These 20-Minute Instant Pot Chicken Burrito Bowls are a quick dinner idea using mostly pantry staples – read on for a slow cooker option!
Ingredients in Instant Pot Burrito Bowls
These burrito bowls couldn't be easier to make! Most ingredients are pantry staples with just a few extras – chicken and black beans makes these bowls full of protein, while the veggies add fibre. You can always stir in some cheese at the end if you desire! Here's what you need to make these bowls:
- 2 chicken breasts
- black beans
- taco seasoning
- onion
- garlic
- red, green and yellow pepper (or just one of the three)
- cilantro
- chicken broth
- crushed tomatoes
- salsa
- white rice
- plum tomatoes
- scallions
- sour cream
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How to make Instant Pot Burrito Bowls
These burrito bowls are a one pot wonder! You basically just dump everything into your Instant Pot then push the pressure cook button – easy right?! Here's how you make these burrito bowls:
- Dump all ingredients in the order in which they are listed (except for toppings) in the Instant Pot.
- Set to manual and pressure cook on high for 4 minutes.
- When complete, press cancel and do a quick release of the steam.
- Remove lid, stir contents well and divide among 6 bowls.
- Top with any toppings you desire (optional), then serve and enjoy!
Ingredient substitutions and notes
There are a number of modifications that can be made to this recipe – and these burrito bowls can even be made vegetarian if you leave out the chicken and use vegetable broth! Take a look at the substitutions you can make below.
Chicken – Leave the chicken out altogether and double up on the black beans if you want to make these burrito bowls vegetarian. This way you save some prep time too!
Beans – If you don't want to use black beans, you can use 1 cup of brown or green lentils, or a can of chickpeas or kidney beans. You can also leave the legumes out altogether, but make sure to add 1 more chicken breast.
Veggies – I include green, red and yellow bell peppers in the burrito bowls – they end up cooking on high pressure with the rest of the ingredients which softens them quite a bit. If you like your peppers more tender-crisp, stir them in at the end after cooking on high pressure. You can also just leave the peppers out altogether, or stir some spinach in at the end for extra veggies.
Rice – I use white rice in this recipe – a previous version as you'll see in the video used jasmine rice. If using jasmine rice, cut the broth down to 1/2 cup. Unfortunately I'm not able to advise on any other type of rice, and you can't sub in cauliflower rice for the white rice as that will result in a soupy mess.
Salsa – I like to use a fresh salsa (find it in the produce section with the other fresh dips and hummus). If you don't want to use salsa, you can double up on the crushed tomatoes. You can also use plain jarred salsa.
Making slow cooker Burrito Bowls
You can easily make these burrito bowls in your slow cooker! Here are the instructions:
- Spray crockpot with cooking spray, then add all ingredients except for toppings in the order in which they are listed. Make sure to push rice down underneath liquid as much as possible.
- Cook on high for 4 hours, or on low for 8 hours, stirring 1-2 times midway through cooking time
Burrito Bowl toppings
There are SO many toppings you can include on these burrito bowls! A good rule of thumb is to use your fave nacho toppings. Here are some ideas:
- Tomatoes
- Pico de gallo
- Cilantro
- Avocado
- Cheese
- Sour cream
- Scallions
- Red onion
- Black olives
- Jalapenos
- Corn
Storing and reheating
You can store the leftover burrito bowls in the fridge up to 5 days – make sure to store the toppings separately! To reheat, sprinkle some water overtop and microwave for 2-3 minutes, stirring halfway through. This should revive your rice bowl completely so it doesn't taste leftover, then you can add fresh toppings so they're good as new!
Freezing Instant Pot Burrito Bowls
You can also freeze these burrito bowls after they have been cooked. Simply freeze in individual portions in glass bowls, then defrost in the fridge overnight before reheating or reheat from frozen by sprinkling water overtop and microwaving for 6-7 minutes, stirring halfway through.
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More Instant Pot recipes
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- The Instant Pot DUO Plus 60
is the version I use in this recipe. - Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on packing this dish up for leftovers
- This is my fave taco seasoning if you don’t feel like making your own!
- Freeze this recipe in glass microwave-safe bowls up to 3 months
- Or these aluminum foil containers are perfect for re-heating straight from the freezer to oven
- And of course I get all my free range chicken breasts from Butcher Box!
is the version I use in this recipe.
20-Minute Instant Pot Chicken Burrito Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 chicken breasts diced into 1-inch cubes
- 1 can black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 tbsp taco seasoning
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 each red, green and yellow pepper diced
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup salsa (I used the fresh kind found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store as I prefer it)
- 1 cup white rice
- 1/2 tsp salt (optional – you can add in after if it needs it)
- Diced plum tomatoes for topping
- Chopped scallions for topping
- Sour cream for topping
Instructions
- Dump all ingredients in the order in which they are listed (except for toppings) in Instant Pot. Ensure you add rice on top of everything else and push it down so it's slightly under the liquid or rice will burn the bottom of the pot.
