Okay, so I made this Pressure Cooker Chicken and Rice for myself the other day just as an experiment and not for the blog. Luckily, I decided to snap some photos of the process “just in case” it turned out good. Well, let me tell you, it turned out better than good. This Pressure Cooker version of the Chicken and Rice is “stuff your face” good. Like, I wanted to eat it ALL.
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What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
I used the Instant Pot 7-in-1 cooker for this recipe, but there are several other manufacturers that make similar multi-function pressure cookers (Magic Mill, MaxiMatic, Power, GoWise). If you have a single function pressure cooker, but still want to make the rice in the pressure cooker instead of on the stove top, here are some directions from HipPressureCooking.com.
Pressure Cooker Alternative
I know pressure cookers can be expensive, but this recipe can also be made with a slow cooker and I’ve provided those instructions right along side the pressure cooker instructions below. The only difference between the two methods is the type of cooking vessel and the amount of time needed. The pressure cooker is simply faster.
How Long Does it Take to Cook Chicken in a Pressure Cooker?
Boneless cuts of chicken only take about 10-15 minutes (not including pressurizing and depressurizing time) to cook in a pressure cooker. Bone-in chicken takes longer to cook, whether in a pressure cooker, in an oven, or on a stove top. In a pressure cooker, you’ll want to cook bone-in chicken for about 30 minutes to make it fall-off-the-bone tender. That doesn’t include the time needed for the vessel to pressurize and depressurize.
Other Spice Blends
Not only is this one of the easiest and best tasting things I’ve ever made, you can use just about any spice blend you like with this method. I used a Creole seasoning blend this time, but you could do a curry powder, Greek seasoning blend, lemon pepper, Caribbean jerk, or even a dry BBQ rub. Just take note of whether or not your seasoning blend contains salt. Mine contained a decent amount of salt, so I did not need to add any additional salt along the way.
What Type of Chicken Should be Used?
Split or whole chickens are usually some of the least expensive cuts of chicken at the grocery store, but they also happen to give the most flavor to this dish. You can use any cut, but whichever cut you decide to use, make sure it is bone-in and skin-on. That’s where the flavor is.. I bought cage-free organic chicken because my budget allows it and that’s important to me, so my prices may be higher than what you’re used to.
Pressure Cooker Chicken and Rice
Servings 4Ingredients
- 1 whole split chicken (3-4 lbs. total) ($10.79)
- 2 Tbsp (approx.) seasoning blend of choice* ($0.60)
- 2 cups water ($0.00)
- 1.5 cups long grain white rice ($0.72)
- Handful parsley (optional) ($0.20)
Instructions
- Season the chicken well on both sides with your favorite spice or seasoning blend. If your sblend blend does not contain salt, season the chicken liberally with salt as well.
- Add two cups of water to your pressure cooker or slow cooker, then add the chicken pieces (they do not need to be fully submerged).
- Secure the lid, set the pressure cooker to high pressure. Once it reaches full pressure, cook for 30 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally. If using a slow cooker, cook on low heat for 8-9 hours or high heat for 4-5 hours.
- Once the chicken is finished cooking, carefully lift it out of the cooker and place it on a baking sheet. Adjust your oven rack so that the top of the meat will be 6-8 inches from the broiler. Turn the broiler on to high, place the chicken in the oven, and let it broil for 5-7 minutes or until the chicken skin is brown and crispy. Keep a close eye on the chicken while it’s under the broiler, as it can burn quickly.
- While the chicken is broiling, pour the remaining liquid (broth) from the pressure cooker through a sieve to strain out any bone or skin fragments. Measure the broth to see how much was left behind. You’ll want three cups of broth. If you have less, simply add enough water to make three cups of broth total. Taste the broth and adjust the salt if needed.
- Add the broth plus 1.5 cups of uncooked long grain white rice back to the pressure cooker. Secure the lid and select the rice function. Once the rice had finished cooking, allow the pressure to decrease naturally, open the cooker, then fluff with a fork. If your pressure cooker does not have a “rice” function, you can find manual instructions here. If using a slow cooker, simply cook the rice in the broth on the stove top, following the package instructions.
