This Instant Pot Chicken Fried Rice recipe is a quick, easy, flavorful, and comforting instant pot meal! Easy 30-minute meal perfect for busy weeknights!
If you are looking for more chicken and rice dishes, then try my instant pot Mexican chicken and rice or the pesto chicken rice recipe next!
A Quick Look at the Recipe
✅ Recipe Name: Instant pot chicken fried rice
🕒 Ready In: ~25 minutes
👪 Makes: 4 servings
🧑🍳 Main Ingredients: Chicken thighs, basmati rice, soy sauce, eggs, carrot and peas.
📖 Dietary Info: Healthy, clean eating, protein rich with gluten free option.
📌 Difficulty: Easy instant pot recipe
Why you’ll love this chicken fried rice recipe?
Making chicken fried rice in the Instant Pot is a total game changer. It's faster, mostly hands-off, and turns out perfectly every time. Best of all, you don't need leftover rice!
Everything cooks together in one pot—the rice, chicken, veggies, and seasonings—so cleanup is incredibly easy. The rice comes out fluffy, flavorful, and never mushy, with all the delicious flavors of your favorite takeout, but made right at home.
It's my kind of weeknight dinner: a complete meal with protein, rice, and vegetables in every bite, minimal cleanup, and a recipe the whole family is always happy to dig into. After all, who doesn't love fried rice?
- maria doss
Featured Comments
One reader Sandra writes, "This is so delicious, I have made it several times. I’m doing it again tonight." ★★★★★
One reader JTK writes, "Absolutely amazing! I love this recipe. Easy, quick, and perfect. I use frozen peas and carrots and it works out great." ★★★★★
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Ingredients you'll need
Scroll down to the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and amounts.
- Rice – Unlike traditional fried rice recipes that uses leftover rice, instapot fried rice starts with raw rice like basmati or jasmine; just make sure to rinse and drain it thoroughly to prevent sticking.
- Chicken – Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are ideal because they stay tender and juicy during pressure cooking, while adding flavor to the rice.
- Eggs – You'll need two eggs, which are scrambled directly in the instant pot for a classic fried rice touch and added protein.
- Vegetables – Chopped carrots and frozen green peas not only add color and flavor, but also boost nutrition and are an easy way to sneak veggies into kids.
- Stock – Using reduced-sodium chicken stock gives the rice a deep, savory flavor and that restaurant-style richness without needing any added MSG.
- Sauces – A combo of soy sauce and toasted sesame oil creates the signature umami flavor and aroma that makes fried rice taste like your favorite restaurant.
Tips for Success
- Rinse and drain the rice – Rinse the rice in a fine mesh strainer and let it sit for a couple of minutes to drain as much water as possible. This step is important not just for cleaning the rice, but also for removing excess starch — which helps prevent mushy chicken & egg fried rice.
- Don’t double the recipe – Doubling the ingredients can lead to overcooked rice in the instant pot, so it’s best to stick to the original quantities.
- Stock & salt balance – I used 1 cup of 33% less sodium chicken stock, and the salt level was perfect when combined with the soy sauce. If you're using regular sodium stock, I recommend using ¾ cup stock + ¼ cup water to avoid the dish becoming too salty.
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Instant Pot Chicken Fried Rice
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 tablepsoons vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 3 garlic cloves chopped
- 1 cup white basmati rice rinsed and drained well
- 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into bite size chunks
- 1 cup chicken stock I used 33% reduced sodium
- 2 medium carrots chopped into ¼ inch cubes
- 1 cup peas fresh or frozen
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce use according to taste
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Cook eggs. Turn on your Instant Pot and set it to sauté mode. Once it’s hot, add about half the oil. Crack the eggs and scramble them, stirring often until fully cooked. Transfer the eggs to a plate and set aside.
- Saute onion and garlic. Add the rest of the oil, then toss in the chopped onions and garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally until fragrant.👉 While that’s cooking, rinse and drain your rice thoroughly.
- Pressure cook. Next, add the rice, chicken, stock, peas, carrots and pepper. Give everything a good stir, scraping down the sides as needed. Close and lock the lid, set the valve to sealing, and cook on manual (or pressure cook) mode for 3 minutes. Once the cooking time is up, let it be in warm mode for 10 minutes.