- Set to manual and pressure cook on high for 4 minutes. Instant Pot will take about 10 minutes to pre-heat and then the 4 minutes to cook.
- When complete, press cancel and do a quick release of the steam, waiting until the pressure gauge drops back down and the lid is safe to open.
- Remove lid, stir contents well and divide among 6 bowls. Top with plum tomatoes, scallions and sour cream (I also sometimes add cheese, lettuce, more cilantro, avocado and whatever other veggies I have on hand). Serve and enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
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Comments & Reviews
Cody says
So I just made this…it turned out more like a stew than anything. I used the 6 quart instapot, but I did go a little overboard on chopping up my onion and bell peppers. Wondering if it’s more the fact that my chicken breasts were pretty much double your size? I tried to reduce the liquid via saute mode, but it’s just too much.
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Cody – chicken actually releases a lot of water during the cooking process so I’m wondering if the larger breasts were to blame here. I’m sorry to hear you had trouble with extra liquid 🙁
Jessica Kelly says
I just made this and love the flavour! It’s going to be a new staple for take-to-work lunches. I did have one issue though — the rice was still really crunchy after the cook time. Any suggestions?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Jessica – so glad you liked it! Sometimes the rice can be a bit crunchy depending on the make and model of your Instant Pot and how submerged the rice was. Sometimes you can pat down on the rice a bit without mixing it all around – you mainly want to avoid the burn message so you have to put the rice on top. Hope that helps!
Ann says
Followed the recipe exactly, with the exception of leaving out the cilantro, and made sure to put the rice on top. I kept getting the burn message. I tried to scrape the bottom of the pot without disturbing the rice on top and added about 1/4 to 1/2 cup more broth. I got the burn message again, so I scraped the bottom of the pot and put it back in for one more try. It never did come to pressure, but it had been in the pod about 50 minutes at this point, and it was hot and bubbly, so I checked if the chicken was done inside and tasted the rice, and they both seemed done. So we just ate it.
Reminds me a lot of Spanish rice with chicken and veggies in it.
Taylor Stinson says
I’m wondering if you were using the 8-quart Instant Pot as opposed to the 6-quart. There seems to be an issue with the newer models of Instant Pot getting the burn message. I’m sorry you had trouble!
dominique says
this looks awesome! I plan on meal prepping and I want to try this but instead the chicken on the side, would I still use the same measurements for the other ingredients or would you recommend that I omit some? thanks in advance
Taylor Stinson says
I would still use the same measurements and time for the rest of the ingredients yes! 🙂
Metal says
Can i use the same amounts in a Duo Mini? Thanks!
Taylor Stinson says
I would not recommend it unfortunately! I think that there would be too much food for the mini duo 🙁
Katie says
I have a brand new 8 quart Instant Pot. Has anyone tried this with an 8 quart? I am unclear whether all 6 quart recipes work as written in an 8 quart.
Taylor Stinson says
It should work Katie! Just make sure you layer everything in the order it should go in as stated in the recipe – if you stir anything or spread things out instead of just layering them in you may have issues but I don’t anticipate there being an issue with the 8 quart!
Dana says
I love the sounds of this recipe and also LOVE my instant pot but is that enough time for the chicken to cook? I’m always paranoid about undercooked chicken 😬
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Dana! It’s definitely enough time to cook – the chicken is cut up super small and the pot takes about 10-15 minutes to preheat so the chicken gets fully cooked in that time. Hope that helps 🙂
Maggie says
I do not have an instapot 😭 so how would I convert this to crockpot? It looks amazing!!!
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Maggie! I wish I could help but honestly I’m not sure how to convert this. I’ve never cooked rice in the crockpot before. Sorry about this!
Jackie Leavitt says
This is a complete no from me. Followed the recipe to the letter, I ended up with uncooked rice on top of everything else , tried to make it again, ended up with burnt rice. Ended up wasting a lot of food and will not make this again
Taylor Stinson says
I’m sorry this didn’t turn out for you Jackie! I’m not exactly sure what could have went wrong – maybe if you used a different type of salsa that was less liquidy, or if the rice was sitting too far above the wet ingredients this could have caused it to be crispy the first time around. Even using brown or white rice instead of jasmine can affect it. Or if you are using a different-sized Instant Pot. There are definitely a lot of variables, especially with the Instant Pot.
Caty says
I didn’t have all the ingredients, but I used rice, chicken, black beans, chicken stock, corn, salsa (didn’t have a full cup left), and only had half an onion left. I added corn to. It turned out great and everything cooked well at 4 min high pressure! Thanks for the recipe!
Taylor Stinson says
I’m SO happy to hear that Caty!!! This is definitely one of those recipes where you can make a few tweaks, as long as you have most of the ingredients! Thank you so much for sharing with me 🙂