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Instant Pot Meal – Chicken Breasts from Frozen with Rice & Carrots

  • Author: Christine Pittman
  • 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

Units Scale
  • 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
  • 56 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-in. pieces

Instructions

  1. Measure rice into bottom of the Instant Pot.
  2. Add chicken broth and salt and pepper, stir to combine.
  3. Lay the frozen chicken breasts on top of the rice. Season the chicken breasts with the Italian herb blend or your favorite herb blend.
  4. Lay carrots on top of the rice.
  5. Cover pot, lock on the lid, and set the steam release valve to Sealing
  6. Select Pressure Cook and make sure it’s set to high. Set the time to 9 minutes.
  7. 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.