- Finish. Turn the valve to venting to release any remaining pressure. Open the lid and stir in the cooked eggs, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Mix gently until everything is evenly combined.
- Serve. Remove the inner pot from the instant pot base and place it on a wire rack to cool for 5–10 minutes before serving—this helps the fried rice firm up a bit and keeps it from getting too soft. Garnish with chopped scallions.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information, based on third-party calculations, should be seen as estimates, not guarantees, as various factors like product types, brands, processing methods, and more can alter the nutritional content in recipes.
How to make?
You can find full printable recipe below, but here is a quick overview of the procedure along with step-by-step photos.
More Easy Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Dishes
- Instant Pot Mexican Chicken and Rice is a quick, easy, and cheesy one-pot meal ready in under 30 minutes.
- Pesto rice with chicken is a simple one pot meal with flavorful rice, chicken and green beans all together in an instant pot.
- This restaurant style Instant pot Thai chicken fried rice recipe is the absolute best. It's quick and delicious plain with wedges of tomato and cucumber slices.
MADE THIS RECIPE AND LOVED IT? 💚 Please leave a ⭐️STAR rating and COMMENT below- I love to hear your feedback! Tag me with your creations on Instagram and find me on Facebook.
Hi, I’m Maria! I share easy, flavor-packed dinners, high-protein meals, and irresistible baking ideas. If you’ve ever asked, “Don’t know what to cook tonight?” you’re in the right place. And yes—there’s plenty here for breakfast, snacks, and dessert too. More about maria ->
Elana
Can you tell me if your rice setting that was 12 minutes was total time of it coming to pressure and then cooking or 12 minute cook time only. I have a power pressure xl and have a rice setting that you can change time on. I made this tonight and my rice was mushy but we ate it and it still tasted great. My kids loved it too!
Maria Doss
Hi Elana, When I press rice setting in my Instant pot, it comes to pressure and begins a cooking time of 12 minutes. I'm not familiar with the xl, but if if you can change the time then you could try decreasing the cooking time. Hope it helps:)
Chasity
Made this tonight and mine was mushy. It may of been me not having the rice drained well. After you rinse your rice what do you usually do to make sure it is drained well?
Maria Doss
Any amount of excess moisture affects the texture. Try draining the rice really well next time:)
Maria Doss
I normally, rinse the rice in a strainer and let it hangout (to remove all water) in the strainer, while you are making step_1. Hope it helps:)
Harper
Can I use chicken breast instead? I don’t like thighs.
Maria Doss
Absolutely:)
Jessica
Hello, this sounds so good and I would like to make it for dinner tonight. Can I used jasmine rice instead?
Maria Doss
Hi Jessica, Yes you may use jasmine rice and I'll suggest trying the second method, thanks.
Sallie
Mine was mushy. Maybe I didn’t rinse the rice well enough. The flavor was good. My husband complained it had too many peas. I’ll try this again with less peas and rinse my rice more.
Maria Doss
Sallie, Did you try the second method? That should not give you a mushy rice.
Diane
Perfect! I followed the recipe exactly as is and used cooking method 2 (cook 3 minutes and 10 minutes natural release). Will be cooking again!
Maria Doss
So glad that you loved it 🙂
Dawn
We love fried rice here and this sounds so much healthier 🙂 I am fairly new to the Instant Pot, tho learning quickly. I wonder if mixing the egg very well (raw) in with the liquid and rice before cooking would work? Instead of cooking it separately. The only thing tho is egg is quicker to cook so maybe it won't work. Tho I am used to cooking eggs separately when adding to other dishes, just trying to simplify things. I am not sure if it would work tho, what do you think?
Sometimes when I make Ramen noodles (I know they are not good for me but once in a while I really enjoy them for lunch), I add egg into the water and it cooks pretty nicely - tho for a shorter time.
Definitely trying this fried rice tho 🙂 Thank you!
