In less than 30 minutes, you can have an entire meal with tender chicken breasts, creamy risotto-like rice, and sweet carrots thanks to the Instant Pot.
How many times have you reminded yourself to take the chicken out of the freezer only to discover that, after you started doing 10 other things, you totally forgot? For me, more often than I’d like to admit.
I have written about cooking chicken from frozen in a post aptly named How to Cook Chicken Breasts from Frozen and one for Chicken Parmesan Using Frozen Chicken Breasts. Both of these recipes use the oven. The cooking times are based upon information from the USDA. Basically, it says you need to add about 50 percent more cooking time.
So, when I’m crunched for time and need to get a meal on the table in less than 30 minutes, I turn to frozen chicken breasts. And to make it even quicker, I put those frozen chicken breasts into the Instant Pot!
Making Chicken With Rice And Carrots In The Instant Pot
If you want to just cook plain frozen chicken breasts, head over here for the info. This is ideal for meal prep or for when you want plain chicken quickly.
If you want a full meal that starts with frozen chicken breasts, then turn to the recipe below. It uses frozen chicken breasts, uncooked rice, and uncooked carrots. That all goes into the Instant Pot and then blammo, you have a delicious one-pot dinner.
There is no fussing with multiple settings. All of the ingredients go in at the same time, you lock the lid in place, turn the vent to seal, and set the time. In the time it takes to round up the kids and set them to the task of setting the table, dinner is ready to be served. Supper saved!
Please read the notes in the recipe card, as some people have struggled with this recipe and others rave about it.
More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
More Chicken Dinner Recipes
Instant Pot or not, I turn to chicken for quick weeknight dinners all.the.time. I’m linking to some of my favorite easy chicken dinners below, but be sure to also have a browse through all of my chicken recipes here (there are over 100 of them!).
- Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta
- One-Dish Italian Chicken and Cauliflower
- Chicken Pasta Bake With Creamy Alfredo Sauce
- Salsa Chicken
- Air Fryer Chicken Fajitas
Podcast Episode About Making Instant Pot Chicken Breasts From Frozen
Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this chicken dinner, along with some other great tips, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
PrintInstant Pot Meal – Chicken Breasts from Frozen with Rice & Carrots
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Entrée
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
IMPORTANT: This recipe has VERY mixed reviews in the comment section below. For that reason, I took the recipe down and retested it twice. It worked perfectly both times. While the recipe was down, I got the following in an email, “Hi there, I used a recipe off of your website last week in my new instant pot. I saved the link because my family liked it so much! However, I went back to make it tonight and the link no longer works. :-( Can you tell me where I can find a post of your “Frozen Chicken breast, rice and carrots” instant pot recipe?”
I do not doubt the negative reviews that this recipe has received at all. But given my own success with this recipe, and that email, and some other positive feedback, I have decided to republish the recipe. I’ll also tell you more about how I made it:
- My instant pot is an 8 quart one, this one.
- I used chicken breasts that were 6-8 ounces each. Larger chicken breasts might throw off the recipe. I’ve updated the recipe to reflect this.
- My chicken breasts are individually frozen, meaning that they were not frozen in a big clump. I either buy them already individually frozen or I bring fresh chicken breasts home and freeze them in a single non-touching layer on a cookie sheet before transferring them to a freezer bag. I’ve updated the recipe to reflect this.
- I have now tried this recipe both with rinsed and non-rinsed rice. This doesn’t seem to affect burning or sticking. There was a little bit of sticking with both versions. The latter resulted in a wetter finished rice. Either way, the rice was creamy and soft, like risotto almost. I’ve left the rice unrinsed in the recipe.
- Note that many commenters have said that they used an extra 1/2 cup of chicken broth (so 2 and 1/2 cups instead of 2 cups). I haven’t yet tried this but the comments seem to be positive.
I’m truly sorry to those of you for whom this recipe has failed. I’m afraid to recommend that anyone else try it at this point. But if you’re brave and do, please leave a comment below letting us all know how it went. Good luck!
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/4 cups long grain white rice
- 2 cups unsalted chicken broth
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 4 (6-8 oz. each) individually-frozen, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 tsp. Italian herb blend, or your favorite dried herb blend
- 5 –6 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-in. pieces
Instructions
- Measure rice into bottom of the Instant Pot.
- Add chicken broth and salt and pepper, stir to combine.
