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Chicken Taco Bowls

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Here is the recipe for my Instant Pot Chicken Taco Bowls. I hope you enjoy them as much as me and my family do!

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Your family will love these Instant Pot Chicken Taco Bowls. You'll love how easy they are to make.

Instant Pot Chicken Taco Bowl Recipe

3.88 from 134 votes
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Instant Pot Chicken Taco Bowls
Servings: 6 -8 servings
Calories: 590 kcal
Author: Wondermom Wannabe
Ingredients
  • 4-5 uncooked boneless, skinless breasts if large, cut in half
  • 1-2 packets taco seasoning 1 for mild flavor, 2 for more flavor
  • 1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 12 oz bag frozen corn
  • 1 15.5 oz jar salsa
  • 3 cups uncooked jasmine rice rinsed
  • 3 cups water or chicken broth
  • cheddar cheese
  • cilantro optional
  • sour cream optional
Instructions

  1. Add one cup of liquid (water or broth) to the bottom of the pot.

  2. Place chicken breasts in bottom of pressure cooker on top of the liquid. Sprinkle with taco seasoning. Top with beans and corn. Then, pour salsa over everything.

  3. Add rice, then remaining liquid (water or broth). 

  4. Cook on manual high pressure for 12 minutes, then use quick release to release the pressure.
  5. Once the pressure has been fully released, remove lid carefully.
  6. Shred chicken. Serve immediately. Top with cheddar cheese, cilantro, and sour cream as desired
Recipe Notes

Weight Watchers Freestyle = 7 Points Per Serving with 8 Servings, that is calculating in a zero point cheese and skipping sour cream.

Nutrition Facts
Instant Pot Chicken Taco Bowls
Amount Per Serving
Calories 590
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

NOTE: Readers who have used other types of rice have reported undercooked rice. If possible, stick with jasmine rice.

Also, the original recipe called for one packet of seasoning but many people indicated that they prefer it with more seasoning. I’ve added a note to the recipe to reflect that.

Also, my family is full of rice fanatics. Others have told me this makes way too much rice for their taste. If you’re looking at the recipe thinking “Really? 3 cups of rice?!” you probably fall in the too much rice camp so reduce the rice AND the liquid by one cup.

Looking for photos for each of the steps? Click here to go to the photo version of the recipe.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Bowl Recipe

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can easily adapt this recipe for a slow cooker. Use the recipe above but make these changes:

  • Add corn, black beans, and salsa first
  • Then top with chicken and taco seasoning
  • Cook the rice separately
  • Cook on high 3-4 hours

More Instant Pot Recipes

If you liked this recipe, you might like my Asian version. These Thai Chicken Rice Bowls are amazing!

And my friend Ashley over at I Don’t Have Time for That! recently recreated one of her most popular recipes for the Instant Pot and it’s delicious! You have to try her Instant Pot Chicken Broccoli and Rice.

These Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken Bowls are also popular with my kids.

 

Looking for more Instant Pot recipes? Check out some of these Instant Pot cookbooks.


Corinne Schmitt
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Corinne Schmitt

I'm a work at home mom of five children. My passion is helping busy moms have happy, healthy homes and feel great about themselves.
Corinne Schmitt
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Comments

  1. I’m new to the Instant Pot and haven’t tried your recipe. However, I prefer to use brown rice. Do you think I could cook the rice separately? And what adjustment would I have to make in the time for the chicken, etc. Thanks for any help you could give me.

    Reply

    • Hi Rose, this is terrific with brown rice! Yes, you’ll have to cook the rice separately otherwise the chicken will be super tough or the rice underdone. Since you’ll be cooking the rice separately, you won’t need all that liquid. You will still need to include 1/2 cup water or chicken stock though in order for the Instant Pot to build pressure. Reduce the cooking time by 2 minutes.

      Reply

  2. Hi, thanks his recipe looks yummy! Can I use frozen chicken breast? If so, do I cook longer or will it just take longer to come to pressure and I keep the cooking time the same? Haven’t had my instant pot hat long so I’m still learning.

