Citrus garlic mojo chicken meets chicken and rice in this Instant Pot Cuban chicken and rice recipe that’s a perfect weeknight dinner!
This Instant Pot Cuban chicken and rice is a delicious twist on traditional chicken and rice. The dish has Cuban-inspired garlic citrus marinated chicken on a bed of spiced rice.
The chicken and rice is topped with sliced green olives for a bit of salt and tang. All of which makes for a delicious chicken and rice dish!
How to make Instant Pot Cuban chicken and rice
In a large bowl, stir together the orange juice, lime juice, and garlic, salt, cumin, oregano, cayenne, and coriander. Add the chicken thighs, and toss to coat in sauce.
Let sit for about 10 minutes at room temperature, or overnight in the fridge. If making immediately, press SAUTE.
When HOT, add oil to the inner pot and swirl to coat. Stir in onion, bell pepper and ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook until vegetables are softened, about 5-6 minutes, stirring regularly.
Stir in the tomato paste and cook for another minute. Press CANCEL.
Add the rice, and toss to coat in oil. Stir in the chicken broth.
Add the chicken and marinade to the inner pot. Close and lock the lid.
Turn the pressure release valve to SEALING. Press MANUAL high pressure and adjust the time to 15 minutes.
When the cooking time has finished, carefully turn the pressure release valve to VENTING to release the pressure. Stir the rice and chicken together. The chicken should break apart as you stir it.
If the rice is too al dente, recover, and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Stir in the sliced olives, and serve.
Tips
- Salt: If you don’t have kosher salt, use table salt. You’ll need to use half of the amount (i.e. 1/2 teaspoon instead of 1 teaspoon).
- Chicken: You can use chicken breast if you prefer. You may find that you need to adjust the cooking time as chicken breast can dry out more quickly.
- Bell pepper: You can use another color of bell pepper if you prefer.
- Chicken broth: I like to use reduced sodium chicken broth in this recipe. You can also use chicken stock.
Toppings
I like to serve this chicken and rice topped with fresh cilantro and pico de gallo. It’s also delicious with a little cubed avocado avocado or queso fresco on top.
Storage
The chicken and rice will keep for up to 4 days, covered, in the fridge.
Instant Pot Cuban Chicken and Rice
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 1 ¼ teaspoons kosher salt divided
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
- ¾ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 red onion diced
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup diced green bell pepper
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 ¼ cups long grain white rice
- 1 ¼ cups chicken broth
- ⅔ cup sliced green olives with pimentos
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together the orange juice, lime juice, and garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, cumin, oregano, cayenne, and coriander.
- Add the chicken thighs, and toss to coat in sauce.
- Let sit for about 10 minutes at room temperature, or overnight in the fridge.
- If making immediately, press SAUTE.
- When HOT, add oil to the inner pot and swirl to coat.
- Stir in onion, bell pepper and ¼ teaspoon salt.
- Cook until vegetables are softened, about 5-6 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Stir in the tomato paste and cook for another minute.
- Press CANCEL.
- Add the rice, and toss to coat in oil.
- Stir in the chicken broth.
- Add the chicken and marinade to the inner pot.
- Close and lock the lid.
- Turn the pressure release valve to SEALING.
- Press MANUAL high pressure and adjust the time to 15 minutes.
- When the cooking time has finished, carefully turn the pressure release valve to VENTING to release the pressure.
- Stir the rice and chicken together. The chicken should break apart as you stir it.
- If the rice is too al dente, recover, and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the sliced olives, and serve.
Notes
- Salt: If you don’t have kosher salt, use table salt. You’ll need to use half of the amount (i.e. ½ teaspoon instead of 1 teaspoon).
- Chicken: You can use chicken breast if you prefer. You may find that you need to adjust the cooking time as chicken breast can dry out more quickly.
- Bell pepper: You can use another color of bell pepper if you prefer.
- Chicken broth: I like to use reduced sodium chicken broth in this recipe. You can also use chicken stock.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Nutrition
Disclaimer: Nutritional values were calculated using a third-party tool and are provided as an estimation only.
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Did You Make This?
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This has great flavor! The whole family loves it. But I can’t get through the cooking without getting “burn” notices on my instant pot. What am I missing?
Some of the newer models have much more sensitive sensors than the older models. If you’re finding that you keep getting a burn notice, I would skip step 8. Be sure that you’re really deglazing the pot with the chicken broth to remove any browned bits from the vegetables. Add the rice once the broth is in and don’t stir. Then add the tomato paste on top, again without stirring. Sometimes just changing the order that you add the ingredients can make all the difference!
This was really easy to make and VERY flavorful. I usually make a recipe for the first time exactly as listed, however, I made small substitutions based on what I had at home already. I had no coriander so I researched and curry powder has a similar taste profile. So I subbed curry for coriander. Then I used wheat rice and chicken breasts. Per the tips, I reduced the cook time down to 12 min, which was perfect for chicken breasts. And based on the other tip about al dente rice, I did natural release for 5 min before releasing steam. It all came out perfect! My picky eater wanted seconds. Thank you! This will go in rotation!
Thank you so much!
This recipe was cribbed almost directly from Melissa Clark’s recipe in “Comfort in an Instant.”
You could at least give her credit. Come on.
In the food world, once you make at least three changes to a recipe, it’s considered your recipe. What I did is no different than what sites like America’s Test Kitchen do. I found a recipe and then made significant changes to it through testing and re-testing it.
I made 8 or 9 changes to the ingredients alone. I made changes to the amounts of ingredients, added ingredients, and omitted other ingredients. Of course there are still going to be similarities because they’re both chicken and rice dishes.
I also made changes to the recipe process, and, after testing, changed both the pressure cook time and the pressure release time for better results.
Really good!
Thanks!
This is some awesome Cuban chicken and rice. I loved this dish when I tried it. I love Cuban foods.
Thank you! I’m glad that you liked it!