This Instant Pot Cheesy Chicken & Rice uses ingredients like cream soup and cheese to make a simple, crowd-pleasing weeknight dinner that even kids love! This recipe can be prepped in an electric pressure cooker in just minutes.
Last week, I talked a little bit about one of my favorite money and resource-saving things to do in the kitchen: Chopped Challenge week.
One week a month (or whenever I finish up the last of my freezer meals), I plan 3-4 meals that are made with nothing but the things that we have in our kitchen. Sometimes it can be a little bit of a challenge, but it's actually kind of fun! I've always secretly wanted to compete on Chopped, so this is kind of my way of living that dream out. 😉 Plus, this is a great way to save a little bit of money on a grocery bill and make sure you're not wasting resources in your home.
Sometimes, I find a great recipe when doing our monthly Chopped Challenge – and this was one of them! One night a couple of weeks ago, I had about a pound of chicken and rice – and a whole bunch of randomness in my fridge and pantry. I whipped up this Easy Cheesy Chicken & Rice and everybody in our family (kids included) gobbled it up! It was really delicious, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you guys today.
Instant Pot Easy Cheesy Chicken & Rice
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 2 cups white rice
- 2.5 cups chicken broth
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Chop chicken into 1" pieces. Set your Instant Pot on the saute setting and add 2 tbsp butter; melt. Add chicken and brown for 5-8 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Once chicken is browned, add onion and cook until soft and translucent. Add garlic and cook for about a minute.
- Add rice and stir until coated in butter. Cook rice for 2-3 minutes, until it starts to turn golden and smell fragrant. Add chicken broth.
- Lock lid on your Instant Pot and set for manual cooking, high pressure, for 8 minutes. Once cook cycle is over, quick release the pressure.
- Once cook cycle is over and lid is released, stir in soup and cheese until melted and creamy.
You could definitely sneak a few veggies into this one as well – carrots, peas, broccoli, or mushrooms would be wonderful, I just didn't have anything like that on hand. This is a great recipe to make your own – add your favorite spices too!
Enjoy, friends! Check out the rest of my Instant Pot posts here or my other recipes here.
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Do you think I could use chicken thighs instead of breasts? If so, and changes to cooking?
Sure…that would be delicious! It shouldn’t change the cooking time at all.
would i be able to add carrots to this with the onion
and what about some cheese
Carrots would be great! And yes, any cheese add-ins would work too.
That sounds so good! Guess I need an Instant Pot!
Janet, EVERYONE needs an Instant Pot!
Guess I need to put one on my Christmas list 🙂
Agreed!
Minute Rice or Long Grain please?
I typically use long grain.
Rice is uncooked when it goes in, right? New to the instant pot game!
Yes!
Yes, the rice is uncooked when it goes in.
Can I use this recipe in my pressure cooker?
Absolutely – it works in any electric pressure cooker!
Hi! My pressure cooker doesn’t have a manual setting. There is a rice setting. Could I use that setting instead? Thanks!
Never models have a “pressure cooker” setting – that’s the same as the manual setting on older models!
What size pot are you using? I have a mini. Do I change the cook time with smaller amounts?
I have a 6 quart – no need to change cook time if you halve the recipe, but it will probably come to pressure a little quicker with less in the pot and with a smaller pot size.
Can you use minute rice instead if that’s all you have or should you make before then add after everything is done cooking?
Totally up to you! I’d cook the minute rice a little bit less time though.
How much should I increase cooking time if I double the recipe?
Usually not at all! Maybe a minute or two – but don’t go too much, as that can easily overcook the rice. Just make sure your pot is no more than 2/3 full when you double the recipe (for safety reasons).
What size can of soup do you use?
Just the standard 10.5oz can!
I tried this recipe in my 6 qt. Pot. It was delicious! My husband is not crazy about rice and he loves it! I will definitely make it again!
I’m so glad you loved it, Shirley! 🙂
What do you think about using cream of broccoli instead of cream of chicken?
You could definitely do that! Maybe even throw in some frozen broccoli florets with it – that would be delicious (and a great way to sneak in some veggies).
I LOVE this recipe! Could I substitute brown rice? Would that effect the cooking time?
You absolutely can! Brown rice would need to cook longer – I’d go with 14-15 minutes.
Does cooking time change if you double recipe? I have an 8qt Instapot and very hungry teenagers.
Nope! You should set the same time (even though you’ll probably notice it takes longer to come to pressure with more in the pot).
Hi. Can I use a can of cheddar cheese soup in this recipe?
Absolutely! That would have great flavor.
I tried cheddar soup with broth and thinned it tremendously; I kept getting “burn” displayed until after the 4th of scraping and adding additional 2 cups of water….. finally abandoned it. It’s edible just not as palatable as it should be. I’ll try again without cheddar soup
Good to know – thanks for reporting back!
Will this freeze well so I can make ahead for lunches?
I wouldn’t freeze this one – rice and dairy usually doesn’t thaw well. It’s super quick to make though and could last in individual servings in the fridge for a few days.
My chicken never browned & neither did my rice…what am I doing wrong?! 😭
Strange – was it on saute mode? That should brown pretty much any chicken quickly.
It was. There ended up being so much liquid in the pot still from the chicken cooking down and from the butter, I guess?
