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Pulao, or pilaf, is a delicately flavored rice dish popular in Pakistani and Indian cooking. This Instant Pot Chicken Pulao recipe requires just 25 minutes of prep time and results in tender boneless (or bone-in) chicken and perfectly cooked rice.
Chicken Pulao
Pulao may not be as famous as biryani, but it holds significance just the same. I remember whenever my mom made it, I’d stand over the stove sneaking just one bite before dinner, and then another, and another. Meat, rice, and aromatic whole spices all woven together so beautifully to create a magnificent composition. It’s utterly satisfying.
This Instant Pot Chicken Pulao is a weeknight version of the more elaborate yakhni pulao, in which meat is slowly simmered to create a stock (yakhni) which is used to cook the rice. That’s not to say you’re missing out on the flavors of classic pulao. The techniques here are still the same – deeply brown onions, seared meat, and rice perfumed with whole spices.
Using Bone-in or Boneless Chicken for Pulao
For this recipe, I use chicken thighs or chicken tenders – the little strips of meat attached to the underside of the chicken breast. If you don’t have them, you can also use chicken breast.
I’ve also tried this with bone-in chicken. As long as bone-in chicken pieces are small, the recipe works with bone-in chicken as well! Be sure to sauté bone-in chicken a little longer to ensure no extra moisture will be released while cooking.
How to prevent soggy rice when making Instant Pot Pulao
I’ve tested many times to ensure that the rice remains fluffy and moist, with each grain separated just like a traditional pulao. Here are my tips to prevent soggy rice:
- Use the right kind of rice. While I can’t be sure all rice will cook to perfection with this method (you may have to do a little trial and error), most aged, long-grain basmati rice will work wonderfully in this recipe. I use this Royal Chef’s Secret brand.
- The recipe calls to soak the rice for 25 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. If that’s not how long you normally soak it, try soaking the rice for a shorter period of time.
- After cooking the rice, allow it to naturally release pressure as directed in the recipe. You’ll notice that it’ll get even less moist as time goes on.
- All the ingredients are measured specifically to prevent soggy rice. Use a small tomato as directed in the recipe so the moisture doesn’t cause sogginess. If you prefer pulao without a tomato, feel free to omit it.
- Before adding the chicken, be sure to pat it dry with a paper towel.
- Lastly, remove the rice promptly from the Instant Pot and place on your serving dish.
What to serve with Chicken Pulao
Chicken pulao is a wonderful one-pot meal that’s traditionally paired with raita or yogurt. I love making some Shami kabab or Aloo ki Tikki as a side when serving pulao.
More tips on making chicken pulao in the Instant Pot:
- This recipe moves quickly once the onions have browned. Before you begin cooking, have all ingredients (especially the spices) prepped and ready to go.
- As always with South Asian recipes, be sure to pick out and discard the whole spices while you eat. If you don’t want to bite into the whole spices at all, place them in a spice bag or cheesecloth bundle. I don’t recommend grinding them because they may become overpowering.
- Triple wash the basmati rice to remove starches and encourage the grains to separate once cooked.
If you try this recipe, please let me know in the comments below. If you’re on Instagram, please tag me so I can see your creations. I love hearing from you!
More Instant Pot recipes you’ll love:
- Instant Pot Shami Kebab (with stovetop instructions)
- Instant Pot Maash ki Dal
- Instant Pot Kadhi
- Instant Pot Nihari
- Instant Pot Butter Chicken
- Instant Pot Chana Pulao (Chickpea Pilaf)
For more ideas, check out my Instant Pot Pakistani Recipes Roundup!
Instant Pot Chicken Pulao
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (285 grams) aged, long grain basmati rice
- 2 tbsp neutral oil such as grapeseed or avocado
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 1 medium yellow onion thinly sliced
- 2 small (or 1 large) bay leaves
- 1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
- 1 2-inch piece cinnamon stick
- 1 small black cardamom optional
- 5 whole cloves
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp coriander seeds crushed
- 4 cloves garlic crushed
- 3/4 inch piece ginger crushed
- 1 lb boneless chicken (I prefer thighs or tenders but you may use breast) cubed into 1” pieces
- 1 small (50g) tomato finely chopped
- 1-2 green chili peppers whole or chopped (optional)
- 1 3/4 cups water
- 2 ¼ tsp kosher salt divided (or to taste)
- small handful chopped cilantro and/or mint
Instructions
- Thoroughly wash the rice and soak it in water for 15-25 minutes (see notes). Then drain. I usually start pulao preparation while the rice is soaking.
