Instant Pot Chicken Fricassee is a classic French Chicken Stew made easy and quick thanks to the Instant Pot! Make fall-off the bone tender Instant Pot Chicken Thighs in this comforting meal with a silky broth and hearty vegetables.
Chicken Fricassee had been one of my favourite comfort food meals since I made it from My Kitchen Year by Ruth Reichl. It has tender, fall-off the bone meat, hearty vegetables, and a silky broth. Why not speed things up and make this classic French stew in the Instant Pot?
I’ve made it a number of times, with slight variations from Ruth’s recipe, but none resulted with the tender meat that the Instant Pot created.
If there’s one thing the Instant Pot does extremely well, it’s meat and this Instant Pot Chicken is mouthwatering!
Since it’s me making this recipe, there are a ton of vegetables added in. A few for some additional umami boost, like mushrooms, and some for some additional aromatics, like carrots.
There’s enough going on veggie-wise that you could probably skip serving anything else, but I like to serve Chicken Fricassee with a light green salad.
And since this is a classic French dish, it’s filled with all the good stuff. A glug of wine, herbs, and cream. The combination makes stopping at one bowl unlikely.
How long to cook chicken thighs in an Instant Pot?
For the purposes of this recipe, Instant Pot Chicken Thighs with the skin on and bone-in will take 10 minutes at high pressure.
If you’re setting and forgetting it so that the Instant Pot pressure is naturally released then I’d shorten the cooking time to 8 minutes.
As always, chicken should be cooked to 165 degrees F and can be checked with a meat thermometer.
The cold, snowy weather we’ve been having lately in Vancouver has been calling me to make more comforting dishes like this Instant Pot Chicken Fricassee.
As far as complete meals go, this is one is for the books.
Here are a few more comfort food recipes that make me feel good from the inside out:
- Scottish Mince and Tatties – ground beef in a gravy-like sauce with vegetables and mashed potatoes.
- One Pot Cheesy Pasta with Broccoli – cheese, pasta and broccoli is the golden trifecta of easy comfort foods that doesn’t skim on the veggies.
- Beef Stroganoff – creamy pasta goodness!
Instant Pot Chicken Fricassee is a classic French Chicken Stew made easy and quick thanks to the Instant Pot!
- 200 grams bacon cut into thin 1/4" pieces this is approx. 4 slices
- 8 pieces skin on / bone in chicken thighs around 2.5 lbs / 1.1 kg
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped yellow or white onion
- 2 stalkes celery, trimmed and finely chopped
- 2 medium carrots, trimmed and chopped
- 250 grams button or cremini mushrooms, sliced 1/2 lbs.
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup dry white wine
- 4 cups chicken broth 1 ltr
- 454 grams baby potatoes, halved if large 1 lbs
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme 1 tsp dried
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 4 sprigs fresh parsley 1 tsp dried
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt, divided
- 1 tsp black pepper, divided
- 1/4 cup heavy cream such as 33% liquid whipping cream in North America
- 2 large egg yolks
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Set Instant Pot* to Sauté and after a couple of minutes add bacon. Let cook until bacon is just starting to crisp, about 3-4 minutes. Remove bacon from Instant Pot.
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Season chicken all over with 1/4 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper. Add to IP* and cook until browned on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. (This should be done in 2 batches to prevent the chicken from crowding**). Remove and set aside.
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Add onion, celery, carrots, and mushrooms to IP. Season with remaining 1/4 tsp of salt and 1/2 of pepper. Cook, stirring after a few minutes until mushrooms are starting to brown. Around, 5-7 minutes.
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Sprinkle flour over vegetables and mix to coat. Very slowly (1 tbsp for the first couple of additions) add wine while stirring the entire time. Turn IP off.
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Add broth, potatoes, thyme, bay leaf, parsley, lemon juice to the IP. Return bacon and chicken to the IP (being sure not to go over the max PC line).
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Close the lid to the IP, ensure the valve is set to “sealed”, and cook at high pressure for 10 minutes.
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Manually release the valve to venting (carefully). Carefully open the lid and turn the IP back to Sauté.
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Whisk cream and egg yolks together in a small bowl or measuring cup and slowly add a tiny bit of broth from the IP while whisking the entire time to temper the eggs.
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Add egg mixture to IP and cook (still on Sauté) for 2-3 more minutes until broth has thickened slightly (not gravy-like, it's still a broth, but it will lightly coat the back of a spoon).
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Turn IP off and season if needed.
* IP = Instant Pot and this recipe was developed in a 6 quart IP.
** if the chicken is over-crowded in the IP it will steam vs searing the skin on the outside. The end effect is that the chicken skin should be crispy. To obtain this brown the chicken in batches half and then the remaining half. If your IP is larger you may be able to fit all of them in one go.
