How to Make Perfect Instant Pot Rice
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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 served over rice, like my Copycat Panda Express Orange Chicken. 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 Risotto or Rice Pudding, you can skip rinsing and even the instant pot method, since you’ll want a creamy texture that’s hard to achieve in 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 richnes,s 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 rinse the rice thoroughly. 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 the 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 helps remove the extra starch found on Rice. This extra starch, when cooked, makes the rice sticky and gloopy. Rinsing will remove excess starch and ensure nice, fluffy individual grains of rice.
- Impurities: No method of preparing rice for the store shelf is perfect. Rinsing your rice will also help remove impurities, such as dirt and leftover pesticides, and sanitize it, making for a healthier 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 may never get the same result twice.
- Steady Results: The Instant Pot is consistent because there is no water lost to evaporation. The heat source is always consistent, and the time and setting are the same every time.
- Natural release: When the rice is done cooking, leave it undisturbed; 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 an extra flavor boost
- Butter: Adds buttery flavor, but you can leave it out.
- Salt: Just a pinch will do it
Making Brown Rice in the Instant Pot:
- Rinse: Use a fine mesh strainer to rinse the rice thoroughly. 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 the Instant Pot, then lock the lid and secure the vent, and cook on high for 10 minutes.
- Release: Let the pressure release naturally, then 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 rinse the rice thoroughly. I often use my hand to move the rice around and make sure it all gets rinsed.
- Cook: Combine rice, water, butter, and salt, then lock the lid and secure the vent, and cook on high for 15 minutes.
- Release: Let the pressure release naturally, then carefully remove the lid and fluff with a fork.
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Brown Rice
Start by rinsing 2 cups brown rice in water. Combine the rinsed rice, 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, and 1 pinch of salt in the instant pot. 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.
Wild Rice
Start by rinsing 2 cups wild rice in water. Combine the rinsed rice, 3 cups water, 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, and 1 pinch of salt in in instant pot. 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.
The Nutrition has been calculated for the White Rice method and ingredients.
Calories: 181kcalCarbohydrates: 37gProtein: 3gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.5gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 10mgPotassium: 54mgFiber: 1gSugar: 0.1gVitamin A: 44IUCalcium: 15mgIron: 0.4mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.