This all-in-one dinner has quickly become a family favorite! Instant Pot Chicken Taco Bowls all cooked together in one pot, with rice, black beans, corn, salsa, chicken and seasonings.
Instant Pot Chicken Taco Bowls
When I reached out on my Instagram page to ask for your recipe recommendations, it quickly became clear that my readers want more easy dinner ideas–including more recipes you can make in your instant pot!
(Here’s the instant pot I own and if you’re thinking about buying one, you can read this great article about them.) Let me teach you how to use your instant pot!
If you’ve been following along with my blog at all, you may know my affection for “bowls” : complete meals–including grains, protein and veggies, served together in a bowl. These are a few of my absolute favorites.
The instant pot takes my affection for “bowl recipes” to a whole new level, allowing me to add all of the ingredients to the pot at the same time, without any prep! YES!! This recipe is a busy mom’s dream come true.
I first got the great idea for these bowls from wondermom wannabe. I knew I wanted to use white rice, and adjust the ingredient ratios, for less rice. I also played around with the recipe several times to make sure the rice and chicken cooking times coordinated enough that the rice was cooked perfectly, and not gloopy/mushy, and the chicken not dry.
The end result was just perfect! It really doesn’t get much easier than these Chicken Taco Bowls, made in the handy, dandy Instant Pot!
How to make Instant Pot Chicken Taco Bowls:
- Add a little broth, and 2 chicken breasts to the bottom of the IP.
- Sprinkle taco seasoning over the chicken. (If you don’t have a packet of taco seasoning, you can make it really easily from scratch).
- Top with black beans, corn, salsa, and uncooked white rice.
- Add the rest of the chicken broth. BAM!
- Secure the lid, and follow my setting instructions.
- While the mixture cooks, prepare your toppings.
One important tip I would offer, when everything is done cooking, is to fluff the rice really gently with a fork. If you take the lid off and stir the mixture when the rice is piping hot, you’ll end up with rice that gloops (is that a word?) and sticks together. Yuck! So just fluff it with a fork, then put the lid over it and allow it to rest for a few minutes before serving.
What Instant Pot size to use:
I developed this recipe for use in the 6-QUART INSTANT POT. If you’re using a larger IP you may need to add more liquid so that you don’t get a burn notice.
Can I use brown rice or Quinoa?
Yes, you could use brown rice for these instant pot chicken bowls but some adaptions will be needed. Add ¼ cup more chicken broth, and I would also suggest using chicken thighs, or cooking the chicken separately, so that it doesn’t get overcooked/dry. Brown rice takes longer to cook in the IP–about 22-24 minutes (22 for low elevations, 24 for higher). Then follow the same pressure release instructions.
If you’d like to use quinoa instead of rice I recommend cooking it separately. Quinoa only takes 1 min on high pressure to cook, so if used in this recipe it would be very overcooked.
Can I use frozen chicken breasts?
Yes! To make this recipe with frozen chicken breasts, follow the directions exactly as they are listed below (but use frozen breasts). Cook on manual (high pressure) for a total of 10 minutes, instead of the 8 minutes it calls for. Then allow the pressure to naturally release for 12 minutes.
Other ways to adapt these Instant Pot Chicken Taco Bowls:
- Use ground beef/ground turkey. To substitute, sauté the meat in the bottom of the IP, first, before adding the rest of the ingredients.
- Make it vegetarian. You could also leave the chicken out, to make this a vegetarian meal. Add additional veggies like chopped bell pepper, zucchini, or stir in fresh spinach at the end.
- Switch the beans. If you don’t have black beans I would suggest pinto, or really any other type of bean you like.
- Leave out the rice. If you’d like to leave the rice out, you only need 1 cup of chicken broth. Cook time is the same.
Toppings are key!
The toppings can really make this dish fantastic! I would suggest a little shredded cheese, a scoop of sour cream or plain greek yogurt, and definitely some fresh chopped cilantro and avocado. You could serve warm corn/flour tortillas or tortilla chips on the side. You could also top with some shredded lettuce or chopped spinach.
