Pressure Cooker – Instant Pot Brown Rice

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I love cooking brown rice in my electric pressure cooker. It’s set it and forget it easy. It cooks in half the time and you just throw the rice, water and a little salt in the pot, lock the lid in place, set the cook time and press start. When the timer beeps, you turn off the pressure cooker and wait for the pressure to naturally release.

Instant Pot Brown Rice prepared with a dish of salt and an Instant Pot in the background

When you open the lid all the water will be absorbed and you’ll have perfectly cooked, slightly sticky rice. Similar to rice cooked in a rice cooker or from an Asian restaurant.

Brown rice ready to go in the pressure cooker

The Cuisinart recipe booklet recommends cooking brown rice in a large amount of water. But the Veggie Queen in her new ebook The New Fast Food™: The Veggie Queen™ Pressure Cooks Whole Food Meals in Less than 30 Minutes recommends using only 1 1/2 cups of water for a cup of brown rice. I followed Jill’s guidelines with great results.

Pressure Cooker Brown Rice scooped on a wooden spoon with the Instant Pot cooking pot in the background

Jill sent me a copy of her ebook when she was guest posting about How to Cook Beans. I refer to it often when developing recipes for the electric pressure cooker. It’s a great resource and you can download it for only $12.95. She’s also generously offered to giveaway one copy to one lucky Pressure Cooker Today reader. Details on how to enter are at the bottom of this post.

If you’re not cooking rice in a pressure cooker, you need to give it a try. I intend to cook it that way from now on.

A small bowl of pressure cooker brown rice, with a small dish of salt and a gray cloth napkin in the background

Making Rice in an Instant Pot

An Instant Pot is one of the most popular brands of electric pressure cookers. They are easy to use and your Instant Pot can help you create this delicious Rice! You can double or half this recipe without needing to change the cook time. 

Though you can cook brown rice easily on the stove, using your Instant Pot means that you don’t need to even keep an eye on it. You will also save 20 plus minutes in the process!

A dark brown bowl full of short-grain brown rice, prepared in the pressure cooker, with a garnish of sea salt in the background
Pressure Cooker Brown Rice in a black bowl

Pressure Cooker Brown Rice

Yield: 6 cups cooked rice

Ingredients

  • 2 cup brown rice (I used short grain)
  • 2 3/4 cups water
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Combine the rice, water and salt in the pressure cooker pot. Lock the lid in place and select High Pressure and 22 minutes cook time. When beep sounds turn off pressure cooker and use a natural pressure release to release pressure (approximately 20 minutes). If you're in a hurry you can use a Natural Pressure for 10 minutes, followed by Quick Pressure Release.

When valve drops, carefully remove lid tilting it away from you. Fluff rice with a fork.

Notes

This recipe also works for brown basmati rice without any changes.

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