Name: Instant Pot Chicken Fried Rice Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 32 min
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (or cooking oil of your choice); ½ teaspoon sesame oil; 2 cloves garlic (minced); 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts (cubed); 2 cups jasmine rice (rinsed well of excess starch); 1 ¾ cups chicken stock; 1 cup carrots (chopped); 1 cup frozen green peas; 4 eggs (lightly beaten); ½ cup gluten free soy sauce; Green onions (for garnish, optional)

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Making my Instant Pot Chicken Fried Rice recipe is faster and easier than ordering takeout from local Chinese restaurants. And it tastes just as good!

Bowl of chicken fried rice with peas, carrots and eggs next to the Instant Pot it was made in.

This kid-friendly pressure cooker dinner recipe is perfect for busy weeknights when you don’t have a lot of time and need to throw together a quick meal.

All you need to make the best Instant Pot Chicken Fried Rice are a handful of simple ingredients. I love the versatility of this dish too… it can be served as a main dish or side dish.

And since everything is made in one pot, cleanup is easy too. The next time you want to make an easy chicken recipe, put your Instant Pot to good use and get dinner on the table fast.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
4 lightly beaten eggs
½ teaspoon of sesame oil
2 cloves of minced garlic
2 pounds of cubed boneless skinless chicken breast
2 cups of rinsed jasmine rice
1 ¾ cups of chicken stock
1 cup of chopped fresh carrot
1 cup of frozen green peas
½ cup of gluten free soy sauce
Green onions, cilantro or sesame seeds

Equipment

Knife
Cutting Board
Measuring cups and spoons
Small bowl
Fork or whisk
Fine mesh strainer
Mixing spoon
Instant Pot

By the Numbers: How to Make Instant Pot Fried Rice

Learn how to make this flavorful chicken fried rice recipe in your Instant Pot electric pressure cooker for a quick and easy meal.

Step 1: Cook Eggs in Oil

Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil the inner pan of your Instant Pot and warm it up using the Saute function. Lightly beat 4 eggs in a small bowl. Once the oil is warm, add the eggs and cook until they’re done.

Remove the scrambled eggs from the Instant Pot and set aside. You’ll re-add the eggs after you cook the rice.

Scrambled eggs being fried in bottom of Instant Pot inner pan with bamboo spatula.

Step 2: Deglaze the Pot

Keep your pot on Saute mode. Add 1 more tablespoon of olive oil, ½ teaspoon of sesame oil, 2 cloves of minced garlic and about ¼ cup of chicken stock to the pot and use your wooden spoon to deglaze the bottom of the pan. It’s really important there is no egg left stuck the bottom of the Instant Pot or you’ll likely get the dreaded burn notice.

Instant Pot inner pan being deglazed with wooden spatula while garlic sautés.

Step 3: Fry Rice & Add Ingredients to Pot

Once it’s deglazed, add the pre-rinsed rice and cook, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes, then immediately turn off the heat and pour in the remaining 1 ½ cups of chicken broth and ½ cup of soy sauce over the rice mixture. Add 2 pounds of cubed chicken breast and 1 cup of chopped carrots then stir until everything is really well combined. Press everything down under the liquid.

Chopped chicken breast, diced carrot and chicken stock added to pot with rice and garlic.

Step 4: Pressure Cook Rice

Place the lid on your Instant Pot and make sure the seal is in the closed position. Press the Pressure Cook Button and cook on High Pressure for 5 minutes. Allow for a natural pressure release for 10 minutes, then you can go ahead and quick release the remaining pressure. Once the pin drops, you can open the lid.

Rice, chicken and carrots after being pressure cooked in Instant Pot.

Step 5: Stir in Peas and Eggs

Gently stir in 1 cup of frozen peas and the scrambled eggs, being very careful not to break up the rice. Once everything is stirred together, you need to allow it to rest for a few minutes. This will allow the residual heat from the pressure cooking process to cook the peas.

Green peas and egg being stirred into the chicken fried rice in Instant Pot inner pot.