Check out my other INSTANT POT RECIPES! Popular ones include:
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Recipe
Instant Pot Chicken Taco Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth , divided
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- 15 ounce can black beans , rinsed and drained
- 1 cup corn
- 1 1/2 cups salsa
- 1 1/4 cups long grain white rice , rinsed and drained
Topping ideas:
- cheese
- fresh cilantro , chopped
- avocado sliced
- green onion , chopped
- sour cream
Instructions
- Spray bottom of IP with non-stick cooking spray.
- Add ½ cup chicken broth to bottom of IP.
- Add chicken breasts.
- Sprinkle chicken with taco seasoning.
- Add black beans and corn.
- Add salsa.
- Add rice.
- Add remaining 1 cup chicken broth.
- Press rice into the liquid to make sure it’s fully submerged.
- Set valve to sealing. Cook on Manual (high pressure) for 8 minutes.
- Allow pressure to naturally release for 12 minutes, then turn to quick release.
- Remove IP lid and gently FLUFF rice with a fork (Don't stir it!).
- Place IP lid back on (with power off) for 5 more minutes to allow rice to rest while you prepare the toppings.
- Slide rice to the side a bit to find the chicken breasts and pull them out. Shred the chicken.
- Add a scoop of rice mixture to a bowl. Top with some shredded chicken, and other desired toppings. Serve with tortillas, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
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Burn notice unavoidable, this does not work 😔
After getting my Instant Pot I started searching for recipes on line. This was one of the first I ran across. It was a huge success and has been on regular rotation since then!
Personal preference I do not like cooking rice in the instant pot so I made the rice in my rice cooker and didn’t add the last cup of chicken broth or the rice in the recipe to the instant pot. Did everything else exactly as indicated in recipe.
To serve I scooped a serving of rice into a bowl and then a serving of the chicken salsa mixture and topped with cheese.
Very good recipe! There were no leftovers and it served 5 (I did increase the amount of rice to 3 rice cups which would be 2 1/4 actual cups with correct water ratio because we really like our rice around here.
So easy and very tasty. I garnished the taco bowl with mango salsa, avocado, and salsa cream. Yum!
My rice is on the crunchy side but still edible. Any tips? My son liked it and wants me to give it another try.
Hey Renee, I just made this recipe for dinner tonight and used to have that issue with most recipes requiring rice, so I switched to using 5 minute or quick rice instead an it comes out perfectly cooked every time. No issue tonight either. See if that might help. Or add a little extra broth or water to be sure it is totally submerged before you seal the lid. Glad your son liked it anyway. Good luck!
You want to be sure to have the rice covered by liquid. Lots of people mess this recipe up because they don’t layer the food into the order listed in the instructions. To be sure the rice gets covered in liquid, I would put the rice in after the beans and corn and cover the rice with the salsa and the broth.
I am not sure about natural release. Do I leave the pot on for 12 minutes then release the rest of the pressure? Or do I shut the pot off for 12 minutes and relieve the pressure. It seems the rice and also the meat would get over cooked if I leave the pot on.
If this recipe looks so easy and almost too good to be true, that’s because it is. Don’t ignore all the comments about the burn notice like I did – you will end up wasting time and food. Bummer! Followed the recipe exactly.
I’m so sorry that was your experience–what type of instant pot do you have, and what setting did you cook it at? We make this all the time and it’s definitely not “to good to be true” for us.
I used to make this allllll the time when I had an instant pot, for years. Never once had a burn notice.
The burn notice came on and now dinner is delayed! Defiantly don’t recommend this recipe, the rice stuck to the bottom of the instapot and now we are just having chicken tacos because that the rice is burned to a crisp on the bottom of my instapot.
Followed the recipe to a T, and yet continued to get the ‘burn food’ on the insta pot. Even after multiple attempts of adding more liquid/scraping I still continued to get the ‘burn food’. Needless to say much time was wasted and all the food ended up in the garbage, which was a total waste of money.
Easy, large quantities, affordable, and delicious.