Are noodles the best or are noodles the best?
They are the actual best. You can build almost any type of meal around almost any type of noodles. God bless them, every one.
Today I’m going to introduce you to an idea that is a Zero Thinking Required Dinner Situation. Spoiler: it includes noodles.
Meet: Chili garlic brown rice noodles in the Instant Pot (affiliate link). They are sticky, with an umami flavor and a little sweetness. They are gorgeous, because we get fancy with our toppings. They are laced with a little chili garlic and speckled with red peppers and scallions and peanuts and saucy bites of chicken for those who want it and tofu/other for those who don’t.
Yeah. Those are the ones.
How to make our Instant Pot Noodles (1 MIN):
You know how rice noodles (think Pad Thai) are usually slippery and silky and perfect for fork-twirling? I am going to tell you upfront that these are not those noodles. I mean, literally, they ARE the same noodles, but preparationally (go with it), they are not.
These noodles are STICKY.
Think Spaghetti Pie type sticky. Er, maybe not THAT sticky, but think sticky enough to where you’re probably not going to be able to twirl them up nice and silky-smooth. I do love a good fork-twirl of silky Pad Thai as much as the next hungry girl, but these noodles are a whole different animal.
These noodles are thick, and dense, almost, and very saucy and very chewy and they just beg to be tangled-into with a fork. You’re like, huh? What is she talking about?
And I’m like, here, just try it.
I have several favorite things about this recipe, but the two most notable are that:
- It uses the same sauce (or really similar) as what we used for the back pocket noodle stir fry. Tadahh! It’s just back-pocket-noodle-stir-fry in Instant Pot form. You’re already familiar with that magic, you already have all ingredients in your happy little pantry, you already know you’re gonna like it.
- Adaptability, baby! If you like chicken, use chicken. If you don’t like chicken… don’t use chicken. Veggies? Any kind can work. I wanted to try with broccoli but ran out of time – does someone want to report back on that? Play with the nuts on top. Cashews instead of peanuts? Extra hot sauce or chili pepps? Cilantro instead of green onion? Maybe a squeeze of lime, or maybe not. You are looking at a recipe for a Noodle Blank Canvas. I hereby declare you a Noodle Artist who can go forth and make it exactly what you want.
As I mentioned, these are not your normal silky-smooth rice noodles. They are sticky and delicious. And sticky. Because they get cooked in the instant pot, all the starch gets added to the sauce which contributes to the sticky-delicious-factor.
If you are finding yourself not super excited about the sticky-ness, I outlined an alternate method in the recipe notes. It’s a little more hands-on which I usually try to avoid when using the Instant Pot (what’s the point if you get just as many dishes dirty? says the lazy girl) but it is worth your while if you are seeking SILKY rice noodles.
For the rest of the sticky noodle / instant pot lovers? Green light! On to Noodle Greatness!
Note: a previous version of this recipe called for 3 cups water but that was a mistake – it should be 2 cups water, adding the additional water only as needed. Sorry for the mix up! My brain is forever on vacation. 😋
Chili Garlic Instant Pot Noodles
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 3 mins
- Total Time: 8 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Chili Garlic Instant Pot Noodles – They are sticky, with an umami flavor and a little sweetness. They are gorgeous, because we get fancy with our toppings.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon chili garlic paste (more to taste! yumms)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cups water
- 8 oz. uncooked brown rice noodles
- 1 lb. raw chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
- 2 red bell peppers, sliced thinly
- peanuts, green onions, and/or sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Instant Pot: Place all ingredients except red peppers in the Instant Pot (affiliate link). Cook for 3 minutes (manual). Release steam immediately. If you get splatter, pause, or cover with a towel.
- After: Mix in the red bell peppers and toss very gently, adding a little more water or oil as needed (it will be very sticky). Serve with garnishes – add hot sauce for an extra kick. Says me on every recipe ever. ♡
Notes
Method for less sticky noodles: Reduce water amount to 1/2 cup. Soak rice noodles in a cold water in a separate bowl. Add all ingredients to Instant Pot except rice noodles and red peppers. Cook for 5 minutes. Stir in a tablespoon of cornstarch slurry (to help the sauce thicken) and add the soaked noodles and raw peppers. Cover and “warm” until noodles and peppers are softened and sauce is coating the noodles.
