Mongolian chicken is a dish served in Chinese restaurants with a tangy sauce and rice. Usually, steak is the protein of choice but since steak is high in points on WW, I subbed in chicken to help lower the points. The result was just as delicious! Steak is fine to use if your daily points limit allows for it. Just adjust the recipe in your recipe builder.

The recipe below uses an instant pot but this can easily be made on a stove top.cSee my instructions and tips below above the recipe to make this dish on a stove.
Green Onions are the choice of vegetables but feel free to add in other veggies like yellow onions or bell peppers.
Rice
Make some rice ahead of time in your Instant Pot for this dish. The recipe for Instant Pot rice is equal parts white rice and water. Stir the rice in the water so that it is all submerged in there and set the timer to 5 minutes with a quick release at the end of cooking.
How to make Mongolian Chicken
For Chicken: Cut chicken into thin slices. Cut longer slices in half so that they are bite-sized.
Place chicken slices in a medium bowl and add cornstarch. Stir until evenly coated. Let sit 10 minutes.
For the sauce: In a medium bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, water, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and crushed red pepper flakes. Set aside.
Turn your Instant Pot on to “Saute" mode. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and when hot, sear flank steak until browned on both sides. Add more oil if needed. Push the “Cancel" button on the Instant Pot.
Pour sauce over steak. Place lid on and set to Manual (High Pressure) for 10 minutes. Be sure the valve is in sealing position.
When time is up, do a quick pressure release.
Stir in green onions. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with rice.
Stove top instructions
Here are the stove top instructions for those of you that would like to make this that do not have an Instant Pot. Same ingredients as listed below.
Coat the chicken in cornstarch.
Mix ingredients for sauce in a bowl.
Heat a pan over medium heat. Once the pan is hot enough add the oil, and then add the chicken. Cook the chicken 3 to 4 minutes per side or until the chicken is golden brown.
Add sauce to the pan with the chicken and let the sauce come to a simmer until it has thickened. If the sauce hasn’t thickened, you might need to add a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch.
Other Instant Pot Recipes
Weight Watchers Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Instant Pot Mongolian Chicken
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 5 min
- Total Time: 20 min
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ lb of chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
- 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
Sauce:
- ½ cup of soy sauce
- ½ cup of brown sugar
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ tsp of minced ginger
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- Green Onions, sliced Sesame seeds (optional)
Instructions
For Chicken: Cut chicken into thin slices. Cut longer slices in half so that they are bite-sized. Place chicken slices in a medium bowl and add cornstarch. Stir until evenly coated. Let sit 10 minutes.
For the sauce: In a medium bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, water, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and crushed red pepper flakes. Set aside.
Turn your Instant Pot on to “Saute" mode. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and when hot, sear chicken until browned on both sides. Add more oil if needed. Push the “Cancel" button on the Instant Pot.
Pour sauce over chicken. Place lid on and set to Manual (High Pressure) for 10 minutes. Be sure the valve is in sealing position. When time is up, do a quick pressure release. Stir in green onions. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with rice.
Serving size: ½ cup of rice plus ½ cup of chicken
Notes
myWW points: Blue: 6; Green: 9; Purple: 6 (just chicken)
Can sub your favorite brown sugar substitute to help lower points. (Look up substitution conversions)
Points are calculated with the WW recipe builder app and not using the nutrition info.
- Category: Easy
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Asian
Nutrition
- Calories: 275
- Sugar: 26.9g
- Fat: 6.2g
- Carbohydrates: 32.9g
- Fiber: .3g
- Protein: 21.6g
Keywords: instant pot mongolian chicken
*If you make this recipe please comment and rate the recipe below to let everyone know how it is, or tag me on Instagram! If you want to upload a photo you can do that on Pinterest. Just find the post for it.
Jessie H says
This is great. We always double the sauce for the rice. Yummm!!!
★★★★★
Nakia says
My entire family loved it! I sent this recipe to my other WW friends and family! Thanks so much!
★★★★★
Jenna says
Thanks Corey!
Corey Anderson says
LOVED this recipe!! It was easier than ordering Chinese Take-away, much more delicious than Chinese Take-away, and I appreciate having another Instant Pot recipe to add to my repertoire. Even my MIL, who doesn't like Chinese food, tried it and actually enjoyed it.
★★★★★