Instant Pot red beans and rice with canned beans recipe is a great dinner idea that’s hearty and packed with lots of flavor. Made with uncooked white rice, kidney beans and kielbasa sausage can be added too.
We’re back with another favorite pressure cooker meal. It came out great with pantry ingredients and can be made meatless if you choose. Was such a hit it made it to our list of fabulous Instant Pot recipes since it is can easily be made any time of year.
Can you cook red beans and rice together?
In this case you can! With the high pressure of this “magic pot” you are now able to allow all the ingredients to get tender all at the same time. Here we have done all the hard work for you sharing the proper timing, tips and tricks necessary so you don’t have to make all the components separately and then combine.
I typically buy whatever brand or type of bean that is on sale. You will see red here but you could definitely use Great Northern or pinto if you preferred those. As you can see, there are lots of substitutions you can make and still turn out wonderful.
Ingredient Notes
Onions diced are a nice touch for texture and flavor. I typically will use white or yellow varieties but could be left out if your kids are super picky and “won’t eat it” if they see any of them inside their meals. 😉
Can of red kidney beans is what I used, often called red beans. I don’t feel there is enough of a difference for me to choose one over the other. Once again I pick whatever I have on hand or is least expensive at the grocery store.
Chicken broth or beef works too for the liquid. I use half broth and half water so there isn’t a lot of sodium in the mix. If you don’t add meat then you could use more of this to balance the flavors out.
White rice is what you need for the cook time to be accurate, don’t use brown because that takes too long and everything else will become mushy. What you want is the “regular” bag of long grain uncooked grains.
Bacon and Sausage diced are optional but a nice add way more flavor and make it more like a full meal. Andouille is is what we use for our Instant Pot sausage and rice too. If you like a bit of a kick of heat but not overwhelmingly I’d choose this.
Variations
Some like red beans and rice a bit soupier in it’s consistency, we like it on the drier side but you can make it either way with this recipe. If you want more of a gumbo style I would add an additional 1/2 cup of liquid and with that you could include 1 cup of frozen okra too. That would transition it into that rhelm.
Made with Dry Beans
If you want to use dry beans refer to our post on cooking beans in a pressure cooker. You would need to start with this, wait until done and tender to your liking but still just a tad al dente. Drain, rinse, and proceed with the steps below.
Equipment Needed
You obviously need some sort of electric pressure cooker, we have an Instant Pot but there are many other brands. I like using a wooden spoon especially sauteeing in my pot so it doesn’t scratch. And you would want a sharp knife to dice your onion, bacon and sausage into bite size pieces.
Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/4 small onion, diced
- 6 strips bacon , diced, (optional)
- 1 tbsp garlic, minced
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 12 oz sausage, kielbasa, andouille, precooked, diced (optional)
- 1 can red beans, drained
- 2 cup rice, uncooked, white long grain rice
- 2 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 cup water
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Put Instant Pot on saute, high.
- Add olive oil. Add onions, garlic and bacon and cook down until bacon cooks a bit and onions soften.
- Add precooked sausage and warm along side other ingredients. (skip if making meatless)
- Turn off IP by pressing cancel. Add your can of red beans that have been drained and rinsed off with a bit of water.
- Add chicken broth and water (we used 2 c. of each to look like this picture, if you want it wetter add an extra 1/2-1 c. chicken broth for a soupier consistency). Stir.
- Add salt, and cumin. Stir. Sprinkle in uncooked rice and submerge into liquid on top, do not stir or else the burn notice will appear on the screen.
- Put lid on and close steam valve. Push rice button, will automatically set for 12 minutes. When it beeps allow to naturally release steam for 2 minutes, then do a quick release and stir contents together (season more if desired) and serve!
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
FAQ
Start by sautéing onions, garlic, and bell peppers in the Instant Pot using the Sauté function. Once softened, add canned red beans (drained and rinsed), cooked sausage or ham, Cajun seasoning, thyme, bay leaves, broth or water with uncooked rice on top. Lock the lid, set the Instant Pot to high pressure, and cook for less than 15 minutes and done!!
While the classic recipe calls for red kidney beans, you can certainly use other types of canned beans as well. Red beans, pinto beans, or a combination of beans can work nicely in this dish. Choose the beans that you prefer or have available in your pantry.
Yes, you can freeze the leftover Red Beans and Rice. Allow the dish to cool completely, then transfer it to airtight containers or freezer bags. Label and date them, and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating on the stovetop or in the microwave.
Ninja Foodi Option
You can make it as one of our Ninja Foodi recipes, in a Crockpot Express or other brand you have at home. They all basically work the same as long as you have the saute and high pressure function to them.
