My Instant Pot Chicken and Rice is creamy and cheesy with tender morsels of juicy chicken in less time than the classic dish. You will fall in love with the flavors, especially with my secret tip for adding garlic. This is a fan-favorite recipe, so watch the video tutorial below to see how easy this is.
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Helpful Reader Review
“Follow the recipe exactly and Comes out perfect every time! Amazing flavor.” – Amber ★★★★★
Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Video
This Instant Pot chicken and rice recipe will transform dinner for you. It’s one of the easiest and tastiest dinners you’ll make, and there’s minimal cleanup because it all comes together in the Instant Pot!
Easy Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
The texture of this Instant Pot Chicken and Rice is almost like a Risotto, but it doesn’t require the tedious stirring for 30 minutes. The flavor is truly memorable, and yet this recipe calls for simple ingredients.
The secret to great Chicken and Rice in the Instant Pot is in infusing the rice with an entire head of garlic. I add the whole head while cooking, so then the garlic will melt in your mouth. (We used the same trick to make Instant Pot Beef and Rice (Plov).)
We love our Instant Pot because it produces the same great results in a fraction of the time, so you can enjoy dinner fast! Some of our favorites include Instant Pot White Chicken Chili, Bone Broth, Corn on the Cob, and Tender Ribs.
Ingredients for Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
Simple ingredients really shine in this Instant Pot Chicken and Rice recipe! Grab a pack of chicken and a few pantry staples.
- Vegetables – onion, grated/julienned carrots, and parsley
- Garlic – I use a whole head of garlic, halved lengthwise and leave this unpeeled.
- Chicken – boneless breasts, thighs, or tenders cut into bite-sized pieces (1″). *We prefer chicken tenders because they require less prep and reheat well. They are also the most tender.
- Chicken broth – use Homemade Chicken Stock or a low-sodium version from the grocery store
- Jasmine rice – unrinsed. You could also use Basmati or Texmati without adjusting the cooking time. Brown rice would require a longer cooking time.
- Parmesan cheese – Salty and nutty flavor that permeates the whole dish
How to Make Chicken and Rice in the Instant Pot
We used a 6 Quart Instant Pot to make chicken and rice. This recipe moves fast, so have all of your ingredients prepped and ready before you turn on your Instant Pot.
- Set your Instant Pot to sautee on high heat, add oil, butter, onion, carrots, and 1 tsp salt, cooking for 5 minutes.
- Add chicken and salt, and saute for another 5 min.
- Add in broth and rice and stir. Place the halved garlic head cut-side-down on top. Cook for 1 minute on manual high pressure, and then quick release.
- Open the lid to add the Parmesan cheese and parsley. Stir and serve with more cheese to sprinkle over the top.
Tips for Using an Instant Pot to Make Chicken and Rice
Always read the user’s manual for your specific machine because it may operate differently.
- Make sure the rim and rubber seal on your Instant Pot are clean for the seal to form properly.
- Stir the rice together before turning on the heat to avoid the burn notice.
- For safety, wear an oven mitt when manually releasing pressure, and keep your face away from the hot steam vent. Also, keep a paper towel ready to shield the vent while venting/releasing pressure.
- Check the pressure indicator to ensure that the pressure has fully released prior to opening the lid.
- Follow timing instructions precisely and set timers. With pressure cooking, it’s easy to overcook something if you forget about your pot.
Helpful Reader Review
“Delicious and so easy. I used long-grain white rice and added about a cup of frozen spinach. Came out like a risotto and everyone loved it!” – Snk ★★★★★
Easy Instant Pot Chicken and Rice makes for the perfect go-to or first Instant Pot recipe! It’s simple and will impress you right out of the pot! It’s freezer-friendly and keeps in the fridge, so you can easily use this recipe for meal planning for the week. Let me know how you love it in the comments!
PS. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can still enjoy this recipe, because it is the quicker and easier version of our wildly popular Stovetop Chicken and Rice Recipe.
Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 large carrots, thickly grated or julienned
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, or thighs, or tenders (trimmed and cut into 1" pieces)
- 2 tsp sea salt, divided
- 1/4 tsp black pepper, ground
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups Jasmine rice, un-rinsed
- 1 head garlic, unpeeled, cut in half crosswise
- 1/3 cup parsley, finely chopped, plus more to garnish
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese, plus more to serve
Instructions
- Set a 6 Qt Instant Pot to saute on high heat and add butter, oil, chopped onion, grated or julienned carrots, and 1 tsp salt. Sauté, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until soft and golden.
