Instant Pot Cajun Chicken and Rice is a super flavorful one-pot dinner made right in your electric pressure cooker. It is a combo of chicken thighs, smoked beef sausage and rice mixed with carrots, onions, garlic and peas all infused with Cajun spices. It is done in just over 30 minutes! You are going to love this dinner recipe.
Another great Cajun recipe to check out is this Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice, especially great if you have a ham bone leftover!
RELATED: Instant Pot Chicken, Broccoli and Rice
Why You Should Make This Recipe
- A chance to use your Instant Pot to make something other than soup!
- It is a meal all made in ONE POT… Helloooo easy prep and easy clean up!
- Cooking the rice in the Instant Pot with the Cajun Seasonings , chicken and sausage really amps up the flavor or your long grain white rice.
- Everything is included in this dish.. starch, protein, and veggies. No need for a side dish here.
Ingredients
Here are the things that you need to make Instant Pot Cajun Chicken and Rice, and a few notes to help you choose the right ingredients:
Rice – I have tested this recipe using long grain white rice and Texmati rice. Basmati rice should cook in the same amount of time.
Brown Rice
If you want to use brown rice, increase the time to 12 minutes at high pressure with a 5 minute natural release.
Andouille Sausage – I like to use the Johnsonville Andouille Sausage in this recipe. However if you cannot find that, a smoked beef sausage will work too!
Chicken Thighs- Make sure you buy boneless skinless chicken thighs. This is dark meat so it will be super tender and juicy after it is cooked!
Chicken Base- You can find this in the soup aisle of your grocery store. It comes in a paste form and is way more flavorful than bouillon. We like the Better Than Bouillon brand.
Cajun Seasonings
Some of the most important ingredients in this recipe are the spices and seasonings! It is what gives it that Cajun, Southern flavor.
You will want to use a “Cajun Seasoning”. There are a lot of options here; I have used the Louisiana Fish Fry Cajun Seasoning as well as the McCormick’s Cajun Seasoning Blend. Both are great.
Store Bought Cajun Seasoning
Check and see if there is salt in your seasoning blend by looking at the ingredients. If there IS SALT do not add additional salt until you taste the final product.
But if you want to make your own it is super simple and you probably have most of the ingredients in your spice cabinet, pop over to this recipe for Homemade Cajun Seasoning!
Some other recipes to make with your Cajun seasoning are Cajun Shrimp and Dirty Rice and Beans.
Step-by-Step Picture Instructions
You will be building layers of flavor in this dish, and it turns out to be the most delicious one pot dinner!
- Prep Your Rice.
- Sauté Veggies.
- Add Chicken, Sausage, Seasonings, Etc…
- Add Rice and Liquid.
- Pressure Cook.
- Fluff The Rice and Add Peas.
Start by rinsing your rice under cool water in a fine mesh colander. Lightly toss it with your fingers until the water runs clear. Set it aside.
With your Instant Pot on sauté mode add the oil and let it heat up. Add the cut carrots, onions and garlic and sauté for just about 5 minutes, stirring often.
Turn off sauté mode and stir in the chicken pieces, cut sausage, smoked paprika, turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, black pepper and chicken base.
Give it all a good stir to coat.
Add the rinsed rice to the pot and give it a VERY LIGHT stir. You don’t want all the rice to sink to the bottom.
Pour in the chicken broth and make sure that most of the rice is submerged.
Lightly pour the canned diced tomatoes over top. Do not stir the pot again.
Pop the lid on and turn the pressure valve to seal. Set the pot to cook on high pressure for 8 minutes.
Do a 5 minute natural release and the finish with a quick release.
Stir the frozen peas into the pot and fluff the rice with a fork.
Taste for additional seasonings… kosher salt, Cajun seasoning, red pepper or cayenne for heat.
Serve hot!
Recipe Tips
- Make sure you rinse your rice before adding it to the pot. This will remove some of the starch and make sure your rice isn’t overly sticky.
- Taste the dish at the end to see if you want more seasoning… Cajun seasoning, kosher salt, or peppers.
- Cut your carrots about ½ inch thick so that they don’t turn to mush when they cook under pressure.
- Crank up the heat by adding a dash of cayenne or a few extra pinches of red pepper flakes.
- Sub red kidney beans for the peas to make more of a dirty rice with chicken and sausage. Drain the red beans and add them with the rice.
More Amazing Cajun Recipes
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Did you make this recipe?