Step 6: Serve Chicken Fried Rice

Serve your delicious Chicken Fried Rice garnished with sliced green onions, cilantro and/or sesame seeds, if desired.

White serving bowl filled with chicken fried rice in front of Instant Pot on black wood dinner table.

Tips for Making Instant Pot Chicken Fried Rice

Answers to all of your questions about making this better than takeout chicken fried rice at home in your Instant Pot, including tips and substitution ideas.

Substitute other meats

You can use chicken thighs, beef, ground meat or any meat of your choosing. I like to buy meat online to keep my freezer stocked with my favorite cuts. Just make sure you cut any meat you choose into small enough bites that it will cook through in the allotted cook time.

If you want to use shrimp, I recommend adding those at the end of cooking along with the frozen peas. You can stir in raw shrimp and use the residual heat from the pressure cooking process to cook them through without becoming rubbery.

Cook with frozen chicken

If you want to use frozen chicken breasts in this recipe, they will need to be cut into small chunks. Since the whole meal is made in a single pot, it’s important to be sure the chicken fully cooks in the same amount of time as the rice. Since frozen meats take a couple of extra minutes to come to pressure, the rice will cook for longer if you don’t use fresh chicken.

Tips for making this delicious recipe even faster

As a busy mom myself, I’m always looking for shortcuts to save me time. If you find yourself in that boat and want to spend even less time making this dish, here are a few pro tips I can share:

Use a bag of mixed frozen vegetables in place of the carrots and peas. You may end up with corn or green beans too, but that’s okay! It’s a great way to get your kids to eat extra veggies.
Use the meat from a rotisserie chicken instead of chopping up chicken breasts.
Scramble the eggs on the stove top while the rice cooks.

Can I use coconut aminos?

Coconut aminos are sweeter and less salty than soy sauce or tamari sauce, so the flavor will be different. If you use coconut aminos, taste after cooking to see if salt needs to be added for balance.

Regular soy sauce can be substituted for gluten free soy sauce.

Can I use a different type of rice?

In my experience, the best rice to use in this recipe is jasmine rice, but you should also be able to use a standard long-grain white rice. Basmati rice will likely absorb more liquid than jasmine, so you’ll need to increase the liquid ratio if you want to use basmati.

Brown rice has a significantly longer cooking time than long grain white rice, so you cannot make that substitution in this recipe. To learn more about making rice in the Instant pot, check out my post on Instant Pot rice cook times, tips and recipes.

Make veggie fried rice instead

For vegetarian fried rice, simply omit the chicken and substitute vegetable broth (or filtered water) for chicken stock.

Best hot sauces to serve

We like to use Sriracha or Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce with our fried rice.

Storage tips

If you have leftover fried rice, be sure to store it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days. You can use multiple containers to portion it out into lunches too.

To reheat the next day, warm a little oil in a pan, then lightly re-fry the rice. You can also use a microwave if that’s your best option for reheating leftovers.

Make it a meal

If you want to recreate the Chinese takeout experience at home, here are some other Chinese food recipes to add to the menu:

More Instant Pot chicken recipes

If you’re looking for more ways to cook chicken breasts in your Instant Pot, try these easy Instant Pot chicken recipes:

Meal Planning Tips and Ideas

One thing I like to do is make a meal plan for each week at the beginning of the month. It helps me plan out not only meals, but grocery shopping too.

It seems like it’ll be a lot of work at first, but it really is a time saver in the long run. Check out my Meal Planner PDF if you want a jump start.

The other thing I do to simplify meal planning is to do a lot of online grocery shopping to keep the fridge, freezer and pantry stocked. I shop most often with Misfits Market these days, but if they’re not available in your area yet, there are a lot of places to buy meat and order produce online.

Free Instant Pot Quick Start Guide

New to the Instant Pot and want to get to know it better so you can cook with confidence? Sign up for my free Instant Pot Quick Start Guide. Just enter your first name and email address and it’ll be delivered right to your email inbox. It’s easy to unsubscribe anytime.