Frozen Chicken and Rice Instant Pot 

If you loved our Frozen Chicken Thighs Instant Pot Recipe you will love this one pot meal with white rice and vegetables inside too. No defrosting necessary to make our frozen chicken and rice Instant Pot 15 minute meal in your Ninja Foodi or other pressure cooker tonight.

How to Cook Frozen Chicken and Rice in Instant Pot

Yes we sure do love making Instant Pot Chicken Thighs and Rice for our family dinners but I don’t always remember to thaw the meat ahead of time so this is our go to. This way you can make the same dish any day of the week. Use bone-in or boneless skinless depending on what you have in the freezer.

We are going to use almost 2 Cups Instant Pot White Rice for this one which means it will feed about 4 people. And notice that I mention it is white, not brown. Unfortunately the darker the color the longer it takes and cooked together will yield overcooked meat so stick with long grain or Jasmine is even better.

How to Cook Ninja Foodi Frozen Chicken and Rice

We do share How to Season Frozen Chicken here. It’s a must. Won’t stick as well as if it were thawed but that is okay. Cooked in the same pot the flavors will permeate throughout the dish anyway. Use whatever you normally would if you baked them, we do have suggestions for you below too though.

Can you cook chicken and rice from frozen?

Yes! Under high pressure is the key to keeping the meat moist and tender. If you do in fact have time to get these babies soft so you can cut the meat off the bone into large bite size pieces, better yet. You would want to follow our Instant Pot Chicken and Rice in that case. Same basic ingredients, I use mixed frozen vegetables in that one though.

• 4 chicken thighs frozen, we used bone-in skin on
• 1.5 c jasmine rice or long grain white rice, do not use brown rice as the timing wouldn’t be correct
• Chicken broth is recommended but you could use stock or water. I will say the latter won’t give it nearly as much flavor so that isn’t recommended.
• Salt and pepper is a given to add flavor
• Garlic powder is something I often add to all my dishes
• Onion powder is a nice touch for this meal
• 2 carrots peeled, cut into thick dials is a great add in but you could just add 1 cup frozen vegetables that are mixed with carrots, peas and green beans

You can easily just cook Frozen Chicken in the Instant Pot with some broth if you don’t want to add the other ingredients but really? Why wouldn’t you. Throwing everything in not only makes your meal prep that much easier but all the flavors can work together with the seasonings and all.

Frozen Chicken and Rice Recipe

Now you could use Frozen Chicken Breast pieces instead too. At the end leave them whole or peel off the skin and make it shredded with two forks. Gently fold everything together so it is like a casserole of sorts, I do that often with some shredded cheese on top of each serving.

Keep in mind that from start to finish this will take about 30 minutes to complete. It does take 10ish minutes to start the timing because the pressure needs to rise at the beginning and that takes some time.

• In the bottom of the pressure pot, put rice, chicken broth, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper.
• Stir well. Place frozen chicken thighs on top of the rice.
• Sprinkle tops with 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.
• Place chopped carrots around the chicken thighs.
• Set to PRESSURE on HIGH for 11 minutes cooking time.
• Allow pressure to naturally release for 5 minutes and then quick release. 

The reason you just don’t do a quick release immediately when cooking this or any of our Instant Pot Chicken Thigh Recipes is that the sudden suck out of steam will suck the moisture out of your meat at the same time too, no good. Allowing at least 5 minutes for it to rest will seal that in and the pressure won’t be as intense when you release it.

Can you reheat chicken and rice from frozen?

You could but it is better if you thaw it in the fridge overnight first. You can cover with a paper towel and microwave in 30 second increments breaking up and stirring after each bout if you must do it right out of the freezer though.

Frozen Chicken and Rice Pressure Cooker

And now you know that Cooking Frozen Chicken Thighs is possible!! We have done this all different ways, in the oven, air fryer and now you can see how it is done quickly all together. I know, you still may not believe that it can be wonderfully delicious but take our word for it. When you have a forgetful day it’s a game changer.

Now you may have a few questions on How to Cook Frozen Chicken before you give our recipe below a whirl, I get it.