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I just made this today and it was absolutely delicious! I wouldn’t change a thing and will most definitely make it one of my go-to recipes.
Laura
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. 😋
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Chili Garlic Instant Pot Noodles
- Total Time: 8 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Description
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!
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 3 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Asian-Inspired
Keywords: instant pot noodles, chili garlic noodles, instant pot asian noodles
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our simple slurapble noodles page. Check it out!
Lindsay, thank you for aways inspiring me in the kitchen! Pinch of yum is a weekly life saver, that never lets me down!!
https://charlieskitchenstories.wordpress.com
Hi tried this today in my instant pot. Loved it! Best teriyaki flavored noodles and chicken eve r. Changed out the water for no salt chicken broth. Very simple to make, highly recommend. Will check out your other recipes. Thanks Lindsey!
Glad to hear you enjoyed this, John!
im sorry…but there are people that DONT like sticky noodles?!?! 0_0
Right!?!?! How can this possibly be a thing? Surely she’s mistaken!
wait.. There’s a thing better then sticky noodles ?!? please do share!! lol
= )
I agree.
LOL Brittany – right? This is on the list for this weekend, but it won’t be ask sticky because I don’t have an Instant Pot! Either way, I’m certain it will still be delicious.
And Lindsay – as a fellow sometimes-chicken-averse individual, I always know I can trust your chicken recipes! 🙂
I think you’ve finally convinced me on the Instant pot. Especially since I dropped my glass slow cooker (I inherited it from my grandma when I bought her house.) And it smashed to smithereens. Sad day. Oh well. I bombed most recipes in it anyhow. But you have won my heart and the day with that whole ZERO thinking deal…….rock on.
It’s so amazing! You will not regret it.
Laura- Go for it! (Amazon usually puts on sale for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, too.) I hate to cook, but I love my Instant Pot— we’ve made delicious Indian fare, soups, chicken cacciatore, Lindsay’s amazing spicy carrot soup, spaghetti squash, boiled eggs, etc. Made this noodle recipe tonight and it was so easy and really good!
If I want to double this recipe, do I cook it for the same amount of time?
Hoping there will be more non-instant pot recipes coming soon. I don’t have one and don’t have the money to go out and buy one right now.
Totally agree. Less product shilling and more recipes from the heart!
I do not comment here often, but I was shocked to read this comment. First, Lindsay always includes ways to prepare the recipes without an instant pot, and second, the recipes are AMAZING and obviously totally from the heart.
I love this series even though I do not own an Instant Pot. Lots of love!
I AGREE. This is stir fryable and she wasn’t pushing an Instant pot on anyone. But if you already have one, sometimes it takes a little thinking outside the box to utilize it to its fullest potential. I have one but am stir frying THIS recipe because I am batching for the week and already have beans in my IP. One of the reasons I LOVE Lindsay’s recipes is that she give alt. Options and what you cannot change.
This isn’t shilling – this is producing recipes for a product that millions of people love to cook with. Many that own Instant Pots are in constant-search of recipes to use in them because not just any recipe works. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, then don’t read the post.
there are tons of non-instant-pot recipes on the site already…..
Thanks for the feedback Colleen! We are doing an Instant Pot series this month (see note at the beginning of the post).
Hi! Delicious recipe, thanks for posting! This may be obvious to proficient “chefs”, but maybe you could add a note about watching the amount of water you add when doubling or tripling the receipe, for naive folks like me. I doubled it and ended up with more “soupy” than “sticky” with the 4 cups of water the recipe listed. Besides that, great meal! 🙂
Wow! These noodles are incredible. I don’t find them too sticky at all, just the perfect stickiness! I made it exactly as written- just I had to use white rice noodles because I live in a small town and brown aren’t available. It didn’t seem to affect anything. I also loved how these are done so fast. Thanks!!
I buy brown rice noodles on Amazon and order multiple packages when I do. I haven’t made this in over a year but a friend I used to bring this dish to requested it recently so I’ve got noodles again!!! It will be on the menu shortly.
There are many recipe sites online that don’t use the instant pot…people like me who do have one search out these types of recipes…..if you don’t have one then just convert to stove top or look at different sites. She can post whatever kind of recipes she likes and you have the choice to like it or not. She also has other recipes that don’t use the instant pot that you can make.