For this machine you will use the lid that is not attached for the pressure cook function. This gave our hearty rice dinner a great added flavor. You could use any sausage links that are precooked. This is the style I typically pick up at the store. There are many varieties, spicy is quite good too.
Yes I am sure you could find a stove top recipe for beans and rice but why bother when you can make it to perfection in under 20 minutes here??!!
How Long Does it Take to Cook Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
If you cook from scratch you have to make the beans tender first which takes 40 minutes or so. Then you add the rice and broth as stated below for an additional 12. With canned you cut it down to just 14 total. You start with putting the Instant Pot on saute, high. Add olive oil. Add onions, garlic and bacon and cook down until bacon cooks a bit and onions soften.
Other easy pressure cooker recipes with beans you’ll love
Instant Pot chili has only 5 ingredients and we make this every few weeks on top of rice. New Years dish = Instant Pot Hoppin John with black eyed peas inside. A huge kid fave is this Instant Pot chili mac recipe. These Instant Pot black beans are a great side dish
So so good! Even all four of my kids liked it. That never happens! We will make again. The bacon didn’t want to crisp up but was excellent otherwise.
So glad!
made this and it was really easy. Followed the recipe and turned out great. Thanks!
Awesome!
Turned out great and the kids loved it! I used Polska kielbasa with brown rice and doubled the time. I checked it after 12 min, it wasn’t done, so did another 12 min on rice setting and it was perfect!
So glad!!
I have a bag of dry red beans that I want to use. I am new to this whole instapot thing so how would using those change the cooking times? Thank you.
This is an old question, but I always use dried beans in the instant pot, so thought I’d answer in case anyone else has this question. The best way to use dried beans in a recipe like this is to cook the rice separately. When I make rice I always freeze single-serve batches of it to use later.
I made a similar red beans and rice recipe last night and this is what I did: To the instant pot I added a swirl of olive oil, about 1/3 cup frozen seasoning blend, (but you can use fresh chopped onion, garlic, celery, bell peppers + bacon), 1 tsp reduced sodium chicken bullion, and 1 frozen andouille sausage link. To this I added the dried beans + water (your liquid should be 3x-4x the amount of dried beans you use, depending on how soupy you like it), and a couple shakes of cajun seasoning blend (or you can use cumin, like this recipe). I cooked on high pressure for 30 mins + natural release. This wasn’t long enough to soften the beans, so I added another 5 mins. In the future I would cook for 35-40 mins at high pressure plus natural release.
When I opened the pot after 30 mins, I sliced the andouille sausage and mashed the beans, which thickened it a little. I tasted and added a couple more shakes of cajun seasoning before closing the lid and cooking for another 5 mins at pressure. I served over some steamed rice (I had some already made).
*Dried beans cook at different speeds depending on how fresh they are. If you are confident you know how long your beans will take to cook, then you could cook this with dry rice as well. So, if you cooked it like I did and opened the pot at 30 mins, you could make sure you have 1.5x water to dry rice ratio (or a bit more), add the rice and cook for another 5 mins (.
**Make sure you use the correct cooking time for the rice you are using. White rice cooks in 3-5 mins depending on short grain, long grain, basmati, etc. Brown rice takes 22-25 mins. Since the pot is already hot it won’t take as long to get to pressure, so I would add a couple mins cook time to the rice. Generally, 5 mins should be sufficient for white rice and you want to use a 1:1 water ratio and rinse your rice first (12 mins is way too long for rice in the IP!). I would add a little extra liquid (water or broth) since there are other ingredients to soak up the water and your beans are still cooking. You could even add a can of diced tomatoes at this point if you like tomato-y red beans & rice. ***Using too much water or too much cooking time will result in gummy rice!
Made this and it came out perfect. Will definitely make it again. The only problem was I didn’t want to stop eating it. Great recipe.
Yeah!! So glad.
Thanks for the recipe. It was very tasty! I’m afraid that something is wrong with my new instant pot, though. It took 10 min just to pressurize (on rice) before the 12 minute count down even started. It ended up being about 22 minutes before it beeped and the rice was a little bit mushy. Is this amount of time normal? I followed your 2 cups water and only 2 cups broth recommendation.
It does take some time to pressurize, I haven’t timed how long it takes. If you prefer your rice more al dente just use less liquid when cooking. Everyone has different preferences, glad you liked it.
I m going to make your recipe one question how do you turn off an instant pot
The bottom right button turns it off.
Would the time or the amount of chicken broth change for brown rice? I can’t wait to try this!
Haven’t tried with brown rice, maybe increase a few minutes and check. Let me know!
Do you use regular or minute rice for this recipe? Do you precook the bacon?
Regular rice, and I cook the bacon in the IP on saute first.
This looks great! Do you precook the bacon and then dice it, or cut it up and then cook in the instant pot?