Spicy Instant Pot peanut noodles are an easy veggie-loaded recipe that is ready in under 30 minutes! Works great as a meal prep recipe.
The Instant Pot is such a useful appliance for getting dinner on the table quickly- these Instant Pot fiesta rice bowls and Instant Pot Cajun rice and sausage are proof!
These spicy peanut noodles are a reader favorite, with chicken, whole wheat pasta, spiralized zucchini and carrots and a deliciously spicy peanut sauce. (Looking for something more traditional? Try this Instant Pot Spaghetti!)
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Reasons you'll ♡ this recipe
- pairing a spicy peanut sauce with pasta, spiralized vegetables and chicken creates delicious flavors while keeping it light
- it's a one pot meal that comes together in under 30 minutes
- leftovers keep for meal prep
Recipe video
Watch the video below to see how to cook Instant Pot peanut noodles. You can find more of my videos on my YouTube channel.
Ingredient notes
- chicken- this recipe calls for boneless skinless chicken thighs. Swap for chicken breast at your own risk as it may overcook in this recipe.
- pasta- we tested this recipe using whole wheat pasta. Regular pasta should work with the same cook time, but alternative pastas and other shapes have not been tested. A good general rule of thumb is to cook the pasta for half the cook time suggested on the box (I like to add one minute onto that).
- peanut butter- this recipe requires a drippy natural peanut butter; if you are getting towards the bottom of the jar and it is thick or dried out, you might trigger a burn warning on your Instant Pot. Almond butter also works great.
- chili garlic sauce- I used Huy Fong chili garlic sauce for this recipe; adjust to increase or decrease spiciness
- soy sauce- I like to use reduced sodium soy sauce as I find regular to be too salty. You may swap for coconut aminos, tamari or liquid soy seasoning.
Step by step directions
1. Add sauce- To the stainless steel insert of an Instant Pot, stir together the honey, soy sauce, peanut butter, sesame oil and chili garlic sauce. Add the chicken thighs and toss to coat.
TIP- we tested this in both a 6 quart Instant Pot and an 8 quart Instant Pot!
2. Pasta- Break whole wheat pasta noodles in half, and scatter across the chicken and sauce. Pour water over top, and press the noodles gently down.
TIP- do not stir the noodles in, as it may cause them to clump and cook unevenly
3- Cook- Place the lid on the Instant Pot and set the valve to 'sealing'. Pressure cook on high pressure for 4 minutes. Immediately release the pressure when the time is up (quick pressure release).
4. Add spiralized vegetables- Stir the noodles into the sauce and add in the zucchini and carrot noodles. Put the lid back on the Instant Pot and let it sit for 5 minutes. Stir everything up and serve.
FAQ
Yes! Swap for natural almond butter. Make sure it's very drippy!
I have only tested this with whole wheat spaghetti, however it is possible other shapes may work. A general rule is to use half the cook time that the box says (I like to add one extra minute onto that). So if it says 12 minutes, cook for 7 minutes. If you try another pasta shape, please report back if it works for you!
I have tested this in both the 6 and 8 quart Instant Pots and never got a burn warning. If your pot for some reason does not come to pressure I would suspect your peanut butter. Reader Whitney reports that she salvaged it from the burn warning by "dumping out the contents into a big bowl and cleaning the bottom of the pan. I dumped everything back in, added about ¼ cup more water and set it for four minutes again. It turned out just fine."
Meal prep & storage
- Prepare ingredients ahead- stir the sauce & chicken together up to 24 hours before cooking. Any longer than that and you'll want to freeze the chicken & sauce. You can also pre-spiralize your zucchini and carrots. Store in the fridge for up to 4 days before cooking.
- Cook them ahead and enjoy leftovers through the week- these noodle bowls hold up surprisingly well and can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days. I do not recommend freezing this recipe.
More Instant Pot recipes
Did you make this? Tag me on social @sweetpeasandsaffron and be sure to leave a comment and rate the recipe!