- Add trimmed, chopped chicken, another 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Sauté, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.
- Add 4 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups of rice and stir to combine. Cut the whole garlic head in half through the cloves and parallel to the base. Place garlic halves on top, cut-side down. Cover and cook on manual high pressure for 10 minutes, then quick-release remaining pressure.
- Open the lid and stir in 1/2 cup parmesan with 1/3 cup chopped parsley. Serve with more cheese and garnish with parsley if desired.
Notes
- To refrigerate – pack in an airtight container and place in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- To freeze – place airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
- To reheat – place leftovers in a casserole dish covered in a 350°F oven or in the microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring occasionally until heated through to 165°F.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Easy 30-Minute Meals You Will Love
Just like Instant Pot Chicken and Rice, these are go-to 30-minute meals that our family loves (our kids go back for seconds), and they require minimal prep. Perfect for a weeknight!
- Chicken Pesto Pasta
- Beef and Broccoli
- Baked Chicken Tacos
- Philly Cheesesteak
- Chicken Fried Rice
- Zuppa Toscana
- Lettuce Wraps
My family was asking for your beef plov recipe and I had chicken on hand. I made this instead and it was a huge hit!! We love everything that I have made of yours! Please publish a cookbook!!
Thank you for that wonderful compliment, Leah! I’m so glad you’re enjoying our recipes. Stay tuned on that book; we have something in the works.
Love your recipes!!
This recipe was very delicious and wanted my mother to try it in her new instant pot she got for Christmas. But she has an 8 quart. This recipe specifically says 6 quarts. Is there any way for her to b able to make this?
Hi Christina, I haven’t tested this in an 8 quart, but I assume they would be the same. If you try it out in your 8 qt pot, I would love to hear how it goes.
I do it in the larger instant pot- had no problems. Tonight I added celery and mushrooms in the veggie mix. I had no parsley so used frozen peas. Amazing
I make it in an 8 qt. just as written, I’ve even made half the recipe in my 8 qt and it is fine.
Is there anyway of making this with instant rice?
Hi Kim, I’m not sure how to do that without the rice getting soggy. I haven’t tested it with instant rice.
Sooooooo good! Creamy and flavourful !! Everyone loved it !
Thank you for that great feedback, Marie!
What do you do with the garlic after it is done cooking?
Hi Karen, please see this section in the recipe “This Will Transform Your Rice:” You can choose to leave the flavorful cloves in your rice, or you can choose to discard them.
This recipe is a staple at our house and we love it! I’m visiting my sister and need to make it for more people. Is there a way to double this so I don’t have to cook it two times? Thanks!
Hi Lisa, I haven’t tested doubling this, but if you are doubling the recipe and using a larger instant pot than 6qt, that should work fine to double the ingredients and not the time. Let me know how it goes doubling it.
I made this last night and it was outstanding!!!!! I’ve tried about a dozen of your recipes and everyone is a hit!!!
That’s just awesome, Melissa! Thank you for that great review!
Just made this for the first time yesterday. Great recipe, and super easy! I look forward to my meal times now.
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Jess!
It was 5:30 PM and one of those “what the hell am I going to make for dinner” nights so went recipe searching based on the meager ingredients on hand. I had the breasts, a bag of shredded carrots, and a beautiful wedge of aged Parmesan, but improvised with jarred minced garlic and Arborio rice. EVERYONE LOVED IT! IMO it was a little gummy because of the Italian rice, but DEFINITELY will be making this again. I think next time I will add a small bag of frozen peas after the quick release, but this is a keeper. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes. Thanks
Sounds awesome! I’m happy to know that you loved this recipe. Thanks for sharing your comments and feedback Jody. Appreciate it!
If wanted to use brown Jasmine rice. Do I need to adjust the time?
Hi Christina, brown rice like we used in our Instant Pot Rice with Beef (Plov) recipe, would require a longer cooking time. One of my readers wrote: “I made it with brown rice since that was all I had on hand — and increased pressure cook time to 20 minutes.” I hope that helps!
It came out perfect and the garlic was such an amazing touch! My 4 year old, husband and I finished our bowls. It was great! My husband even got seconds. I will definitely be making this again soon.
That is the best when the family loves what we moms make. That’s so great
Does this recipe freeze well?
Hi Addie, you could freeze this since rice does reheat pretty well.