Maria Doss
Hi Dawn, I love your idea of mixing raw egg into the liquid and cooking ramen in that eggy broth. So much flavorful! However, I don't think that will work when working with rice. Rice needs liquid to cook and not having sufficient liquid might make it undercooked. Hope it helps:)
Ruby
Just made this so good used cooking method one
Maria Doss
so glad that you loved it:)
MS
I was so excited to try this recipe, and followed the ingredients/directions exactly but got the burn message 🙁 I use Basmatic rice and have never been able to make decent rice with a 1:1 ratio. Do you have any suggestions?
Maria Doss
My guess would be that the vent was not sealed properly and too much steam escaped before the cooker could build up pressure.Hope it helps:)
Rae
This is my favorite instapot recipe! We use ground pork sausage (not Italian or breakfast just a plain ground pork) instead of the chicken. We not even joking make this once a week and it’s always a hug hit. The last couple of times we have added toppings that we use for Hawaiian haystacks, so coconut, nuts, crunchy chow main noodles. So good!
Maria Doss
Thank you so much hun, so glad that you liked the recipe 🙂
Bobby R Ollar
Just made this for the fourth time and it has been perfect every time. I have made a single batch, two double batches and even a triple batch for a potluck. I didn't change a thing except amounts for larger batches. I am using cooking method 2 - cook three min, rest twelve min version. I have a large pressure cooker. Thanks Maria for a great recipe!
Maria Doss
So glad that you loved it, thank you so much for the kind words:)
Elizabeth
If I was to double the recipe, would the cooking times change? I have made this before as is and is very delicious-wanting left overs this time 🙂
Maria Doss
Hi Elizabeth, As a general rule when cooking in a Instant pot, the cooking time will not change when doubling a recipe. Since the Instant pot will automatically take longer to heat up depending on the quantity. That being said, I've had readers who did not have much luck when doubling this particular recipe (the rice got slightly mushy). So, I would not recommend it, hope it helps:)
Emma
My new favorite recipe! Thank you!
Mimi
Can you use white rice? Does the cooking time change or the water ratio?
Maria Doss
Do you mean white jasmine rice? Because this recipe is made with white basmati rice. I will try cooking plain white rice in the Instant pot. Once, you have found the ideal cooking method and time for that brand of rice, then go ahead try this recipe with the same method. Hope it helps:)
Cristella
I made this for the first time today and I followed the recipe for the first method since my instant pot had the rice button function. Even though my rice function was 10min I did still leave it in warm for 5 min like the recipe stated. This meal hit the spot for everyone and it was AAAAMMMAAAZZZIIINNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cristella
I did not use the chicken stock. I only used water and the rice I used was Jasmine- Thai Hom Mali Rice brand from H-E-B.
Donna
The recipe sounds delicious and I was wondering if I would need to change anything to use pork instead of chicken.
Maria Doss
Hmm......I think it should work. I was a little doubtful with chicken stock, but there are many recipes that use chicken stock with pork, since pork stock isn't very common. Hope it helps:)
Sherri Spencer
Could you break down nutritional values and calories please? I love this recipe!!!🥰
Maria Doss
Hi Sherri,
Unfortunately, I do not have nutrition info for my older recipes. However, I'm trying to work out the nutrition info for this recipe and will update you shortly:) Appreciate your interest, Maria
Maria Doss
Hi Sherri,
I have updated the Blog Post with Nutrition information (pls find it below the recipe ).
My sincere apologies for the delay, hope it helps:) Maria
Debbie
Wanting to cook this tonight for supper but I don’t have the sesame seed oil. Can I use regular oil?
Maria Doss
You could, but the sesame seed oil does offer a authentic taste to the fried rice:)
Wren
We have cooked this several times and it is absolutely delicious each time. Easy, quick, and tasty. Basmati rice comes out perfectly based on the above instructions and cooking method 1. Definitely will keep making this.
Maria Doss
That sounds wonderful, glad you love this recipe Wren:)
Jilean A.
I am making this tonight so I will update, but I was wondering if it made any difference that I bought regular sesame oil instead of toasted sesame oil?
Maria Doss
Hi Jilean, toasted sesame oil adds the authentic Chinese flavor - just a little goes a long way. Hope it helps:)