- Select the high Sauté setting on the Instant Pot. Once hot, add the oil, ghee, and thinly sliced onion. Sauté, stirring often, until the onions are golden brown, about 8-10 minutes. Deglaze the pan with a tablespoon of water. The color of the onions will determine the color of the rice so you want to get them even and golden brown.
- Add the whole spices, garlic, and ginger and sauté for another minute or until the raw smell disappears. Add the chicken and ¼ tsp of the salt and continue to sauté for 2-3 minutes until the color of the chicken changes. Add the tomato and green chili pepper and sauté until the tomato softens, about 2 minutes.
- Add the rice, remaining salt, and water and stir to combine. Scrape the sides of the pot and gently press down the rice to make everything is submerged in the water.
- Cancel the Sauté setting, secure the lid, and set the Pressure Release to Sealing. Pressure-cook on high setting for 6 minutes. Let naturally release for 15 minutes. Then manually release any remaining pressure by moving the Pressure Release to Venting. Fluff with a fork. Sprinkle the cilantro/mint over the top and serve with raita or yogurt.
Super easy to make
Gently spiced
Loved the recipe! Thank you for sharing
How is Pulao different from biryani
You’re welcome and thank YOU for coming back to review! Pulao is a gently spiced pilaf whereas biryani is a layered of rice and curry and finishes cooking together. It’s heavier on spice and ‘masala’.
Hi Salaam Izzah! I recently had a friend teach me how to cook qorma and tried to follow her instructions, which was fine but your site is where i went to actually cook it. Great job and thank you for doing this.
Question: Can we use semi frozen chicken breast and how would that affect cooking time etc? Thanks!
Thank you, Nimrah! I haven’t tried it with semi-frozen but I believe you can do it, just increase cooking time. It may make the rice mushy because of the extra moisture in the chicken + increased cooking time.
I added one minute to offset any frozen-ness of the chicken and it turned out so well! Thanks!
Thanks for sharing that, Nimrah! So glad it worked out!
simple and delicious, love it <3
Thank you, Radhika!!
Salam! i’m planning to make this for Eid, Can I marinate the chicken beforehand for a deeper flavour or is it unnecessary? Do you have any suggestions? Excited to try this!
You could certainly do that though I’ve made sure the dish is plenty flavorful without it! I’d try salt, ginger, and garlic but be sure to use less for the overall recipe.
I ended up not marinating and making recipe as is. Turned out so delicious! So easy to make, Thank you so much!
That’s awesome. Thanks for coming back and sharing the review!
This is an awesome recipe! I make this for my husband every two weeks and he loves it!! !
So nice to hear that, Sahar. Thanks for the review!
This was delicious!! Thank you so much!
My first ever instant pot recipe. Loved it so much. Thank you!
You’re very welcome, Maheen! So glad you had a success on your first try!!
Followed this recipe exactly and it came out amazing! Loved it. Your recipes are excellent.
So great to hear that! Thank you for your nice review, Sana!!
I just want to thank you for this amazing recipe! I’m a terrible cook and this turned out amazing! I was wondering if I wanted to make mutter pulao or goat pulao would you change anything? Thanks again and please post more recipes! I tried your raitha also and that was good too!
You’re very welcome!! Try IP Chana Pulao (https://www.teaforturmeric.com/instant-pot-chana-pulao/)! Goat would have to be cooked prior to making alongside the rice!
Thank you so much! I will definitely try it.
This recipe is amazing…the best taste ever! I have one question though…if I want to add potatoes to the dish how would I do that? Would I cook the potatoe first..or add them before pressure cook time and the pressure cook will cook the potatoe? Thank you for the great recipes you have put out!
Thank you so much, Bethany!! What a great idea. It should work within the same pressure cook times. Just add them after the chicken and pressure cook as normal.
Izza this has become one of my go to favourite recipes! So easy and fast to make, and so utterly delicious! Since baby number 2, i’m always looking for recipes that are time efficient and that me and the family fall in love with! This recipe tops the list! At one point i was making this at least once a week because we just couldnt get enough! Until i found more of your recipes to add to our rotation 😉 thank youuuu!
Aww thanks so much, Naba!!! So happy to hear that 🙂
Hello,
The flavors of this dish were great but my rice came out really sticky and mushy. I used basmati rice and soaked exactly 25 minutes. The only change I made to the recipe was I used 1/2 of a medium onion and 1.5lbs diced chicken. Despite the increased chicken, all ingredients were covered by the water for pressure cooking. Do you have recommendations on how to cook the rice to al dente? Do I change the cooking time or the amount of liquid?
Thanks for the tips!
Colleen, glad you liked the flavors and sorry it came out mushy. It may just be the type of basmati rice. In that case, you may try decreasing the amount of water by 1/4 cup. Also, the extra half-pound of chicken has its own moisture so that may contribute to it turning out mushy.
