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Instant Pot Mexican Rice

| Gluten Free, Instant Pot, Recipes, Sides

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The most amazing Instant Pot Mexican Rice side dish made in 15 minutes! It’s so easy and effortless, you’ll never want to revert back to the old-fashioned way of making it on the stove top!

Turquoise bowl sitting on a brown table containing Instant Pot Mexican Rice, heirloom tomatoes in background.

Instant. Pot. Love.

If you’re a follower of my recipes here at Recipes Worth Repeating, you know how much I love my Instant Pot! Want to know how much? Check out a post I put together featuring 14 Recipes That Will Convince You to Buy An Instant Pot. And what’s funny is I almost didn’t buy one.

I read a lot of reviews/experiences from people who tried to use their Instant Pot and just didn’t like it at all. But, I have a friend who swore by her Instant Pot so I jumped on the bandwagon and bought one. And I’m SO glad I did! Ya’ll, this fast and easy Instant Pot Mexican Rice dish is delicious!

Wooden table containing rice, heirloom tomatoes, cilantro and 4 garlic cloves.

Ingredients

I’m talking fresh garlic, chopped onion, crushed tomatoes, cilantro, cumin, garlic powder, smoked paprika, long grained white rice, avocado oil and chicken stock. Pretty SIMPLE ingredients!

How to Make Mexican Rice In An Instant Pot: Step-By-Step

I’m going to walk you through this process step-by-step because let’s be honest…a lot of Instant Pot recipes are too vague and I get confused! Not this one..nope! I’ve got you covered on this recipe! Here we go!

Step 1

On your Instant Pot, click the Saute button. The display screen should reflect “On”.

Instant Pot featuring the On feature for Saute.

Step 2

Once your Instant Pot heats up and is hot (about 3 minutes from putting it on Saute mode), you’ll pour in the avocado oil.

Tablespoon containing avocado oil being poured into Instant Pot.

Step 3

Next, you’ll add in your chopped fresh garlic and onion and saute. I saute for about 3 minutes or until my garlic and onion start to slightly brown.

Sauteed garlic and onions in Instant Pot.

Step 4

From there, you’ll add in your uncooked long grain white rice. You’ll want to stir the rice around until it’s well coated with the oil, garlic and onion.

Instant Pot containing white grain rice, wooden spoon to stir.

Step 5

Next, you’ll add in the chicken stock, crushed tomatoes, chopped cilantro, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt.

Instant Pot containing ingredients for Mexican Rice, wooden spoon to stir.

Step 6

You’ll now want to turn off your Instant Pot by clicking on the Keep Warm/Cancel button. You’re now ready to pressure cook your Mexican Rice! Place the lid on your Instant Pot and twist it so it locks in place. Make sure your knob is set to the sealing position. Now, click on the Manual button. Notice your display screen reflects “On”.

Instant Pot set to display On in Manual Mode.

Step 7

Using the + button, click until your display screen displays 8 minutes. Note that I’m cooking on High Pressure.

Instant Pot in Manual Mode at 8 minutes.

Step 8

During the 8 minute cooking time, your Instant Pot is going to start steaming and whistling a bit. This is normal.

Instant Pot releasing steam on low pressure.

Step 9

You’ll also notice that your display has started counting down from 8. Once the Instant Pot counts down to 0, it will beep. From there, your Instant Pot will need to count down for 5 minutes. During this step, the Instant Pot is slowly releasing pressure.

Instant Pot on Keep Warm/Cancel mode on low for 5 minutes.

Step 10

Once you hit 5 minutes, you’re going to twist the pressure knob to release the pressure. Steam will shoot out once you move the valve to venting mode so be careful!

Instant Pot in Venting mode releasing steam.

Step 11

After the steam has fully released, you can remove the Instant Pot lid. Take a fork and lightly fluff through your rice. From there, you are ready to serve!  Super easy right?!?

Mexican Rice in an Instant Pot being fluffed with silver fork.

Tips & Trick For Making and Serving Instant Pot Mexican Rice

  • To Rinse Or Not To Rinse? – When making this recipe, I don’t always rinse my rice before I start cooking it. You can if you want. Some rice recipes, like my How To Make The Best Instant Pot Rice, I do because I can actually taste the starch. Not so much with this recipe.
  • Instant Pot Versions – Did you know there are different Instant Pot versions/generations?  I’ve been told that cook times differ based on the version of Instant Pot you own. I have the Instant Pot IP-DUO80 7-in-1 Programmable Electric Pressure Cooker, 8 Qt.
  • Best Oil To Use – I chose to use avocado oil in this Mexican Rice recipe because it’s a good quality oil, it’s considered a healthy fat and it does REALLY well with high heat!
  • Toppings – I top my Mexican Rice with fresh chopped cilantro and sun-dried tomatoes!
  • Fresh – This recipe is best when made fresh!

