Instant Pot Whole Chicken

I briefly considered Amy & Jacky’s method of poaching a whole chicken in the Instant Pot, but my chicken turned out to be much bigger than theirs. The Spruce Eats whole chickens by the pound, so I went with their more traditional method.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 small citrus fruit, quartered (optional)
• fresh herbs (optional)
• 1 c. water or broth
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. basil
• ½ tsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• cayenne pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place trivet in Instant Pot with the water.
2. Mix dry spices.
3. Pat chicken dry.
4. Stuff cavity with onion, citrus, and herbs. Add anything that didn’t fit to the pot.
5. Rub chicken with spices.
6. Place chicken on trivet. Close vent and lid. Select Poultry. Set timer for 6 minutes per pound of chicken.
7. Vent steam after 15 minutes.

Variants

My original spice blend was ½ tsp. smoked paprika, ¼ tsp. dried thyme, ¼ tsp. onion powder, ¼ tsp. garlic powder, ¼ tsp. safflower (optional), ¼ tsp. black pepper, and ¼ tsp. salt, but this was too mild for Peter and/or the Instant Pot approach, so I’ve upped it to something more like the spicy voriant of my oven-roasted recipe.

You can replace either set of spices with 2 tsp. or more of your favorite spice blend. Add salt if the blend doesn’t include it.