If you’re looking for a flavorful, healthy recipe, this 30-Minute Instant Pot Moroccan Chicken is a popular reader favorite! If your family is like mine, you are constantly looking for one-pot meals that are healthy.
Instant Pot Moroccan Chicken | Easy Family Friendly Instant Pot Recipe
You guys, I am OBSESSED with this pressure cooker Moroccan chicken dish. If you follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my weekly Food, Wine, and Travel Bliss newsletter, you know that I love both my 8-quart Instant Pot and 8-Quart Ninja Foodi Deluxe. I use my multi-cookers every single day. I LOVE one-pot wonder meals, and the multicooker - AKA the Ninja Foodi and the Instant Pot - makes it all so fast and simple to feed the family healthy meals. The chicken is so flavorful and moist, and the quinoa turns out just as yummy and fluffy. And best of all, it takes just around 30 minutes from start to finish, all in ONE pot. Less to clean up, and more to enjoy!
Ingredients and Preparation
Choosing Your Chicken
For this recipe, I find it’s best to to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs or bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. The measurements in the recipe make enough to cover a pound and a half of chicken, so feel free to adjust the amount of spices if you use less or more chicken.
Sautéing and Layering
Making Moroccan chicken in the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker or Ninja Foodi multi-cooker couldn’t be easier. In a small bowl, mix together paprika, turmeric, cumin, salt, and pepper. Coat chicken with spice rub as evenly as possible on all sides. Set aside on a plate. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the bottom of the Instant Pot pan. Press SAUTE mode on the Instant Pot. Add chicken to Instant Pot and sauté until slightly brown. Then flip over each piece of chicken and continue cooking until that side is slightly browned. Remove from Instant Pot and set aside on a plate.
Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the bottom of the pot. Stir in garlic, onions, and ginger. Sauté for 2 minutes, stirring slowly. Then the chicken is set aside while you sauté the garlic, ginger, and onions. After that, add the quinoa, dried cherries, and chickpeas into the Instant Pot. Pour in the chicken broth.
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Side note: I like the flavor of dried cherries in this recipe, but you could also use dates, raisins, or even dried apricot. Mix in the quinoa (or couscous), dried cherries (or dried apricots), chickpeas, chicken broth, and the browned chicken.
Pressure Cooking
Close the Instant Pot lid and be sure the pressure release valve is in SEALING. Press POULTRY (or Manual) and set time to 10 minutes. Instant Pot will bring contents to pressure and the display will say ON during this time. Once the contents have reached pressure (this can take up to 10 minutes), the Instant Pot will beep and start counting down 10 minutes. Close the lid, make sure the vent is on SEALING, then set the dials to POULTRY and set the time to 10 minutes. It takes a few minutes for the Instant Pot to reach pressure. Once it does, it will start counting down.
Releasing Pressure and Serving
Once it stops counting down from 10, very carefully turn the knob to VENTING and Quick Release. Safety tip: I use tongs whenever I turn the pressure release valve knob; you could use a wooden spoon or super thick oven mitts. After a few minutes, the Instant Pot pin will go down all the way indicating all pressure has been released. That’s when you know it’s safe to open the lid. At this point, your beautiful Moroccan chicken dish should be done!
You can use a meat thermometer to double check the doneness of the chicken. If it’s at 165°F degrees, then your chicken is ready to go! Once it stops counting down from 10, very carefully turn the knob to VENTING and Quick Release. Safety tip: I use tongs whenever I turn the pressure release valve knob; you could use a wooden spoon or super thick oven mitts. After a few minutes, the Instant Pot pin will go down all the way indicating all pressure has been released. That’s when you know it’s safe to open the lid. At this point, your beautiful Moroccan chicken dish should be done!
Substitutions and Tips
Ingredient Swaps
- Dried Cherries: Try dried apricots or golden raisins. Both have been tried by readers with much reported success.
- Quinoa: Yes - but please read these cooking tips first! In fact, the updated recipe photos you see in this post were taken one of the times I substituted Israeli couscous for quinoa - with great success! I offer this substitution with the caveat that you must realize it is a different type of grain and you’ll likely need to adjust accordingly.
- Chicken Thighs: You can use the same weight of chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs. Many readers have used chicken breasts instead with much reported success.
Avoiding the Burn Notice
I have made this recipe several times over the years, and have not received a burn notice.
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- Not enough liquid. Try adding more liquid. Sometimes when you make substitutions, depending on the exact brand of ingredient you are using, it may actually expand and take up more room than the original ingredient in the recipe, therefore soaking up more of the liquid during pressure cook time.
- It could be the order in which you are layering ingredients.
- There are bits of food on the bottom of the pot when you start pressure cooking. Remember to deglaze before pressure cooking: scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon after you add liquid and before you start pressure cooking. The Instant Pot is way more sensitive to this than the Ninja Foodi, so be sure to scrape up Every. Single. Bit.
- Your sealing ring may be allowing steam to escape, which can cause the IP to overheat.
Recipe Variations
This Moroccan Instant Pot Chicken Thighs recipe does have a couple of steps if you make the whole meal (sweet potatoes, couscous, and chicken), but it is so worth it. The sauce is amazing! Shredded chicken tends to soak up sauce so well! The saucy chicken in this dish is SO good.
You can make this dish your own and prepare the chicken and serve it with your favorite vegetables. We use sweet potatoes, but if you are following a keto diet, try serving it with broccoli instead!
Additional Tips
- Sweet Potatoes: Preheat oven to 400ºF. Place sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, garlic powder, and chili powder. Mix well. Bake at 400ºF for 20-25 minutes.
- Couscous: While chicken is cooking, prepare couscous by bringing 1 cups of water to a boil. Remove from heat, add couscous to boiling water, and cover. Let sit for 5 minutes. Uncover and fluff couscous with a fork. In a large mixing bowl mix all ingredients for couscous. Set aside.
PRESSURE COOKER: I make this in my Ninja Foodi 8-quart XL Deluxe 9-in-1 or in my 8-quart Instant Pot Duo, but you could also make this in a 6-quart pressure cooker. (Do not attempt to make this in a 3-quart pressure cooker).
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to leave a 5-Star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card, and if you really loved it, please leave a comment further down on the page. Please leave a star rating and comment! Then snap a pic of your dish and share it on social media. Do you love healthy one-pot meals?
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tags: #Moroccan
