Instant Pot Kung Pao Chicken – 4 Freestyle Points
Points Updated for New Weight Watchers Program!
Instant Pot Kung Pao Chicken is absolutely genius! While your Instant Pot can make rice, we added this to already cooked brown rice. If you're like me and can't get enough of cooking in the Instant Pot, check out this post!
Instant Pot Kung Pao Chicken
This is a great Instant Pot Chicken recipe to add to your menu plan. If you are following the WW FreeStyle Plan, you know that chicken can sometimes sound boring. This recipe adds tons of flavor and extra veggies to your routine.
No more boring flavor! The best Kung Pao chicken recipe is ready in minutes! If you LOVE Chinese food, don't forget to check out Instant Pot Lo Mein and Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken!
Don't have an Instant Pot? Check out this post for a guide to help you choose the right one! Here's another great post to use as a guide and for more recipes! Below is one of my favorites!
Prep for an Instant Pot Recipe
When using your Instant Pot for any recipe, make sure you have everything prepped in advance. I always make sure my liner is in place and I have the seal ring on my lid. You don't want to start putting ingredients in and realize you've made the mistake of not having your liner in place! That's a big mess and mistake nobody wants!
Since this recipe cooks in the liner and doesn't require the pot in pot method, it's super easy to just have your chicken and liquid ingredients prepared before sealing for cooking.
Note: Always make sure pressure is fully released before attempting to open the lid!
Directions for Instant Pot Kung Pao Chicken
In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, honey, chili paste, brown sugar, garlic, and cornstarch. Mix thoroughly with diced chicken, add 1 cup water, and pour into your instant pot.
Close the lid and set to high pressure, and cook for 5 minutes.
While that is cooking, cut your zucchini, onion, green onions, and peppers.
Vent your cooker, then add in vegetables plus some of your sesame seeds. Seal and cook another 4 minutes on high.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over a bed of cooked brown rice.
As you can see, this easily fits into the list of 30-minute meals you can make fast for dinner. We keep the chicken in the freezer at all times, and the Instant Pot means you can add just a couple of extra minutes to the cook time and cook from frozen!
Instant Pot Kung Pao Chicken Weight Watchers Points
The point values below have been updated for the recent changes that Weight Watchers made.
Makes 6 servings
Blue Plan– 4 points total including rice. 1/2 cup of rice is 2 points.
Purple Plan– 2 points total including rice
Green Plan– 2 points for the chicken portion, 5 points total with rice. Rice adds 3 points for 1/2 cup.
Brown Rice is an additional 3 SmartPoints per 1/2 cup serving
Instant Pot Kung Pao Chicken |
Kung Pao spicy chicken with a kick!
- 2 cups diced/cubed chicken
- ½ red onion
- ½ cup diced zucchini
- ½ cup diced sweet red and yellow chili peppers
- ⅓ cup sliced green onions
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
- ½ cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tbs honey
- ½ - 1 tsp hot chili paste
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp garlic
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, honey, chili paste, brown sugar, garlic, and cornstarch. Mix thoroughly with diced chicken, add 1 cup water, and pour into your instant pot.
Close lid, set high pressure, and cook for 5 minutes.
While that is cooking, cut your zucchini, onion, green onions, and peppers.
Vent your cooker, then add in vegetables plus some of your sesame seeds. Seal and cook another 4 minutes on high.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over a bed of cooked brown rice.
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This is my ZERO Point food list. Book mark the page and refer back often. Loading your fridge and pantry with these ZERO point foods is tip #1 for weight loss success.
Meal plans help me stay on track. Here are some of my favorites!
Instant Pot Printable Meal Plan
Freestyle One Week Meal Plan
Free Printable Meal Plan
You simply MUST try my ZERO points Cheesecake Recipe
Have you made up a batch of my 2 Ingredients Dough yet? It's AMAZING stuff!! Use it to make low point bread bowls, pretzels, bread sticks, bagels, pizza crust, cinnamon rolls & more. Check out the Recipe Guide & Individual Recipes below:
To entice you, watch this Video for the 2 Ingredients Bagel Recipe – you will LOVE it – total YUM!!
2 Ingredient Dough Recipes
Ultimate 2 Ingredient Dough Guide
2 Ingredient Dough Pizza
2 Ingredient Dough Pot Pie
2 Ingredient Dough Pop Tarts
2 Ingredient Dough Cinnamon Rolls
2 Ingredient Dough Bread Bowls
2 Ingredient Dough Empanadas
Make sure you check out and grab our printable shopping lists below to make it easy when you are in store to grab the best WW FreeStyle friendly foods and snacks!
Weight Watchers Walmart Shopping List
Weight Watchers Target Shopping List
Weight Watchers Aldi Shopping List
Weight Watchers Trader Joe's Shopping List
Ever panic and wonder what to eat at your favorite restaurants? Well, I do too! That's why I created and LOVE my restaurant guides. Check them out here and be sure to email me and let me know any others you'd like to see:
Chipotle Weight Watchers
Olive Garden Weight Watchers
Red Robin Weight Watchers
Taco Bell Weight Watchers
P.F. Chang's
Texas Roadhouse
This is happening, and soon! Thank you for the awesome recipe.
Hi! I’m loving your site! How many WW smartpoints are in the kung pao chicken? Thanks so much!
What about the peanuts? How much are we supposed to add, and when? My ancestry isn’t Chinese, but whenever I’ve had Kung Pao Chicken one of the ingredients was always peanuts.