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
Mark says
This is the 4th time I made this and at least 2 other times I received the burn notice. because I love this dish I was determined to tweak what I do and not get the dreaded burn. After sauteing the onions and garlic I shut the instantpot off, took it out of the main pot and deglazed just a bit. After everything cooled i put everything back into the pot and then transferred the inner pot to the main pot. I also added 11/2 cups water with 1 cup rice thinking more water would help lessen the burn chance. 6 minutes on pressure and a 15 minute natural release (to account for extra 1/2 cup water) and it came out perfect!!!
Lorena says
YES!!!!!! Thank you soooo much for this feedback! The taking the pot out and adding everything was the one thing I thought would work for people with hysterical Instant Pots. I’m so incredibly happy this worked for you, you can’t even imagine. I’m dancing right now!
Jaime Cavazos says
This meal is so delicious. I thought the cilantro water was a brilliant idea. I used vegetable stock instead of water just because I have too much stored in the freezer that I’m trying to use up.
The first time I made this recipe, I followed the times exactly for the chicken thighs and brown rice version and it came out too well done for my taste. This last time, I used the timing that I normally use for brown Basmati rice; 15 minutes high pressure and 5 minutes natural release. It came out perfectly in my opinion, if not just a bit on the moist side, but that will come in handy when reheating it, I think.
My wife and 18 month old daughter gobbled it up, so I consider it a success. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Lorena says
I’m so happy you liked it Jaime! Make sure you lift the lid off and turn it right away so the condensation water that gathered in the lid doesn’t drip into the meal. That’s what makes the rice a bit soggy, too.
Jaime Cavazos says
Oh! That makes perfect sense. I let the condensation drip back into the pot like a dummy. Thank you for the advice!
Jill Hostad says
Turned out wonderfully. Picky eaters in this house gobbled it right up! Thanks! I was reluctant to make at first as I tend to over complicate things. Was super easy! Just chopped up the veggies and layered as directed!
Kim says
Hello!
I did a Google search yesterday for “instant pot chicken and rice meals”, and your recipe was one of the first ones to show up on the first page. I clicked on the image of the dish, which lead me to your site, and watched your video. Really, it was the video that compelled me to make this dish, and I don’t cook often.
I loved the crisp clean look of your video, your quirky personality, and you made it look so easy that I felt that I could do it too.
So I just made this dish an hour ago using my IP. I used olive oil because that’s all I had, and I also used two cups of chicken stock, and blended one of those cups with cilantro. I have an 8 quart IP, so I doubled the amount of liquid. Turns out, one and a half cups of liquid would have been just fine.
Also, there were some browned bits at the bottom from when I sauteed the onion and garlic, but I didn’t mind because it was caramelized goodness, which made my rice even more flavorful.
The taste is amazing, I’m proud of myself for making cilantro rice for the first time in my life, and THANK YOU very much for sharing this recipe.
Now I want to cook all of your other IP dishes.
Lorena says
I’m sooooo happy you like this recipe :D Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and comment. I really appreciate it.
Diane says
I’d rather it se brown rice with chicken breasts. Same time as for thighs or something in between. Dont do cilantro but will use parsley
Lorena says
If you use brown rice you have to use the timing for the brown rice or it’ll be undercooked. The reason I use chicken thighs with the brown rice is that they are way more forgiving with heat. Chicken breasts under pressure for that long will be pretty dry. Parsley will be pretty strong in this dish. I recommend basil instead if you don’t like cilantro.
Kendra Cardin says
i’ve done this with white rice and the chicken breasts and it was amazing! I’d like to try with the chicken thighs and brown rice, but would like to use 4 chicken thights instead of 2. What modifications should I make?
Thanks for all the testing and more testing you do to make these yummy recipes!!
Lorena says
I’m so happy the recipe worked for you and you liked it!! YAY :D You don’t have to modify anything making it with 4 thighs. Everything stays the same :)
Cheyenne says
Is there a way to make this recipe with frozen chicken breast?
Lorena says
If you use brown rice it works with frozen chicken breast. The 5 minutes for the white rice are not enough for the frozen chicken to defrost and cook through. That being said, I don’t recommend it. Chicken breast in general (frozen or not) comes out pretty rubbery in the instant pot. I’ve tried frozen boneless, skinless thighs in a soup and that worked pretty well in terms of texture but other than that. I don’t recommend cooking chicken breasts in the instant pot frozen or not.
LaRel Davis says
Tried this tonight (chicken breasts and white rice) and it was a total failure. (My fault I’m certain). I got the burn notice 3 times before I finally just took the chicken out to cook on the stove.
Rice and veggies all were cooked and I served them. But had to pull and cook the chicken and shred it up after cooking on stove.
I’m new to IP but have make short ribs and pasta dishes successfully. Perhaps I just have to work on my rice dishes.
Watched and followed the video to a T….purchased the avocado oil and everything.
Recipe is yummy I simply mucked it up horribly somehow.