I would love to hear your review, especially if you have tips and tricks to add! Pop down to the comment section and connect with me
Instant Pot Cajun Chicken and Rice Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon oil
- 1 yellow onion - chopped
- 3 garlic cloves - minced
- 1 cup carrots - peeled, cut into ½ inch chunks
- 3-4 boneless skinless chicken thighs - cut into 1 inch chunks
- 13.5 oz Andouille Sausage - sliced into ½ inch chunks (I use Johnsonville Andouille Smoked Sausage)
- 2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning - (if your Cajun seasoning does not contain salt, then add ½ teaspoon kosher salt) or make your own Cajun Seasoning!!
- 1 tsp (heaping) smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoon chicken base
- 1½ cups long grain white rice - rinsed**
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions
- Start by rinsing your white rice under cool water in a fine mesh colander until the water runs clear. Set it aside.
- Set the Instant Pot to sauté mode. Add the oil and sauté the onions, carrots, and garlic, 5 minutes. Stirring occasionally1 Tablespoon oil, 1 yellow onion, 3 garlic cloves, 1 cup carrots
- Turn off sauté mode.
- Add the chicken pieces, cut sausage, Cajun seasoning, smoked paprika, turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and chicken base. Stir well to coat.3-4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, 13.5 oz Andouille Sausage, 2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning, 1 teaspoon (heaping) smoked paprika, ½ teaspoon turmeric, ½ teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, 2 teaspoon chicken base
- Add the rice and VERY lightly stir it into the pot. You don't want to stir all the rice to the bottom.1½ cups long grain white rice
- Pour in the chicken broth. Make sure all the rice is submerged.2 cups chicken broth
- Very lightly pour the can of diced tomatoes over top. Do not stir.14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- Put the lid on and close the pressure valve to seal. Set the Instant Pot to the pressure setting on high pressure, normal heat for 8 minutes.
- At the end, when the timer beeps, do a 5 minute natural release. Finish with a quick release by turning the pressure valve to "vent".
- Once all the pressure is released take the lid off and add the frozen peas and stir to combine. The heat from the pot will cook the peas.1 cup frozen peas
- Serve immediately.
Storing
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Recipe Tips and Notes:
- Taste the dish at the end to see if you want more seasoning… Cajun seasoning, kosher salt, or peppers.
- Cut your carrots about ½ inch thick so that they don’t turn to mush when they cook under pressure.
- Crank up the heat by adding a dash of cayenne or a few extra pinches of red pepper flakes.
- Sub red kidney beans for the peas to make more of a dirty rice with chicken and sausage. Drain the red beans and add them with the rice.
**This dish was inspired by Pressure Cooker Weeknight Paella with Chicken & Sausage from Simply Recipes.
Emily Bruno says
My kids put cajun seasoning on everything!! I’m all about easy IP dinners- adding this to my list!
Briana says
Very tasty…I tried the recipe as is and got the burn warning. I turned off the pot, cleaned off the bottom, put everything back in, added four cups of water. The burn warning still came on periodically, but then went off after a second. Came out fine, slightly mushy rice, so I might try 3 cups of water next time.
Tracy says
Love this! My family requests this often!
Susie says
Awesome!! Thank you for the 5 star rating!
John says
I love cajun and I love this recipe. I could eat this for days on end.
Catherine says
I made this last night and it was delish! It was my first try with an instapot. Turn out fabulous! Thanks @Momsdinner!
Susie says
YEAH!!! Im so glad you loved it. There will be plenty more IP recipes this fall
John says
This is my favorite recipe Susie has created!!
Susie says
I think you are not alone. One of my favorites too.. and one of the most popular recipes on my website
Carrie says
How would you adjust the time (and/or liquid) for brown rice instead of white rice? I’m really excited to try this!
Susie says
Excellent!!!! I would just add an additional 1/3 cup of liquid if you are using brown rice, and set the cook time to 12 minutes instead of 10. Let me know if you love it : )
Priti McNutt says
If I wanted it to use yellow saffron rice, would I still use the same liquid measurements?
Susie says
To be honest I am not totally familiar with yellow saffron rice. But from my internet research it looks like it requires just a little more liquid than white rice.
In the Instant Pot, white rice to water ratio is about 1:1 .. a little more in this recipe because of all the additional veggies and protein. I would recommend adding another 1/3 cup of water to the pot if you use yellow saffron rice.
I hope this works out for you. Let me know!!!
Sarah says
I also got the burn notice twice. I kept liquid in the diced tomatoes resting on top, mixed in the rice, added in an additional 1.5c chicken broth after the first burn alert and scraped the bottom before restarting. It seems the recipe is missing something since several of us had the same issue.
