Need a quick and easy weeknight meal? This instant pot chicken fried rice is sure to check all the boxes! It’s simple, just as fast as takeout, and is packed full of great Asian-inspired flavors. Just prep the ingredients, throw them into your instant pot or pressure cooker, and you’ll have a deliciously healthy dinner on the table in minutes!
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📋 About the Recipe
Instant pot chicken fried rice is a complete meal all on its own. There’s really no need to fuss with anything else. Because it incorporates lots of vegetables, rich protein, and grains, it’s sure to keep you and your entire family full for hours. This fried rice is lighter and healthier than takeout, but tastes just like the hibachi style rice we all know and love.
Quicker and easier than stovetop chicken fried rice, this simpler version allows you to put everything into the instant pot and make it do all the work for you. Instead of pre-cooking the rice and baking the chicken separately, you add both to the same pot, making cooking, as well as cleaning, a complete breeze!
Leftover instant pot fried rice is perfect for on-the-go, pack it for workday or school lunches or serve it as a side dish to the next night's dinner with other Asian-inspired meals, such as this air fryer almond chicken in honey soy sauce.
Looking for some other instant pot recipe ideas? Try these!
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- You can substitute the chicken breast for shrimp, pork, or steak, just add the protein of your choosing in place of the chicken and cook it according to the same recipe instructions.
- If you prefer vegetarian fried rice, omit the chicken and use vegetable broth or water instead of chicken broth. You can also omit the eggs if you don’t eat eggs.
- This recipe was tested using long grain basmati white rice. Any variations or substitutions to the rice may result in a different overall texture.
- If you would like fewer servings of rice, halve the amounts of all the ingredients but cook them for the same amount of time, following all the same instructions.
📓 Instructions
Prep all of your ingredients so that they’re ready to be thrown into the instant pot when the instructions say to do so.
Thoroughly rinse the rice in a fine mesh strainer to release any extra starches. Set it aside.
Drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of your instant pot and set it to the sauté setting. Add whisked egg, salt, and pepper. Continuously stir until the egg is cooked through, making sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
Remove the egg and any remnants left on the bottom. (If the egg leaves a residue, you will get a burn warning while cooking the rice, so make sure to scrape it clean with some oil and a spatula or wooden spoon.)
Then, drizzle 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil into the instant pot and sauté the chicken. Once the chicken is nearly cooked through, add the onions and carrots. Cook until the onions become translucent and soft, again scraping the bottom of the pot so nothing sticks.
Add in the garlic, ginger, corn, and rice. If the food starts sticking, add a little more oil. Toast the rice for about 2 minutes.
Pour in the chicken broth and stir. Cover the instant pot and pressure cook on high with the lever in the sealing position for 6 minutes. Once the time is up, allow it to sit and do a natural release for 10 minutes (don’t do anything).
After the 10 minutes are up, do a manual release by turning the lever to “venting.” Once the pressure is fully released, remove the lid, and add in the soy sauce, additional 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, scallions, eggs, and frozen peas (they will defrost in the warm rice).
Stir to combine everything. Serve warm and enjoy!
🔍 FAQs
If you want to switch things up, you can add steak, pork, or shrimp instead of chicken. Follow all the same instructions.
You can also make this recipe vegetarian by leaving out the chicken, eggs, and chicken broth, using vegetable broth or water instead.
This recipe was tested using white long grain basmati rice. Other types of long grain white rice should get the same results. This is the most common type of rice used for fried rice and is highly recommended.
However, if you choose to use a different rice, you’ll need to adjust the cook time accordingly:
If you prefer to use long grain brown rice, add it instead of the white rice and cook everything on high pressure for 15 minutes. Then, do a 5 minute natural release before turning the knob to “venting” and follow the rest of the recipe instructions.
For a medium grain rice, like jasmine rice, cut the cook time to 5 minutes on high pressure. Then, allow it to naturally release for 8 minutes before turning the knob to “venting.” Follow the rest of the recipe instructions.
With all kinds of rice, be sure to rinse it thoroughly before adding it to the instant pot and cooking. Rinsing will remove any additional starches and will help lessen the chances of the fried rice becoming overly sticky or mushy.
For traditional fried rice, it’s often better to cook the rice before and “fry” it cold so that it gets that rich fried taste. However, for this quick and easy instant pot version, you do NOT need to precook the rice. Instead, you add it to the instant pot to cook with all the other delicious flavors. In turn, it absorbs the flavor of the other ingredients and becomes toasty and fried-flavored from the addition of the toasted sesame oil.
This recipe is inspired by Chinese fried rice, which traditionally uses soy sauce to add a salty flavor to the rice. Alternatively, Thai fried rice uses fish sauce for its own flavor and saltiness. Often, Chinese fried rice includes more vegetables, whereas Thai fried rice may include other variations, such as cucumber, lime, Thai basil, pineapple, or chilis.
💭 One More Tip
This instant pot chicken fried rice makes a fairly large batch of rice. It stores really well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Serve it as a main dish, then as a side dish on the following days, or pack it for lunches during the week.
🍴 Related Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Chicken Fried Rice
Equipment
- instant pot or pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 2 cups basmati or long grain rice
- 3 eggs
- olive oil for drizzling
- 1 chicken breast diced small
- ½ a yellow onion diced
- ½ cup carrot diced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- ½ tsp freshly grated ginger
- ¾ cups canned or frozen corn
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 3 tbsp toasted sesame oil separated into 1 tbsp to cook chicken and 2 tbsp to add to rice
- 1 ½ tbsp scallions sliced thin
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions
- Prep all of your ingredients so that they’re ready to be thrown into the instant pot when the instructions say to do so.
- Thoroughly rinse the rice in a fine mesh strainer to release any extra starches. Set it aside.
- Drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of your instant pot and set it to the sauté setting. Add whisked egg, salt, and pepper. Continuously stir until the egg is cooked through, making sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Remove the egg and any remnants left on the bottom. (If the egg leaves a residue, you will get a burn warning while cooking the rice, so make sure to scrape it clean with some oil and a spatula or wooden spoon.)
- Then, drizzle 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil into the instant pot and sauté the chicken. Once the chicken is nearly cooked through, add the onions and carrots. Cook until the onions become translucent and soft, again scraping the bottom of the pot so nothing sticks.
- Add in the garlic, ginger, corn, and rice. If the food starts sticking, add a little more oil. Toast the rice for about 2 minutes.
- Pour in the chicken broth and stir. Cover the instant pot and pressure cook on high with the lever in the sealing position for 6 minutes. Once the time is up, allow it to sit and do a natural release for 10 minutes (don’t do anything).
- After the 10 minutes are up, do a manual release by turning the lever to “venting.” Once the pressure is fully released, remove the lid, and add in the soy sauce, additional 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil, scallions, eggs, and frozen peas (they will defrost in the warm rice).
- Stir to combine everything. Serve warm and enjoy!
Notes
- You can substitute the chicken breast for shrimp, pork, or steak, just add the protein of your choosing in place of the chicken and cook it according to the same recipe instructions.
- If you prefer vegetarian fried rice, omit the chicken and use vegetable broth or water instead of chicken broth. You can also omit the eggs if you don’t eat eggs.
- This recipe was tested using long grain basmati white rice. Any variations or substitutions to the rice may result in a different overall texture.
- If you would like fewer servings of rice, halve the amounts of all the ingredients but cook them for the same amount of time, following all the same instructions.
- This instant pot chicken fried rice makes a fairly large batch of rice. It stores really well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Serve it as a main dish, then as a side dish on the following days, or pack it for lunches during the week.
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