Instant Pot chicken broccoli rice is an amazingly cheesy pressure cooker casserole! This one pot meal works with ham or sausage too. Make in your Crockpot Express or Ninja Foodi too.
This Instant Pot chicken broccoli rice casserole is so versatile! Use ham or turkey too if you’d rather, and you can omit the veggies if you want. We love this easy InstaPot recipe as is though. (affiliate links present, originally published 7/20)
Ninja Foodi Chicken Broccoli Rice
If you’ve been following The Typical Mom blog at all you know about my love for Instant Pot casseroles. You know, the throw what you have in the fridge in the pot and let it all cook together kinda’ meals? Yeah, those.
You can make this in any brand of machine you might have at home too. I have a Crockpot Express and Ninja Foodi as well and they work just the same for this one. As long as your brand has the saute or brown as well as high pressure it will work great.
FIRST – You should sign up for my free newsletter so you get new posts emailed to you twice a week and never miss out on anything! Now let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- This is a great InstaPot cookbook and a set of wooden utensils are great to grab too.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should still deglaze pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the pressure cooker I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
Instant Pot Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
Once again this came about kinda’ by accident. I was making my Instant Pot chicken and rice dish one night but decided to use ham instead. I had broccoli that needed to be used to….so this came about!
The same thing kinda’ happened with Instant Pot enchilada rice. Next week I had rotisserie leftover chicken breasts, and swapped those out instead. They both came out great so I thought I’d share it with y’all.
- So long as your meat is precooked you can use what you have on hand.
- If you want to use fresh meat then just saute it at the start with your onions until it’s no longer pink and voila!!
The vegetables added can be swapped or added to as well. Want to really load them in there, add more! Corn and peas work pretty well too. Just warm and add in at the end once the rest if fluffy and done. This was our favorite combination of ingredients so I will share that one with you today.
Here are a few questions you might have before you get started on this dish:
Yes! We will show you how we do this all the time. Just like our Instant Pot sausage and rice recipe this cooks everything together like a casserole.
If you’re making an Instant Pot whole chicken all you need is broth and a trivet. To cook starch with your meat you’ll need to dice, saute, and brown the outsides first.
Yes! If this is all you have you can start with our frozen chicken in Instant Pot instructions. Then drain the liquid and add it into this broccoli rice dish.
Instant Pot chicken rice and veggies
You’re first going to want to start your pot on saute. Add olive oil, onions and raw chicken if that is what you have. If using precooked sausage, ham or rotisserie you don’t have to add the meat now. You’re just getting onions tender, garlic fragrant and browning your raw meat if it isn’t precooked.
Here are the next steps so you can enjoy this meal as we have several times over again. My family loved it with any meat I had on hand. I wouldn’t recommend doubling the recipe, it’s better as is.
Instant Pot Chicken Casserole
Time needed: 15 minutes
Instant Pot cheesy chicken and rice
- Saute
Saute olive oil (or butter) with onions and raw chicken if it’s not already cooked. Cook until meat is no longer pink and onions are softened. Add minced garlic near the end.
- Add ingredients
Pour in chicken broth with salt and pepper. If adding precooked meat, add at this time. Sprinkle in white rice and gently submerge at the top, do not stir.
- Pressure cook
Close lid and steam valve, set to high pressure for 10 minutes, then release the pressure quickly when that is done. (haven’t tried with brown rice yet but would take longer)
- Add extras
Lift lid and stir in fresh broccoli florets. Put lid back on for 10 minutes (to steam the broccoli). Then lift lid and stir in 1/2 cup or more of cheddar cheese and sour cream.
- Serve
Serve this bowl of comfort food as is. It turns out great every time we make it.
Like I said, diced sausage or leftover ham would totally work instead of chicken too as you see here. Casseroles in general for me are throw together use what you have on hand so it doesn’t get wasted meals. I mean that is what my Grandma was all about so maybe it is just in my DNA here.
Chicken Broccoli Rice in Pressure Cooker
Few notes: I haven’t tried frozen broccoli for this. I think if you allowed it to defrost, then drain the liquid out of the bowl or bag it would work. If not you’d be adding additional liquid to the pot and would make it too moist.
Also, the seasonings are up to you. If you like a kit of it you could add garlic powder and/or salt with the salt and pepper. That is always subjective and personal preference so I tend to under-season at the beginning. Keep in mind that your meat may already have a lot of sodium in it so you don’t want to overdo it and make it inedible.
- Cheese is of course an option and could be left out if you needed it to be dairy free.
- We are all about ALL the cheeses around here and like sharp cheddar personally.
- I think a mixture of cheddar and spicy jack might be a good option too.