- Lay the frozen chicken breasts on top of the rice. Season the chicken breasts with the Italian herb blend or your favorite herb blend.
- Lay carrots on top of the rice.
- Cover pot, lock on the lid, and set the steam release valve to Sealing
- Select Pressure Cook and make sure it’s set to high. Set the time to 9 minutes.
- When the cooking cycle has finished, allow the pot to sit for 5 minutes, and then do a quick release by moving the valve to Venting.
Notes
You can make this recipe with fresh chicken breasts as well. Set the cooking time to 7 minutes. Allow the pot to sit for 5 minutes, and then do a quick release by moving the valve to Venting.
This recipe was originally published in July 2018 and was updated in October 2019.
Derrick says
Worked perfectly for me. Chicken fully cooked, rice fully cooked, and nothing burnt or stuck to the bottom. I did add an extra 1/2 cup of water but I’ll try next week without. You have saved me a lot of time and energy. Currently trying to lose weight and stop eating out so this will be something I’ll come back to just because it’s so easy. Got me 2 days worth of food and all I did was some measurements and threw stuff in.
Elizabeth Whiting says
This worked for me. Made it in May of 2021. Have a relatively new Instant Pot. Followed recipe. I did spray with a bit of Pam before putting the rice in. I added the stock by pouring it around, but did not stir. Then, I used the Schwan’s individually frozen chicken breasts. I ran under cold water for about 10 miinutes to loosen up enough to get out of the vacuum seal pouch. Pressure cooker for 9 minutes, I shut off the Keep Warm function. Tested the temp when it was done and it was perfect. Rice was a good texture, carrots were fork tender but not falling apart. I liked it a lot and will use for a basic recipe frequently.
Christine Pittman says
Thanks for sharing what worked for you, Elizabeth!
Emilie Olsen says
This saved me for a very unusual reason, haha.
My dog is sick and so needs a bland diet of rice and chicken. ‘Like porridge consistency’ per the vet. I gave him his meds and then realized I was supposed to have his meal ready for him within 30mins and I still had the chicken in the freezer! I quickly thought of the hot pot and found your instructions online. Obviously I adjusted the ingredients. Just rice and frozen chicken, and water instead of broth. But it still worked perfectly and got the meal ready for my dog in time after his meds. Thank you! This option will make his meals when he’s under the weather much easier for me. Some day I’ll make the real version of the recipe for myself ;)
Jeff says
Well, I got a burn notice before it was up to pressure. Scraped the bottom, threw in some more water and tried again. No dice…”burn”. Next, I kept the pressure up-ish using keep warm and slow cook (of all things). Eventually, I limped along until the chicken was cooked (using Thermopop thermometer – take this out if it violates something, but it’s the best thermometer I’ve ever used). We ate it. It was okay.
I wonder if an older Instant Pot has little scratches on the bottom surface and so is more prone to sticking and thus “burn”. Maybe a spritz with some Pam or other cooking spray would mitigate that. You’d have to be careful mixing it up, though, so as not to scrape off the protective film. Anyway, not so much set it and forget it for me. I knew the risks coming in and will likely try it again. This, for sure, is not my first “burn” notice. Thanks for the recipe, Christine. And chill out, angry people. She’s trying to give us something good.
Cheryl says
I didn’t have long grained rice. Used a regular sized box of Chicken Rice-A-Roni, browned the rice in 1Tbsp butter on Sauté, put two bigger Costco individually wrapped frozen chicken breasts on top, shook seasoning packet on top of rice and chicken, sealed and cooked on High for 9 mins. Did natural release until 5 mins. Came out creamy like risotto and chicken was perfect and tender. Thanks for the recipe!Â
Christine Pittman says
You’re welcome, Cheryl! Thanks for sharing what worked for you.
KATHY says
Hi flavor hood rice great but chicken tough I used fresh breast’s for
7 mins. What went wrong because I’d like to try this again!
Raife says
FYI: Only put rice in the bottom of your instant pot if you want to ruin your dinner and spend the rest of the night cleaning burnt rice on an empty stomach.
Richard says
If i double the rice should i add double the broth and add another 9 min???
Christine Pittman says
Richard, I’ve never tried it with extra rice so I’m not positive. You definitely need to double the amount of broth. I think you might be able to keep the cooking time the same though. With extra rice in there, the initial heating time will get naturally increased by a little bit. Then, once high pressure is reached, more rice doesn’t take longer to cook than less rice, so it should work out.
