Instant Pot Chicken and Rice is the perfect one-pot dinner recipe. A delicious comfort food to enjoy all year round! Make either chicken breast and white rice or chicken thighs and brown rice.
Save on time and dishes with this quick and easy recipe made entirely in the electric pressure cooker. Two of my most popular Instant Pot recipes are Instant Pot Rice and Instant Pot Chicken. So I decided to combine the two and make a one-pot meal out of both.
The advantage of a pressure cooker is that water doesn’t evaporate. Grains like rice and chicken can be cooked together perfectly because you use less water for the rice while the chicken sits on top and gets cooked with just the steam. The result is a super-duper tender and juicy chicken and fluffy rice.
If you don’t have an Instant Pot though, you can still enjoy this delicious recipe by making regular 1-Pot Chicken and Rice on the stove.
Instant Pot Chicken Breast and White Rice
The original recipe initially was for chicken breasts and white rice cooked together in the Instant Pot. After extensive testing, I found the right amount of cooking time to achieve fluffy rice and juicy chicken. After 5 minutes high-pressure and 10 minutes natural pressure release, the chicken is JUST cooked. It won’t be dry but it shouldn’t be pink at all, just white.
It’s important to note that if your pin drops before the 10 minutes, the pot most likely didn’t get to high pressure and the chicken might be undercooked. Double-check before you start that the sealing knob is in the sealing position, and no air or steam comes out of the knob.
Instant Pot Chicken Thighs and Rice
Some people asked me for versions of the original recipe but using either brown rice instead of white, or chicken thighs instead of breasts. After what feels like a million test trials, I finally got the formula. Yay!
Brown rice takes triple the time to cook than white rice and would dry out the chicken breasts in the process. The secret is to use bone-in chicken thighs with brown rice. The result was absolutely amazing.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Chicken – use chicken breasts or chicken thighs. I recommend using chicken breasts no bigger than 6.5oz (180g). If too big, cut them into 1” cubes to ensure they cook through. If using chicken thighs, go for bone-in skinless thighs.
- Cilantro – you’ll need 1 whole bunch of fresh cilantro to make the flavorful cilantro water for the rice. I suggest you don’t replace it, but if needed, you could use parsley. Just keep in mind that it has a slightly stronger flavor.
- Avocado oil – I recommend using a high-smoke point fat, such as avocado oil, ghee or bacon fat. This is important so the fat doesn’t burn at the bottom of the Instant Pot.
- Onion – use one small white or yellow onion.
- Garlic – you will need two cloves.
- Rice – use white basmati or brown basmati rice depending on what piece of chicken you’ll be cooking. I don’t recommend using any other type of rice because they need different cooking times on the Instant Pot.
- Carrots – a staple in many rice recipes. 1.5 or 2 medium carrots should yield a cup when chopped. You can also use baby carrots.
- Celery – when cooked, celery adds great flavor. For this chicken and rice recipe, you will need 2-3 celery stalks.
- Red bell pepper – the more veggies the better. I love red bell pepper for its color and texture. Orange or yellow bell pepper work great too.
How to Make Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
- Season Chicken – add sea salt and pepper generously to both sides of chicken breast or chicken thighs. Set aside.
- Prep Veggies – peel and dice the carrots. Deseed and dice the red bell pepper, and dice the celery. Also, finely chop a medium onion and two cloves of garlic.
- Prep Cilantro Water – add a bunch of cilantro and 1 cup of room-temperature water into a blender. Blend until completely smooth and no bits of cilantro are left.
- Preheat Instant Pot – press the “Sauté” button on the panel to preheat the pot.
- Sauté Onion and Garlic – once the Instant Pot display says “hot”, add a drizzle of oil or fat and then add the chopped onion and garlic. Sauté until translucent.
- Add Remaining Ingredients – this is a very important step and you need to work fast! Once the onion and garlic are ready, add the rice, season with salt and pepper, then add the cilantro water. Give a quick stir, then add the diced vegetables on top of the rice (make sure not to mix them in). Then, place the chicken on top of the veggies and close the lid immediately. The reason for this is to avoid too much water from evaporating so you don’t get the nasty “burn warning” on your Instant Pot. (See my tips to avoid the burn warning below).
- Set the Instant Pot – Seal the pot lid and turn the pressure valve to the “sealing” position. then press the “Cancel” button. Now press the “Manual” button and select 6 minutes high pressure if you’re cooking chicken breast with white rice. Or select 22 minutes high pressure if you’re cooking chicken thighs with brown rice instead.