Turquoise bowl containing Mexican Rice with serving fork on side of bowl, heirloom tomatoes and blue napkin.

What Other Instant Pot Recipes Can I Make?

I’m glad you asked…because you have a lot of options! Check out these favorites:

Full of traditional Mexican flavors, this Instant Pot Mexican Rice dish pairs perfectly with so many main dishes! By using your Instant Pot, you’ll create your Mexican Rice in a matter of minutes and you’ll never want to revert back to the old-fashioned way of making it on the stove top! Enjoy this one guys…it’s fast, easy and DELISH! And if you don’t have an Instant Pot yet and want to jump on the bandwagon with the rest of us, you can buy it on Amazon here: Instant Pot. Enjoy!

Turquoise Bowl sitting on a brown table containing Mexican Rice, heirloom tomatoes and cilantro on side of table.

 

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4.78 from 18 votes
Turquoise bowl containing Mexican Rice with serving fork on side of bowl, heirloom tomatoes and blue napkin.
Print
Instant Pot Mexican Rice
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
13 mins
Total Time
18 mins
 

The most amazing Instant Pot Mexican Rice side dish made in 15 minutes!  It's so easy and effortless, you'll never want to revert back to the old-fashioned way of making it on the stove top!

Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Mexican
Keyword: Instant Pot Mexican Rice
Servings: 12 people
Calories: 159 kcal
Author: Amanda Mason
Ingredients
Instructions

  1. Plug in the Instant Pot and set to Saute mode. When your Instant Pot is hot (about 3 minutes later), add in the avocado oil.

  2. Next, add in the chopped garlic and onion. Saute for about 3 minutes, or until the garlic and onion start to turn brown.

  3. Then, add in your uncooked long grain white rice. Stir the rice around until it's well coated with the oil, garlic and onion.

  4. Add in the chicken stock, crushed tomatoes, chopped cilantro, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt.

  5. You'll now want to turn off your Instant Pot by clicking on the Keep Warm/Cancel button. 

  6. Place the lid on your Instant Pot and twist it so it locks in place. Make sure your knob is set to the sealing position. 

  7. Click on the Manual button. Notice your display screen reflects "On".

  8. Using the + button, click until your display screen displays 8 minutes. Ensure you are cooking on High Pressure.

  9. During the 8 minute cooking time, your Instant Pot is going to start steaming and whistling a bit. This is normal.

  10. You'll also notice that your display has started counting down from 8. Once the Instant Pot counts down to 0, it will beep.

  11. From there, your Instant Pot will need to count down for 5 minutes. During this step, the Instant Pot is slowly releasing pressure. 

  12. Once you hit 5 minutes, you're going to twist the pressure knob to release the pressure. Steam will shoot out once you move the valve to venting mode so be careful!

  13. After the steam has fully released, you can remove the Instant Pot lid. Take a fork and lightly fluff through your rice.

  14. Top with fresh chopped cilantro and sun-dried tomatoes! 

Nutrition Facts
Instant Pot Mexican Rice
Amount Per Serving (0.5 cups)
Calories 159 Calories from Fat 27
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 3g 5%
Cholesterol 1mg 0%
Sodium 289mg 12%
Potassium 160mg 5%
Total Carbohydrates 28g 9%
Sugars 1g
Protein 3g 6%
Vitamin A 1.6%
Vitamin C 2.2%
Calcium 1.6%
Iron 3.9%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Update Notes: This post was originally published in August of 2017, but was republished with new photos, step-by-step instructions and tips in April of 2018.

NOTE: You will find affiliate links on this page.

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Comments

  3. Totally love Mexican food here. This rice sounds easy and delicious. I have a similar “stove top” recipe. I don’t have an Instant Pot, but do have a pressure cooker. Maybe I will have to give it a try in there and see what happens.

    Reply

  7. We love Mexican Rice, but don’t have an instant pot. I need to break down and buy one. I’ve never been able to properly cook rice on the stove top, but if an instant pot can do it I’m there. Your rice sounds so good! It would be the perfect side dish for our Tex-Mex meals.

