Our instant pot chicken drumsticks recipe will get you perfectly cooked teriyaki chicken on your table in under 30 minutes, even if you are using frozen chicken! Add your favorite sides, and you will have a dish that is super flavorful and a WHOLE LOTTA YUM that your whole family will love.
Why This Recipe Works
With just 3 ingredients, teriyaki flavored instant pot chicken drumsticks is the easiest recipe for busy weeknight dinners.
- Whether you are using fresh or frozen chicken drumsticks, you can have teriyaki drumsticks on your table in under 30 minutes.
- Using the instant pot, we are locking in all of the flavors from both the chicken and the broth.
- Serve as-is from the pressure cooker or top with your favorite teriyaki or BBQ sauce to finish off the dish.
- Teriyaki chicken drumsticks are the perfect main dish for those who prefer healthy dinners, gluten-free meals, and low-carb or keto diet followers.
Looking for more Instant Pot recipes? Look no further than our Asian BBQ Instant Pot Beef Ribs and our Pressure Cooker Collard Greens with Bacon.
Serve your instant pot chicken drumsticks with steamed broccoli, baked cauliflower mac and cheese, or white rice, to create a mouth-watering dinner your whole family will love!
Ingredient Notes
Gather the following ingredients, then let’s get to pressure cooking some amazing teriyaki chicken in the instant pot!
- Chicken legs
- Liquid – chicken broth, apple juice, pineapple juice, or water
- Sauce – teriyaki or BBQ
Variations
You can season the chicken prior to cooking with salt & pepper to taste or the seasoning of your choice.
Equipment
A Pressure Cooker – This is the Instant Pot model that we used.
How to Make Instant Pot Chicken Legs
Now that you have your ingredients and your instant pot, it’s time to cook your teriyaki instant pot chicken drumsticks.
Prep Ingredients
Add 1 cup of liquid to your instant pot.
Place the trivet into the pot and add your 5 chicken drumsticks.
Lock your lid and make sure the valve is set to sealing.
Pressure Cook
Set your instant pot to manual (pressure cook on some models) for 12 minutes. ***Note: It may take up to 10 minutes for your instant pot to come up to pressure.
Use the quick release feature to release pressure as soon as the cook time is complete.
Remove the chicken from the pressure cooker and place in an oven-save dish.
Broil
Brush your chicken drumsticks with your favorite teriyaki sauce and broil for 2-3 minutes with your pan 4″ away from the broiler.
This step is optional, but adds the charred or grilled look to your chicken drumsticks.
Serve and enjoy!
Expert Tips
- For the liquid, any will do whether you opt for water, chicken broth, pineapple juice, or apple juice. When we add juice we typically split it 50/50 with broth or water.
- If you are cooking frozen chicken drumsticks, add 3-5 minutes of pressure cooking time to the instant pot.
- Feel free to marinate the chicken in teriyaki sauce for 2+ hours if you have the time. This will infuse the teriyaki flavor deep inside the chicken!
- Use BBQ sauce in place of terriyaki for a flavorful BBQ chicken drumstick.
- Your instant pot will take up to 10 minutes to come up to pressure.
Common Questions
Can you cook instant pot chicken legs from frozen?
Yes, you can cook pressure cooker chicken drumsticks from frozen, simply add about 3 more minutes to the cooking time. The pot will take a little longer to come to pressure.
Pre-frozen chicken legs that are frozen into individual pieces will give you the best results. If yours are one big block all stuck together, they WILL take longer to cook. An estimate is to open up the pot after 12 minutes, break the chicken apart and add 5 more minutes to the cooking time.
What to Serve with Pressure Cooker Chicken Legs?
Serve your instant pot chicken drumsticks with steamed broccoli, rice, roasted vegetables, or pineapples.
How do I double the recipe?
You can easily double the recipe by stacking the chicken legs on top of each other. You will want to also increase the liquid to 1 1/2 cups. We don’t recommend doubling the recipe if you are cooking frozen chicken.
Is this recipe keto?
If you’re wondering if instant pot drumsticks are keto, they are as long as any sauces and seasoning you add are keto-friendly. Primal Kitchen makes a great line of keto, gluten-free, and paleo sauces that work great as a marinade or for extra flavor.
More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
Looking for more pressure cooker chicken recipes?
Come connect with us on Instagram! Be sure to tag us (wholelotta.yum) when you make a recipe. You can also find us on Facebook, and Pinterest.
Instant Pot Chicken Drumsticks (Fresh or Frozen)
Teriyaki chicken drumsticks in a pressure cooker that gets dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes, even with frozen chicken!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb chicken legs (5 drumsticks)
- 1 cup liquid (chicken broth, water, pineapple juice, apple juice)
- sauce - teriyaki or BBQ
Instructions
- Add the liquid to the bottom of the pot. When we're making teriyaki chicken legs we love to add 4 oz (1/2 cup) of pineapple juice to the pot along with another 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth.
- Insert the trivet and place the drumsticks on top of that. Close the lid.
- Set to Manual (some models call this Pressure Cook) and cook on High for 12 minutes.
- Do a quick release and remove the chicken drumsticks from the pressure cooker and put them in an oven safe baking dish.
- Brush the meat on both sides with the sauce of your choice like teriyaki sauce.
- Broil for 2-3+ minutes with the pan 4" away from the heat source until the sauce is warm and has started to brown in places for that fresh "grilled" appearance. Brush the remaining sauce in the bottom of the pan over the chicken before serving.
Notes
Any liquid of choice will work, whether it is water, chicken broth, pineapple juice, or apple juice. When we add juice we typically split it 50/50 with broth or water.
The instant pot took about 10 minutes to come to pressure.
Add 3-5 minutes to the cooking time if your chicken is frozen.
Prepping chicken from the store you know you want to cook from frozen is easy by, individually freezing them on a baking sheet. Once completely frozen, add them to a freezer bag.
Instead of using teriyaki sauce, BBQ sauce makes a great option too.
Feel free to marinate the chicken in teriyaki sauce for 2+ hours if you have extra time for even more flavor.
We didn't season the chicken but you can add salt and pepper, or a chicken dry rub if desired before cooking.
Serve with broccoli, other vegetables, pineapple, and rice.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 5 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 76Total Fat 2.5gTrans Fat 0gCarbohydrates 0gSugar 9gProtein 12.4g
The nutritional data is just for the chicken drumstick and does not include sauce. Please calculate that manually if you're on a restricted health plan.
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