Instant Pot chicken and rice is a delicious and simple supper that you can make all in one pot. 👉🏻Pin this recipe here.👈🏻
Don’t worry, internet friends! If you do not have an Instant Pot, I already have stove top instructions for this recipe here: one pot chicken and rice.
But if you don’t have an Instant Pot yet…why not? You should really look into getting one. See my full Instant Pot product review video here. But in short, I am loving mine. #NotSponsored
This post may contain affiliate links, which pay a referral fee to me at no additional cost to you. My full affiliate disclosure can be seen here.
Okay, back to this Instant Pot chicken and rice. It is such a quick and easy dinner!
And it’s a complete one pot meal with your protein, starch and veggies all in one pot. True comfort food!
How to make Instant Pot chicken and rice
First, gather your ingredients. For tastiest results, always use the best quality ingredients you have access to.
Ingredients
To make this Instant Pot chicken and rice recipe you will need the following:
- boneless skinless chicken thighs
- cooking spray
- shallots
- carrots
- mushrooms
- garlic
- uncooked white jasmine rice
- chicken stock or broth
- fresh thyme leaves (half the amount of dried works well as a sub)
- salt and pepper
Cooking on sauté
Instant Pot chicken and rice is every bit as good as the original stove top recipe. I did have to strategize a little to get the cooking times for all the ingredients to line up. Here is how I did it.
Generously salt and pepper the raw chicken thighs. Spray the inner pot with cooking spray, or add the oil. Using the sauté setting (normal level), preheat until the display reads “hot.”
Use tongs to put chicken in the pan (watch out for oil splatter!) Sear chicken thighs, 4 minutes on each side. Remove and set aside chicken on a plate.
Add 1/4 cup broth to deglaze the pan, scrape the bits with a wooden spoon (do not skip this step!). If there are any stuck on spots, be sure and lift those away from the pan with a wooden spoon.
Add shallot, mushroom and carrots, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic, and continue to cook for another minute.Add remaining chicken stock, rice, thyme and stir together.
Add chicken on top of the mixture, and do not stir them in.
Pressure cooking
Close the lid and lock it, setting the valve to sealing. Cook on high pressure for 8 minutes, and allow the Instant Pot to release naturally (do not use the quick release lever) for 10 minutes. Quick release the remaining pressure.
Once any remaining pressure is fully release, remove the lid carefully.
Use two forks to shred the chicken, and stir the pot. It is really tender and will basically fall apart.
Serving tips
Sprinkle with some additional fresh thyme or parsley, if you prefer. Serve immediately. You could leave the chicken thighs whole if you prefer, as shown above.
Or you can do what we do at my house and shred them with two forks. Since they are so tender, they are pretty easy to shred.
Preventing scorching
Heads up, I did revise this recipe as of 8/20/2018 after several complaints about scorching and/ or not coming up to pressure.
The remedy? In the revised instructions below I added some additional chicken stock, and I cut off the NPR (natural pressure release) time at ten minutes by quick releasing any remaining pressure, rather than letting it depressurize fully.
It worked out great for me, three times in a row. So I am considering it blog worthy to publish these updated instructions.
I love that this worked so well in the pressure cooker! Y’all let me know if you try it.
FAQ’s for Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
I would not recommend it. Some people have had good luck with this, but I have had mixed results. For best results, I recommend fully thawed chicken.
Yes, as long as it has a similar cook time to jasmine rice. For example, white basmati rice should work well in this recipe. Brown rice may not work as well since it typically has a longer cook time.
I probably would not recommend it. Why? Chicken breasts have a significantly lesser cook time, and they would likely dry out.
Yes! I have many recipes that do this. For this particular recipe, I recommend the sauté as written in the recipe instructions. This will give you best results.
Of course! The dish is already delicious as is, so don’t worry if you do not have any. But if you want to add some, it will be delicious.