    Reply

  11. Beautiful! Would you believe I bought an Instant Pot but have yet to use it? This looks like a great recipe to give a whirl. I use an electric pressure cooker all the time but the Instant Pot looks like a ton more fun.

    Reply

  15. This rice looks delicious, but I just cannot get on board with the Instant Pot. I think I may have to see one in action, in person before I really understand what I’m missing out on. I’m glad you love yours!

    Reply

  16. I making this now! After scanning a lot of different recipes I went with yours. Love your blog and recipes Amanda! I’m pairing the rice with some salsa chicken legs- from frozen – and some instant pot beans I made yesterday. I only started using my IP a couple of weeks ago & love it but this meal is pretty ambitious for me… Fingers crossed!

    Reply

      • This rice was truly amazing! Thank you so much, Amanda! My family absolutely loved it, and they are usually not so into things with tomato sauce. The chicken and beans I made in the IP were also really good. I added a little bit of cubed queso fresco and a tortilla to each plate . It was thrilling to create this delicious meal and I love having the leftover rice. I think what really made your rice recipe stellar was the chef-y touch of sautéing the onions and garlic & then adding the rice to that – a gourmet touch! I pinned this recipe and also going to post it in the instant pot community group today 💖

        Reply

  18. I made this tonight to go with my fajita bar and it was fantastic!!! Thank you!! I followed the instructions exactly, except that I used soaked brown rice on the murltigrain setting. QR after 15 min. I don’t even like brown rice, but the spices were so good, I couldn’t even tell. I can’t wait to try your other recipes.

    Reply

  19. Tried this recipe today and admittedly a brand new IP user (this was my second recipe in it!) But I set the IP to manual, 8 minutes and the default temp was “more” out of the three options of less, normal, and more. High pressure. About half way through the 8 minutes, I got a burn signal and the pot shut off. Tried turning it on again on normal temp and after about 2 minutes it said burn again.
    The rice actually turned out ok and was edible just a little less cooked than I’d like but definitely done. Any ideas on what happened? Thinking it should have been on normal temp from the beginning??

    Reply

    • Hi! So, what version of the Instant Pot did you get? I’ve never had an issue with this recipe in my Instant Pot – BUT I’ve had issues with other recipes in my Instant Pot (always errors I made lol)! In my blog post, did you read and follow every step I mentioned? I tried to take pictures of every single step so you’d know exactly what to do and what the settings should look like. When I saute the onions and garlic in the oil, my setting are set to more so it gets super hot. Make sure your setting is on high pressure when you seal it and start the pressure cooking. Maybe try it again and see how it turns out. Let me know how it goes!

      Reply

      • This also happened to me. I had to add at least twice the amount of liquid. If I make again I will start out putting more liquid in. I ended up having to use the whole carton of broth and then it mostly turned out fine.

        Reply

        • Yeah that’s so weird how Instant Pots cook different. I’ve never had an issue with the liquid aspect on this recipe…but I make another gals brown rice instant pot recipe and I experience the same issue with her recipe. I add more chicken broth and it’s fine! So yes – add a little more liquid just to make sure!

          Reply

          • I made this recipe tonight to accompany chicken fajitas and it was great! Just thought that I would mention – I have a 4th generation Instant Pot and I referred to my Instant Pot cookbook for cooking time/temp. The book suggests 4 minutes for my model and my rice turned out perfect! Hope that info helps for those that had a problem with their rice burning.

          • Teresa – thank you so much for your comment and the tip!! I have the newest version of the Instant Pot so it’s GREAT to know the other versions have suggested cooking time! I’m going to add this to the notes in the recipe card!!

  21. We really had high hopes for this recipe. Followed the directions to a t and it burned. Tried again and it burned the bottom of my IP again. Gave up after the third try. 🙁

    Reply

    • I’m so sorry you had a bad experience with this recipe! A lot of other people have left really positive experiences in the comments when they made this recipe so not sure what happened with yours. I’ve not had any issues BUT there are a couple of things to keep in mind:
      1. What version is your Instant Pot? I have 2 slow cookers and when I cook the same recipe in the 2 different slow cookers one always cooks faster than the other…everytime!
      2. There are a couple of things you can try to avoid overheating. You can either try adding more liquid or reduce your steam time. Take a look at these 2 articles I found about how to avoid overheating (burning) of the Instant Pot.

      https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/fix-instant-pot-overheating/

      https://www.quora.com/How-can-you-avoid-burning-food-in-the-pressure-cooker

      Instant Pots can be tricky. I’ve screwed up other recipes because my settings were wrong. not sure what happened with your version but I wish you the best of luck in using your Instant Pot with other recipes!

