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Instant Pot Chicken Thighs and Rice
$8.90 recipe/$2.23 serving
Instant pot chicken thighs and rice is a simple, easy weeknight meal. Everything cooks together in your Instant Pot in about 35 minutes, making this perfect for busy weeknights. Leftovers are great too, perfect for meal prep!
Rinse the brown jasmine rice in a mesh strainer under hot water.
Add rinsed rice to the insert of the Instant Pot.
Cut up the boneless, skinless chicken thighs into bite size pieces with scissors or a sharp knife. Add the chicken thighs directly to the rice. Do not stir.
Add water, coconut aminos, olive oil, garlic powder, dried thyme and salt to the rice and chicken thighs.
Add the lid to the Instant Pot and move the valve to sealing.
Turn the instant pot on, high pressure for 7 minutes.
Allow the Instant Pot to naturally release pressure for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, you can manually release pressure or allow it to continue to naturally release.
Equipment
Instant Pot
Notes
Top tips:
Be sure to cut the chicken into bite size pieces. This allows the chicken to cook quickly, and also helps make this recipe super simple to serve (no shredding needed).
Always add the rice first, then put the chicken on top. This ensures that the rice will be submerged in water as it cooks. This helps you get fluffy, perfectly cooked rice every time.
Always make sure the rubber seal is clean and there is nothing in the rim that could get in the way of the pressure cooker sealing all the way. If you notice steam coming from anything other than the release valve area, the pressure cooker is not fully sealed.
Change up the flavors based on the spices you add. You can make this instant pot chicken thighs and rice have a Cajun, Mexican, Italian or Greek flavor by adding a few spices.
To use white jasmine rice or white basmati rice, reduce the water from 2 cups to 1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons. Reduce the cooking time from 7 minutes, to 3 minutes.
If you are using an 8 quart Instant Pot you need to add at least 2 cups of water to ensure that it gets up to pressure correctly. You should not have any issues with this recipe since it uses 2 cups of water but may have problems if you choose to cut this recipe in half.
How to add veggies:To cook the veggies, simply, add the veggies and then put the lid back on the Instant Pot and allow the heat from the chicken and rice cook the veggies (5 minutes) before serving.
Frozen peas
Frozen green beans
Fresh shredded carrots
Shredded kale or baby spinach
Frozen cauliflower rice or frozen broccoli rice
Other seasonings:
Rosemary and Sage (add ½ tsp. dried chopped rosemary and ¼ tsp sage)
Rosemary and Lemon Juice (add ½ tsp dried chopped rosemary and the juice of 1 lemon)
Cajun (omit the thyme and add about 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning)
Italian (omit the thyme and about 1 tablespoon of italian seasoning)
Greek (omit the thyme and add 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning + ½ tsp of dried oregano)
Mexican (omit the thyme and add 1 tablespoon taco seasoning + 1 tbsp. tomato paste)
Nutrition Information
Nutrition Facts
Amount per Serving
Calories
493
Fat
11
g
Carbohydrates
57
g
Fiber
1
g
Sugar
1
g
Protein
38
g
Where does nutrition info come from? Nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy, sourced from the USDA Food Database.
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