This Instant Pot Chicken and Rice is the perfect one-pot meal for the whole family! It combines vegetables, chicken, rice, and spices to make a delicious and nutritious dinner that’s ready to serve in less than 20 minutes using your Instant Pot pressure cooker.
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Why This Recipe Works
I love this recipe because it is a full dish on its own. It’s simple, requires little prep, and is super flavorful. Also, this hearty rice and chicken bowl is sure to leave you feeling full and satisfied. It’s perfect to get a good meal in on those busy weeknights!
This Instant Pot Chicken and Rice recipe is also great for meal prep because you can serve it at room temperature. I love it steaming hot right from the Instant Pot, but that’s a great option for when you have leftovers. It’s great to pack in your lunch to work or school.
Chicken And Rice Recipe Video
Recipe Ingredients
White rice – do not substitute brown rice in this recipe if it will dry out too much. Or if you do, be sure to add extra broth to compensate. For this Instant Pot Chicken and Rice recipe, I would go with Jasmine rice or basmati rice.
Chicken – I’d recommend using chicken breasts as I did. I have also made this recipe with skinless and boneless chicken thighs, so they work great too. It really does not matter between these two, just make sure your chicken is cut into equal pieces.
Chicken broth – I find that plain water also works okay as a possible substitution, but chicken broth or stock gives you a better result. It adds a lot of flavor and richness. Or if you don’t have any broth, you can use a bouillon chicken cube & water.
Smoked paprika – if you don’t love smoky flavor, feel free to substitute sweet paprika here.
Parsley – if you don’t have fresh parsley, that’s ok, it’s just for garnish. I like using fresh herbs as a garnish for color and freshness. You can also use fresh cilantro or basil or skip it altogether.
How to Make Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
Gather your ingredients:
Cook chicken with onion and garlic powder on Saute for 3-4 minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients.
Lock the lid into place and cook on High pressure for 8 minutes. Then, once the cooking cycle is done, perform a quick pressure release.
Serve the chicken and rice warm and feel free to top with fresh parsley for garnish.
Recipe Notes
- You can absolutely use only one color of bell pepper to avoid waste. I like to use multiple colors when I can to add color to the dish and variety of flavor. But this recipe is very flexible—feel free to add whatever veggies you like!
How to Serve Chicken and Rice
This recipe is a complete one-pot meal filled with nutritious vegetables, protein-packed chicken, and hearty rice. You can choose to serve additional vegetables on the side, or a side or garlic bread, but it’s not necessary.
More Instant Pot One-Pot Meals
You really can’t beat the convenience of a one-pot meal! Lucky for you, we have lots of DELICIOUS one-pot meals for you to choose from if you need some dinner inspiration. Try one of these next:
Instant Pot Chicken And Noodles
Instant Pot Spaghetti Bolognese
FAQ About Chicken and Rice
What should I do with the leftovers?
If you have leftovers, keep them for lunch the next day. You can keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days. I like to make a big batch to meal prep and eat this for lunch or dinner a couple days in a row. It’s that good!
Can I add cheese?
Yes! Feel free to add cheese on top in the end. Alternatively, you can try this Instant Pot Cheesy Chicken and Rice.
Can I make this with pork instead?
Sure! If you like pork, try this recipe for Instant Pot Pork Chops and Rice instead 🙂
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder minced
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 cup white rice uncooked
- 1 1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth or water
- 2 medium carrots diced
- 1/2 cup celery chopped
- 1/2 cup mixed peppers, red, green, and yellow chopped
- 3 chicken breasts boneless skinless, cut in bite sized pieces
- chopped parsley for garnish
- salt and pepper to taste
- Press "saute" and add oil.
- Once the oil is heated, add chicken, onion, and garlic powder and sauté for 4 minutes.
- Add the rest of the ingredients.
- Close the lid and cook on high pressure for 8 minutes.
- When cooking time ends, do a quick pressure release.
- Open the lid and serve 🙂 Garnish with parsley if desired.
So you take the chicken out after sauté then add it again as stated in recipe?
No. Simply add the ingredients, cook, enjoy!
This was a hit with my family. I used Spanish Rice, 2 to 1 chicken stock to the rice. I used 12 min pressure cook time and about 40 min Keep warm to use up all of the stock so the rice did not look like a soup. The instructions on the rice showed 2 cups liquid to 1 cup rice.
Sounds great, I’m happy your family enjoyed the recipe.
The recipe says white rice but your blog says basmati or jasmine?
Yes, any variety of white rice will work including jasmine or basmati.
I made the chicken and rice with brown bismati rice. I browned four chicken thighs, with bone in, then the carrots, onion, celery and garlic, separately. Put the browned vegetables in the InstaPot, added the rice and mixed it with the vegetables. Added the chicken on top of the rice, then added the chicken broth. The rice package called for 2 cups of broth per cup of rice. I also added some capers (about 2 tablespoons) and six green olives, large ones stuffed with pimentos, and cut in slices), on top of the chicken. Set the InstaPot to 12 minutes (the rice setting in my InstaPot), and let it come back down to “keep warm” after done. The chicken thighs were almost all cooked when I put them in the InstaPot. I have also used cut up chicken thighs in past versions of this chicken and rice. This recipe made enough servings for two for dinner on two separate days, and absolutely delicious. Look forward to trying other InstaPot recipes in the near future.
Wow, I love what you did with the recipe, that sounds great! Thank you for sharing.
Looks good!
Can you use frozen peas and carrots in this recipe?
Yes, absolutely!
Plan on making this Monday night for our dinner.
Good of you to plan ahead. I really hope you like it! I think you will 🙂
I’m a senior on my own. is there a way to cut this recipe down without losing the flavor, or I II be eating it for a week?
Yes– you can cut this recipe in half. And you can just use one bell pepper instead of a variety of colors to avoid waste.
If I have a rotisserie chicken this time, can this recipe work for making the rice and vegetables alone, or would I have to change the time, and the measurement for the broth?
It looks delicious.
Yes – you might want to add a couple of tablespoons extra broth to compensate for the moisture lost.
To be clear, you don’t cut up the chicken before sautéing it?
Yes, I do cut up the chicken as shown in the step photos. I will update the recipe language to be more clear.