Chicken needs to be cut into small, bite-sized pieces in order for it to cook in 3 minutes along with the rice noodles.
If you don’t have chili garlic paste, use fresh minced garlic and something for heat, such as ground cayenne pepper.
Do not let the noodles sit in the pot for a long time after the timer goes off. You want to release the steam right away, otherwise the noodles turn into straight mush.
These noodles are meant to be sticky. Even when you add water at the end to help them loosen up, they will still be sticky. Mushy? No, unless you overcook them. Sticky? Yes. That’s what happens when you cook them from start to finish in the Instant Pot. All their starch hangs on for dear life. As mentioned, I kind of loved it this way, which is why I kept the recipe to reflect that. If you don’t want them to be sticky, I would suggest a traditional stir fry method (like this!) OR the method outlined in the notes above!
Do you really place the noodles on top, NOT submerging them in the liquid? Or is that pretty video shooting?! 🙂
From my experience, I would definitely try to submerge before putting the lid on! I had some that were not submerged and they burned.
One of my favorite recipes yet. I love all of your recipes, but this was amazing. Next time I need to double the portion so I have leftovers!
I made these last night and had my first Instant Pot “burn” notification experience. I think it was because I used two different brands of rice noodles and one of them comes long and straight rather than folded like most pad-thai style noodles. The long ones did not get immersed in the water/tamari before it was soaked up and turned into sticky sauce, causing them to burn on the bottom. Next time I will not mix noodle brands, ensure noodles are covered by the liquid before covering the lid and might add a little more water and less tamari as I found it a little salty! Not giving up on this recipe, just wanted to share my experience!
★★★★
Just made these, and we loved them – thank you for the wonderful (and quick!) recipe! I may add some Thai basil next time.
I loved it! Easy to prepare and quick to cook. This will go in to my “go to” file and I will be sure to keep the ingredients on hand. Other than thawing the chicken and picking up a couple of peppers, dinner will be just a couple of steps away. I did squeeze a little bit of fresh lime juice on mine because I like it on nearly everything with rice noodles. Thank you for sharing!
Hi! Should I change anything if I don’t use brown rice noodles? I was unable to find them at my grocery store, so I bought the white. Thank you!
Used chicken thighs instead of breasts, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly, and it was delicious. Everything cooked perfectly. I reheated the leftovers in the microwave, but I was wondering if anyone had tried reheating in a pan, and how that worked.
Glad to hear that!
SUPER easy and delicious! Will make again.
★★★★★
I am slurping this up as I’m typing..My add-ins were quartered thai eggplants and the stalks of one generous chinese broccoli (cooked along with the main ingredients), and added thai basil and the chopped leaves of the chinese broccoli at the end with toasted peanuts and sesame seeds, green onion. I found the brown rice noodles at Wegmans, for anyone that lives near one. This will be on repeat, thank you for a brilliant recipe that can be varied a million ways!
★★★★★
Could you make this a vegetarian dish using lentils in place of chicken? If so, French, brown, or red lentils, and would the timing stay the same to save the sticky noodles?
My family loved this! We used broccoli at the end. Delish. Question, we want more. If I double the recipe do I stick with 3 min?
Thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
Yep, 3 mins should still be enough!
How do the noodles stay as leftovers? I am meal prepping for the week and I’d love to try this recipe, but I’m worried that the noodles would get mushy as leftovers. Thoughts?
TLDR: Will make again and will experiment too!
This was the first recipe I made in my instant pot – here’s what I’ve learned so far!
It’s important to chop the chicken into small pieces as mentioned. Don’t make the rookie mistake of chopping it small and then just placing it all in a big lump (that resembles a whole breast) in the instant pot. It’ll defeat the purpose and your chicken won’t be cooked in 3 mins. I wish I spread out my chicken evenly and stirred it in the sauce to cover it all the meat before turning it on. I think my chicken would have been more flavorful if I had done so. We ended up putting it back on for one more minute to get the chicken cooked – at full sacrifice to the noodles. To our surprise, the noodles didn’t turn completely to mush with the extra min! We also used regular rice noodles vs brown since that’s all our store had.
I added 1/2 tbs more chili garlic. This was great for me, but too hot for my husband. If you’re going to amp up the heat I’d also increase the sugar. Or leave as-is in the recipe and season with hot sauce when you serve.