- Release Pressure – once the Instant Pot beeps, wait for full natural pressure release. This can take anywhere from 15-25 minutes until the safety pin drops on its own.
- Shred Chicken and Serve – when the Instant Pot chicken and rice is finished cooking, open the lid and shred the chicken using two forks. Then mix everything together and serve immediately. Sprinkle some chopped cilantro on top and dive in!
Tips To Avoid The Burn Warning
Sometimes Instant Pots can be finicky and give you the Burn Warning even when you think you made everything right. After some trial and error, I found some tips that will help you avoid the burn warning:
- Don’t skimp on the fat for sautéing the onion and garlic. Be generous.
- After sautéing the onion and garlic, make sure there are no burnt bits and pieces stuck to the bottom of the pot. If necessary add a splash of water and deglaze the bottom with a wooden spoon to scrape everything off.
- Have ingredients already measured out and ready to go so no time is wasted. This is especially important for the diced vegetables. Have them chopped and all in one bowl ready to add.
- Once you add the rice, add the cilantro water immediately and stir. Do not let the dry rice sit on the hot bottom of the pot without liquid for more than 5 seconds.
- Do not mix the vegetables and chicken in the cilantro water. Let them sit on top of the rice.
- Put the lid on quickly. The longer it takes to close the pot, the more liquid evaporates. This increases the chance to get the burn warning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! As long as you choose the right cooking time to ensure either are well cooked through it is perfectly safe to cook both at the same time.
Yes! As long as you make sure chicken reaches 165F internal temperature it is 100% safe to add to the Instant Pot.
If you add dry or rinsed rice to an already preheated or hot Instant Pot and don’t add liquid to it at the same time or very quickly after your rice will immediately stick to the bottom and start burning.
Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
Equipment
- instant pot
Ingredients
- 2 5oz / 10 oz chicken breasts / bone-in skinless chicken thighs - (Either 2 five-ounce chicken breasts if you are making the recipe with white rice. OR. 2 ten-ounce bone-in chicken thighs if you are making the recipe with brown rice.)
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 cup water - (at room temperature, not cold!)
- 1/2 Tbsp ghee or bacon fat or avocado oil
- 1 small diced onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 cup white basmati rice or brown basmati rice - (choose white or brown depending on the type of chicken you are using)
- 1 cup diced carrot
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced red bell pepper
- Salt
- Pepper
- cilantro for garnishing
Instructions
- Generously season chicken with salt and pepper on both sides and set aside.
- Peel and dice carrot, dice celery, deseed and dice bell pepper.
- Add cilantro and room-temperature water into a blender and blend until completely smooth.
- Peel and chop onion and garlic.
- Preheat Instant Pot by pressing the “sauté” button.
- Once the Instant Pot's display says "hot": add fat or oil, chopped onion, and garlic, and sauté until translucent. Stir often. Make sure no burnt bits of onion or garlic are stuck to the bottom of the pot. If for some reason there are, deglaze by adding a tablespoon or two of water and scrape with a wooden to remove all bits from the bottom.
- Now work fast: add rice, salt and pepper to Instant Pot and then pour in cilantro water and give it a quick stir. Add diced vegetables on top in one layer (do not mix in!) and then top with seasoned chicken breasts. Then IMMEDIATELY close lid to avoid water from evaporating (<-important!)
- Turn venting knob to "sealing", hit "cancel" and then "manual" and adjust to 6 minutes high pressure for chicken breast / white rice version OR 22 minutes for chicken thigh / brown rice version.
- Wait for full natural pressure release. This means once the pot beeps don't do anything. Don't touch the valve and instead just wait for the safety pin to drop on its own. This can take anywhere from 15-25 minutes.
- Open the pot and enjoy the smell! Then use two forks to shred the chicken. Mix it all and serve immediately with some fresh cilantro sprinkled on top.
Notes
- *Please read the blog post section where I go into detail about what to pay attention to in order to succeed to avoid any error messages from the pot.
- nutritional info is for white rice and chicken breast.
