Frozen Chicken and Rice Instant Pot

Instant Pot recipes with frozen chicken are delicious. This one is easy to prep with breasts and carrots cooked together under high pressure. We will explain step by step how to cook frozen meat in a pressure cooker here.

Yes we sure do love making Instant Pot Chicken Thighs and Rice for our family dinners but I don’t always remember to thaw the meat ahead of time so this is our go to. This way you can make the same dish any day of the week. Use bone-in or boneless skinless depending on what you have in the freezer.

We are going to use almost 2 Cups Instant Pot White Rice for this one which means it will feed about 4 people. And notice that I mention it is white, not brown. Unfortunately the darker the color the longer it takes and cooked together will yield overcooked meat so stick with long grain or Jasmine is even better.

We first came up with our most popular Instant Pot Chicken and Rice dish when I first got this “magic pot”. In this one I used the basic same basic ingredients but had to fool with the timing to get it just right.

What Type of Chicken to Use

You are going to start off with medium sized, 4 chicken thighs frozen, we used bone-in skin on. If you wanted to start off with boneless that would be fine it will just fall apart and not be able to stay together.

Can you use brown rice?

You are going to add 1.5 c jasmine rice or long grain white rice, do not use brown rice as the timing wouldn’t be correct and the meat will dry out because the grains have to be pressure cooked so much longer, just don’t.

Chicken broth is recommended but you could use stock or water. I will say the latter won’t give it nearly as much flavor so that isn’t recommended.

Best Vegetables to Add

I like to add 2 carrots peeled, cut into thick dials is a great add in but you could just add 1 cup frozen vegetables that are mixed with carrots, peas and green beans

Can you season frozen chicken?

We do share How to Season Frozen Chicken here. It’s a must. Won’t stick as well as if it were thawed but that is okay. Cooked in the same pot the flavors will permeate throughout the dish anyway. Use whatever you normally would if you baked them, we do have suggestions for you below too though.

You can easily just cook Frozen Chicken in the Instant Pot with some broth if you don’t want to add the other ingredients but really? Why wouldn’t you. Throwing everything in not only makes your meal prep that much easier but all the flavors can work together with the seasonings and all.

How Long to Cook Frozen Chicken with Rice in Instant Pot

Keep in mind that from start to finish this will take about 30 minutes to complete. It does take 10ish minutes to start the timing because the pressure needs to rise at the beginning + 11 minutes to cook + natural release too.

Why do you need to naturally release steam?

The reason you just don’t do a quick release immediately when cooking this or any of our Instant Pot Chicken Thigh Recipes is that the sudden suck out of steam will suck the moisture out of your meat at the same time too, no good. Allowing at least 5 minutes for it to rest will seal that in and the pressure won’t be as intense when you release it.

And now you know that Cooking Frozen Chicken Thighs is possible!! We have done this all different ways, in the oven, air fryer and now you can see how it is done quickly all together. I know, you still may not believe that it can be wonderfully delicious but take our word for it. When you have a forgetful day it’s a game changer.

Now you may have a few questions on How to Cook Frozen Chicken before you give our recipe below a whirl, I get it.

Can you reheat leftovers?

You could but it is better if you thaw it in the fridge overnight first. You can cover with a paper towel and microwave in 30 second increments breaking up and stirring after each bout if you must do it right out of the freezer though.