 Tbsp flour, whisking for 1 minute until golden. Add the remaining drippings and whisk until simmering and thickened then remove from heat. Serve with chicken.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
I come back to this recipe again and again. It’s amazing. We eat the roast chicken the first night and then I debone the rest of it to be used in other dishes. This is one of my favorite recipes ever!
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite, Tiffany! Thank you for your awesome review!
I normally don’t make whole chickens but had one in my freezer that needed cooking. OMG, this was amazing and super easy. The chicken was juicy and super flavourful. A hit! I will do this again. Love your recipes Natasha!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Nancy!
Natasha, I’d give this 10 stars if I could. I was a bit intimidated by the separating of the skin from the chicken, and then pouring the butter mixture in, but I was worried for no reason. It was easy! I cooked it exactly as written in the recipe, using a 4 lb chicken, and I had the juiciest, most flavorful meat ever! It beat my usual oven roast by a mile … actual moist breast meat! The gravy was great too. The only tweak that I made here was adding a few drops of gravy browning to deepen the color. Excellent over mashed potatoes. The lemon in the cavity brightened the flavour, and the paprika was a hit, even for my spice-averse daughter. A truly excellent recipe which takes advantage of abilities of an Instant Pot.
I’m so glad you gave this a try, Jane! Thank you so much for your wonderful comment and review!
It didn’t work out for me. My IP doesn’t have high pressure settings so I used manual and cooked 6 min per pound then released for 15min. It was very, very undercooked. So I cooked it again. It came out rubbery and like meh. I have to see what settings can sub the high pressure settings
Hi Pearl, I recommend looking at your IP settings/ hand book to see if there is an alternative option to cook at high pressure.
Excellent and easy! I made this tonight in between meetings. So simple and turned out moist and delicious. I usually bake a whole chicken in the oven and spend a lot of time tending to it. Not anymore! I love that this recipe was so easy for a weeknight dinner!
Thank you for your good comments and feedback, Lisa. We appreciate it!
Tried this today as our oven is not working correctly. The tensernessabs the flavor were fabulous but could not put in oven to crisp skin as it literally fell of the bones removing from the instapot. Could 6 min per lb.
This is the fourth time I have made this. It is so juicy. It just seems to get better ever time I make it. I make it with your butter Mash Potatoes. The meal is so good. I would recommend this to anyone that wants to learn to use an Instant pot.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience trying this recipe, David. Good to know you’ve made this 4 times already!
You saved me again Natasha, thank you again for this recipe. I have used it many times my oven broke and I didn’t know what I was gonna do when I remembered your recipe it was lovely and it was delicious again Yum thank you.
You’re most welcome, Maureen. Glad that you always use our recipe!
The chicken was so moist and delicious. The gravy was so tasty. The only issue I had was an extra cup of chicken broth that was called for in the recipe, but seemed to have no place in it. I made the one that serves 8 people.
Hi Shannon, I’m so happy you enjoyed it. We used the chicken broth in step #3 “Place a rack in the inner pot of your instant pot and add 1 cup of chicken broth” I hope this helps.
Chicken cooked to perfection and the gravy is so easy and absolutely wonderful! So pleased with this!
Thank you, so glad you lived this recipe!
The only substitution was dried herbs vs. fresh. Recipe was delish!! Chicken and gravy were outstanding. Will definitely make again. And again.. And again!
My husband is super picky about any roast chicken, so I was relieved and pleased that he liked this recipe so much! The gravy was excellent, too! The meat was very moist! Now, I’m going to try your chicken broth recipe, using the bones!
So glad to hear that it was enjoyed, Reva!
I added a little fresh ginger to the cavity, and loved the unique flavor tweak. You should try it!
In proper cooking, only salt and pepper are “seasoning.” Everything else is an herb or spice.
Delicious! First time I have cooked a whole chicken in pressure cooker and made gravy. Loved it.
So glad to hear that, Jacinta!
Came out great! Had a 6.8LB chicken. Inserted onion (I soaked with 2tbsp of lemon juice) inside the chicken. Pressure cooked high for 40mins. Let sit for 5 mins then vented. Broiled less than 5min. My chicken was literally falling off the bone. Great recipe with easy roux.
That’s when you know its good – falls off the bone. I’m so happy you loved it, Jen!
Delicious as written. Only change I did was I can’t use chicken broth bc of msg so I ndidnwatwe with added salt, bay leaf, and poultry seasoning just to give it flavor to the water.
It was great, easy to do and will go one the repeat roster of success instant pot recipes. (Which are actually so few on the Web) going to try some of the others on this site.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Janice!
This was amazing!!! The best whole chicken I have ever made, fall off the bone and tender.
I patted the chicken and cavity dry, salted and sprinkled Costco organic No Salt seasoning. And let it on a rack uncovered overnight (this allows for a crispier skin)
And hour before take out fridge to come to room temperature. Then stuffed the cavity with fresh herbs and followed instantpot directions. Broiled for 5 min. Everyone loved it!
For the sauce since the broth I used was super delicious and the chicken is from a local farmer there was barely any fat. I just mixed a couple table spoons of cornstarch to cold water and added it directly to the drippings on sautee mode. Super easy gravy.
Thank you for this cooking method 💗
Hi Marilyn! I’m so glad you loved it. Thank you for sharing your experience with the recipe.
thanks, I’m gonna do the overnight method because I love the crispier skin, I like that you do all of the other directions. I have my whole chicken and can hardly wait to cook it.
Marilyn – Thanks for your note about making the gravy directly in the Instantpot! I use pastured birds too, so not much fat, and it worked like a charm, with one less pan to clean!
I made this tonight, in my RV kitchen and it was a raving success. I don’t have an oven, so I added 2 min to my cooking time and skipped the oven completely. Of course the skin wasn’t nice and crispy, but the meat and gravy were amazing. I made a few minor changes, I didn’t have paprika so I left it out, but I added a few tablespoon of bbq sauce to my gravy and it tasted amazing! I definitely make this again
I’m so glad that you were able to make this recipe work. Thank you for your good review and feedback!
Hands down best InstantPot whole chicken recipe on the internet! Great flavor, and fall off the bone tender. I used the juice without the flour to keep it Keto. My new go-to for sure!
Hi John! That’s awesome. Thank you for sharing. I’m so glad you found a new go-to.