Nutrition
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Bill says
Do you have any suggestions for this recipe and a no salt way to spice? (the no salt is for medical reasons)
Lorena says
Hi Bill, if you can get your hands on “ají amarillo” your dish will taste divine and won’t really need much salt if any at all. It’s a Peruvian chili that is incredibly flavorful. You might get it in a Latin American Store in a glass jar as puree. Add 1-3 teaspoons (depending on how spicy you like food) of that when you sautée the onions and it’ll taste absolutely divine.
Ed says
Ok, maybe I am not so computer savy, but where do I find the comments in the Blog Post regarding timing comments?
Lorena says
Hey Ed, I’m not entirely sure what you mean. You commented in the comment section and after the box where you enter your own comment are the comments of others. Is that what you mean?
Edna Oneal says
Wow. It looks delicious. I love this . So, I will try to make it very soon. Your recipe will help me. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Rhonda says
Sounds delish! can’t wait to try it. any chance this can be done with quinoa? that would be awesome!!
Lorena says
Yes Rhonda!!! Since quinoa only takes 1 minute on high pressure + natural pressure release I recommend using cubed chicken breast or chicken escalope so it cooks through in the short time.
Norine Tan says
Hello Lorena! I enjoyed your video and look forward to making chicken and rice dish!
Do you wash the rice?
Thank You!
Norine
Lorena says
Hey Norine, I’m happy to ready you’ll try the recipe. No I never wash rice. Packaged rice in the US/Canada/Europe is commercially washed and washing it again just flushes away more nutrients.
Libby says
I made this tonight for my family! I’m new to IP but I wanted ways to include more veggies into my 2 year olds diet (typical two year old) and into my husband’s diet (he doesn’t like veggies). Anyway, I made this with boneless chicken and brown basmati rice and high pressure cooked for 7 minutes and let it natural release for 19 – came out PERFECT! Wonderfully moist, rice cooked all the way through! This is such a hit!! Thank you thank you for this!!!
Lorena says
I’m so so so so happy to read this Libby!!!
Beth says
My first venture with my new Instant Pot…it was delicious and came out perfectly! After viewing your video and reading your tips, I followed the recipe exactly as printed …thank you!
Lorena says
Wheeee!! I’m so happy you liked it Beth :)
Maritza says
I made this recipe tonight. I followed the recipe to a t. It came out perfect. Did brown rice and chicken thighs. Thanks!
Lorena says
Awesome Maritza!!! I’m so happy you liked it :D
Ashley says
My instant pot does not have a manual button…what button do I use??
Lorena says
For newer models the button is called “pressure cook”.
Alex says
Just tried this as my first instant pot meal. I decided to do it as a meal prep for the week so I pretty much doubled everything. I didn’t have cilantro, and I used olive oil . Only had brown rice and chicken breast so I changed the time to 17 minutes and let the pressure drop for about 25 minutes. Rice turned out a little moist but the chicken didn’t dry out which is what I was more concerned with. Great dish even with the alterations. Next time I’ll have to follow to the T.
Lorena says
I’m soooo happy you like it Alex and your adaptions sound perfect :)
Edna Oneal says
It’s a great article. Your tips is so good. I like instant pot . It’s more useful. Thanks for sharing.
Laurie says
I would like to make this recipe with brown rice and boneless chicken breast. What would you recommend for cooking time? Thank you
Lorena says
Hi Laurie you have to cook it for 22 minutes because the brown rice takes 22 minutes to cook. If you cook it less time, the brown rice will be hard. The boneless chicken breast will be very overcooked though I’m afraid. That’s why I recommend bone-in chicken thighs, because they don’t get dry even after 22 minutes of pressure cooking. The breasts do get pretty dry.
Lennie says
I read every comment and worried about getting the dreaded burn warning, but to my pleasant surprise this came out perfectly! I did season the chicken with more than just s&p though; I added some cumin and ground coriander. Otherwise I made the brown rice version exactly as listed. Great end result and something I will make many times in the future!
Lorena says
I’m so happy it worked for you Lennie. I’ve come to the conclusion now that it’s got to do with the individual por of everybody because I have literally never been able to recreate the burn problem.
Brad says
If you do not deglaze bottom after sauting the veggies, I can get a burn warning, although this usually happens with searing meat, not veggies
Stacy says
If I double the recipe will the cook time stay the same?
Lorena says
Yes Stacy, the cook time stays the same. It might take the pot longer to get to pressure and release pressure due to increased volume but the set high pressure cooking time ought to stay the same.
Anita says
Thank you Lorena. This is a winner. My husband and son said I can make this dish every week. loved it