    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Hi Donna, you can make this with frozen breasts and add 2-3 minutes but your rice might come out overcooked. When I use frozen breasts, I cook the rice separately, reduce the water/broth in the recipe to 1/2 cup and leave the cook time the same.

      Reply

  3. This looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it but I do want to double check something first. Is the rice measurement in actual measuring cups or in the rice cup that came with the instant pot?

    Reply

  4. Okay, so this is a really great recipe. The only thing is, there is just a lot of rice. And by a lot I mean my entire family of six ate until full and I still had a huge casserole dish sized Pyrex of leftovers. I think all the rice might have diluted the seasoning and salsa as well. Next time I make this, I will use the recipe as written but only put in half the rice and broth. I think it will be perfect then! Thank you!

    Reply

    • Hi Kyle, thanks for sharing your adaptation. Others have told me it’s a lot of rice for their taste too. I have 2 teenage boys and grew up on rice, so it’s very possible my family’s ideal rice portion isn’t right for everyone!

      Reply

      • Would also like to know.. 3C was wayyy too much rice and it was mushy. Don’t know if that means it needed less liquid too. The flavor, however, was good m, and the chicken was very tender. Just would have liked more chicken and half the rice.

        Reply

  5. Hi, I made this yesterday and my family loved it, however…the rice came out “gummy.” I used Thai Jasmine Rice from Safeway and followed everything noted above, but the rice had all become “sticky rice.” Is that how it’s supposed to come out?

    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Hi Rick, I’m so sorry to hear this. Actually, more people have trouble with the rice sometimes coming out undercooked. If you did the quick release it should have come out okay. Because not everyone gets the same results I do with this recipe, I’ve been playing with it and having friends experiment to come up with a fool-proof method. I’m still working on it but will update the recipe as soon as I’ve figured it out!

      Reply

  6. I used one large chicken breast, skipped the salsa, and used a can (instead of frozen) corn and a can of petite tomatoes, 3 cups of white rice and 3 1/2 cups chicken broth. 12 minutes high pressure, quick release. I topped it with salsa, cheese, sour cream, and cilantro. Fresh lime and avocado would have been nice too. It made a TON of food! It could have had more beans/corn/tomatoes to the rice ratio. My picky eater had multiple helpings (also why I kept the salsa out for topping).

    Reply

    • I’m definitely going to try it with some fresh lime next time! We have a crazy love affair with avocados too so we usually add them to ours (I didn’t realize until your comment I didn’t mention it in the post). Thank you so much for sharing your experience with the recipe plus the helpful tips and feedback.

      Reply

  7. I would recommend adding the broth/water first. My pot got scorched because there was nothing separating the chicken from the pot.

    Reply

  8. Can I halve the amounts of everything as cooking for 2 people?
    Would the cooling time be the same?
    Thanks

    Reply

    • Yes, just reduce all of the ingredients by half to make half a batch. You’ll still cook for the same amount of time, but your overall cooking time will be shorter since the pot will come to pressure faster.

      Reply

  9. Great recipe! Easy, not expensive, great results! We put a little liquid in before the chicken to try to eliminate scorching and also reduced rice/liquid by a cup. Kept cooking time the same and it all turned out great.

    Reply

  10. Wanted to let you know this worked fine for me with long grain brown rice.

    I used 4 chicken breasts, 1.5 cups long grain brown rice and 3 cups of chicken stock. (I did not include the salsa, opting to add that to the bowls after cooking.) Cooked at high pressure for 13 mins, natural pressure release for 10 mins, then quick release from there. The rice was done and the chicken was not over cooked.

    Good easy recipe I suspect I will use frequently. Thanks!
    I served my bowls up with shredded cabbage in the bottom (the added crunch here was great!) along with avocado, olives, cheese and fresh tomatoes.