Delicious! I am wondering how the cooking time would change if using brown rice instead?
Hi Meri, I haven’t made this one with brown rice, but one of my readers wrote: “I made it with brown rice since that was all I had on hand — and increased pressure cook time to 20 minutes.” I hope that helps!
Family of type 1 diabetics here. FYI, if you include a nutrition label…some people actually rely on them to dose insulin and survive. No serving size? Useless info. 43 carbs in what? 1 cup? 2?
Hi Kristen, the number of servings is listed towards the top of the recipe card. This recipe serves 8. We don’t have it divided into cups however.
Quick, easy, and so tasty! This was really a winner in my house. It’s creamy and flavorful. I’m adding this to my go-to list!
Love it! Thank you for your good comments, Tiffany!
I was so excited to make this recipe but I ended up getting the dreaded burn notice in my new instant pot! I did everything exactly as in the recipe and it didn’t work and the rice was burned on the bottom. I was nervous about it because I tried another recipe with rice and it did the same thing. I’m not sure what the problem is. I’ve heard the new instant pots sometimes do this. Does anyone have a workaround? Cook the rice on the stove and add later?
I ended up just dumping it all in a dish and it’s now cooking in the oven. Not sure how long it will take. I’m sure it’ll taste great, just bummed it didn’t work as I was hoping in the instant pot. 🙁
Hi Leslie, there is enough liquid in the recipe where it shouldn’t normally give a burn notice. Make sure to stir to combine after adding the broth. I do have a stovetop version of this chicken and rice recipe as well.
I made it again tonight. I live in Melbourne Australia. Love this recipe. The first time I made a rice dish, I got the burn notice too. Leslie, after you sauté the chicken….add the stock and make sure you scrape up all the bits that have stuck to the bottom. Then pour the rice in and don’t stir it in….then put the cut garlic halves on the top. I cooked it for only 7 minutes…and I used brown basmati. So delicious, please try it again. This is the best chicken rice recipe and it is so simple. Good luck and happy Christmas. Keep on playing with your instant pot.
Soo good! Made it with brown basmati rice and increased the liquid to 6 cups of chicken bone broth since that’s what we had on hand and cooked it with the brown rice setting which is 23 minutes. Delicious the entire family loved it! Thank you
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Susan!
Wanted to report, so you have the information, that I made this again, last night, but this time I halved the recipe. I use an 8qt Instant Pot. There was no burn message and everything came out as wonderful as if I’d made the full recipe. FYI
Sounds awesome, I’m glad the end result was so good. Thanks for sharing, Debba!
Oh mylanta! This was SO DELICIOUS!! My little one has celiac disease and this easily replaces the creamy pastas she liked before. Even without adding the Parmesan cheese it was still amazing. This is my new Sunday night quick recipe to make. THANK YOU!!
I am so happy that hear that, Erin. Thank you so much for your great comments and feedback!
Hi natasha! I recently started following om face book after coming across your cheesy broccoli soup recipe. And might i say that it looked delish and will be making it for my family at a Christmas get together this season.
My question to this post was, I have a foodi ninja instesd of an instant pot. And they both function the same, actually I think the foodi ninja has a few added features but I was wondering if I coulf replicate this recipe in my ninja. It has saute feature and pressure cook feature. Well thank you for your videos im very much enjoying these recipes and they are so easy to make im starting to enjoy my variety at the dinner table!
Hi Liliana, I don’t have a Ninja, but if the features are similar, I imagine that could work! If you do experiment I would love to know how you would like that.
Shouldn’t be a problem.
Hi! I see others have noticed the missing white wine in the IP version. Is there a particular reason for omitting? I make risotto in my IP all the time and use white wine. If I try using it for the IP version, would you suggest maybe using 1/2 cup and adding at the last step before pressure cooking? And maybe reduce the chicken broth amount by 1/2 cup? Thank you!
Hi Melissa, The wine doesn’t have a chance to cook out under pressure so we omit it and the results are still amazing. You won’t miss it!
Thank you for the recipe.
Merry Christmas to you.
I didnt havenenogh chicken stock, so made up the difference with veg. stock, used mirepoix to start.
Added 1/2 c white wine(Vouvray)
Forgot to replace ring in lid, oops.
So it simmered without pressure for a few minutes, til I got the lid right. Reduced pressure time to 8 min. Turned out lovely in spite of my fumble.
Thanks again,
Lisa