Just got asn Instant Pot last week. If adding veggies like broccoli, at what point do we add them? Don’t want them to be too soft or too crunchy. Thanks! Love your site
I would add them at the end! I think if you cooked them in the noodles, they’d get too mushy.
We made this recipe last week – the first we’ve made in our Instant Pot (we were told we needed to put it on our registry, so employing blind faith, we did) and it legit tastes like our favorite local MYO stir fry place. Decided 13/10 would make again. Last night, we decided to add in some roasted broccoli – we coated the broccoli lightly in olive oil and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and garlic, and baked for 20 minutes at 450. It was crispy perfection that added a GREAT texture to your recipe. We added them after everything was cooked, along with crushed peanuts and diced peppers. My husband accidentally added an extra tablespoon of the chili garlic paste/sauce, but in my opinion it was the perfect amount of spice. Looking forward to experimenting with more vegetables for this! Great recipe – so glad we stumbled upon it! 🙂
i think so too 🙂
I also should add that we put the chicken on the bottom of the instant pot, in the liquid, and then layered the noodles on top – it’s been perfectly cooked every time, and the noodles have been a perfect consistency as well!
Are you not doing any other recipes apart from these new instant pot ones? completely understand the logic behind you doing them. just curious question from a Long Time Follower
Hi Jason! We’re doing a series this October with Instant Pot recipes. 🙂
Could youake this on the stove?? If so, how?
Yep – here’s a link to a really similar recipe prepared on the stovetop. https://pinchofyum.com/back-pocket-stir-fry
This looks so delicious! Quick Q…is this a good starter recipe for the instant pot?
No, I think it’s better to do this one after you’ve done a few recipes in it. Pasta/noodles are usually a little tricky because you want to land that perfect timing between underdone and mushy. I’d recommend a more forgiving recipe like this one for your first try! https://pinchofyum.com/everything-greek-pork-pitas
Chili garlic? Red peppers? Scallions?
Peanuts? Count me in, I really love the choices of toppings for this recipe and the list of nutrional facts is also very useful.
Not to mention I love the idea of using sticky noodles instead of your normal silky-smooth noodles. The instructions for the recipe help out ALOT, another plus!
I’ve only had my Instant Pot for a few months and I want to say PLEASE keep the recipes coming! There are a lot of naysayers apparently (which boggles my mind!) but for those of us who have and LOVE this magical device, it’s so helpful to have so many recipes available. When I want to experiment, it helps to have recipes as general guidelines. When I want sticky noodles (and how could I not?), it’s wonderful to have a recipe like this that tells me exactly what to expect and how to achieve the same results.
Thanks! Helpful to have feedback on both sides. 🙂
I love reading you’re blog! You make cooking fun, I feel like I’m cooking with a friend. You’re also a very talented writer – thanks for sharing. So this is a little thing but when I cook the types of vinegars confuse me. Would you use rice vinegar in this recipe and have you ever tried coconut vinegar? Delicious but I would def try it with more of a variety of vegetables next time and not a fan of the peanuts on top. 😊
Just made your chili garlic noodles. They are amazing. You mention in the notes to make less sticky to soak in cold water and then cook 5 minutes in Instant Pot. Do you mean to pressurize for 5 minutes or sauté? Thanks so much!!
Hi Luane! You should cook on the manual setting for 5 minutes.
Lindsay, the food you’re cooking looks amazing.
Yum! I could dive right into that bowl!
Kari
http://sweetteasweetie.com/spicy-lentil-stir-fry-rose/
Did the alternative instructions go away? And can they come back? I made a few of these in my slow cooker and they’ve been great
Hi Kelly! This recipe isn’t really fit for a slow cooker, but we do have a stovetop version here: https://pinchofyum.com/back-pocket-stir-fry
made this tonight, but must have used the wrong noodles because they were soupy rather than sticky! 🙁 where does one find brown rice noodles?!
Hi Jessi! Sorry to hear that. We can usually find Thai Kitchen brown rice noodles at Target, but we also linked to them on Amazon in the “Ingredients” section.
These noodles are also called “rice sticks” if you shop at an Asian market that doesn’t carry this American brand.
nice, different, like the sticky brown rice noodles, like the chili garlic paste, and the other flavors too, thank you!
Any idea why I keep getting a cert error on your website since last week?
Hi Kate! Sorry to hear that – we haven’t heard of this issue. I would try clearing your cache and seeing if that does the trick!
would this turn out differently/require different cooking instructions if using regular (not brown) rice noodles? I can’t always find them in a pinch.
