Instant Pot Chicken and Rice GUEST BLOG

We recently gave Katie a gift for returning back to work that we hoped would make her dinnertime prep easier. We gave one to Daniel a few months back and he has loved it! We decided to try it out together at her house. As we were reading this recipe we double checked twice re 5 minute cook time but rice and everything was perfect. Do remember it takes 10 minutes or so before the pot reached temp pressure to cook. Enjoy!

 

• 2 5-6 oz chicken breasts (out of fridge long enough to come to room temperature)
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 cup water (minus 1 Tbsp)
• 1/2 Tbsp ghee or bacon fat
• 1 small diced onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 cup white basmati rice ( we used jasmine)
• 1 cup diced carrot
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 cup diced red bell pepper
• Salt
• Pepper
• cilantro for garnishing

1. Preheat Instant Pot by pressing the "sauté" button.
2. Generously season chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides and set aside.
3. Wash and spin dry cilantro and cut off the stems for the most part and blend with a cup -1 Tbsp water. Not an entire cup water because the chicken will release its juices into the rice as well.
4. Peel and chop onion and garlic. By now, the instant pot is probably hot. Add ghee or bacon fat and sauté onion and garlic in it until it starts browning. Stir occasionally.
5. In the meantime peel and dice carrot, wash and dice celery, wash, deseed and dice bell pepper. (If you are a slow chopper, prepare these ahead of time or turn off the instant pot for a little while to avoid onion from burning.)
6. Add rice, salt and pepper to Instant Pot and then pour cilantro water on top. Give it a quick stir.
7. Add diced vegetables in one layer and then top with seasoned chicken breasts.
8. Close lid, turn venting knob to "sealing", hit "cancel" and then "manual" and adjust to 5 minutes high pressure.
9. Once the Instant Pot beeps telling you the 5 minutes are over, allow for 10 minutes natural pressure release (set a timer to not miss the moment). Then release the remaining pressure manually.
10. Open the pot and enjoy the smell! Then use two forks to shred the chicken. Mix it all and serve immediately with some fresh cilantro sprinkled on top.