This Instant Pot Chicken and Rice recipe is one of the first recipes I tried in my Instant Pot. It’s a simple one pot dish that combines the cooking of rice and meat in the Instant Pot. It makes me happy every time I throw it together!
When I first bought my Instant Pot Pressure Cooker, I was a little bit nervous about what exactly to try. I had thought it would be a throw everything in for 20-40 minutes type of appliance, but the truth is, it’s a little bit more complicated than that. It all depends on the recipe, how many vegetables and kinds of vegetables there are in the recipe and if you care if the vegetables are at all mushy or not.
Will the Vegetables be Mushy?
Some people have serious texture problems and can’t handle a mushy vegetable. Some people don’t mind either way. Me? I’m in the middle. I prefer them not to be too mushy, but don’t mind them softer than a lot of people do. I’m definitely not too texture sensitive though.
Regardless, I also realize that I can’t cook all vegetables for the same amount of time that meat and rice cook for. Once, I tried putting broccoli in the Instant Pot, in with my chicken and rice and I ended up with green chicken and rice. The broccoli was nowhere to be found. Or actually, you could kind of tell it used to be broccoli….but it had totally disintegrated into the dish.
The good thing about THIS particular recipe is that you CAN cook the vegetables for the same amount of time as the meat and rice. If you have a problem with your carrots being mushy, make the pieces a little bigger, so that they don’t fall apart quite as fast.
I make this recipe pretty regularly, when I haven’t put anything in the slow cooker earlier in the day. It’s super simple and is very tasty. I love the way that the thyme seasons the chicken and the rice, and since we’re using a whole grain (the brown rice), a vegetable and a lean meat, it’s pretty good for you, too!
I love what my kids have to say on the days that they smell this one cooking. They come running in and say, “Are you making that yummy chicken and rice dish?!” I’m like, YES, I AM! They all shout, YAY!! And we’re all happy!
Can I use frozen chicken breast in the Instant Pot? or do I have to use thawed chicken breast?
The recipe actually calls for frozen chicken breast. This is because I typically buy my chicken breasts frozen at Walmart in 3-10 pound bags. If you are not like me and have thawed chicken breasts on hand, feel free to use it, and don’t worry about adjusting the time. The chicken will shred really easily and all will be fine.
What if I only have white rice and not brown rice?
You will need to take notice of how long your rice is supposed to cook. Check out the cooking times on my Instant Pot Rice post. If your chicken is cooking from frozen it will need about 15-20 minutes of cook time. If you’re cooking your chicken thawed, you can get away with 10 minutes cook time and 10 minutes natural release time. Your rice could be mushy if you choose to do white rice this way. I’ve not officially tried it with white rice yet, so take this as a suggestion and let me know if it works if you do try it. I’ll try to update the post once I’ve tried it with white rice. 🙂
Can I leave out the vegetables?
Sure, you can. If your family doesn’t like carrots, mushrooms or onions leave them out. The onions do a lot of flavoring, so if you can handle the flavor but don’t like to eat them, I’d consider using some onion powder instead. You could stir in some broccoli, peas or green beans after it’s cooked if you need a vegetable substitute.
Check out the video of us making it here:
Want more Instant Pot Rice recipes? Check these out:
- Instant Pot Beef & Broccoli Rice
- Instant Pot Spanish Rice with Ground Beef
- Instant Pot Spanish Rice
- Instant Pot Cilantro Lime Rice
- Instant Pot Fried Rice
- Instant Pot Ground Beef & Rice
Instant Pot Chicken & Rice
Ingredients
- 1 pound frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp olive oil or coconut oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 3 green onions
- 3 carrots diced
- 1 cup mushrooms
- 1-1/2 cups brown rice rinsed and drained
- 1 1/2 cups chicken broth plus 1/2 cup for deglazing vegetables
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- On the sauté setting, preheat on normal for 1-1/2 minutes.
- Add 1 tbsp of oil (I used coconut oil)
- Add in garlic, green onions, carrots, mushrooms and cook for about 4 minutes
- Add 1/2 cup broth to deglaze the vegetables.
- Rinse rice, to prevent the rice sticking to the bottom.
- Add 1 and 1/2 cups of chicken broth and brown rice and stir together
- Add thyme, salt and pepper and stir
- Add the frozen, boneless chicken breasts
- Place the lid on, lock it and set valve to sealing
- Cook on manual, high pressure for 20 minutes.
- Switch over the valve release to release the pressure and remove the lid carefully
- Use kitchen shears to cut up chicken into chunks or shred with forks and stir the pot.
- Serve!