Urg!! My rice burned on the bottom of the pot. It was not on Saute, any ideas what went wrong?
Sometimes that can happen if there’s not enough liquid. Try 1/4-1/2 cup more next time!
I will, thanks. This Instant Pot learning can be frustrating, but I refuse to give up!
This was delicious. I only had minute rice so I reduced the cooking time to 7 and added peas. I also used cream of mushroom. It tasted like a cheesy risotto! So good and easy to sub in ingredients on hand.
So glad you loved it! 🙂
would this work the same with chicken legs? I am so new at this!!
It should!
I have a 6 quart instant pot but would like to double the recipe… any tips? Cook the same amount of time or cook longer?
You should be able to cook the same amount of time. Be careful doubling this one though – I have a 6 quart too, and I’d say my pot is at least half full when this recipe is finished. Your pot will be very full if you double!
Excited to try this, can I use rotisserie chicken? If so when should I add it?
Absolutely! I’d cook the rice first and add the chicken at the end.
Made this for the first time the other night! So easy! I used chicken thighs instead of breasts and had to add almost 1/2 cup of milk at the end because it was super thick!! This recipe also reheats well!!!
Thanks for the review – so glad you loved it!
Can you use frozen chicken breasts?
I wouldn’t with this one – if you cook the rice any longer (which would be needed to really cook full frozen chicken breasts), it would get really mushy.
Family loved this. So happy I finally found a Cheesy Chicken and Rice recipe for the Instant Pot that works well.
I’m so glad to hear that, Edlyn! Thanks for the review.
Can I use rice a roni with this recipe?
I’m not sure how it would affect the cook time (if I had to guess, maybe take 1-2 minutes off), but that should work!
My 10 yr old daughter and I LOVE this! I don’t even know how many times we’ve made it since I found the recipe. Thanks for sharing it, it’s delicious!
You are so welcome – I’m so glad you love it!
I don’t have any chicken broth what can I use instead?
Water is just fine, you just won’t get as much flavor. Onion soup mix, ranch dressing mix, any kind of bouillon, or a little extra salt/pepper works too!
We tried this tonight, and used Cream of Bacon Soup and it was amazing! My 6 year old daughter loved it, and she is NOT easy to please. Thanks for posting – we will definitely make it again!
Ooh that sounds like a great addition – I’ll have to try it next time!
I make this dish often on the stove, but since my guys got me an instapot for Mother’s day I saw this recipe online and wanted to try it. This was an epic fail!! I followed the directions exactly but after the 8 minutes on pressure cook with the rice, my rice was not done and I saw a food burning message on the instapot. What in the world did I do wrong???
Usually, a burn message means something is stuck to the bottom of the pot. If you give it another try, make sure to scrape any saute remnants off the bottom before adding water/rice – that should solve the issue!
When would you add brócoli ? And would you do frozen or fresh?
Frozen or fresh would work; I’d recommend steaming in the microwave while the rice cooks and adding it after the fact. The amount of time you have the pressure cook the rice would turn it to mush!
Thanks so much! Sorry! I am a total newbie! 🙂 This will be my first ever recipe!
Good luck! Hope you love it. 🙂
Made this tonight with necessary modifications since I didn’t have the exact ingredients called for. I had boneless skinless thighs and I didn’t have cream soup. I thought when I started prepping that I had sour cream, but I discovered during the cooking cycle that I did not. What I had instead was Trader Joe’s shelf stable heavy cream so I figured that would work. I also added steamed broccoli at the end. My entire family liked it a bunch so I will definitely make it again even with these mods! Thanks for the inspiration.
I love this but it’s such a labor of love. Every single time I make it it says burn, I have to then open, stir/scrape and start again, at least 3 times before the rice finally cooks. I thought maybe it was in need of more liquid so I added at least double the liquid this time, still getting burn message. I’m probably never making this again in the IP. 😔
Added double the amount of liquid the recipe called for after reading the numerous burn messages. Still got the message that there wasn’t enough water. Second time I needed to add water I had to wait for it to completely depressurize.
More than likely, that means you had something still stuck to the bottom of your IP inner liner – that’s what typically causes those burn messages. Next time, make sure you scrape up anything stuck to the bottom before trying that pressure cycle.
Here is what worked for me. Elevation was interior alaska. Halved the recipe for my mini. And kept the time. My general rule is cover the grain or noodles fully so my broth or water might go up a little from time to time on recipes. And I always do a little broth added in then a heavy scraping of the sautéed bits. Then I add the rest of the broth. Sometimes I’ll taken the chicken out and scrape if really sticking.
But I had a few questions on times 🙂 Any advice if wanting to use frozen while chicken thighs? Or if using already cooked chicken? My daughter loves this but getting the cut up chicken is really hard right now as a single mom. So, I figured if I cooked some breasts and shredded them and then put them into this meal that would work as well. Just wasn’t sure what I should do to the cook time? I’d appreciate any advice. And many thanks for this wonderful recipe we have it every week – it even made my picky kiddo love rice again. <3
I typically recommend the same time for frozen vs. thawed, but with this recipe (since you’re cooking both the chicken and rice at the same time), I wouldn’t recommend frozen…it will extend your pressurizing time (and thus extend the whole cooking time) and leave you with soggy/overdone rice. Already cooked should be fine – keep the same time!