Susie says
Hi Sarah, Thank you so much for visiting my site and trying my recipe. I am so sorry you got the burn warning on your pot! I am thinking that it is the tomatoes causing all this trouble!
I re-made this recipe today (eating it right now, in fact… YUM) and decided to make the tomatoes optional as an add-in at the end. Still crazy delicious and should work just fine.
Thank you so much for reaching out to me. I love getting feedback on my recipes.
I hope you will try it again with the new instructions. I think you will absolutely love it.
Deborah Watson says
I also got the burn warning…twice. I followed the recipe exactly, got one burn warning, took the ups or he’d food out of the pot, and cleaned the pot thoroughly. I put the food back into the pot, added some e try liquid, but got the burn warning again.
Susie says
Dang!!! I’m so sorry that happened to you. What size pot do you have?
I did a little research and there is only 1 things that I can think would cause the burn warning:
– After sauteing the chicken and sausage, if there are too many brown bits left on the bottom, that will sometimes give you a burn warning … but after you washed the pot you shouldn’t have gotten it a second time.
This is a great article on troubleshooting burn warnings on your Instant Pot https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/instant-pot-burn/
I have made this several times and never got a burn warning. I’m going to make it again this weekend- just to make sure!!!
Deborah Watson says
Thank you for the info! I must add, the food seemed to be finished cooking when I got the second burn warning, and it was delicious! I will give it another try, and maybe let it cool down a bit between the sauté and pressure cook phases.
Tara says
Delicious! Out of curiosity, I made your recipe last night and your inspiration recipe, the paella, the night before! Both were excellent but I agree, saffron isn’t something I like to use much! I loved the cajun flavoring. I noticed one big difference (apart from spices) was the cooking. You did 10 minutes and quick release and the paella was 5 minutes and 10 minute release. Any reason? We were trying to figure out the difference. My hubby thought maybe the paella was a bit drier and fluffier and the cajun was a bit stickier. Both were perfect in my opinion!
Susie says
Hi Tara,
Thank you for making my recipe. I’m so glad you loved it, and I love that you made the paella too.
There is not much difference between the quick cooking with a long natural release or the longer cooking with a quick release because you are still “cooking” when you do a natural release. With my recipe you are getting a full 10 minutes of cook time and then cutting it off quickly. Where as the paella recipe get 5 minutes of cook time and then an additional 10 minutes of slower cooking during the release. I guess I am just impatient and want the quicker cooking of 10 minutes instead of 15 minutes – HA!
I also found that 10 minutes and quick release worked best for this recipe because and the rice turned out how we like it at our house, as you said “stickier”.
I hope you’ll try some more Mom’s Dinner recipes in the future.
Adele says
It tasted delicious but I had to finish it on the stovetop because the BURN warning came on. What did I do wrong?
Susie says
Hi Adele! I’m so glad you tried this recipe and like the flavor.
I’m sorry you got a burn warning on your Instant Pot. I have not had that happen. I think some crusting on the bottom of the pot can be normal when you are cooking starchy items like rice or pasta. But probably not enough to get a burn warning. Did you put the water and chicken base in and then stir in the rice, so it doesn’t all end at the bottom of the pot? Also, did you leave the liquid in the diced tomatoes? You want that extra liquid to cook the rice. I hope some of these things help!!
Nancy says
I’ve also read in some places that after sautéing it’s important to press the cancel button before using the pressure cook feature – otherwise you will get that burn warning.
Susie says
Thank you so much for letting me know!!! I have not read that, but will DEFINITELY research that now! I always hit cancel when turning off the saute mode, and have never had a burn warning. It was driving me crazy because I couldn’t figure out why some ppl were getting a burn warning.
Melissa | Bless this Mess says
I just got my Instant Pot for Christmas, and I’m loving experimenting with new recipes! This one looks fabulous – and I love that it’s all in one pot!
Susie says
I was a little nervous to use my pot at first, but now I’ve got it down and am loving it!!! There are so many good Instant Pot recipes to try. Do you have any favorites??
B Andrews says
Loved the spice of this recipe. I don’t have an instant pot so did it on stove top.
Susie says
I am so glad that you loved it! We love it at our house too. I’m glad that it worked on the stove top! Thanks for trying my recipe : )
Susan says
How long did you cook it on the stove top?
Albert Bevia - Spain on a Fork says
This looks so good! and easier than ever to make on the Instant Pot! love that Louisiana cajon seasoning
Susie says
Loving my Instant Pot … and always loving the Louisiana Cajun Seasoning!