More Instant Pot Recipes You May Enjoy
- Instant Pot whole “rotisserie” chicken
- Instant Pot “baked” sweet potatoes
- Instant Pot classic beef chili
- Instant Pot red beans and rice
- Instant Pot chicken breasts
- Instant Pot chicken thighs
- Instant Pot pasta e fagioli soup
- Instant Pot hard boiled eggs
- Instant Pot spaghetti (one pot)
- Instant Pot chicken recipes
- Instant Pot oatmeal (pot in pot method)
See ALL of my Instant Pot recipes here.
Tools Used to Make This Recipe
This post may contain affiliate links, which pay a referral fee to me at no additional cost to you. My full affiliate disclosure can be seen here.
- Instant Pot – my favorite electric pressure cooker
- Cutting board
- Chef’s knife
- Wooden spatula and/or wooden spoon
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Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
Instant Pot chicken and rice is a delicious and simple supper that you can make all in one pot. It is SO delicious and easy!
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs (up to 1.5 pounds works)
- cooking spray (I used avocado oil spray, but a tablespoon of oil of your choice works)
- 3 small shallots diced
- 1 cup carrots diced
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- 2 cloves medium fresh garlic minced
- 1 1/2 cups uncooked white jasmine rice rinsed and drained (Do NOT skip the rinsing. Rice will likely scorch if not rinsed!)
- 2 cups chicken stock or broth divided ( I use 1/4 cup for deglazing the pan)
- 2 Tablespoons fresh thyme leaves chopped and divided (or 2 teaspoons dried)
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
-
Generously salt and pepper your chicken thighs.
-
Spray the inner pot with cooking spray, or add the oil.
-
Using the sauté setting (normal level), preheat until the display reads “hot.”
-
Use tongs to put chicken in the pan (watch out for oil splatter!)
-
Sear chicken thighs, 4 minutes on each side.
-
Remove and set aside chicken on a plate.
-
Add 1/4 cup broth to deglaze the pan, scrape the bits with a wooden spoon (do not skip this step!). If there are any stuck on spots, be sure and lift those away from the pan with a wooden spoon.
-
Add shallot, mushroom and carrots, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
-
Add garlic, and continue to cook for another minute.
-
Add remaining chicken stock, rice, thyme and stir together.
-
Place the chicken thighs on top of the mixture, and do not stir them in.
-
Place the lid on, and lock it, setting the valve to sealing.
-
Cook on manual high pressure for 8 minutes, and allow the Instant Pot to release naturally (do not use the quick release lever) for 10 minutes. Quick release the remaining pressure.
-
Once any remaining pressure is fully release, remove the lid carefully.
-
Use two forks to shred the chicken, and stir the pot.
-
Serve immediately.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Do NOT skip rinsing the rice first! This will remove some of the starch, and will prevent scorching/ sticking to the bottom.
Nutritional information is approximate and was calculated using a recipe nutrition label generator.
I do not recommend using frozen chicken for this recipe.
If you want to substitute types of rice, make sure the substitute you choose has a similar cook time to white jasmine rice (ex: White basmati should work well in this recipe.)
If you are using very large chicken thighs, you may want to cut them in half. Just for reference, my thighs were about 4 thighs equaling 1 pound of weight (about 4 to 5 ounces each). It doesn’t have to be exact, but I just wanted to give y’all a heads up, since I have seen some really huge thighs at the store (ex of huge: 2 thighs equaling 1 pound of weight).
Note: Instant Pot chicken and rice originally appeared on A Pinch of Healthy 11/4/2016.
IAIN GRAY says
Another failure here unfortunately. I got the burn message, and the bottom of the pan was all burned. I cleaned it off, reheated the mixture and got another burn message. By which time it was mushy and we were hungry, so it was sort of a not good risotto. Oh well.
I think it’s the starch from the rice coming out and burning, even though I rinsed it. I might try it again but cook the rice separately next time. Although one pot is nice, it’s that big a hassle to cook a separate pan of rice, and should make it less likely to burn. It’s also better from a health point of view to cook the rice in excess water and discard, as it reduces the arsenic levels in it.
