Instant Pot Mexican Chicken

Submitted by: Rebecca Olson and Brad Warren

Adapted from https://meaningfuleats.com/instant-pot-southwestern-chicken-and-rice/

For a 6 quart Instant Pot. Serves 6 with lots of leftovers.

Takes about an hour total with prep, pressure, cooking, and natural release. And getting everything on the table.

Ingredients

• 1 ½  brown rice
• 1 c salsa
• 1 can beans, rinsed and drained (kidney, black, red, etc)
• 1 cup or so of chopped vegetables such as onions, peppers (mini peppers or whatever), zucchini or yellow squash, carrots, etc.
• 1 ½ c stock or broth or 2 bouillon cubes in equal amt hot water (chicken, veg)
• 2 tsp chili powder (or a tbsp - go wild)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• ½ tsp paprika (smoked if you have it)
• 1/2 tsp salt (optional if you use salty stock)
• 1 lb or 1 ½ lbs of chicken breasts (2 or 3 whole ones, fresh or frozen)

Instructions:

1. Put rice, salsa, beans, chopped vegetables, and stock in the instant pot. Give it a stir.
2. Put the chicken in, and make sure it’s kind of in the liquid.
3. Mix up all the spices in a bowl.
4. Sprinkle most of the spices over the liquid and stir in, and then sprinkle the rest over the chicken.
5. Secure the lid on your Instant pot however you’re supposed to do it. Go check your manual.
6. Plug in the instant pot. Set the setting to manual pressure for 24 minutes if your chicken is fresh, 26 if it’s in a frozen block like ours usually is.
7. Let the pressure naturally release for 10-15 minutes and then carefully do a quick release. Remove the chicken and shred it and return it to the pot and stir it up.  Start yelling at your kids to start setting the table now, and throw the corn in the microwave oven.

Notes:

We usually serve this with a side of steamed microwave corn, shredded cheese, hot sauce, salsa, lettuce, taco toppings, etc,  and let the family use the “stuff” as filling for tacos, burritos, taco salad, nachos, etc. Makes a ton, and everyone in our picky family of 6 loves it. Plus, it uses BROWN RICE and the vegetables just melt into the chicken, so the kids eat squash and don’t even realize it. BROWN RICE.