If they came out mushy make sure the water from the tomato and chicken has fully evaporated and oil has released prior to adding rice and water.
Yes! Thank you so much, Isra!
The recipe asks for 1 3/4 cups of water. Does that mean 1.75 cups or just .75 cup of water? Also, the same with 2 1/4 tsp of salt. Are you saying .50 tsp of salt and then it is split in two different times in the recipe?
I mean 1.75 cups and 2.25 tsp salt. I divide the salt to give the chicken more flavor as it cooks!
Salaam Izzah and thank you for your recipes and the obvious effort and care you put into perfecting and sharing them. I’ve made this recipe once before and absolutely loved it but will have family visiting over the holidays and wanted to cook a larger quantity. So my question is, if I double the recipe would I need to adjust the pressure cook time?
W.S. Zeba. I’m so glad you liked it! No, you will keep the same pressure time, rice, & liquid quantities. The only thing that comes to mind is the black cardamom – I’d stick to 1 instead of 2 because sometimes it can be overpowering.
Thank you. Made this last night and it was a huge hit! Would’ve taken a picture but the public was starving. I did end up using one regular sized and one teeny tiny black cardamom (you know the one that always settles down in the bottom of the storage jar ????) just because I love my ilaichis and it turned out well.
So glad to hear that, Zeba! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Salam Izzah. I am also looking to double the recipe. I need to double the rice and chicken. I am slightly confused by your comment above as it says not to double the rice or water?
W.S. Amna, Sorry for the confusion. You can go ahead and double the recipe. I just suggested decreasing the black cardamom so it’s not overpowering. Hope that helps!
Salam! Thank you so much for this awesome recipe! Made it today and turned out great! Hubby also complimented it which is relieving ????loll and made your Raita to go with it which is probably the first time I’ve made decent Raita!! ????????????I don’t even use my stovetop anymore for dinner lol after getting into this instant pot train I can’t stop ???? I do have a question tho…some of my rice came out kind of sticky and bunched up…I was wondering what may have caused that…? The only thing I can think of is that I ended up soaking the rice for quite a bit more than 25 mins…ended up being maybe an hr ???? would that make a difference?
Overall tho a great recipe and I’ve already memorized it lol
Thank you!!!
Hi Sadia! Thank you! I’m sorry to hear about some of the rice turning out sticky. Yes, you’re right. The soak time will definitely affect it as well as the brand/type of rice used.
Great results, again!
Just had this for dinner.
Thank you
This recipe was so easy to follow and the end result was perfect!
So glad to hear that, Fatema. Thanks for reporting back!
Hi I have a questions, can this be made with whole bone in chicken and if so does anything need to be adjusted aside for the amount of spices cuz of the size of the chicken?
Zainab, I have heard back from several people that they used bone-in chicken and it did fully cook. I will try it and update the recipe when I do!
You be you, I was drawn to your blog some time ago due to your story and style of writing (and also knowing you’re based nearby in Texas). As long as you fully bring yourself, I think the SEO stuff will take care of itself!!
And to mirror another comment, I really appreciate you taking the time to add notes and help us cater your recipes to specific tastes, as desi food is hardly perfected with step by step directions.
The pulao looks great, my mom has an Instant Pot and I’m so asking her to make this for me 🙂
Thank you, Hena! That is so nice and encouraging to hear. I hope you guys enjoy it!
Salam Izzah. I have a question for you regarding the IP chicken pulao. So my mom never uses tomatoes in her pulao (only in her biryani). What is the reason for the tomato and will it be okay to leave it out? Thanks so much for sharing your time and recipes!
W.S Asma! You’re right – tomatoes aren’t essential for pulao. I tried the recipe with and without the tomato and simply preferred it with the tomato. You can certainly leave it out and it won’t affect the overall recipe.
Thank you! I will report back once I make it. Thanks so much for sharing!!!????????
Your writing is always a treat to read. Your words are beautiful and eloquent. And I always get excited when I see a notification of a new blog post from you!
Aww thank you, Anni!!
I was thrilled to get a notification email that you have a new post on your blog. I am a longtime fan of your writing and recipes, I especially appreciate the time you put into testing recipes from scratch. My children love pilau and I have always struggled to mimic the taste of readymade spice mixes which I despise using because of the high sodium and additives. Thank you for this, I will be sure to update once I’ve tried it out. Your photos of this dish have me drooling lol
That means the world to me, Fatema! I am honored to give you the best and I am sure you will love this recipe! Thank you so much. <3
I’m back to say I just made this and it’s absolutely delicious! Thanks again.