- Serve the tender chicken pieces over the cooked rice, with chopped parsley as a garnish (optional). The pressure cooker (or slow cooker) creates extremely tender meat, so the split chicken can be easily broken into pieces (breast, legs, thighs, wings) for serving.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Chicken and Rice in an Instant Pot – Step by Step Photos
This recipe starts with a split chicken weighing about 3-4 lbs. total. I used a split chicken because I find them a little easier to handle than a whole chicken. You can definitely use this same technique on a whole chicken or even chicken pieces (breasts, legs, etc.). Season the chicken liberally on both sides with your favorite spice blend. If your spice blend does not contain salt, you’ll want to add salt at this point (just sprinkle it on liberally).
Place two cups of water in your pressure cooker or slow cooker, then add the seasoned chicken pieces (they do not need to be fully submerged). Secure the lid on the pressure cooker, then cook on high pressure for 30 minutes, and allow the pressure to decrease naturally. If using a slow cooker, cook the chicken on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 8-9 hours.
At this point the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender and a lovely seasoned broth has been created in the bottom of the pot. Carefully lift the chicken out of the cooker and transfer it to a baking sheet.
I like to cover my baking sheet with foil for easy cleanup. Now adjust your oven rack so that the top of the chicken will be 6-8 inches from the broiler. Turn the broiler on to high, place the chicken in the oven, and broil for 5-7 minutes or until the chicken skin is brown and crispy…
Like this. Keep a close eye on the chicken while it’s in the broiler because broilers use an open flame that can quickly burn food. You may want to rotate the chicken half way through to make sure it browns evenly. (I also added my parsley garnish at this point.)
Meanwhile, you’ve got this insanely delicious broth left in the pot that you will NOT want to throw away. Strain the broth through a mesh sieve to remove any pieces of skin or bone that may have fallen off the chicken. Measure the broth to see how much you have. I started with 2 cups of water, but ended up with three cups of broth. If you don’t have 3 cups, you can add a little water to make up the difference. Now taste the broth and make sure it is adequately salted. Add it back to the pressure cooker along with 1.5 cups long grain white rice. Secure the lid and turn on the “rice” function. If you don’t have a rice function on your pressure cooker, here are instructions for making rice with single function pressure cooker. If you have a slow cooker, you’ll simply need to make the rice with the broth on the stove top according to the directions on the rice package.
Once the rice is finished and the pressure in the pressure cooker has come down, remove the lid and fluff with a fork. This is seriously the best tasting rice I’ve ever eaten. It’s already fully seasoned and even has a little chicken fat which gives it a rich flavor and great texture.
And that’s it! Just serve the chicken pieces over the rice and add some chopped parsley for garnish, if desired.
I’m not kidding when I say that I’ll probably make this pressure cooker chicken and rice once per week and try a new seasoning each time. It’s just so delicious and too easy to not make it often. :)
This was simple and delicious! I am looking forward to adding this to my regular rotation.
I recently got an IP and this is the first thing i made. My SO said, it’s the best thing i have ever made (Thank you Thank you) which brings the count to at least 5 best things, all of which came from Budget Bytes. This was delicious, and it tasted like we cheated and went to some restaurant for this meal. And the rice? OMG! so good!
forgot to rate!
I’m new to pressure cooking. What if broccoli was set on top of the rice prior to cooking?
I think the only problem you’d encounter is that the broccoli would be very over cooked. Vegetables only take a few minutes in the pressure cooker, but the rice cooks longer.
Roast the broccoli on foil in the oven while you are cooking in the IP with oil, salt, pepper, and garlic! When it is done, lay down a new sheet of foil for the chicken and you are ready to go!
My pressure cooker has been on for 45 mins now and still hasn’t gotten to pressure. I am afraid to cook it longer. As I was typing this it finally came to pressure and started counting down the cook time.
My pressure cooker took a long time as well, but them the cook time was pretty short, took about 50 to 60 minutes total. I used twice aa much chicken, (boneless breasts ), and an extra cup of water, my cooker direction’s said that it may take up to 40 minutes to get to the pressure needed depending on the weight and temperature of the food
I was looking to see if anyone used boneless breasts. I have a smaller pressure cooker (not IP brand) 2 quart, and want to try this recipe, but with boneless breasts/tenders. Did you adjust the time at all?
