You know those meals that just settle everything right? This is one of them.

It’s a generous, comforting ladle of homemade gravy and tender chicken over the creamiest mashed potatoes you’ll make on a weeknight.

Ingredients Needed for the Recipe

Gathering your ingredients is the first little step toward comfort.

Here’s everything you’ll need to bring this cozy dish together.

• Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (1.5 lbs): The hearty, protein-packed base of the dish, they cook up incredibly tender.
• Water & Chicken Base (2 cups, 1 Tbsp): This creates a deeply flavorful broth that becomes the foundation for our gravy.
• Red Potatoes (3 lbs): Their thin skins and waxy texture make for the smoothest, most luxurious mash.
• Milk (1.5 cups + 1/3 cup): Used in two parts, it first creates the gravy and later enriches the mashed potatoes.
• Flour (1/3 to 1/2 cup): This is our gravy thickener, giving the sauce its perfect, spoon-coating body.
• Seasonings (Onion & Garlic Powder, Parsley, Poultry Seasoning, Salt & Pepper): This simple blend adds a classic, savory depth to the gravy without any fuss.
• Butter, Sour Cream, & Milk (1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/3 cup): The holy trinity for mashed potatoes, ensuring they are rich, creamy, and utterly irresistible.

My Kitchen, Your Kitchen: A Note on Inspiration

I first saw a version of this called a "Little Hen Casserole" online, and it stuck in my mind.

I loved the concept but really wanted to build a from-scratch gravy, and the Instant Pot made that dream so beautifully simple.

How to make Instant Pot Chicken Little?

It all happens in one pot, really, which is the kind of magic I live for.

Just follow these steps, and you'll see what I mean.

Step 1- Build Your Flavor Base

Place the chicken breasts right into the inner pot of your Instant Pot.

Pour in the water and stir in the chicken base until it dissolves into a simple broth.

Step 2- Layer the Potatoes

Wash your red potatoes, you can leave those lovely skins on.

Place them whole into a steamer basket and lower that basket right on top of the chicken and broth.

Step 3- Pressure Cook

Lock the lid, ensure the valve is set to sealing, and set it to cook on high pressure.

Fresh chicken needs 15 minutes, frozen needs about 17, then let the pressure come down naturally for 5-10 minutes before releasing the rest.

Step 4- Prep for Gravy

Carefully remove the steamer basket full of potatoes and set it aside for a moment.

Move the now-tender chicken to a cutting board using tongs, leave that glorious broth in the pot.

Step 5- Create the Gravy

In a large measuring cup, whisk the 1.5 cups of milk with about a cup of the hot broth from the pot to warm it up.

Slowly whisk in your flour and all the dried seasonings until you have a perfectly smooth, lump-free slurry.

Step 6- Thicken and Combine

Turn the Instant Pot to the Sauté function and pour in your milk and flour mixture.

Stir constantly for a few minutes while it bubbles and thickens into a gorgeous, savory gravy.

Step 7- Finish the Chicken

While the gravy simmers, chop or shred the cooked chicken into bite-sized pieces.

Stir all that chicken right back into the gravy, letting it soak up every bit of flavor, and give it a taste for seasoning.

Step 8- Mash the Potatoes

Dump your cooked potatoes into a big bowl and mash them well with a potato masher.

Stir in the melted butter, sour cream, and the additional 1/3 cup of milk until they're dreamily creamy, season to your liking.

Step 9- Serve It Up

Scoop a generous mound of those creamy red potatoes onto a plate or into a shallow bowl.

Ladle a hearty helping of the chicken and homemade gravy right over the top, and dinner is served.

The Joy of One-Pot Cooking

The cleverest part here, honestly, is cooking the chicken and potatoes together.

You get two main components done simultaneously, and the leftover broth becomes your gravy starter, which feels both smart and wonderfully efficient.

Tips

A few little insights from my kitchen to make your experience even smoother.

• If you don't have a steamer basket, a trivet works perfectly. No trivet? Crumple a large piece of foil into a platform and place the potatoes on top of the chicken.
• For a super-smooth gravy, sift your flour before whisking it into the milk mixture. It incorporates without a single lump.
• Let the pressure release naturally for those 5-10 minutes. It keeps the chicken incredibly juicy and helps the potatoes finish cooking evenly.

Making It Your Own: Variations & Swaps

This recipe is wonderfully forgiving, so play around with what you have.

Bone-in chicken thighs will add a richer, deeper flavor, just add a couple minutes to the cook time.

Yukon Gold potatoes are a fantastic substitute, their buttery flavor makes an incredible mash.

In a real hurry? Use a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. Just heat the broth, make the gravy, and stir in the shredded chicken to warm through.

Serving Ideas for a Perfect Plate

This dish is a complete comfort meal all on its own, truly.

But if you want to round it out, a simple side of steamed broccoli or sweet corn adds a lovely color and freshness.

And if you're feeling ambitious, oh, a batch of warm, flaky biscuits on the side is pure heaven. My daughter Reagan makes the best ones, we're always asking her to bake.