Welcome to one of my favorite recipes growing up, transformed and made easier — Instant Pot Chicken Cacciatore. I have vivid memories of my mom making chicken cacciatore for company. Sometimes she’d prep it the day before and other times she’d drop it all in the pressure cooker right before guests arrived which gave enough time for some mingling before dinner.
Using your instant pot makes this an incredibly easy recipe to make and is definitely simple enough to be a week-night meal if you are must make this ASAP.
I keep a few packs of this in the freezer too. The fall-off the bone meats make it a great option for M to take to work for lunches or defrost on a night when I’m not feeling like cooking. Pair it with a pack of frozen pasta or polenta and you’re good to go.
Â
I’ll be honest, this recipe does require a wee bit of prep work. You have to coat the chicken in a flour mixture and brown it in the instant pot. The joy is this instant pot chicken cacciatore is one pot since you can brown the chicken in batches and then add all the ingredients, including the browned chicken to the instant pot, pressurize and cook.
Don’t let the lengthy ingredient list scare you. Most of the ingredients are either every day produce, canned goods, or spices. You got this!

I hope you love this easy dinner main dish! It’s:
Instant Pot Friendly
Secretly vegetable heavy
Easily paired with a variety of sides
Protein-heavy
Hearty
Easily Freezable
& Comforting
Want to see the full menu I served this with? Head over here.
If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #theeternalhostess on Instagram. Cheers, friends!

Ingredients
- 8 pieces Chicken (Bone-in, skinned thighs or drumsticks)
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup olive oil (separated)
- 1 large Onion (chopped)
- 1 large green pepper (chopped)
- 2 stalks celery (chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 2/3 cup sweet vermouth
- 28 ounces Canned Tomatoes (diced, crushed, whole (broken up))
- 1/3 cup crimini mushrooms (quartered)
- 2 bay leaf
- 2 teaspoon orange zest
- 1/4 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley (roughly chopped)
- salt and pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Mix flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish.
- Skin chicken pieces and pat dry. Dredge in flour mixture.
- Turn on saute setting of your Instant Pot to high. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pot. Add chicken when oil is hot and brown 2 minutes each side. Remove chicken to plate.
- Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pot. Saute onion, green pepper, celery and garlic for 4-5 minutes.
- Add vermouth to pot and scrap all the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add tomatoes, mushrooms, bay leaves, orange zest, red pepper flakes, oregano, fennel seed, thyme, parsley to the pot. Add chicken back into the pot and press them into the liquid to cover chicken pieces.
- Set Instant Pot to manual with a cook time of 15 minutes. Allow to naturally release pressure for 10 minutes before switching the top knob to quick release. Taste and add additional salt and pepper, if needed.
Notes
- If using a traditional pressure cooker — Cook 12-15 minutes at 15 lbs pressure. Calculate time from time pot begins to steam. When time is up remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes before removing the steam vent.
- I made the Chicken Cacciatore in an 8 QT Instant Pot
and did a single recipe. The recipe is 4 servings. You could maybe do 1.5 times the recipe in an 8QT Instant Pot
, but not a double recipe. If you plan to make this for a larger group of people, I would suggest either making it the day before in multiple batches OR adding an additional side dish, so that people can take 1 piece of chicken instead of two and stretch the meal out.
- Best if made ahead and allowed to set overnight to let flavors mingle and intensify.
2 comments
Such a good recipe! Hearty and comforting.
Thanks! One of my favs for sure. Did you make it yet?