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.
Video
Did you make this recipe?
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I am here to admire the enamelware. Love it.
I cooked this exactly as stated with one minor exception. I sautéed my chicken in olive oil for about five minutes first. Then followed all the other instructions exactly. It was perfect! Everyone loved it!
A consistent meal in our family’s rotation. Sooo delicious. Any idea the nutritional information?
I haven’t totted up the calories or fat, but in answer to your question, this is a major sodium explosion (around 1000-1250mg sodium per serving as presented in the recipe. There’s a reason it’s so delicious 🙂 )
I’ve made a comment on the recipe with how my family adjusts this to make it a bit more manageable salty, hopefully it helps.
My husband requests this weekly, and he’s very picky!! This recipe is amazing… Flavourful and hearty.
I tweak just a few things:
Add another 1/2 cup chicken broth (so 1.5 cups total)
Sub 1 can Rotel (mild for our toddler) for the can of green chiles
Sub the corn kernels for a can of Delmonte Corn Medley – Mexican Style
Right before I add the rice I give everything a good stir, then spread the rice over the top and press it into the liquid with a spatula. I cook for 12 minutes instead of 10 just as a matter of preference.
Damn delicious!
Do you also add the salsa along with the rotel? Thanks!!
I literally make this recipe at least once a week and my entire family loves it! I have never gotten a BURN notice and I think that it is because after placing all of the ingredients in the pot (not the rice), I stir it all. This way, the liquid is well distributed and reaches the bottom and you don’t have your dryish chicken pieces sitting at the bottom just waiting to stick to the pot resulting in the dreaded burn notice. I also sprinkle the one cup of rice over the top and pat it all with the top of my hand to make sure that it is all just moistened by the liquid in the pot. This really is delicious as is. I use a taco seasoning that I make myself and keep in a jar in my cupboard (1 tbls chili powder, 1.5 tsp cumin, paprika, 1 tsp salt, pepper, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp. garlic powder, onion powder, oregano). Try it! You’ll love it.
Do you think brown rice would work ok?
This is my “GO TO” dinner with time is tight. With flash-frozen chicken breast tenders in the freezer, this can get dinner on the table in about 30 minutes! Thanks for the dinner secret weapon!
Would it work to double this recipe in a 6-qt instant pot? Or would it be too full?
I MAY KNOW THE REASON FOR THE BURN NOTICE:
I have not tried this recipe yet (I’m going to tonight) but, I may know what’s behind the burn notice.
You cannot use any flour in the Instant Pot DURING PRESSURE-COOKING MODE. It will coat the bottom of the pot and cause it not to be able to come to pressure, and you’ll get alerts. I learned this the hard way when I was experimenting with my own version of chicken heart (yes, my kids LOVE them!) stroganoff. I added flour and cornstarch thinking, oh, what a great idea. It will help to thicken it up. Well… NO! I thought my IP broke until I did research online to learn that you should NEVER use flour (or flour-like substances, I think) in any IP. The flour and cornstarch totally coated the bottom of the pan. I cooked it off on the stove and it still turned out awesome, thankfully.
Why do I tell you this… Most pre-packeaged taco seasoning has flour (or another flour-like thickener) in it.
NOTE: You can definitely use flour (and probably anything else) in the IP during saute mode, when finishing something off or only using in saute mode.
I’m going to try this with my flourless, homemade taco seasoning. (I don’t like store bought, WAY TOO MUCH SODIUM.) I’ll let you know how it goes.
I just wanted to thank you for sharing this easy, delicious recipe! I’ve made it many times and I just
love it! It’s a real “crowd pleaser”.
Also I
love your wedding pics, CONGRATULATIONS!
This recipe needed a lot of tweaks, but came out pretty good.
So read all the other reviews and added 2 cups of stock, and one can of diced tomatoes.
Like most of the reviews suggested one cup of stock on the bottom with the chicken. Then I added 3 cans of beans (2 black beans and 1 red), 1 corn, 1 salsa and 1 jalapeño.
The first time I made this it was too much rice.
The trick with the rice was for me to sprinkle the rice on top evenly like a cover of the bean/salsa/tomato mixture.
After i evenly distributed the second cup of stock over the rice.
Came out beautifully
I did use 2 cups of chicken stock and it was perfect. I also used jasmine rice but it came out overcooked and gummy. I didn’t stir it in but put on top. Not sure what rice would be best to use.
I tweek the order of the ingredients a bit and put the salsa on top of the rice. Also instead of a can of chilies I use a can of Rotel tomatoes with chilies. No burn notices and no chewy rice 🙂
This was sooooooo good. So easy. The fact that I happened to have everything on hand made it extra nice. It was very Flavorful and my picky husband even loved it.
No burn notice!
Used 2 cups of broth and a can of rotel as other commenters mentioned. I did omit the corn, as my family and I are not fans. I put the chicken, broth, spices and beans together, mixed them really good. Added the rice and the rotel on top, put the lid on and let it do the rest. The food came out delicious!
The meal is excellent, but even after making the recommended changes (putting the chicken broth in first, adding a second cup on top, etc) I still get the burn notice multiple times. Too frustrating.
I had the same burn notice issue!!! First time ever since I got my Instant Pot 3 years ago. Had to transfer to a pot on the stove. Actual recipe was very good but a big burned mess to clean up in my insert, Some recipe changes need to be made.
Made this recipe without an instant pot and it still turned out great! I’m sure the instant pot would have been a bit easier and quicker. I cooked the rice with chiles in chicken broth. And, in a separate pan cooked the chicken, beans, corn and salsa with the taco seasoning packet and chicken broth. Then mixed the rice with the chicken mixture.
Delicious. Easy. Fast. Sharing this with friends who love to cook with their Instapot! Any more great Instapot dishes to share? Hope so!
I used an 8-quart IP and, although I didn’t get the burn notification, it stuck to the bottom. After reading the comments, I’ll try again with an additional cup of broth. It was delicious and easy enough to go through the efforts.
I doubled the chicken broth and still got the burn notice – I did NR and when I opened my IP it was perfectly cooked and tasted great. I used basmati rice so perhaps it is more absorbent. I would try this recipe again!
Yum! This is definitely going in our dinner rotation. After reading the reviews I made a couple alterations and it came out perfect. I used chicken thighs instead of breasts and stirred them together with the taco seasoning and 1 cup of chicken broth in the bottom of the pot. In a separate bowl I mixed the rice, corn and black beans and then stirred that into the chicken mixture. I added 1 can of rotel and 1/4 cup salsa on top and another cup of chicken broth poured over the whole mixture to evenly coat everything. This was cooked for 20 minutes because my chicken was partially frozen. Everything was cooked perfectly, no burn notice or uncooked rice!
I wish I had read the comments first. I followed the recipe and didn’t mix the rice in. The rice didn’t cook at all so I had to scrape it out. Did it call for cooked rice? Because I thought what I saw in the video was dry uncooked rice! There were some uncooked rice in the mix that was impossible to pick out, so I closed the lid and pressure cook the whole thing again for an additional 5min. Tasted good, nonetheless, but just disappointed that it didn’t turn out as expected.
I don’t mix the rice in but I make sure to flatten it all out on top evenly. One time I just dumped on it and left it in a pile, it definitely did not cook that way!