Tinolang Manok Instant Pot Filipino Recipe | Chicken Tinola (2024)

February 25, 2024January 26, 2021 by Kathleen

Chicken Tinola or Tinolang Manok Instant Pot is one of the easiest Instant Pot Filipino Recipes you can whip up. To cook this chicken papaya soup famous in most Filipino households, you only need a few ingredients, ginger being the main one. Tinolang Manok can be cook for 10 minutes in the Instant Pot and an additional 1 minute for the green papaya and chili leaves.

If you are not near a Filipino supermarket, you can substitute the green papaya with chayote and the chili leaves with spinach, which is how I made this Tinolang Manok Instant Pot Recipe.

What is Chicken Tinola

Tinola, Chicken Tinola or Tinolang Manok is a Filipino soup dish made of chicken pieces, ginger, green papaya, chili leaves, and fish sauce. Chicken Tinola recipes are usually cooked on the traditional stovetop but you can also cook Tinola in the Instant Pot pressure cooker so you can leave and do other things.

In the Philippines, because of its simplicity, Filipinos cook Tinola all the time. Probably not cooked as often as the Filipino Adobo but definitely as often as cooking other Filipino soup recipes like the Sinigang.

Ingredients for Tinolang Manok Instant Pot

Instant Pot Tinolang Manok has very simple ingredients including chicken pieces, fresh ginger, fish sauce, green papaya, and chili leaves. If you can’t find green papaya and chili leaves, you can also substitute them – see notes below:

• 1/2 yellow onion, peeled & coarsely chopped – White onion or sweet onion will do.
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled & minced
• 2 thumbs fresh ginger, peeled & julienned – the most important ingredient in flavoring the Tinola soup.
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 5 cups water
• 3 tbsp fish sauce– Fish sauce is used in a lot of Filipino Recipes including Arroz Caldo, Pinakbet, Sinigang na Baboy, Bulalo, etc.
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 pcs chicken thighs – You can cut the chicken thigh into 2 or cook it as is. You can also use other chicken parts like drumsticks, some even use a whole chicken for tinola but I prefer just the thighs.
• 1 green papaya or chayote, peeled, seeded & cubed – Green or unripe papaya is traditionally used in cooking Chicken Tinola but I prefer the taste of chayote and it is also easily available in our local supermarket.
• 1 cup of chili leaves or malunggay leaves (remove stem) or spinach – Chili leaves or Malunggay leaves (Moringa) is typically what’s used for Chicken Tinola but I would have to drive to a Filipino supermarket to get them. Spinach actually tastes just as great when cooking Tinola.

How to Cook Tinolang Manok in Instant Pot

Cooking Chicken Tinola or Tinolang Manok in an Instant Pot is a 2-step process. You first cook the chicken for 10 minutes in the pressure cooker followed by cooking the leaves and papaya or chayote for a minute. It is cook separately so the papaya or chayote doesn’t get mushy. Check out the step by step guide to cooking Chicken Tinola in an Instant Pot below.

Tinolang Manok Instant Pot Cooking Instructions

1. Prepare your Chicken Tinola ingredients by preparing the aromatics: peel and julienne the ginger, peel and chop the onion, and peel and mince the garlic cloves
2. Saute the aromatics. Press SAUTE on the Instant Pot and add cooking oil to the Instant Pot’s inner pot. Add and saute the onion for about a minute then add the ginger and garlic and saute for about 30 seconds. Make sure not to burn them. Press CANCEL to stop the SAUTE mode.
3. Add Water. Fill the Instant Pot’s inner pot with water up to the 5 cup line.
4. Add flavoring. Add the fish sauce and salt then stir to distribute the flavor.
5. Add the protein. Add the chicken pieces to the pot and arrange them so they are not bunched up together.
6. Start Cooking the Instant Pot Chicken Tinola. Close the lid and set the steam release handle to “SEALING”, press SOUP and set the cooking time to 10 minutes, normal setting.
7. Prep the leaves and starch. While the chicken tinola is cooking, cut the green papaya or chayote (I prefer chayote) to cubes, getting rid of the seed and skin. Also, make sure there are no stems if you’re using malunggay leaves.
8. Depressurize. Once the Instant Pot is done cooking, release the steam by turning the steam release handle to “VENTING”. The float valve pin will drop once it has depressurized, at this point you can open the Instant Pot.
9. Cook the leaves and starch. Add the chili leaves or malunggay leaves or spinach (I used spinach for this recipe) and green papaya or chayote (I used chayote) to the Instant Pot and start the cooking process – close the lid, seal the vent, and press MANUAL and set the cooking time to 1 minute only.
10. Done cooking. Once it is done cooking, move the steam release handle to “VENTING”, once the pin drops, you can open the lid and it’s ready to eat.
    

    

More Instant Pot Filipino Recipes:

• Chicken Afritada Instant Pot Recipe
• Filipino Chicken Curry Instant Pot Recipe
• Kare-Kare Instant Pot Recipe
• Pinakbet Instant Pot Recipe
• Arroz Caldo Instant Pot Recipe
• Pork Sinigang Instant Pot Recipe
• Chicken Adobo Instant Pot Recipe
• Bulalo Instant Pot Recipe
• Beef Caldereta Instant Pot Recipe

Plus, Drink and Dessert Recipes:

• Milo Dinosaur Recipe
• Taro Smoothie Recipe
• Panna Cotta Recipe
• Avocado Shake Recipe
• Green Juice Recipe

Tinolang Manok Instant Pot

Ingredients

• 1/2 yellow onion, peeled & coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled & minced
• 2 thumbs ginger, peeled & julienned
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 5 cups water
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 pcs chicken thighs, cut into 2 or as is
• 1 green papaya or chayote (peeled, seeded & cubed)
• 1 cup of chili leaves or malunggay leaves (remove stem) or spinach

Instructions

1. Julienne the ginger, chop the onion, and mince the garlic.

2. Press SAUTE on the Instant Pot and add cooking oil to the Instant Pot's inner pot.

3. Add and saute the onion for about a minute then add the ginger and garlic and saute for about 30 seconds. Make sure not to burn them. Press CANCEL.

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4. Fill the Instant Pot's inner pot with water up to the 5 cup line.

5. Add the fish sauce and salt. Stir.

6. Add the chicken pieces. Close the lid and set the steam release handle to "SEALING".

7. To cook: Press SOUP and set the cooking time to 10 minutes, normal setting.

8. While the chicken is cooking, cut the green papaya or chayote (I prefer chayote) to cubes. Getting rid of seed and skin.

9. Once the Instant Pot is done cooking, release the steam by turning the steam release handle to "VENTING". The pin will drop once it has depressurized, at this point you can open the Instant Pot.

10. Add the chili leaves or malunggay leaves or spinach (I used spinach for this recipe) and green papaya or chayote (I used chayote) to the Instant Pot and repeat the cooking process - close the lid, seal the vent, and press MANUAL and set cooking time to 1 minute only.

11. Once it is done cooking, move the steam release handle to "VENTING", once the pin drops, you can open the lid and it's ready to eat.

Notes

Cooking time for the chicken is 10 minutes and 1 minute for the leaves and chayote but the Instant Pot takes around 10 minutes to build pressure before starting cooking time and around 5 minutes to release steam. Consider this when cooking so you can time it properly to serving time.

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