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
Sorry to hear that! I am re-testing this recipe currently. I hope to be back with updated instructions soon.
Ashley says
We Tried this tonight, my family loved it! No burning or sticking issues. Only subbed a drained can of peas for mushrooms and diced onion instead of shallot. I used a 6 quart IP for the record. My 8 quart tends to “burn” more easily for some reason.
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
Yay! SO glad you liked it💖🙌🏻
matsugirl says
I had some packaged rotisserie chicken I bought from Costco. I modified your recipe to use chicken that is already cooked. I did 2 cups brown rice and 2.5 cups chicken broth. High pressure for 17 minutes. Then released the pressure and added the carrots and chicken. Then 5 minutes at high pressure. QPR and serve it up.
Very tasty! Rice perfect. Not burnt, not crunchy or dry. Will make again.
Kwanesia Bass says
Im gonna try this. Ive been wondering how to do this with rotisserie.
Raven says
Live this recipe!
I would like to double the recipe. How should the time be adjusted?
Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says
Yay, so glad it turned out delicious for you!💖🙌🏻 I am not totally sure, but my guess would be to decrease the time by a few minutes (maybe decrease by 4 or 5 mins). Reason being: the come to pressure time will take longer with a fuller pot, and the food will cook a bit during this time. Let me know if you try it that way.
magnoliasouth says
Aha! I was looking at another recioe (burrito bowls) and POW! They have addressed the burnt/scorched rice problem and found a way to fix it. The problem is in the bottom of the pot. You should quit the “liquid needs to be on the bottom” thinking. The rice needs to be off the bottom. In the burrito bowl recipe, they said to put the salsa on the bottom then put the rice on top of that and it fixed the problem. In their tests they identified that scorching varies from machine to machine and even will scorch on the 10th use, for example. Hope this helps someone! Will still be back when I try it.
https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-instant-pot-weeknight-chicken-and-rice-burrito-bowls-248311
magnoliasouth says
This really sounds delicious! Not sure why I can’t capitalize, sorry. I’m on my phone and though the keyboard is showing capitalization, it’s simply not on the screen. maybe it’ll post right? /grammarobsession
Anyway, I have a brown rice mix that I need to use and get rid of. It’s in one of those fancy jars. I’m willing to give this a go but I did note that the liquid is in a small amount. For 1.5 cups jasmine rice you should have 2.25 cups of liquid, since the standard is 1 cup jasmine rice to 1.5 cups liquid. The liquid ratios vary according to the type of rice.
It’s interesting that no one is saying what the texture of the rice was.”dry” or “burnt” doesn’t tell us if it’s hard and crunchy or simply sticky with a brown bottom or perfect outside of the burnt part.
I will try to make it sometime in the upcoming week. If and when I do, I’ll post back here.
JK says
This was delicious! I did make a few tweaks however, I used a little less than 2 cups of water instead of the 1.5 cups and it turned out great. Since I added more water, it did have more of a casserole type texture, but it was not too mushy or anything like that. I also used bone in chicken breasts and seasoned with nom nom paleo’s magic mushroom powder. Next time, I will use bone in chicken thighs though to have a more tender meat. IT was a big hit with my family and we will be making it again.
Christine Davis says
Oh my gosh, this never came up to pressure. So frustrating. We had a starving family and it just got later and later. I wish I had read the comments first, but it looked so easy.
Colleen s. says
i’m an intermediate instant pot user. i got the burn message, but it was up to pressure so i left it until I thought i cooked long enough. Turned out great, a little burnt on the bottom, but that’s ok.
Ruth heller says
I was concerned reading many of the comments but gave it a shot anyway…and mine came out perfectly. It is not at like a stew, but also not a chicken dish with a side of perfectly cooked rice—after all, it’s a one-pot dish made in a pressure cooker. It has a nice comforting texture and delicious smell. Defini needed to be seasoned with salt and pepper at the end. Thank you!