Instant Pot 20 Minute Chicken Burrito Bowls
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Comes together in less than 10 min prep! The chicken is so tender and the flavors are so good.
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This is a burrito bowl recipe I keep coming back to again and again. And this was the first Instant Pot (IP) recipe I have ever tested that converted me to the pressure cooker fan club. With one pot, tender, juicy chicken and perfectly cooked rice with the easiest clean up in the history of the world, I was completely hooked with the IP magic.
reasons to make instant pot 20 minute chicken burrito bowls
- All-in-one Instant Pot dinner. With the help of the Instant Pot, this is the best kind of dump-and-go dinner recipe. There’s minimal prep time here – no sautéing, no nothing. Throw everything right into the pressure cooker, set your time, and walk away. Dinner will be on the table in lightning fast speed, 20 minutes to be exact.
- Family-friendly. Burrito bowls are a guaranteed hit with the entire family, adding in as little or as many toppings as desired, a little bit of something for everyone to enjoy.
- Great for meal prep. This keeps for 2-3 days, ideal for making these ahead of time for meal prep and reheating as needed.
- Flexible, forgiving recipe. Most of the ingredients can easily be swapped out or omitted as needed. Don’t have black beans? Use pinto or kidney beans. Don’t have canned corn? Skip it or use frozen corn kernels. Want to use thighs over breasts? Give it a quick swap.
tips and tricks for success
- Use chicken breast or thighs. Both will work beautifully here – breast will be leaner whereas thighs will have more fat, yielding more tender chicken than the former. Not a fan of chicken? Ground beef is also a great swap!
- White rice is ideal. Long-grain white rice such as jasmine or basmati rice is best. Brown rice will take too long to cook here.
- Make it spicy. Add in 1 diced jalapeno for a kick of heat!
- Add your favorite toppings. Diced avocado, shredded Mexican blend cheese, cilantro, a squeeze of fresh lime juice, crispy tortilla strips or crushed tortilla chips when you’re in a pinch are all great options.
- Reheat with a splash of chicken stock. When reheating, add a splash of chicken broth or water.
pro tip
Do not stir in the rice.
Adding in the rice at the very end without stirring will prevent the rice to sink to the bottom of the Instant Pot (this is what signals the dreaded burn notice). Layer and sprinkle the rice on top, patting down slightly to submerge. Do not stir. This will lead to burrito-goodness-flavored tender, fluffy rice.
what to serve with chicken burrito bowls
Tools For This Recipe
6-qt Instant Pot®
Instant Pot 20 Minute Chicken Burrito Bowls: Frequently Asked Questions
Black beans, pinto beans or kidney beans are all great here.
Absolutely! To make this a dairy-free chicken burrito bowl, skip the cheese.
Yes! Skip the chicken, add an additional can of beans and use vegetable broth instead.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Instant Pot 20 Minute Chicken Burrito Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 cup low sodium chicken broth
- 1 (1.25-ounce) package taco seasoning
- 1 (15-ounce) can corn kernels, drained
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup salsa, homemade or store-bought
- 1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles
- 1 cup long-grain white rice
- 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Equipment
Instructions
- Add chicken, chicken broth and taco seasoning to a 6-qt Instant Pot® and gently toss to combine.
- Stir in corn, black beans, salsa and green chiles. Without stirring, add rice.
- Select manual setting; adjust pressure to high, and set time for 10 minutes. When finished cooking, quick-release pressure according to manufacturer’s directions. Stir in cheese until melted, about 1 minute.
- Serve immediately, garnished with cilantro, if desired.
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This is my favourite instant pot recipe! I never have canned chilies on hand so just leave them out, and often throw in chopped onion, peppers and canned diced tomatoes instead of salsa, and it still comes out amazing every time. Thank you!!!
These are so fast and taste amazing. After work I can throw everything into the instant pot frozen chicken and all it comes out perfect every time. We have used the recipe to make burritos and for burrito bowls. Two of my three kids are picky eaters but all three love this recipe! All your recipes I have tried have been delicious; this is probably my fav.
Your recipe was so easy, quick and delicious. It turned out perfect even using a fajita mix because I did not have the taco mix on hand. After serving in bowls I added avocado slices, sour cream and broke up toasted taco shells on top. It was a big hit with everyone.
For anyone curious about calories: Total amount of the pot in grams is gonna be about 2077 g with the total pot having about 2077 calories.
so it’s .811 calories per gram
**THE ONLY SUB INGREDIENT I DID WAS VEGGIE BROTHER INSTEAD OF CHICKEN**
Calories may be different for various other product brands also!!
Sounds super mathy if you’re not used to weighing your food but it’s super easy! Just weigh your bowl of deliciousness and multiply that number by .811 and thats how many calories you have 🙂
Please tell me what I did wrong. It is edible, but the first time I opened the lid the rice looked totally raw on top. I put the lid back on and did another cycle for the full 10 minutes. Still looked raw right on the top, but mixed it all together and it is edible. Are the people that are getting the burn mixing the rice in from the beginning? I like it even with the crunchy rice, but would like to perfect this to love it. I say cilantro is absolutely the kick up.