Chicken thighs and rice Instant Pot
Another choice you have is the type of chicken you are going to add. I have used it all especially if I have leftovers I need to use up. I have also used a can of drained diced and already cooked chicken. It’s like tuna, canned, but in larger chunks. For more options you could choose between:
- Skinless, boneless, diced chicken breasts or chicken thighs
- these would have to be cooked before you added the broth and rice, using the saute function
- if you only had frozen thighs in Instant Pot you’d need to use these directions to thaw and precook them beforehand
- Ham diced up is another option to use
- If you have leftover turkey after the holidays you could add that instead
Diced sausage links work great too. If you like a little heat then choose andouille, less would be kielbasa. It is already cooked with a lot of flavor mixed in there which means less work for y’all. I would highly recommend trying a batch with this instead too and see which you prefer.
Tips regarding the vegetables in Instant Pot. We used the one you see here but you could add others if you really wanted to pack them in there. You could easily cut kernels off fresh corn on the cob and add that instead!
- Rinse head of fresh broccoli
- Cut into really small pieces
- Discard stalk and only use florets
Instant Pot chicken broccoli rice
- Diced chicken or other precooked meat
- White rice, uncooked – not Minute instant rice
- Cheese
- Broccoli florets
- Salt and pepper
- Onion
- Minced garlic
- Butter or olive oil
- Sour cream
Chicken broth is better than just water to add a bunch more flavor.
Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
Never added a bunch of different ingredients in your pressure cooker all at the same time? You can do it!! Follow our step by step directions below and let us know what “tweaks” you do to make it fabulous for y’all! 😉
- First you’re going to set your pressure cooker to saute mode. Add the butter and diced onions. Cook until the onion is softened, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Stir in garlic for last minute. Turn off the saute mode now when done.
- Add the chicken broth and salt, stir. Then sprinkle rice into the pot, but do not stir.
- Place the lid on the electric pressure cooker and set the valve to sealing. Set the pressure cooker to “manual” or “pressure cook” high for 10 minutes.
- Quick release the pressure when the cook cycle is complete.
- Fluff the rice, and then gently stir in the broccoli florets + precooked diced chicken or ham. Place the lid back on and allow the Instant Pot to “keep warm” until the broccoli has softened to your desired tenderness. (typically 10 to 15 minutes)
- you can skip this if your meat is already warm and/or boiled broccoli already tender
- Once veggies is tender, stir in the sour cream and 1 ¾ cups cheddar cheese into the rice.
- Top with remaining cheddar cheese and place the lid over the pressure cooker just until the cheese melts and the remaining water is absorbed. (about 5 minutes)
- Fluff and serve
If you’re looking for other Instant Pot recipes we have a ton!! A few similar dishes that have been a hit with families is this chili mac, or our 5 ingredient Instant Pot chili
Want to see a few of my favorite things that I am totally obsessed with?? Take a peek and see how many you might already have…twinsies!
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Instant Pot Chicken Broccoli Rice
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 c chicken or ham, precooked and diced
- 1.5 c rice white
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 onion diced
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 4 c chicken broth
- 4 c broccoli florets
- 1/2 c sour cream
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 1/4 c cheese shredded cheddar
Instructions
- Set pressure cooker to saute mode, add the butter and onions. Cook until the onion is softened, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in garlic for last minute. Cancel the saute mode.
- Add the chicken broth and salt, stir. Then sprinkle rice into the pot, but do not stir.
- Place the lid on the electric pressure cooker and set the valve to sealing. Set the pressure cooker to “manual” or “pressure cook” high for 10 minutes. Quick release the pressure when the cook cycle is complete.
- Fluff the rice, and then gently stir in the broccoli florets + precooked diced chicken or ham. (if you want broccoli really tender, I'd recommend to boil for 1 minute and add already tender) Place the lid back on and allow the Instant Pot to “keep warm” until the broccoli has softened to your desired tenderness. (typically 10 to 15 minutes)
- Once broccoli is tender, stir in the sour cream and 1 ¾ cups cheddar cheese into the rice. Top with remaining cheddar cheese and place the lid over the pressure cooker just until the cheese melts and the remaining water is absorbed. (about 5 minutes)
- Fluff and serve
Chris Bakewell
Wednesday 15th of November 2023
I made this yesterday for dinner. It's sooo delicious! I will definitely put this in my recipe rotation! Thank you!!
The Typical Mom
Wednesday 15th of November 2023
So glad
Vps
Thursday 29th of October 2020
What kind of rice is best for this recipe?
The Typical Mom
Thursday 29th of October 2020
Just white long grain is what I use, Jasmine occasionally
Phyllis
Wednesday 1st of July 2020
This sounds great, but I'm confused about the amount of cheese, which isn't listed in the ingredients list in the printable version, just mentioned in the instructions. In your description earlier it said half a cup; the printable recipe says 1.75 cups gets added along with the sour cream, and then add "the remaining" cheese—so 2 cups altogether? 2.5?
The Typical Mom
Thursday 2nd of July 2020
Sorry, had a mommy moment there. Fixed with correct cheese amount.
Sarah Flanagan
Wednesday 1st of July 2020
Ok, I have seen the Instant pot everywhere. Now I need one!