This recipes was inspired and adapted from My Kitchen Year by Ruth Reichl and by Martha Stewart’s version.
Enjoy! xo
Fried Chicken and Grapefruit Margarita
That looks soooo good! Comfort food on a cold night, I love it. 🙂
Totally! I’m with you on that.
I’ve made this recipe several times and it always turns out delicious.
I had a craving for it our last rainy chilly day … it’s certainly a cozy one isn’t it?
Samantha – I would never believe a soup could look so beautiful! Great photos of a delicious recipe!
Shucks! Thanks for the lovely comment.
I absolutely love chicken fricassee! Thank you so much for making it so much easier using the instant pot, delicious recipe! 🙂
🙂 Thanks Courtney!
This sounds so good, so simple to cook and full of flavour.
It’s a true classic that we completely love. A wholesome meal!
How much flour? Don’t see it listed in the ingredients. Thanks!
Hi Lauren! Thanks for catching that. It’s 2 tablespoons and I added it to the ingredient list above. Most of the thickening comes from the egg yolks 🙂 Cheers!
Delicious recipe! However, it turned out to have too much liquid for our Instant Pot to seal while cooking this. Maybe I should cut back on the broth a bit next time. I definitely will make it again!
Thanks for this note Nancy! I added that it was a 6 quart IP that was used and not to go over the IP max fill line. I’m so glad you enjoyed this Chicken Fricassee!
Hi Samatha,
I the recipe instructions, you state “Add egg mixture to IP and cook for 2-3 more minutes until broth has thickened slightly (not gravy-like, it’s still a broth, but it will lightly coat the back of a spoon). ”
Do I pressure cook for an addional 2-3 minutes or just turn on saute mode?
Thank You,
Alan Schefers
Hi Alan! It’s still Sauté mode (two sentences prior). I added a an extra comment to avoid any future confusion! Thanks for checking in and I hope you enjoy this Chicken Fricassee 🙂
My mother ran a restaurant during the 1970s and fried chicken was the specialty. She would take home leftovers and “fricassee” them for dinner. It wasn’t a soup, more of a sauce, even a coating. By the time I was smart enough to ask her for her recipe, her memory was failing and she said, “I never made that!” *sigh* I have been working on recreating one of my favorite meals from my youth. Using this recipe, I’ve come the closest yet, although of course, I changed the amount of liquid drastically, since yours was a soup. And also, of course, hers was already fried chicken to start out with. I do remember, though, that she also made whole cut up chicken from scratch this way and it was just as good. I do seem to remember that it came out of the pressure cooker ready to eat, so I know this isn’t the same because the egg wouldn’t work, I don’t think. My milk has curdled when I tried to put it in before pressure, but I somehow think she always did. Anyway, thanks for the help! I’m getting there.
My husband loved it! I made it on the thicker side, instead of more soupy. Since I’m a vegetarian, there were enough leftovers to put it in a double pie crust for a beautiful chicken pot pie a couple nights later. Thanks!
Sounds delish in pot pie form! Great idea that I’m going to have to try myself. Yum!
I’m seriously in love with this. Totally comfort food.
Exactly, so comforting and cozy.
This looks like some really comforting soup and dang… these photos are spectacular!
Thanks so much, glad this Instant Pot recipe gives you all the cozy feels.
I’ve never made Fricassee before-this looks amazing!
Seriously delicious French comfort food.
I’ve made this more than 20 times since getting our Instant Pot a year and a half ago. We love love this and hope everyone who loves a hearty creamy chicken stew will find and try this.
I’m so happy to hear that you love this Instant Pot Stew recipe … it’s one of my favourites as well.
I tried to make this in a different brand electric pressure cooker, which doesn’t let me choose high or low pressure but instead has preset functions. I chose the stew function for 30 mins and the chicken thighs were still uncooked. It smelled wonderful but unfortunately all had to be thrown out 😰
Do you have any guidance on how I could amend for another type of pressure cooker?
Thanks so much in advance!
Oh shoot. I only have an Instant Pot so can’t speak to other brands of pressure cookers. I’d suggest following your brands suggested timing for cooking chicken thighs and follow that timing.
I use the Stream function instead of stew. 🙏🙏
Thanks Cindy!
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing chicken fricassee recipe! Will surely have this again! It’s really easy to make and it tasted so delicious! Highly recommended!
So glad you all enjoyed it Allyssa!
So delicious and such a fun new chicken dinner! I love Instant Pot meals!
So much faster and flavourful in the IP!
I have not tried this chicken stew before. Sounds delicious! I love that it can be made in the Instant Pot – a great time saver!
It’s a delicious meal!
I love this dish. It is comforting, delicious, and easy to make.
I am sure everyone will love this!
It’s a cozy one for sure!
Oh MY, it looks great! Can’t wait to cook em this Sunday!
I hope it goes deliciously!