Instant Pot Chicken Thighs and Rice

You have got to try our easy Instant Pot chicken thighs and rice recipe cooked in one pot. Tender boneless skinless thighs cooked with white rice, peas, carrots with chicken broth together. It is a healthy meal ready to serve in just 16 minutes.

If you’re looking for a new pressure cooker dinner, this is a great one because everything gets fluffy and tender together and it is kid friendly too. I like to make this Instant Pot recipe with mixed frozen vegetables to make it even easier but you could leave those out, either way it is a winner.

We made pressure cooker chicken and rice with cream of chicken soup years ago. That used chicken breasts but I have come to love this dark meat so this was created. For a lighter version the condensed soup was omitted and it still turned out fantastic.

Since then I have continued to experiment using my Crockpot Express or made as an easy Ninja foodi recipe too. Any pot with the high pressure function will work, with the latter you will need to use the lid that is not attached to get this done though.

With just a few ingredients you can create a creamy casserole style dish with meat and white rice without it. We make this without cream of chicken soup for health and flavor reasons.

Can you cook raw chicken and uncooked rice together? In a pressure cooker you can!! There is a trick to it though. You need to make sure you use enough water or broth for the grains to get tender, and not stir it either because if it sits on the bottom the high heat may cause it to burn. Done properly, following our directions, though it is delicious!

Ingredient Notes

We make Instant Pot white rice all the time on it’s own. I use long grain white rice or jasmine rice almost all the time. I will note that I have not made this with brown rice or Instant Pot jasmine rice and probably won’t. Let me explain my reasonings for this; you don’t want to cook small bites of poultry much longer than 10 minutes or so, brown rice takes closer to 20.

We used freshly diced boneless skinless chicken thighs to make this. The timing is appropriate for bite size pieces so stick with that.

As for the veggies, choose those that are firmer in nature. Broccoli would be a bad choice since it is done in just one minute. Carrots, green beans, and/or a bag of frozen vegetables work great.

You will want chicken broth to cook the rice to tender and the meat + veggies. You could use water instead but there isn’t nearly as much flavor so I’d go with this. Salt and pepper, a pinch, can be added too if you like.

Substitutions and Variations

Yes if you use precooked meat you can just skip the first step of sauteeing since it would already be cooked. I do this all the time if I have meat that needs to be cooked. Canned chicken (drained) is a good option too for a fast meal.

We have made a spicier version with canned corn we called Instant Pot Mexican chicken and rice. With a layer of melted cheese on top it was out of this world. If you have a Ninja Foodi you can even air crisp the top layer of cheddar for added texture and wow.

Can you add cheese?

You could make our Cheesy Instant Pot Chicken and Rice version. I don’t add the shredded cheddar until the end though. When done you can stir in about 1/2 cup and then serve with some on the top too to bring it to a whole new level friends.

Do you need to saute the chicken first?

Yes, whenever you cook meat and a grain together in this pot you’ll want to saute it first. I mean it wouldn’t totally ruin the meal if you skipped this step, there is enough time to cook through. It just locks in the moisture of the meat when you cook the outsides just enough so it’s no longer pink.

Why do you need to deglaze the pot?

After sauteeing, ensure that it is turned off and it you deglaze Instant Pot or else you might get the burn notice part way thru the cook time. If this happens the pot will turn off and stop cooking. The reason this happens is because the bottom gets too hot and it feels like it’s burning. If you scrape the stuck on pieces off first it can be avoided.

How Long to Cook Chicken Thighs and Rice in Instant Pot

You are going to want to cook on high pressure for 6 minutes but that is not all. It requires a 10 minute natural release of steam after that to continue to cook the rice so it is fluffy and tender. It will take about 10 minutes to reach pressure so your total time is about 25 minutes to be done.

Scared to try and cook everything all together because you have never done that before, don’t be. I will walk you thru the whole thing. I was there years ago when I first got this pot and knew nothing about it. There were no recipes online out there so I literally worked for weeks and weeks figuring them out.

How to save leftovers

When rice is cooked and you’ve enjoyed all you want at the time allow it to cool before saving any leftovers. Use a really airtight container or zipped bag. The more air you have inside the drier your grains will be the next day. When reheating you should add about 1 Tbsp homemade chicken broth on to the top and then microwave for about a minute.