      Reply

  24. Do you use the measuring cup that comes w/ the Instant Pot, or a normal measuring cup?
    Just curious. I don’t understand why it comes w/ one that is different. Same situation with my rice cooker. 🙄

    Reply

    • I think it’s because every rice recipe I started making when Instant Pots came out referenced using the manual mode….so it’s just what I’ve always done. I’ll have to experiment more and use the rice mode more!

      Reply

  27. I’m so glad I found this recipe! I have tried many Instant Pot Mexican rice recipes, and they have never turned out well. The rice usually turns out still hard and burned on the bottom of the pan. I think this turned out well because of the length of time it cooks and the amount of liquid used. I used jasmine rice and it turned out perfectly. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

    • I honestly don’t know….but I’d say the same time would be fine. I’ve not yet made brown rice in the Instant Pot (coming soon)! Google some Instant Pot brown rice recipes and see what they recommend!

      Reply

    • Hi! I haven’t tried this recipe yet (sounds delicious and very similar to my stovetop version!), but I made Jambalaya with brown rice and definitely increased the pressure time. I researched and came up with 22 min. It turned out great!

      Reply

  32. I scanned the comments and didn’t see this question. Are the “cups” of rice real 8oz/237 ml cups or IP “rice cups” which is about 3/4 cup/6 oz/177 ml? Thanks.

    Reply

    • I pull out my 1 cup measuring cup and fill it to the top, so yes 8 oz of dry rice. I don’t rinse my rice. I don’t use the IP measurements. I hope that answers your question! If not let me know!

      Reply

  33. Your recipe looks amazing, I’m trying it tonight! Just curious as to why you don’t use the actual “Rice” setting/button for this recipe?
    Thanks 🙂

    Reply

  34. This turned out GREAT!! ALL who ate it, loved it.

    I have one question. I’m being asked to make it for an upcoming event. If I double or triple the ingredients how long will I have to pressure cook the rice and how long will it have to slow release?

    Reply

  35. Wow! That’s an amazing way to make Mexican rice. I need to ge me an Instant Pot! I wonder if I could make beans in it too.
    Pinning and tweeting this. Greetings from the Inspire Me Monday linky 🙂

    Reply

  37. This Mexican Rice looks delicious. I don’t have an instant pot, but the more recipes I see that I would love to make, I might have to get one. Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday! Hope to see you next week!

    Reply

  38. This looks so good. Mexican cuisine is our favorite. I have been on the fence about getting an instant pot. Do you know if it can make sticky rice? My daughter has been wanting me to buy a rice cooker. But, if this one can make it then it would make more sense to purchase an instant pot. Thanks for sharing at the Inspiration Spotlight party @DearCreatives . pinned & sharing.

    Reply

  39. I love the flavor of this delicious rice! Have a great first week of spring and thanks so much for sharing your awesome post with FULL PLATE THURSDAY!
    Miz Helen

    Reply

    • You CAN do that but I’ll be honest…it’s best when it’s fresh. I have it for leftovers all the time but if I were serving this to a crowd, I would only serve it fresh!

      Reply

  42. Your instant pot Mexican Rice recipe looks delicious! My family would love it, I’ll have to give this a try soon. Pinned! Stopping by from the #HomeMattersParty linky.

    Reply

  44. Officially addicted – great recipe! I spice it up a bunch with one whole jalapeño and one serrano to get the heat we like. The real problem is my wife gets to it before I do and I find myself having to make a second batch. 😉

    I tried a double batch but like other IP rice recipes doubling up usually ends up with the dreaded BURN scenario – not a show stopper because even when that happens 95% of the rice is just fine and it is the very bottom that gets a bit crispy.

    Any advice to cooking a double batch?

    Reply

    • Oh yeah!!! I’m so glad you love this recipe! I know, it’s one of my favorites, too! So, I haven’t doubled the batch yet BUT I hear the same thing you do…no change in the cook time. Have you actually tried to double this recipe and see if it works? Let me know…I’d love to hear!

      Reply

  45. This was delicious, but there are only two of us and it made a huge amount for 12. How could I cut this recipe down?

    Reply

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