Hi Brittany! We gave them a try and they worked – they just might be a little mushier.
I don’t have brown rice noodles right now. Can I use regular fettuccine or something for now? #droolingandhoping.. 🙂 Thank you!!
Hi Nikita! This recipe can be a little finnicky, so we’d recommend sticking with the rice noodles.
I only have spaghetti rice noodles (gluten free). Would these work? Also have Frozen chicken tenderloins. Thanks.
I always have a hard time figuring out which paste/sauce cooks use becuase everyone uses different names every time… which is the one you are calling for in this recipe (you said Chili Garlic Paste)…and I have found Sweet chili Sauce or Ground fresh chili paste. The first has garlic in it and the second does not. So which is it?
This should be the one! https://www.amazon.com/Huy-Fong-Chili-Garlic-Sauce/dp/B014CZ4KZ4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1508790137&sr=8-2&keywords=chili+garlic+paste&linkCode=sl1&tag=recipepost-20&linkId=6167fd97325786da45f3f01ffbe057b8 (affiliate link)
THANK YOU! I actaully bought that one, but wasn’t sure because it says “sauce” instead of “paste”.
These noodles were SO good. Couldn’t find brown rice noodles so used regular rice noodles and still came out great. Definitely a keeper
My mouth is watering! I’m trying this tonight! Thanks for the idea$!!
I have tried several recipes from pinch of yum and have never been disappointed! But I have to say this was not good. My husband and I both found it to be incredible salty, almost to the point where it was inedible. I served the leftovers with sweet thai chili sauce to help cut the salt a bit but it still wasn’t great. I won’t be making this one again!
So sorry to hear that. We appreciate the feedback!
MY OH MY!!
im so hungry 🙁
This is one of the best recipes I have seen online and I made it around 2 hours ago. It is really awesome.I did use some chopped green chilies too and I feel you won’t mind that. I usually expect extra chili when ever I hunt for taste. I usually learn to cook online. I also bought today a pack of more than 1000 Indian recipes which are all healthy and I personally feel that it’s worth Sharing.
Can be seen here https://ssl.clickbank.net/order/restricted.html?errCode=accntstate&cbhopvendor=danaam4
Thanks… and keep up this good blog.
This recipe is super finicky. I enjoyed the final product, but my husband did not. I found it to be too salty and we used low sodium soy sauce.
We also used regular rice noodles and they were not fully cooked at 3 minutes. We re-set the timer for 1 minute and it did the trick. Usually brown noodles take longer, so not sure what the difference was here.
Thanks for the feedback, Kel!
All I tasted was salt. The balance was way off. Was so excited but will never make it again due to the results.
Hmmm..I cannot buy another kitchen gadget no matter how great it is unless I build a new house. So, I am needing these noodles how can I do it?? Le Cruset? Crockpot? I hope I didn’t miss instructions for this somewhere in the notes! I guess just cook it all and mix it together because it looks amazing!
Hey Nancy! Here’s a stovetop version: https://pinchofyum.com/back-pocket-stir-fry
I remember reading a few comments in response to the recipe regarding not having an Instant Pot, for various reasons. My husband and I just moved and discovered our Instant Pot’s steam release valve knob was missing, but we’d planned on making this meal last night…so we improvised.
1. I highly recommend roasting broccoli to add to this recipe, so prep this first. I commented previously, but here is the gist of what my hubs and I do: we coat fresh, chopped broccoli lightly in olive oil and season it with salt, pepper, and garlic. We and roast it in the oven for 15 minutes at 450. We discovered it works best with gas heat as it gets just a little more char!
2. Chop and pan fry the chicken – should only take a couple of minutes if you chop it small enough.
3. While your chicken is cooking, heat your water and cook the noodles according to directions. Drain and set aside.
4. In the pot you used for the noodles, follow all directions for the sauce, but use just 1.5 cups of water. Let it reach a boil, then simmer for a few minutes, stirring lightly so it reduces but doesn’t burn.
5. Chop the peppers and peanuts and set aside.
6. Combine all ingredients in the pot you used for the noodles and sauce and let everything cook together for 2-4 minutes.
Everything still turned out great, and was very close to the outcome of the recipe using the Instant Pot, including as leftovers that I just had for my lunch, it was just more involved following this method.