Very good though I did modify slightly but we are it with yellow corn chips. My preteen daughter loved it and I even added nutritional yeast as well.
My sister in law swears by this recipe and has never had issues. I on the other hand run into the burn notice a ton. The key difference? She has a 6 quart, I have an 8 quart. I’m wondering if that’s the primary issue people are running into.
Excellent, incredible flavors. Simple and fast to make, with most of the ingredients being from the freezer or pantry, which I loved. So flavorful, I skipped the cheese at the end, even though I’m a cheese lover. So why a two rating? The big downside was that it burned, not once, but twice, as soon as it was pressurized, even with adding extra water each time – after the second burning episode, I decided to transfer it to the stove top where I stood, constantly stirring it for ten minutes and letting the extra water evaporate. Although I substituted quick cooking brown rice for the regular rice, I did add extra water and was especially careful to not mix in the rice. It ended up taking more like 2 hours from start to finish with the cleanings, maybe more. Next time, I’ll try it on slow cooker and I’m sure it will be fantastic. The bonus is that I learned the easy way to clean a burned instant pot!
This worked for me! No burn.
First I increased the broth to 1.5 cups, but after I put the rice in, a bit was sticking out of the liquid. So I just poured more chicken broth until it covered the rice completely. I used white basmati rice. After pressure cooking it, I let it vent naturally for about 8 minutes before releasing. My rice was a bit soft, but I added some chips for the crunch. The flavor is spot on. 🙂
Can you substitute ground turkey for the chicken?
This was so easy to make and came out perfectly! My seasoning packet was only 1 oz and I was afraid it would mess with the flavor but it was incredibly flavorful. I stirred in some fresh spinach long with the cheese just to get a little more veggies. My extremely picky 3.5 year old actually ate a good bit of this with NO protest! She had never eaten a black bean, kernel of corn or any salsa before. I feel like I won big time tonight! Will definitely make this again!
I tried this recipe step by step in our instant pot and the “burn” signal continued to come on. It appeared that all of the rice was sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Could I still make this as written without the rice? Thanks!
I make it all the time without rice! Just makes it more liquidy but I make a slurry with cornstarch and add it at the end while on sauté function 🙂
This came out excellent. I did get a burn notice even though I didn’t stir the rice so I tried to pressurize again and got the burn notice again. It ended up actually pressurizing enough so that everything cooked perfect except for some stuck rice to the bottom. No big deal. It was delicious and my husband who is mostly picky wanted seconds. So now my question to you is, I bought a non stick pot insert for the ip that I’m going to use but I was wondering if I could keep the chicken whole and then shred the chicken after when it’s all done to mix the shredded meat into the bowl. Didn’t know if I needed to add time or liquid for that but thought it might be yummy. Thanks for this awesome recipe and I’ll keep you posted if changing the pot helps!
The flavor was absolutely delicious, but the rice didn’t cook right. I am new to instant pot cooking and probably just need some practice. I don’t have an actual “manual” setting, so I left it on pressure cook. I wonder if I should have set it to “rice”? Thanks for a quick, yummy meal!
I followed this recipe as written except I mistakenly cut the cook time short and was worried I ruined it. It was awesome! Rice was perfect! Whole family loved it!
Could you make this without chicken?
This is by far my favorite Instant Pot recipe! My modifications include: brown rice, 4 cups of broth, & 24 minute cook time. This is my go to food! Thanks for the recipe!
how much brown rice do you use with the 4 cups of broth? thanks!
I get a “food burn” message with this recipe? I don’t stir the rice in and follow all the other instructions? Help!
I am wondering if it is the Taco Seasoning that is causing the problem. I have read elsewhere not to use a Taco Seasoning with corn starch or any other kind of thickener. I made a home made seasoning and really mixed it into the broth. It doesn’t make sense that the rice would burn because you can make rice in the pot by itself anyway.
I was worried with the theory of newer Instant Pots having trouble with burning rice and I have a new 6 quart Duo Plusbut I cooked the recipe as close as I could. Canadian corn and black beans come in different sized tins but I used one cup of rice, one cup of broth and one pound of chicken and I did rinse the rice first and I pressed the rice in to the mix. It came out perfect. The rice was perfectly cooked and so was the chicken. I used white rice but next time I will try par boiled – fingers crossed. I don’t know why so many people have had troubles but I suspect some are trolls. Thank you so much Chungah for your website and your recipes.
not a troll, this is my daughter’s favorite recipe but i always end up transferring it to the stove due to multiple burn notices. this is the only recipe it has ever happened with and i have no idea why.
My thoughts are there is not enough liquid in every salsa and rice needs double it’s amount in liquid to cook. Extra broth may be the answer. I might try using 2 cups of broth and go from there. Good luck.