    For folks using different rice and having the rice not cooked – I wonder if the problem is not the cooking time, but instead not enough liquid. I generally use a 1:2 ratio of rice to liquid when cooking and have found that seems to work well in the instant pot as well.

    Reply

    • Is your valve set to “sealing”? If it’s not cooking, it’s probably because it’s not coming to pressure. Make sure it’s sealed. The little silver metal tab on the top will raise as pressure builds. Has yours come up at all?

      Reply

  13. Hi can I use already cooked rotisserie chicken? If so what would the time be?
    The pictures look yummy can’t wait to eat it for dinner tonight ?

    Reply

    • Hi Cari, if you’re going to use precooked chicken, don’t add it to the pot with the other ingredients. It will dry out and be yucky. Instead, follow the directions in the recipe minus chicken. Add the chicken after the rest is cooked. The heat from the rice and other ingredients should warm the chicken enough if it isn’t warm when you add it. I hope you like it!

      Reply

  14. This looks great! If I want to leave out the beans and salsa, do I need to change the liquid quantity or cook time? Thanks!

    Reply

    • Leaving out the beans shouldn’t change anything, but since the salsa has some liquid in it, you might want to add an extra 1-2 Tbs of water to get the right consistency for the rice. The cook time will remain the same but total cooking time won’t take as long since the pot will be less full and thus, take less time to come to pressure.

      Reply

  15. Place chicken breasts in bottom of pressure cooker I just read a post about the top 10 mistakes new people making using the instant pot. One of them was forgetting to put the liner in before adding ingredients. Should this sentence be place chicken in the pot liner or something??

    Reply

    • Hi Diana, it’s true that many people do forget to put their liner back in after they wash it and inadvertently add ingredients to the Instant Pot before realizing their mistake. Unfortunately, people also leave it on the stove and accidentally turn the stove on, melting the bottom of the Instant Pot. There are many ways people are “forgetful” when it comes to cooking, whether it be with an Instant Pot or not. I wish I could address each of the possible mistakes one might make, but then each of my recipe directions would be quite long!

      Reply

  16. About how many pounds of chicken did you use for this? The chicken breasts in our store seem huge so don’t want to put in way more than I need!

    Reply

    • Hi Julie, that sounds like a delicious variation! Yes, you should be able to add them without any trouble. I’ve used them in other IP dishes and they cook up nicely in the same time so they should come out fajita-style if you add them here. I’m definitely trying ours this way next time I make it!

      Reply

  18. Can something be substituted for the rice? I told my mom how good this was and she wanted to try it until I told her it had rice, my dad won’t eat rice.

    Reply

    • My guess is the breasts were a little smaller than the ones I use, which means they would have cooked faster. You didn’t do something wrong, the recipe is probably not specific enough. Given your results, the cooking time should probably be reduced to 10 minutes to prevent overcooking (for future reference and future readers who want to adapt the recipe). Not helpful for your overcooked batch, but hoping it helps with future batches.

      Reply

    • HI Beth, it makes 6-8 servings depending on who you’re feeding. In my family that includes 2 teen boys, I usually have to add more to get a full 6 servings because they are bottomless pits!

      Reply

  21. I ignored the warning about undercooked rice (I just used white long grain instead of jasmin) and it was a little crunchy. Whoops! But it was so tasty I honestly didn’t care. Yum yum yum. I’m not sure what I’ll do for rice next time, but I’m definitely making it again. (Sooo easy)

    Reply

  22. Help! I SO want this recipe to work! I meticulously followed the recipe and all I got was the dreaded “burn” from the IP. It’s as though the rice absorbed the liquid so fast there was none for the pot to use. I really want this much rice but I don’t think the rice amount is my problem.

    My biggest concern is that I don’t see how this recipe works for anyone in the IP! It’s like I need more liquid but that would keep the rice from cooking properly.

    Any ideas? I’m lost at this point.

