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Cooking brown rice in the Instant Pot is not only easy, but it offers a lot of possibilities because you can add your favorite spices to lend a flair to this traditionally plain side dish or keep it simple to showcase the amazing flavors of your entree.

How To Make Brown Rice In The Instant Pot

It's as simple as rice and water if you want it to be, or you can add some pizazz to your brown rice. Let's take a look!

Simple, Easy Brown Rice

Brown rice comes out best if you add just a drizzle of olive oil to your water and rice. You're talking maybe a tablespoon in the whole pot, so if you're a Trim Healthy Mama then you'll still be well under your fat for the meal when you portion out your serving.

Simply stir the water, oil, and rice together and cook. You can add a pinch of salt now if you'd like or sprinkle on some pink salt when you serve it.

Healthier, Flavorful Brown Rice Made With Broth

What if you want to enhance your easy pressure cooker brown rice? Still super simple and just as quick to make!

Instead of water, you can use vegetable or de-fatted chicken broth as your liquid and still keep your brown rice a THM-E side dish. This adds some fabulous depth of flavor to your rice and is an easy way to jazz things up.

Spices To Add To Your Brown Rice

What if you want to really kick up the flavor for some fun? Consider adding these spices to your Instant Pot when cooking for some zesty brown rice.

Taco Seasoning

Go ahead and add a tablespoon of taco seasoning and stir it in with the water or broth. Super fun "fiesta" rice.

Fresh Tex Mex

Adding some fresh cilantro, diced purple onion, and a splash of lime juice when you serve it or even when you cook is another good way to get those south of the border flavors into your pressure cooker brown rice.

Italian Spices

You can use dried seasoning mix or some fresh herbs for this. Again, using broth instead of water will really enhance your flavors. Basil, oregano, and a dash of thyme are good here. You could even add some tomato paste to the water to really add to that Italian flavor.

Turmeric & Curry Powder

Think spicy golden rice with an Indian flare.

Tips For The Best Brown Rice

Once your rice is done cooking, let it pressure release for ten minutes and then manually release the rest. And then do these two things:

Remove the lid and set it aside.Because of the condensation, you'll want to remove the lid as soon as you release the pressure and leave it off, letting some of the moisture steam off the rice.

Gently fluff the rice with a fork. A lot of folks will say that brown rice in the Instant Pot gets mushy, and it's usually because they skip this step.

Now it's ready to serve! And if you're looking for a yummy meal to serve it with, try this Salsa Verde Chicken.

And if you do not own an Instant Pot yet, consider gifting one to yourself! I use mine all the time and I LOVE it!

Storing Brown Rice

You can store any leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for about 5 days. You can also freeze brown rice and it will keep well in your freezer for several months.

This makes it a great make-ahead option for easy weeknight meals or last minute dinners.

To store it well in the freezer, let it cool to room temperature and then portion it out. When you're ready to serve it, you can thaw it overnight in the fridge, microwave it from frozen, or add it to a pan with a touch of water to thaw and heat at the same time.

Yield: 6 Cups

How to Make Instant Pot Brown Rice

Name: How to Make Instant Pot Brown Rice
Prep time: 2 min
Cook time: 22 min
Total time: 34 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: American / Chinese
Ingredients: 2 Cups Brown Rice; 2.5 Cups Water (or vegetable or chicken broth); Pinch of Salt, optional; 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil; 1 Teaspoon Dried Parsley

Prep Time 2 minutes

Cook Time 22 minutes

Additional Time 10 minutes

Total Time 34 minutes

Ingredients

2 Cups Brown Rice
2.5 Cups Water (or vegetable or chicken broth)
Pinch of Salt, optional
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Dried Parsley

Instructions

Pour all of the ingredients into your pressure cooker pot and give them a good stir.
Lock the lid into place, set valve to Sealing, select Pressure Cook to High and for 22 minutes.
Allow pressure cooker to pressurize (time will depend on your altitude, perhaps around 12 minutes), once it’s pressurized the cooking time will begin to count down.
Once the cooking timer goes off, and the machine beeps, allow to Natural Release for 10 minutes.
Once this time is up, turn valve to Venting using a wooden spoon and standing back away from the steam release area. (You are releasing any remaining pressure in the pot before twisting the lid open.)
Carefully open the pot and tilt the lid away from your face as you do so. Use a fork to fluff the rice. Serve as desired or add any other herbs or spices before you do so.

Notes

You can store cooked rice or any leftovers in the freezer for a couple of months. Simply let the cooked rice come to room temp then divide in freezer bags as desired.