Instant Pot Chicken Santa Fe
An Instant Pot version of our family favorite Crockpot Chicken Santa Fe!
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. In the stainless steel IP inner pot, add your frozen chicken breasts, followed by the drained and rinsed black beans, then a can of corn with the liquid. Note, if I was using frozen corn, I would add a bit of water or chicken broth. Add 1 cup salsa and seasonings. Mix ingredients together as best you can, noting that everything will not be submerged in thin liquid.
  2. Seal the Instant Pot and move the vent to Sealing. Set the timer for 20 minutes High Pressure. Note: My IP took about 18-19 minutes to come to pressure before it started cooking.
  3. Once the 20 minutes have elapsed, let the Instant Pot NPR, or naturally release the pressure. Once the pin drops, open the IP and take out your chicken breasts. Shred in a separate bowl, or cut into chunks if you like your meat in larger pieces.
  4. Make sure the Keep Warm button is on your IP, and add the softened block of cream cheese to your Instant Pot. Stir until it dissolved and incorporates and thickens the sauce/bean/corn mixture in the IP. Once it has incorporated, add your shredded or diced chicken back to the IP. Keep on the Keep Warm setting as long as you like; the mixture should thicken the longer it sits.
  5. Serve as you like – Tim likes his over tortilla chips like a chunky nachos. Stacy likes hers over brown rice, with some tortilla chips on the side for a bit of crunch. We top ours with things like sliced avocado, sour cream, shredded cheese, olives, jalapenos, etc.
  6. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes

Stacy’s Notes:

  • I had been wanting to adapt our longtime family favorite recipe for Crockpot Chicken Santa Fe to the Instant Pot, and am so glad I finally did!  It does still take about 1 hour, from start to finish, but that’s a substantial time savings over the 2-4 hours this dish takes in our crockpot.
  • Season your chicken and beans/corn with whatever you like. If you like a spicy dish, use a spicy salsa (I use a mild or medium). Add more seasonings, plus salt and pepper, to your taste.  You can use a cajun or Mexican seasoning, taco seasoning (my homemade Taco Seasoning is here), oregano, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, etc. In ours, I just eyeballed garlic powder, onion powder, homemade taco seasoning and cumin.  Remember that when you cook in an Instant Pot, you usually need more seasonings, so don’t be afraid to use more 🙂
  • After the pressure releases from the IP (mine took about 22-23 minutes for the pin to drop), take the chicken out and shred or dice, whatever you prefer. Make sure your IP is on the Keep Warm setting, then add your softened cream cheese (I take mine out when I start cooking and let it sit on the counter) to the pot.  Stir, stir, stir to incorporate the cream cheese. Once it is dissolved and you don’t see clumps of cream cheese, add your chicken back in.
  • Serve with your choice of toppings and enjoy!