I could have chopped them too big, but I felt that my peppers didn’t wilt/cook enough when I tossed them after everything had cooked. They felt nearly raw to me and I ended up eating around them. I may experiment adding them in at the beginning (in thicker slices) or with another vegetable, or sautéing first.
I garnished with green onion, chopped peanuts, and black sesame seeds.
Looking forward to making this again (sans the rookie mistakes) and experimenting. Overall this was delicious and so easy!
This was very salty. The flavor itself was nice and it’s super easy to make. Just too salty. How do I remedy this going forward?
★★
Sorry to hear that! I’d opt for low-sodium soy sauce.
I just bought an IP and this was my second recipe. Instead of chicken I used some left over smoked pulled pork. I put ginger paste, chili flakes. Cilantro, a dash of lime, honey instead of brown sugar, sesame oil, then the noodles and pork on top with crushed peanuts and sliced onions. This was perfect!!!!! Rice noodles do not cook this way in a pan.
I’m giving you 5 stars
★★★★★
Made this tonight and it was good except it wasn’t very saucy. The sauce seem to sort of disappear. Maybe I should reduce the amount of noodles next time?
My very first instant pot recipe! So easy! So delicious! And the instructions are thorough. However, even with low sodium soy sauce, I found it salty. I will probalby sub half no sodium chicken broth next time and see how it goes! But I love this! Will be making again!
★★★★★
This was quick and easy. I didnt have garlic chili paste so I used 2 T chili sauce with 1 tsp minced garlic and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes. Turned out great but next time I would brown my chicken first.
I was very skeptical at first.
3 minutes?
And I’d never worked with brown rice noodles before, much less in an instant pot.
However, the idea of this recipe stuck with me, figuratively and literally in the form of an open browser tab on my phone for weeks. I finally bought a box of brown rice noodles, and a couple weeks later (tonight) when we hadn’t planned anything for dinner, I knew it was time to take the chance. And goodness was it worth it. I love this. The flavors of that sauce are so good and unexpected. Only downside was eating too much. Really. I’m not used to sticky noodles so it was a little difficult to separate into servings ( and difficult to stir in your peppers or other veggies). When dishing out one plate had way too many noodles and the other had all the fixings — all the chicken stuck to the bottom.
Essentially I scarfed down a double prob. I’ll definitely make again, even if just for me.
★★★★
This was really good. I did make a couple of changes. I used Coconut Amines instead of Soy Sauce and I lightly steamed fresh broccoli and added since I can’t stand red peppers. I also added scallions to the pot to cook. So, yummy!!!
★★★★
Glad to hear it!
I just tried this today…and I honestly had undercooked noodles in a soup when I opened my instant pot. I had to do another 2 minute cycle (which I should have made 3) because it was VERY liquidy not at all sticky when I finished.
No idea what I did wrong…they tasted amazing (although I used rice vinegar and sesame oil instead of white and olive so yay Asian ingredients!)
Also, would be nice to maybe have a way to soften the peppers as they were basically raw even after letting them snuggle in the noodles for a few minutes.
I made this recipe last night and it was delicious!!
– We used regular rice noodles (not the brown rice noodles the recipe calls for) and it worked fine. Before I started cooking, I saw that one of the comments said to add 1 minute if using regular rice noodles but the 3 minutes the recipe calls for worked for us.
– I was lazy and didn’t feel like finding chili garlic paste during my late night Trader Joe’s run, so I used the garlic and cayenne pepper blend you recommend. I minced 2 cloves of garlic and used 1 tablespoon of cayenne. It was SUPER spicy, which lost the garlic taste. I’m sure more experienced chefs would have known that would be way too much cayenne, but…I did not. My husband, who loves spicy foods, loved it!
– I added raw broccoli in at the same time as the red peppers. It gave it a nice crunch, but you can definitely tell that it’s raw, so I might steam the broccoli first next time.
★★★★★
Could you make this as a freezer meal or with frozen chicken?
Would I have to alter the cooking time much if i swapped the chicken for shrimp?
Depends on the size of the shrimp! If they’re pretty small, we’d think it would be just fine.
Brilliant! Thank you! My kids loved it!
★★★★★
Glad to hear it, Angie!