Kelsey Chatard says
Turn off the keep warm button and the rice will be less likely to burn
Christine Pittman says
Thank you for the suggestion, Kelsey!
Krystal Goolsby says
Made this a couple weeks ago and it turned out great! I’m about to make it again tonight!
Christine Pittman says
That’s great, Krystal! Enjoy!
Haro says
I tried the cooking method from this recipe tonight. I used my preferred seasoning blend (Uncle Chris’ Famous Steak Seasoning) in place of the salt, pepper and italian seasoning and added an extra 1/2 cup of chicken broth. It came out great! I will definitely make one pot chicken with rice like this again!
Thanks for sharing!
Christine Pittman says
You’re welcome, Haro!
Paul says
Very rarely do I comment on recipes that I use, but since you said that you had received negative reviews in the past, I wanted to say that I followed your recipe exactly as you have it written, and not only was it a huge hit with everyone, it was also a life-saver tonight because we had a few things going on, and this was fast and easy! Â Thank you so much! Â
Christine Pittman says
Thanks so much, Paul! I appreciate that.
Julie says
Amazing – I cut the recipe in half like one other comment stated. Instead of the carrots, I used frozen pea/carrot combo on top of the rice, and added some canned mushrooms (because they are a favorite of the lady I cook for). It was a hit – and I will make it again. The rice was fluffy and mixed with the peas and carrots, was absolutely delicious. I used regular chicken broth, just cut back on the other added salt. Thank you for this recipe.
Christine Pittman says
You’re welcome, Julie! Thanks for the feedback.
Victoria says
Delicious! I added lemon pepper to mine, and a little butter. Making this one again!
Christine Pittman says
Yummy! Thanks, Victoria.
Rick Cooley says
Great solution. The only change for me is that I always use brown rice. Liquid to rice ratio 1:1, unranked. Time has to go up to 22 min, 7-10 min natural release. Rice, chicken and carrots were perfect.
Christine Pittman says
Thanks for sharing your adjustments with us, Rick!
Teresa Krause says
Turned it perfect. I tried this minutes the carrots bc I didn’t have any on hand. Just heated canned carrots with it. (I know a poor substitute but my husband like canned vegetables.) Probably the third time I’ve used my insta pot. Just now getting use to it. The rice was a little browned on the bottom but I really like it that way. I will add more seasoning to the rice next time. I usually add an onion soup mix when I make rice in the stove top. Will definitely to that next time. But other than that. Perfect. Yay!
Christine Pittman says
Thanks for sharing your results and ideas for tweaking the recipe with us, Teresa!
Amelia Sally says
This was my first use of my new instapot. It turned out perfect! My only fault was I put to much Italian seasoning for my liking. Chicken was perfect, rice was perfect. I did rinse the rice 3 times, old habits. I had only 1 can of chicken broth so I added about 1/3 cup water. I didn’t measure my seasonings that’s where I went wrong. However, your instructions were perfect!! Thank you, for my first time, it was fabulous.
Christine Pittman says
Wonderful, Amelia! We love the instant pot and have tons more recipes for you to try.
Erin says
tried this (with the 1/2 cup extra broth), and it turned out great. such an easy good meal!
Christine Pittman says
That’s great, Erin! Glad you enjoyed.
Isabella says
I made this with four frozen thin sliced chicken breasts, a little less carrot, a little more black pepper, calrose rice (unrinsed), and beer can chicken seasoning. I used the exact measurements for rice and liquid and stacked everything else on top of that in the bottom of the pot, and followed the exact cook and release times. It turned out great! The rice was the perfect sticky but not dry texture and both chicken and rice were seasoned and tasted great! Thanks so much for the recipe- it will be a new regular.
Christine Pittman says
Sounds great, Isabella! Thanks for sharing with us.
Shenoa Schulte says
I wanted to mention that part of the issue might be that if you buy your chicken at Costco or Sam’s Club it is of a mutant size. I just weighed a random one in my bag and it is 13 ounces. This is pretty par for the course when you at bulk stores. How do you adjust the cook time to account for mutant chicken?
Christine Pittman says
That is definitely possible, Shenoa. It’s best to use as close to the sizes listed in the recipes as that’s how we have tested them and figured out the cooking times. If you have giant ones you could always try cutting them in half before freezing?