Boneless breasts will definitely cook faster, and tenders even faster than that (you may want to check your pressure cooker’s manual for suggested cooking times for those cuts). The only issue is that you will be missing the fat and flavor from the bones and skin, which add a LOT to the final texture and flavor of the rice.
Love this recipe! Cooking is so much easier for me when it’s done in one pot. The fact that the chicken AND rice are both pressure cooked is a real time saver.
We have jasmine rice here by the tons. It works just as well in this recipe.
Just wanted to thank you for this recipe. Amazing as written!!! Can’t believe with how few ingredients. I couldn’t stop eating. Whoops. I subbed the white rice with jasmine rice and kept all proportions the same. It was great.
I’m glad someone else loves it as much as I do! I’ve also started doing mashed potatoes with the liquid instead of rice. It’s equally as awesome!
Trying a double recipe version of this right now it smells amazing can’t wait to sink my fork into it!
This was very good. I used chicken leg quarters cuz they’re super cheap here and everyone was pleased.
We make this probably 3-4 times a month now. The only thing different we do is drain a bit of the fat out just because the chicken we’ve been getting lately has been extra greasy. (Good for chicken, not great for rice texture.)
Thanks :)
Turned out awesome
This recipe looks great and so easy! With a family of six, I will need to adjust the serving size…. hopefully it will still fit in the instant pot!
We also have a family of 6 mak8ng this nummy sounding recipe right now, so excited
This was wonderful- the only thing I did differently was do a quick release after the rice finished, put broccoli florets in over the rice on the steam tray, close up and restart the rice then turn off as soon as it reached pressure, doing a natural release for a few minutes. It was all just perfect. Thank you for a delicious recipe.
This looks delicious. Can I use brown rice instead of white rice (using the same quantities)?
No, you’ll need to change the amount of liquid and the cooking time. I’d need to test it to know how much/how long exactly.
By chance, did you ever figure out the ratio difference for brown rice. I want to try this dish tonight. Looks absolutely scrumptious!
I haven’t, unfortunately. :( This website has all sorts of charts and tables for cooking with pressure cookers, though. I bet they have the brown rice to liquid cooking info somewhere!
I’ve found with brown rice in my pressure cooker I want 1:1.25. So one cup of brown rice needs one and a quarter cup of liquid. I do that on a manual setting at 22 minutes, high pressure, 10 minutes of natural release. I hope you see this and it helps!
Does cooking the chicken for 30 minutes tend to dry it out?
Because pressure cookers are a closed cooking environment, they maintain all moisture, so it doesn’t dry out like it would in an oven. :)
There are two aspects to meat becoming “dry”. One is water or moisture, the other is collagen and oils/fat. It is common for the “white” meats to dry out, not due to loss of moisture, but due to loss of collagen and oils. A chicken breast boiled in a pot of water will have pleanty of “moisture” but will taste dry, tough and rubbery because the collagen and oils were boiled out of it. Bottom line? Best not to over cook it even in a pressure cooker.
Would this work with Boneless Skinless chicken Breasts? My family isn’t a fan of bone in chicken.
It won’t quite flavor the rice the same way, unfortunately. The bones and skin add a LOT of flavor and even texture (thanks to gelatin and fat) that the boneless skinless breasts will not provide.
I made tonight using boneless, skinless breasts. I just added four bouillon cubes to the water. It added back the flavor lost by not using bone-in chicken. End result was just as flavorful!
Just found with boneless set the timer for 15 min instead of the 45 min the recipe calls for, chicken was still very dry. This was my first use of pressure cooker, I will learn as I go. Cutting the chicken up for Caesar salad instead!!
If you don’t cook the chicken long enough it doesn’t have time to break down the collagen and connective tissues, so the meat will seem very tough.
I would suggest substituting the water with chicken stock ( contains more essential fats than broth as well although a little broth can be a nice touch ). With the stock you get the flavors of the whole chicken without the bones, skin and actual fat and the chicken breast will be more tender and juicy. It flavors the rice more as well.