Instant Pot Southwestern Chicken and Rice! Throw everything in the instant pot and walk away. You’ll have a delicious, satisfying, healthy dinner 30 minutes later!
You really just throw everything in the instant pot and let it cook. It makes for a satisfying, healthy and budget-friendly meal with no clean-up.
Have you jumped on the Instant Pot train yet? I caved and bought one on cyber Monday when they were a smoking deal last November.
I know a lot of people who also bought an instant pot 2 weeks ago on Amazon Prime Day. Why is it so hard to pass up deals on Amazon?
All I know is I’m glad I made the leap and bought one. I use my instant pot all the time to make my favorite sprouted brown rice as well as quinoa to go with all kinds of dinners.
It also works great for any recipes where you’d usually use the slow-cooker.
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How to Make Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
This Slow-Cooker Moroccan Apricot Chicken turns out great in the instant pot!
You can use the saute function to brown everything and then select the slow-cooker function or cook it all in 30 minutes on high pressure. I love the versatility!
This Instant Pot Southwestern Chicken and Rice is my very favorite instant pot recipe to-date! When I showed my husband how easy it was to make his mind was blown.
Instant Pot Southwestern Chicken and Rice
I love making this with the sprouted brown rice I mentioned earlier. I also like eating this with tortilla chips, hot sauce and sharp cheddar.
The leftovers from this meal are delicious and highly coveted at my house.
You can also freeze any leftovers (see instructions in the recipe) for easy meals/lunches later.
If there is one recipe to convince you to buy an instant pot it should be this one. I’m planning on sharing more of my instant pot favorites regularly! For another favorite chicken recipe try this chicken fajita marinade!
FAQ
Can I use frozen chicken?
Yes frozen chicken will work great! Just be sure it does not exceed 1lb of frozen chicken. If you’re using 2 chicken breasts be sure they are frozen separate and not in one big clump. I find this works best with one large frozen chicken breast instead of 2.
Can I use white rice?
This recipe was designed for brown rice. It will burn if you use white rice and keep the cook time/liquid the same. The longer cook time is to insure the brown rice gets fully cooked. This is my favorite brown rice on Amazon!
Help! It burned on the bottom.
There can be a number of reasons for things burning in the instant pot. If you’ve used brown rice and not too much frozen chicken (white rice and too much frozen chicken can cause this to burn) if is probably because your instant pot didn’t seal correctly. Make sure the inner ring is clean and the valve is set “sealing”.
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Instant Pot Southwestern Chicken and Rice
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups brown rice I like using this Sprouted Brown Rice best
- 3/4 cup salsa any kind you like
- 15 oz can kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup frozen corn
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 chicken breasts about 1 pound
- 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar
- chips hot sauce and more cheese for serving
Instructions
- Place the brown rice, salsa, kidney beans, corn and chicken stock in the instant pot. Stir to combine.
- Nestle the chicken breasts (leave them whole so they won't get dry during cooking) down in the rice/liquid mixture. Sprinkle the chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin and salt partly over the chicken and partly over the liquid/rice mixture. Spread out the spices and mix some in with the liquid with spoon. (This doesn't have to be precise. Just get some in with the rice and some on the chicken.)
- Secure the lid and cook on HIGH PRESSURE for 24 minutes (select Manual and then dial up or down to get to the correctly number of minutes; the IP will start on it’s own).
- Let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes and then quick release the rest of the pressure. Remove the chicken breasts and shred into bite-sized pieces. Fluff the rice with a fork and mix in the chicken and shredded cheese.
- Serve topped with cheese, hot sauce and chips for dipping. Enjoy!
I made this the other night for my family. They gobbled it up. It was super easy …thank you for sharing. I have one question, how would I change the recipe to use dry beans?
I was also thinking I’d use dry beans – but you would definitely have to pre-cook the beans. I sometimes cook up a batch of beans and freeze in portions so I can easily toss them in things. I might check a bean chart on one of the big pressure cooker websites, but off the top of my head – some beans, 3x their height in filtered water (hard water makes hard beans so i always use filtered for beans), 20 minutes, long cd.
I made this tonight and it was great! I subbed chicken thighs for breasts. The whole family loved it – definitely a keeper!
I’m happy to hear you liked it!
I halved the recipe and used frozen chicken. Came out perfectly! I topped with cilantro, green onion, and lime juice!
Great! I’m so glad you liked it!
How would this recipe be adjusted for a crockpot?
This cannot be made in the crockpot unfortunately!
So easy! I love the instant pot – it is seriously amazing!
I agree! It’s the best! 🙂
Will it work with white rice? Will it change the cooking time?
I haven’t tried it myself but I think it would work great if you decrease the cooking time. I would try decreasing it to 15 minutes. Let me know if that works!
Tried this with white rice, and unfortunately there wasn’t nearly enough liquid to bring the IP to pressure before the rice absorbed it all. I’ll try again with different liquid amounts and report back with any success…
I forgot to add that I also used frozen chicken, which probably kept the water temp too low to achieve pressure before the rice soaked it up…
Can it be made with white rice?
Hi Erin. I replied to our discussion below. But I wasn’t sure if you would be able to see it that way. I was able to find a package of individually wrapped chicken breast that work well for me, as I can put some of them in my freezer. However, those breasts are about 4 oz each. Because you’re recipe says about a pound of breast I would assume that I use four of them instead of two. But, my question is, does the number of breasts change the time at all or is it just the pounds? I’m sorry if that’s a silly question. I’m planning on making this tonight, and I am so excited. 🙂
Hi Sian! Sorry for the delay in my response. That amount of chicken should work great with the cook time! It can be a little more or a little less no problem. The cook time is mostly for the brown rice to cook all the way through!
Hi Erin,
Unfortunately, having not heard from you yet when I made this yesterday, I took the advice of someone from the facebook IP group which did not work out at all. I will definitely do this next time. I am also hoping I find the right size breasts to only use 2. Thanks so much!
Can I use regular brown rice? If so, does the time need to be adjusted?
Regular brown rice will work great! Keep the cooking time the same.
Can this be made with frozen chicken? If so, would any adjustments be needed?
Yes! I just tried that myself last night to check and it works perfectly with frozen chicken. You can actually just keep the cook time the same. It will take a few extra minutes to come up to pressure with frozen chicken but will work great.
Thanks for this info going to try this tonight!
cant wait to try this- looks like leftovers will make great lunches
The leftovers are definitely delicious!
If I wanted to double this recipe, would I need to adjust the cook time?
I actually haven’t tried that myself – but I’m thinking the cooking time will be the same. You could add 2-3 minutes to be sure! Let me know how it goes.
hi. I am relatively new to the IP, although not a complete newbie. I am looking forward to trying your recipe. When you say two chicken breasts about 1 lb, I am assuming one pound each. Is that correct?
Thanks. ☺
Sorry for the confusion! 2 chicken breasts should be about 1lb total (each breast is 1/2lb each roughly). I hope you like it!
Thank you!
I was able to find roughly 4 oz individual chicken breasts. I assume I should use four of them. Does the fact that I’m using four change the time at all? I wouldn’t think it would considering it would equal about a pound. But I just wanted to make sure.
If I didn’t use brown rice how would I adjust the timing on the cook?
I made this tonight and doubled the recipe. The only issue we had with doubling the recipe was that it needs a little more liquid in. We used white rice since that was what we had on hand and some of the rice wasn’t cooked fully. It was still edible and my kids gobbled it up, so I’ll call it a win. We will be adding this to our rotation. Thanks.
I need to double the recipe, and was curious whether you have found a time and release that has worked perfectly?
Can I do this in a crockpot?