Spicy Instant Pot Peanut Noodles
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons honey
- ¼ cup soy sauce see note 1
- ¼ cup peanut butter MUST be a drippy natural nut butter; note 2
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce note 3
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into 1 inch cubes; see note 4
- 4 oz whole wheat spaghetti see note 5
- 1 cup water
After cooking
- 1 zucchini spiralized
- 2 cups carrots spiralized
To serve
- cilantro
- peanuts
Instructions
- Add sauce- To the stainless steel insert of an Instant Pot, stir together the honey, soy sauce, peanut butter, sesame oil and chili garlic sauce. Add the chicken thighs and toss to coat.
- Pasta- Break whole wheat pasta noodles in half, and scatter across the chicken and sauce. Pour water over top, and press the noodles gently down.
- Cook- Place the lid on the Instant Pot and set the valve to 'sealing'. Pressure cook on high pressure for 4 minutes. Immediately release the pressure when the time is up (quick pressure release).
- Add spiralized vegetables- Stir the noodles into the sauce and add in the zucchini and carrot noodles. Put the lid back on the Instant Pot and let it sit for 5 minutes. Stir everything up to toss in sauce.
- Serve- garnish with cilantro and peanuts.
Tips:
Video
Nutrition Information
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Rachel Marquardt says
Made this last night on the stove top using rice noodles and no chicken. Delicious! My 16 yo daughter was in heaven.
Meaghan says
Could i use the frozen zucchini noodles instead of fresh?
Denise Bustard says
Hi Meaghan! It might be possible, however I've never cooked with frozen zucchini noodles before, so I can't say for sure. Would you let us know how it goes if you give it a try?
Mandy M says
I’m new to instant pot cooking as they have only just become available in Perth Western Australia. All I can say about this recipe is yummmmm! I was worried when I opened the lid and found clumps of spaghetti that looked like stringy cheese but a little shaking and pulling with tongs and all was good. So super easy. We will definitely making this again.
Denise Bustard says
Hi Mandy! Congrats on your new Instant Pot, and I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed. Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to come back and leave a review.
Sarah R says
I made this for lunches this week. It is super delicious! I used all natural peanut butter but mine had been refrigerated so it wasn’t “drippy”. It worked great!
Denise Bustard says
Hi Sarah! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks so much for taking the time to report back 🙂
Marie C Pelkola says
Hi, can someone tell me what "drippy" natural peanut butter is? Is it the one that comes with the oil at the top and needs to be stirred? I have found that once you stir the oil into it, it is no longer drippy. Also it has to be refrigerated afterwards, which hardens it.
Denise Bustard says
Hi Marie! What I mean is when you spoon some out of the jar, it drips back off the spoon into the jar. Yes, it does come with oil that needs to be stirred in, and after you stir it in it should still be drippy at room temp. If you refrigerate it that's fine, it won't drip, but will still have the right liquid needed for this recipe 🙂 Hope this helps!
Whitney says
This recipe is a family favorite. I typically make it with no problems, but tonight I got the burn warning for the first time. I hadn't done anything differently but I used a different brand of very drippy peanut butter. I just unplugged it and opened up the instant pot--the warning happened before it came to pressure--dumped out the contents into a big bowl and cleaned the bottom of the pan (it had burned sauce on about half of the surface--it took a lot of elbow grease to scrape it off). I dumped everything back in, added about 1/4 cup more water and set it for four minutes again. It turned out just fine.
Denise Bustard says
Hi Whitney! Thank you so much for reporting back! That's so frustrating that something as simple as a different brand of peanut butter could lead to the burn warning. I appreciate you reporting back with how you fixed it. Thanks!
Melanie says
I weighed out 4 oz of spaghetti noodles and it looked like way too much!! It looked like way more than in the video that was posted. I ended up adding more water and removed about half the noodles. Anyone feel like the 4oz of pasta was too much? Hope it turns out 😬
Denise Bustard says
Hi Melanie! How did it go? Sounds like you were on track to doing it right, but if you removed noodles it may throw the water: noodle ratio off.
Cesiley Bartley says
Hi! I am wondering, will this recipe work with froz chicken thighs?
