Instant Pot Chicken & Brown Rice (Thai-Style, Gluten-Free)

This Instant Pot chicken and brown rice recipe is quick, easy and nutritious. For this dish, we decided to create a Thai-inspired one-pot wonder that features chicken, sweet chilli sauce and a lovely side of vegetables and herbs.

When it comes to weeknight cooking, you can’t beat Instant Pot one-pot dishes. They’re hands-off and fuss-free, leaving you with minimal clean up at the end. This is exactly why you’ll love our Instant Pot brown rice and chicken dish.

We love cooking everything together as it allows the brown rice to absorb not only the broth liquid during the cooking process but also all the flavours. The concept is similar to that of a popular Chinese chicken and rice dish, in which the chicken broth flavours and cooks the rice.

The whole dish takes about 30 minutes (prep and cooking time) and you’ll be ready to enjoy a nutritious and hearty meal with little effort.

How To Make Instant Pot Chicken & Brown Rice

You will find the full list of ingredients, instructions and nutritional breakdown in the recipe card below but here are some notes.

Brown rice works best for this dish because the pressure cooking time is similar to that of poultry. If you were to use white rice, you would need to precook the chicken first as the white rice only needs 4 minutes of pressure cooking. Plus, we think that brown rice is very delicious and has a wonderful texture that works well in the final dish. Make sure to rinse the brown rice really well before cooking. We usually rinse it 3 times under cold water.

For a Thai twist, we’re using gorgeous aromatics such as ginger and garlic, and a few dollops of sweet chilli sauce, which works wonderfully with poultry.
Essentially, everything goes in the pot at the same time and our lovely herbs and sauces will infuse the chicken and the rice while they cook together.

Once ready, you will see that the rice has absorbed the cooking liquid and doubled (almost tripled) in size. The chicken should be soft and well-cooked through. It might not look super appetizing at this stage but that's when you can zhuzh it up with freshly chopped, colorful vegetables and fresh cilantro. 

Serve this Instant Pot chicken and brown rice with your favourite vegetables. We love grated carrots, shredded cabbage and red peppers for their colour and vitamins. Fresh cilantro and extra scallions will also freshen up your bowl of goodness. Enjoy!

MORE ASIAN INSTANT POT RECIPES

• Brown Rice Thai Salad With Peanut Butter Dressing
• Instant Pot Thai Red Lentil Soup (Vegan, GF)
• Instant Pot Turmeric Jasmine Rice
• Japanese Chicken Curry
• Garlic Ginger Tofu & Bok Choy

Full Recipe

Find the full list of ingredients, instructions, and a nutritional breakdown below. If you have questions or cook this recipe, please let us know in the comments, and make sure to rate this recipe so it’s easy for others to find.

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Thai-Style Instant Pot Chicken & Brown Rice

Thai-inspired Instant Pot chicken and brown rice is quick, easy and delicious one-pot wonder. Made with sweet chili sauce, aromatic herbs, and vegetables, this 30-minute dinner is healthy and gluten-free.

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Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Calories: 426kcal

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups brown rice rinsed well
• 1.5 cups water or chicken stock
• 1 cube chicken stock if using water above
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce use Tamari for gluten-free version
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 scallion/spring onion chopped

For the chicken

• 4 chicken thighs with or without skin
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic grated
• 2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce like this one (check the label for gluten-free)
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil optional
• To serve: fresh cilantro/coriander grated carrot, shredded red cabbage, red peppers or any other salad vegetables, chopped scallions. Extra lime and sweet chilli sauce.

Instructions

• Add the rinsed brown rice, water, chicken stock cube (break it up), soy sauce and fish sauce to the inner pot and mix through.
• Place the chicken pieces (lightly sprinkled with salt) gently on top but don’t push them in too dip. Sprinkle with scallions all over the rice and chicken.
• Mix the ginger, garlic, sweet chilli sauce, fish sauce, lime juice and sesame oil in a small bowl. Scoop and spread the mixture over the chicken pieces. It’s okay if some of it ends up in the rice, as it will all get flavoured together.
• Close and lock the lid, making sure the steam valve is pointing to Sealing. Set the Instant Pot to Manual, HIGH pressure, 15 minutes. After 3 beeps, the Instant Pot will begin the pressure building and cooking process. Once done, allow the pressure to release naturally until the lid opens easily. You can quick release the pressure manually too, we suggest to do so after about 5 minutes.
• To serve, dish out the rice in bowls and top with the chicken pieces. Assemble the salad with scallions and fresh cilantro in the bowls and serve with extra lime and sweet chilli sauce.

Notes

For a lower-calorie version, use chicken thighs without the skin.

Nutrition

Calories: 426kcal | Carbohydrates: 59g | Protein: 28g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Cholesterol: 107mg | Sodium: 1208mg | Potassium: 495mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 28IU | Vitamin C: 0.03mg | Calcium: 40mg | Iron: 2mg

CourseEntree

CuisineAsian

KeywordGluten-Free, Healthy, Thai

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