    Reply

    • Jerry, I’m at a loss as to why your having the burn problem. I’m going to post your problem in the Instant Pot Community and see if anyone there has some suggestions. This is my most popular recipe so thousands of people make it everyday without trouble. Not a criticism of you, just saying I’m sure it’s something easy I’m overlooking so hopefully someone else can help figure out the missing step or tip. I’ll send you a direct link to the thread on Facebook so you can access the comments and tips from other IP users.

      Reply

      • Thanks so much! I know from reading the numerous comments that this is working for a LOT of people and I have gone over and over this thing trying to figure out what’s wrong. I’ve only had the Pot for 2-3 months but I have had almost no trouble turning out some great stuff – this one has me stumped.

        Thanks again for your help!

        Reply

    • I also got the dreaded burn notice tonight making this. And my salsa I used actually was more so it had more liquid than needed. First burn notice I opened the pot up, scraped the bottom and it felt pretty clean of anything burning, I added more broth and started it back up. Just as it was getting to pressure got the burn notice again. Repeated checking the bottom, could tell it was sticking some but the chicken wasn’t up to temp so I added a bit more broth and started it up again. Next burn notice I checked chicken temp and it was up to temp so I called it done.
      It ended up coming out super tasty, just not sure why it scorched to the bottom. I also followed the recipe to a T as I just got my IP DUO 8 qt.

      Reply

  23. Just made this! It turned out great. I typically don’t cook too much with chicken breast, but it was on sale and I grab a whole bunch. My chicken came out in what some would describe as rubbery. I think using skinless/boneless chicken thighs may help with that. I also saw other recipes that were similar to this, but involved cubing the chicken and cooking for the same amount of time. I was concerned that would completely dry out the chicken breasts. So glad I found this recipe!

    Reply

  24. Hi,
    I really want to make this tonight but I only have chicken thighs! How long would I cook it for? (I can cook the rice separately so it won’t get mushy). Thanks!

    Reply

    • Hi Talia, I was traveling home from New Orleans last night and didn’t see your message until this morning. I haven’t used thighs in this recipe before, but the cooking time should be the same. If you ended up making it, I’d love to know what you thought of the thighs in this recipe so I can add a note for others who might want to try that variation.

      Reply

  25. I’m making this tonight using white long grain rice. What amounts of time do you recommend using with long grain rice?

    Reply

    • I’ve had several readers comment that their rice comes out undercooked when they aren’t using jasmine or basmati rice, which confuses me since the cooking times for them should be the same. I think if you add more time, you’ll end up with tough chicken. My recommendation is to go ahead and follow the directions OR cook the rice separately if you don’t want to risk it. Sorry this isn’t a more scientific and precise answer. I don’t have personal experience substituting regular long-grain rice in this recipe so I can’t answer from experience. 🙁

      Reply

  26. I haven’t tried the recipe yet but I just wanted to say how much I appreciate that you understand that people often just want to get to the recipe. I will be following your page.

    Reply

    • Hi Idy, I’m glad you appreciate that feature. I haven’t implemented it on all of my recipes yet. I actually just tested it on this one and you’re the first person to comment on it! I might consider adding the feature to all of my recipes now. Thanks for the feedback!

      Reply

  28. We made this tonight. So tasty and so easy!

    But we have more leftovers than we will go through. Have you tried freezing this? Any tips?

    Reply

    • I’m so glad you liked it! With two teen boys, leftovers isn’t something I ever experience, but I have had other people share with me their freezer experience (a lot of people make this and freeze in lunch-sized portions). It freezes very well and warms up easily in the microwave. The only tip I’ve heard is to loosely cover when you reheat to keep the chicken from drying out.

      Reply

  29. I have a child that is allergic to corn. Do you think there are any substitutions that might be good? Also, would it work to use canned corn instead of frozen (if my child isn’t going to eat this and we make it just for the others in the family)?

    Reply

    • I know other people have substituted canned corn without any trouble. As for a substitution, you could add some yellow bell pepper strips to get the same color (but obviously a different flavor) or simply omit the corn.