Denise says
Hi Cesiley! I don't believe that will work, as frozen chicken thighs require at least 12 minutes in the IP. At that point, your pasta would be way overdone. You could try cooking the chicken through first, then the pasta, then adding the cooked chicken in after?
Rachel says
I tried this recipe and loved it! Can I double it so I have lots of leftovers?
Kristen says
I was wondering the same thing. Seems like it should be fine to double it.
Denise says
Hi Kristen + Rachel! I think it would be OK to double the recipe, but I have not tried. If you have an 8 quart I feel very confident it will work but the 6 quart might be a little bit full. If you try doubling it, I would love to hear how it goes for you! <3
Selina says
Awesome recipe! I tried this using regular peanut butter but put it on top of the spaghetti noodles instead - no burn warning!
Denise says
Woo hoo! I'm so happy to hear this, Selina! This is super helpful for other readers, so I really appreciate you taking the time to leave this review 🙂
Andrea says
A quick, easy, and delicious dinner tonight - the toddler even helped!!!
Denise says
Hi Andrea, so happy to hear you enjoyed and even better that your toddler helped you!
Nathan says
Maybe I did something wrong but there’s no way 1 cup of water will get close to covering the pasta in a 8qt instant pot. Either way, tastes good!
Denise says
Hi Nathan! The noodles weren't 100% covered for me in the 8 quart but I just pushed them down the best I could 🙂 Glad you enjoyed!
Zarina says
This recipe is bomb! My kiddos loved it (left the spicy part out for them, and added it for myself at the end), great recipe, fast easy and delicious. Cannot wait to make again and again! Thanks for the fabulous recipe!
Denise says
Hi Zarina! I am so happy to hear you and your kiddos enjoyed. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come back and leave a review.
LP says
Ground ginger is listed in the step-by-step instructions above but it is not mentioned in the ingredients list at the bottom.
Denise says
Thanks for catching that, I've updated the post!
Heather Russell says
USE THE DRIPPY peanut butter 😊 The recipe and instructions say DRIPPY nut butter ONE MILLION times, she means it.
My first go at this recipe I made a bunch of mistakes: I used a dry-ish almond butter, thinned with water thinking that would work but still got a burn warning on the InstaPot. I wasn’t adding pasta (was going to add zucchini / carrot noodles only) and the sauce was really wet.
I saved it by removing the chicken & sautéing, and separately reducing the sauce – it was delicious. (the issues were totally my fault!)
So, don’t do what I did! I’ve since found her Freezer Asian Peanut Chicken which is a similar sauce, no pasta and worked out much better for what I wanted.
Denise says
Hi Heather! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a detailed review, this is so helpful!
Stephanie Marion Holloway says
Do you think this could work with scallops instead of chicken?
Denise says
Hi Stephanie! Great question! I've never cooked scallops in the Instant Pot before...I think the cook time would be too long for them? You might want to just add them in after cooking the scallops on the stove?
Stephanie says
I want to make this but I don't keep natural peanut butter in the house. I know it says that's a requirement. Has anyone made it with regular peanut butter?
Denise says
Hi Stephanie! Hopefully someone else can answer, I only tested with a drippy natural nut butter and worry that a non-natural one, which is much thicker, would not allow the pot to come to pressure. If you try, I'd love to hear how it turns out for you!
Kristin says
Hi, do you think gluten free spaghetti noodles would work with the same cook time?
Denise says
Hi Kristin, unfortunately I have not tried and have zero experience with gluten-free pasta so I can't even really guess.
Cathy Lessard says
Would you still cook it the same without the chicken tighs? It sounds really good!!!!!
Denise says
Hi Cathy, I think it would work just fine with chicken breasts. I did have one reader try it and they said it was enjoyable!
Karen says
Easy to put together, clear instructions, tasty and good for you. I'll definitely be making this again!
Denise says
I'm so happy it was a hit! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review, Karen!
Crystal says
Anyone ever try this with tofu instead of chicken?
Denise Bustard says
Hi Crystal! I can't recall hearing of anyone trying it, and I'm unsure of if it would work. If you give it a try, would you let us know how it goes for you?