Love Root Beer? Then this Instant Pot Pulled Chicken is for you! Watching your carbs? This recipe is Keto-friendly! If you are not on a sugar-free or low carb diet, no problem, just use regular root beer and brown sugar in the recipe.
Instant Pot Pulled Chicken in Keto Root Beer BBQ Sauce
Pulled Chicken is a classic American dish and Root Beer is one of our favorite sodas. Team them together for an amazing keto BBQ pulled chicken.
This is a great way to use up over-sized chicken breasts that you expect may be tough.
Root Beer
I used Virgil's since it tastes the most like regular root beer to me. It is also sweetened with erythritol, which is a keto approved sugar alcohol. If you are following Dirty Keto feel free to swap your zero cal root beer of choice. Non-dieters, just grab a can of your fave Root Beer and dump it in!
Brown Sugar
I had Swerve brown sugar substitute on-hand, but Lakanto and others make great keto-friendly brown sugar alternatives. If you are not concerned about carbs, simple swap in regular brown sugar.
How to Make the Instant Pot Pulled Chicken
Here I will walk you there making this simple Instant Pot dump and cook recipe. The printable recipe card can be found below.
Root Beer Chicken Ingredients
Here is everything you will need to make this delicious low carb root beer pulled chicken.
- 1 ½ pounds chicken breast
- 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar substitute (I used Swerve)
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 12 oz can diet root beer (I used Virgil's Zero Sugar)
- 1 ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
- ground black pepper (I used about a ¼ tsp, adjust to your preference)
Preparing the Root Beer Pulled Chicken in the Instant Pot
Start by mixing the apple cider vinegar, brown sugar substitute, tomato paste and Worcestershire right in the Instant Pot. Then dump in the root beer and all the rest of the seasonings.
Drop in the chicken breasts and give it a quick stir, then lock on cover, flip pressure valve to seal and manually set to 12 minutes (10 minutes if you have small chicken breasts).
After cooking and allowing for natural pressure release, flip the valve to release any remaining pressure and open the pot.
Pull out the chicken and place on a plate or cutting board. Shred the chicken breasts with two forks. Once shredded return the chicken to the pot and stir.
Taste and stir in 1-2 tablespoons more of apple cider vinegar if you want more tangy flavor. Add more salt and ground black pepper to taste.
Serve over a low carb side like cauliflower mashed or cauliflower rice pilaf.
More Keto Instant Pot Recipes
If you're on a ketogenic diet and want to give that electric pressure cooker a workout, try these recipes.
- Keto BBQ Chicken Instant Pot Recipe (bone-in legs)
- Instant Pot Salsa Chicken (Keto Friendly)
- Instant Pot Chicken Curry - Keto Pulled Chicken Thighs in Curry Sauce
- Keto Tuscan Chicken Instant Pot - Marry Me Chicken
- Creamy Chicken Florentine Soup - Instant Pot Keto Recipe
- Keto Pulled Pork - Instant Pot Balsamic Pulled Pork
Instant Pot Root Beer Pulled Chicken (Keto)
Equipment
- electric pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds chicken breast
- 12 oz can diet root beer I used Virgil's Zero Sugar
- 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar +1-2 tablespoon optional at end
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar substitute I used Swerve
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
- ground black pepper
Instructions
- Start by mixing the apple cider vinegar, brown sugar substitute, tomato paste and Worcestershire right in the Instant Pot. Then dump in the root beer and all the rest of the seasonings.
- Drop in the chicken breasts and give it a quick stir, then lock on cover, flip pressure valve to seal and manually set to 12 minutes (10 minutes if you have small chicken breasts).
- After cooking and depressurizing, flip the valve to release the rest of the pressure and open the pot.
- Pull out the chicken and place on a plate or cutting board. Shred the chicken breasts with two forks. Once shredded return the chicken to the pot and stir.
- Taste and stir in 1-2 tablespoons more of apple cider vinegar if you want more tangy flavor. Add more salt and ground black pepper to taste.
The pulled chicken is now ready to serve.
Lisalia says
I just HAD to try this because of the ingredients! I'm not even KETO but this looked so delicous and strange. Well. .. good to say that it was a hit. And nobody guessed it had ROOT BEER in it!
Liz says
My daughter loves root beer so we always have some on hand. I was super curious about this recipe, and it was a huge hit with my family. So easy and tasty!!