Lorena says
Oh gosh! I’m so sorry it didn’t work out for you :( This recipe is such a headache for me because for me it always works and on the one hand I have people raving and on the other tons and tons of failures and I don’t know how to help :( Did you follow exactly as in video or did you take the notes into consideration? I have one last assumption about why people get the burn message and that is, that they might work a little slower than I do and too much water evaporates when putting in the liquid into the hot pot. So I came up with the idea or removing the inner pot once onions etc. are sauteed. THEN add all the other ingredients and then put the inner pot back into the Instant Pot to continues as stated in the recipe, hoping that this way no water evaporates no matter which speed anybody works in the kitchen?
Erin says
Hey Lorena,
As an aside, what do you use to cube your veges? My moulinex machine is getting a bit blunt so recommendations are welcome! Absolutely loved the recipe. Turned out perfectly (I used thighs sliced deeply here and there and it turned out great).
Lorena says
Hi Erin, good old knife and chopping board :) Over time I’ve become quite a ninja chopping away in no time. I’m so happy you liked the recipe!!
Natalie says
First recipe I made with my insta pot and it turned out awesome!!!!
Lorena says
Yaaaaaay!!!! I’m soooo happy! This recipes seems to be tricky for some so I’m reeeally happy it turned out for you and didn’t discourage you from keep using the Instant Pot :D
Jackie Mauzy-Fieser says
Hi Lorena,
I tried your chicken and rice recipe today and it was wonderful. And it did not burn. I was confused by the blend water and cilantro part of the recipe (stir them together or actually blend it?) and stupid me didn’t see your video until after I made it. I pulsed it in my mini food processor and lost a bit of water as it was too full so I added a bit of water to compensate. It was not as blended as yours but it did turn out well. Anyway I did add too much water and the rice was a tad mushy but still very good and flavorful. I will follow your directions correctly next time because there will a next time and many more as this is a great recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Jackie
Lorena says
I am soooo happy to read this Jackie. You have no idea how much I love and hate this recipe. I love the taste and texture but I hate that not everybody is successful with it. I’m really glad you were successful and able to avoid the burn warning. Yes, with blend I really mean blend blend in the blender. It gives sooo much flavor :)
Omar says
Hi, do you think I’d have to make changes to time or liquid if I increased just the quantity of vegetables?
Lorena says
No, no need to change the timing or liquid if you add more veggies.
Vicki says
Hi, I made this tonight and it was delicious! But,….. I got the burn notice. A bit of background- I got your recipe from a member of snow IP group I belong to. It was hyperlinked in the description of how to make rice. I’ve made rice iny 8 qt with success the first time, but not since. I did pIP the. I’ve since tried rice, white, then brown, directly in the IP. Burn notice every time, and brown rice has been undercooked and crunchy. I don’t know what I need to do to get fluffy rice from my IP. Help!
Lorena says
Vicki, let me clarify. You use my method 1 cup dry rice with 1 cup water, you seal the pot and then you get the burn warning?
Karen says
I don’t use onion or garlic. Will it make a difference in the cooking process?
Lorena says
Hi Karen, no, you simply skip the sauté part. Add rice, cilantro water, veggies and chicken into your cold pot, set to 5 minutes HP (or 22 if making brown rice/chicken thighs), let pressure release naturally and that’s it :)
Ashley says
This was amazing! I doubled the entire recipe in my 8qt instant pot. I used chicken broth instead of water and didn’t have bacon fat so I added a little olive oil and actually sautéed about 5 strips of bacon for a couple minutes at the beginning and then took it out and added the onions and deglazed the pot so all the yummy bacon drippings went in with the onions. I actually added an extra 1/4 cup of broth with the rice too since my chicken breasts were quite large and it turned out freaking amazing!! Not really any excess liquid and once I stirred it all mixed in! I finished cooking the bacon in the microwave and we topped our meal on our plates with the crispy bacon which was just awesome too lol thank you for sure a great recipe! (The rice did burn to the bottom of my instant pot a bit, but I never got a burn warning or anything!)
Ashley says
I cooked it for 10 mins instead of 8 as well since my chicken was larger and I doubled everything and it worked well!
Lorena says
Awesome!! :D
Lorena says
That sounds heavenly Ashley. What a great idea to add some bacon on top. Yum!
Ashley says
I am going to try this tonight. But I want to make a double recipe, I have a 8qt instant pot so I know I have to double it. I can double the entire recipe though right, including the chicken and veggies?Do I need to increase the cooking time? Making it with white rice and 4 chicken breasts.
Lorena says
Sorry I didn’t see the message in time. As I can see, you figured it out and I’m so happy you liked the recipe :)
Eva G. says
This looks so delicious! I am going to the store to buy the ingredients, but was wondering if I could just use the rice I already have, which is extra long grain white rice. Any adjustments?
Lorena says
Hi Eva, yes! That should work. Maybe try with 7 minutes on high just in case it’s thicker than Basmati.