      Reply

  30. How long does it take to get to pressure? It’s been on the “on” setting for about 20 minutes. I did the quick release to see if there’s any pressure but there isn’t. I opened it and it’s bubbling but not much else.

    Reply

    • There definitely should have been some pressure built up after 20 minutes. Is it possible your valve wasn’t fully in the sealed position? Recently, mine wasn’t sealing either (on a different meal) and I pushed down lightly on the lid and it sealed right away (tip from the Facebook community).

      Reply

  32. Thanks for the recipe! This was my first Instant Pot attempt and it was easy and yummy. I should have taken the advice to reduce the rice…you are not kidding that your family likes to be heavy on the rice. I hope it freezes well 🙂

    Reply

  33. Just wanted to pitch in here. I made this tonight exactly as you outlined and it turned out perfectly. I did cut the larger breasts into two, so those ended up a tad more dry than the smaller whole breasts, but it was delicious and the rice cooked to perfection. My only “complaint” if you could call it that was that it made a TON of food-I didn’t see the comments to reduce the rice/broth until after it was all done, whoops! I had a huge serving for dinner, and I still ended up with five regular sized dinner containers and two large sized dinners containers for leftovers. I’m going to be eating this for lunch AND dinner all week! Just wanted to pipe in with some positive comments, a lot of the feedback seems to be somewhat negative so I thought you might like to hear some positive instead 🙂 Thank you for the delicious recipe

    Reply

    • Thank you Robyn for the feedback! I’m glad you liked it. This was one of my first IP recipes and I hadn’t quite gotten used to adjusting the proportions for other families. Our large family with teenage boys eats a lot!

      Reply

  34. Hi there!
    Excited to use my new pot.
    The original 12mins of pressure cooking left my chicken breasts partially raw so I repeated the process and everyone loved it….why do you think they wouldn’t cook the first time?
    Thanks

    Reply

    • Hi Wendi, the size of the breasts makes a difference. If you’re using larger breasts, cutting them into smaller pieces works. I love my IP but sometimes the inconsistencies for users is frustrating. I get just as many comments about the chicken coming out dry as I do about undercooked chicken! If you always buy the same type of chicken, increasing the cook time to 15 minutes should do the trick without requiring you to cut up the chicken pieces.

      Reply

  35. Hi! I made this recipe tonight and while the chicken was cooked perfectly I ended up with a soup with atleast 4 cups of liquid. I cooked the rice separately so reduced the broth to 1/2 cup as suggested. Where did I go wrong? Also is the 1/2 cup a regular cup measurement or the cup that came with the instant pot?
    Thanks!

    Reply

  36. I can’t wait to try this! Do you think I could swap the breasts for thighs?? What changes would you make if I were to do that? I’m super new to the IP and totally loving it!

    Reply

    • Hi Summer, you could swap out thighs for breasts but might need more cook time (I’d do 15 minutes) since they take a little longer to cook. There’s a risk the rice will be overcooked as a result, coming out mushy, which is why even though I use chicken thighs in other recipes I use the breasts in this one.

      Reply

  38. These rice bowls were so good! I tried them with two packets of seasoning and it was perfect for me but my husband thought it was too much and said he would have liked just one so we will try it that way next time and see what we prefer. Where is the happy medium, lol?!

    Reply

    • Have you tried the bigger jar/bottle of taco seasoning? You can measure out an amount in between. I make taco soup A LOT in the fall/winter and the packets were getting expensive when you start buying multiples, and sometimes a little too spicy for me depending on the other ingredients I used.. I started buying the canister at Sam’s but you can also get a smaller one at the regular grocery store. It tells you on the bottle what the equivalent would be for a packet and you can adjust from there.

      Reply

      • We eat a TON of Mexican food so we buy the same container from Sam’s! I always think we’re the only ones who eat so much of certain things so I hadn’t thought to suggest this to readers, but you’re right, it’s so much more cost effective if you use a lot of taco seasoning throughout the month.

        Reply

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