How to Make Perfect Instant Pot Rice

Instant pot rice is perfectly fluffy, light, tender and never sticky. Even your tricky hard to master brown and wild rice will be perfect. It’s so easy you’ll never use a pot on the stove again.

Use your instant pot to make perfect rice for meals that are served over rice, like stir fry. Try these favorites Amazing Pepper Steak Stir Fry, Honey Garlic Chicken Stir Fry or Cashew Chicken Stir Fry.

Perfect Rice

There’s nothing worse than wanting light fluffy rice and getting sticky, mushy, watery or crunchy hard rice instead. If you are making a Risotto or a Rice Pudding then you can skip rinsing and even skip the instant pot method because you’ll want a creamy texture that will be hard to get with an instant pot. This method is just too perfect for that light individual feather like rice.

Easy White Rice Ingredients:

When you use your Instant pot it’s perfect Every Single Time!

• Rice: Long grain
• Water: If you want to add flavor you can use chicken, beef, or veggie broth.
• Butter: Adds richness but you can also leave it out.
• Salt: Just a pinch to add flavor

How to Make White Rice:

So simple you’ll memorize this easily.

• Rinse: Use a fine mesh strainer to thoroughly rinse the rice. I often use my hand to move the rice around and make sure it all gets rinsed.
• Cook: Combine rice, water, butter and salt in Instant pot. Lock the lid and secure the vent and cook on high for 5 minutes
• Release: Let the pressure release naturally. Carefully remove the lid and fluff with a fork.

Why You Need to Rinse Rice:

• Starch: Rinsing your rice before cooking will help get rid of the extra starch which is found on Rice. This extra starch when cooked causes the rice to become sticky and gloopy. Rinsing will take off that extra starch and insure nice fluffy individual grains of rice.
• Impurities: No method of preparing rice for the store shelf is perfect. Rinsing your rice will also help get rid of any impurities, such as dirt, left over pesticides and help sanitize your rice making for a healthy meal.

Why the Instant Pot is Best for Fluffy Rice:

• Consistent:  Cooking rice on the stove top can vary so much that it’s hard to get consistent results every time. Depending on how your lid fits, the size of the pot and your heating element you make never get the same result twice.
• Steady Results: The instant pot is consistent because there is no water lost through evaporation. The heat source is always consistent and the time and setting is the time every time.
• Natural release: When the rice is done cooking, leave the rice undisturbed and the pressure will naturally begin to release. After about 15 minutes you can manually release the remaining pressure before opening it.

Brown Rice Ingredients:

• Brown Rice: Long grain cooks nicely and can be used for anything.
• Water: Try using a  broth for extra flavor boost
• Butter: Adds buttery flavor, but can leave out.
• Salt: Just a pinch will do it

Making Brown Rice in the Instant pot:

• Rinse: Use a fine mesh strainer to thoroughly rinse the rice. I often use my hand to move the rice around and make sure it all gets rinsed.
• Cook: Combine rice, water, butter and salt in Instant pot. Lock the lid and secure the vent and cook on high for 10 minutes
• Release: Let the pressure release naturally. Carefully remove the lid and fluff with a fork.

Wild Rice Ingredients:

• Wild Rice: There are many varieties of wild rice. Experiment with all of them to find a favorite.
• Water: Notice there is more water than rice for wild rice.
• Butter: Can be omitted.
• Salt: Helps to bring out the flavor of the wild rice.

Mastering Wild Rice in the Instant Pot:

• Rinse: Use a fine mesh strainer to thoroughly rinse the rice. I often use my hand to move the rice around and make sure it all gets rinsed.
• Cook: Combine rice, water, butter and salt in Instant pot. Lock the lid and secure the vent and cook on high for 15 minutes.
• Release: Let the pressure release naturally. Carefully remove the lid and fluff with a fork.

More Easy Side Dishes:

• Classic Fried Green Tomatoes
• Garlic Parmesan Green Beans
• Best Ever Glazed Carrots
• Garlic Balsamic  Mushrooms
• Parmesan Garlic Roasted Tomatoes

SaveSaved Pin Print

Instant Pot Rice

5 from 1 vote

By: Alyssa Rivers

Instant pot rice is perfectly fluffy, light, tender and never sticky.  When you use your Instant pot it's perfect EVERY SINGLE TIME! Even your tricky hard to master brown and wild rice will be perfect. It's so easy you'll never use a pot on the stove again.

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 people

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

For White Rice:

• ▢ 2 cups white rice
• ▢ 2 cups water
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon Butter
• ▢ pinch of salt

For Brown Rice:

• ▢ 2 cups brown rice
• ▢ 2 cups water
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon Butter
• ▢ pinch of salt

For Wild Rice:

• ▢ 2 Cups Wild Rice
• ▢ 3 cups water
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon Butter
• ▢ pinch of salt

Instructions 

For White Rice:

• Start by rinsing the rice in water. Combine rice, water, butter and salt in water in the instant pot. Lock the lid and make sure the vent is sealed and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes.
• Let the pressure naturally release and release the remaining pressure. Carefully remove the lid and fluff with a fork.

For Brown Rice:

• Start by rinsing the rice in water. Combine rice, water, butter and salt in water. Lock the lid and make sure the vent is sealed and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes.
• Let the pressure naturally release and release the remaining pressure. Carefully remove the lid and fluff with a fork.

For Wild Rice:

• Start by rinsing the rice in water. Combine rice, water, butter and salt in water. Lock the lid and make sure the vent is sealed and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes.
• Let the pressure naturally release and release the remaining pressure. Carefully remove the lid and fluff with a fork.

Nutrition

Calories: 521kcalCarbohydrates: 103gProtein: 13gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 11mgSodium: 55mgPotassium: 351mgFiber: 5gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 139IUCalcium: 43mgIron: 2mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American, Mexican

Tried this recipe?Mention @alyssa_therecipecritic or tag #therecipecritic!