This Instant Pot Chicken Carrots Brown Rice Dinner is a savory, hearty and healthy meal. Made with boneless, skinless chicken (breasts or thighs), garlic, sliced carrots and brown rice with simple seasonings and optional celery.
Instant Pot Chicken Carrots Brown Rice Dinner
Hi Everyone, when you want to get dinner on the table, with minimal effort and minimal mess, the Instant Pot is the way to go. I have come to rely on it on busy days and now that I have 2 kids, one of which is an infant, the Instant Pot, has helped me so much with dinner time. It’s like a mommy/parent lifesaver!
In our house, we eat chicken dinners fairly regularly. I would consider the meal to be frugal too because the ingredients can be inexpensive. The great thing too is that this is comfort food and everything is cooked together and HOT when you serve it. None of this cooking separately with one side getting cold…I have been most grateful for that aspect on the recent extremely cold Winter days we’ve had.
I also appreciate how easy it is to clean up when making dinner in the Instant Pot; there’s just 1 pot! Plus the dishes of course, but no pots and pans. That’s a huge win to me. That means more time spent with my kids around bedtime and less time with me at the sink in the kitchen scrubbing pots and pans.
We’ve also had leftovers every time we make this dinner (we have a family of 4 but my 3 1/2 year old doesn’t eat a large amount and the baby obviously, isn’t on solids yet), enough for my husband to bring to work and me to eat the next day, so he doesn’t have to buy lunch at work and I can have an easy lunch during my day.
Seasoning & Ingredients
For the herbs which are optional, I use 1 teaspoon dry or 3 x the amount fresh. If it’s Summer, I would just use whatever fresh herbs that I have, you can get creative with your favorite seasonings. I love thyme the most, I have also used rosemary with this recipe as well as Italian and Herbes de Provence (dried) seasoning herb mix. I make this optional because I have made this recipe without the seasonings and it’s great too. I highly suggest you add the garlic, it definitely adds to the flavor.
Another thing you can do to add more flavor is sear the chicken before putting it in the Instant Pot, however, the point of using the Instant Pot is for making an easy dinner without using extra pots and pans, I feel, so it’s not a requirement for the recipe.
I make the onion and celery optional because I have tested this recipe without those ingredients and it comes out great. The celery and onions just add to the overall flavor.
A note about the water, if you want to make this into a soup, you can add more water, it makes a great chicken and rice soup too. 18 ounces of water is the minimum required for my model of Instant Pot to work. You can just add in more rice to soak up the water, if you prefer, the rice to be drier. This recipe makes the rice more “wet.” The chicken comes out super moist on the poultry setting and the veggies are perfectly cooked through.
Ingredients for Instant Pot Chicken Carrots Brown Rice Dinner
I am listing the ingredients in the order that they are meant to be put into the Instant Pot container with the brown rice going in first:
- 2 cups brown rice (rinsed and drained), you can substitute the same amount white rice, if you prefer
- 18 ounces water
- 1-2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2-4 cloves fresh garlic, crushed and minced (sprinkle on top of the chicken)
- 1 teaspoon herb seasoning mix (Italian, Herbes de Provence or other favorite herb seasoning mix), optional
- 4 medium carrots, skinned, ends trimmed and sliced to bite-sized pieces
- 1 medium onion, sliced, optional
- 3-4 celery stalks, ends trimmed and sliced to bite-sized pieces, optional
before cooking
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Helpful Kitchen Tools for Instant Pot Chicken Carrots Brown Rice Dinner
- 8 quart Instant Pot
Instant Pot Chicken Carrots Brown Rice Dinner
Ingredients
- 2 cups brown rice (rinsed and drained), you can substitute the same amount white rice, if you prefer
- 18 ounces water
- 1-2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2-4 cloves fresh garlic crushed and minced (sprinkle on top of the chicken)
- 1 teaspoon herb seasoning mix (or your favorite herbs) (thyme, sage, rosemary, Italian, Herbes de Provence or other favorite herb seasoning mix), optional
- 4 medium carrots skinned, ends trimmed and sliced to bite-sized pieces
- 1 medium yellow onion sliced, optional (not shown in photos)
- 3-4 celery stalks ends trimmed and sliced to bite-sized pieces, optional (not shown in photos)
Instructions
Put 2 cups brown rice in the metal Instant Pot liner, wash and rinse the rice with water, drain. Add in 18 ounces of water. Evenly place the chicken in a layer above the rice. Sprinkle the salt and the minced garlic on top of the chicken. Evenly spread the sliced carrots, optional onions, celery on top and the 1 teaspoon herb seasoning.
Set the Instant Pot to poultry with the the steam valve on (so the steam can't escape). Make sure when the food is done, you either allow the pressure valve to go down or do the quick release for the steam before removing the lid. Serve and enjoy!
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Sara
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If you make this recipe, please rate and comment on how it came out! Thank you in advance! Best, ~Sara xo
I LOVE my IP! I have a terrible habit of forgetting to thaw my chicken in the morning in time for dinner, and the IP has made my crap memory a non-issue. And one pot meals like this are my jam! Set it and forget it FTW!
My instant pot doesn’t have a poultry setting and there is no time listed????
Hi Melissa, which model of Instant Pot do you have?
I used the meat/ stew button. That is what it said to do in my owners manuel. Plus omly cooked it for 25 minutes and it turned out great.
How many minutes on poultry setting? Mine auto default to 15.
It seems that between the different Instant Pot models, there are different settings, mine did the same amount of time too. My particular model has a setting where you can adjust the tenderness though. (You also want to make sure these are not frozen chicken breasts) How did it come out?