Instant Pot Brown Rice | Do you want perfect fluffy rice every time? Try using your pressure cooker to cook perfect brown rice in about 30 minutes. Use brown Basmati and add cumin seeds, onion, garlic, and a bay leaf for extra flavor in this easy side dish recipe.
The perfect side dish for roasted chicken or curry!
Do you love brown rice but don’t exactly love its long cooking time? How about a simple hands-off Instant Pot brown rice recipe then? Simply rinse your rice, add some great flavors with garlic, onion, and cumin seeds, and then set the timer to pressure cook and walk away. No babysitting a pot at dinner time, no bubbling over, and I great results every time I make this.
I’ve made a lot of brown rice in my pressure cooker – enough to figure out the best rice to water ratio to cook long grain brown rice to a perfectly tender grain – not crunchy and dry, not mushy. Mine seriously comes out perfect every time, and I hope yours will too if you follow this easy recipe.
Ingredients
- Garlic: Simple flavor punch
- Onion: Again for a simple flavor burst
- Brown rice: I use brown Basmati because it’s what we like and it goes great with vegetarian curry dishes which I make often
- Water: 1 1/4 cups water to 1 cup of rice
- Cumin seeds: lends a nice flavor to this rice – perfect with curries
- Bay leaf: a bit more (ya I going to say it again) flavor
- Salt: A properly seasoned dish is so satisfying
Substitutions
- Water: Try using chicken or vegetable stock to get even more flavor into this dish.
How to make perfect brown basmati rice in an Instant Pot
I find the perfect ratio for brown basmati is NOT 1:1 like my little Instant Pot booklet told me. It’s more like 1: 1.25. I use a 6 qt Instant Pot Ultra.
So, 1 cup of rice to 1 1/4 cup of water. Any time I’ve followed the 1:1 ratio, I’ve ended up with dry crunchy rice. 1 to 1 1/4 gives me nice tender rice, not mushy, not stuck together in any way, every grain its own perfect shape and texture.
First, rinse your rice to get rid of all the extra starch which can make your cooked rice gluey and mushy.
Next set your pressure cooker to sauté. Heat the oil and then cook the onions, garlic, and cumin seeds for a minute or two (Photo 1). This will help bring out the flavor of these ingredients and make your final dish taste better.
Add the salt and the rinsed rice and sauté that for a minute or so (Photo 2).
Add the water (or broth) and the bay leaf (Photo 3) and then set your pressure cooker to “pressure cook” or “manual”. Set for 24 minutes. It’ll take time for the pressure cooker to come up to pressure and then the 24 minutes will starting counting down.
Once the 24 minutes are up, allow a 10-minute natural pressure release. This means don’t touch anything – just let the pressure start to naturally release. When ten minutes are up release the rest of the pressure by switching your machine to venting. (Photo 4) Remove the bay leaf and serve the rice immediately.
What to serve with Instant Pot brown rice
This easy brown rice makes a great side dish or base for recipes like Instant Pot bourbon chicken, honey bourbon meatballs, blackened mahi mahi, vegetarian chickpea curry, or slow cooker chicken curry or Tex-Mex slow cooker chicken. Rice is great paired with any dish that has a sauce, as it gives the rice even more flavor.
Tips and Tricks
Sautéing the onion, garlic, and cumin seeds before setting the timer on the pressure cooker really brings out the flavor.
Recipes FAQs
It takes 24 minutes once it comes to pressure. It takes a few minutes to get to that pressure first.
I use the “Pressure Cook” (Manual) Setting. I have not tried the “Rice” setting on my Instant Pot Ultra for this recipe.
Yes. Simply add the water, rice, and salt to the pressure cooker and proceed with the recipe.
Sure can. To double this recipe, use 2 cups of rice and 2 1/2 cups of water with 1 teaspoon salt. Cook for the same amount of time.
Instant Pot Brown Rice
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown basmati rice
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
Instructions
- Turn pressure cooker to saute function.
- Heat, then add oil, onion, and cumin seeds. Cook for a minute or two while stirring until onions start softening. Add garlic, salt, and rice. Stir and then add the water and the bay leaf.
- Cancel saute function and set the pressure cooker to manual pressure cook mode. Add lid and lock, setting to sealing, and not venting if yours has the option. (Mine seals automatically).
- Set Timer for 24 minutes.
- When cook time is done, let natural pressure release for 10 minutes then quick pressure release.
- Remove bay leaf, stir and serve.
Notes
Nutritional information is an estimate. Values vary based on products used. Read our full Nutrition Disclaimer.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you.
Love how easy this and love the addition of cumin seeds!
This rice looks amazing! I love all your tips to help it come out perfect. Such a great use of the instant pot!
What a light, fluffy and flavorful side dish. Bonus that its an IP recipe.
The cumin seeds really make this rice so flavoursome! We recently purchase an IP, and this was a great recipe to make in it.
Very yummy. Similar to jeera rice but in jeera rice we dont use onions and garlic. I got lot of brown rice at home. Will try this recipe soon.
PERFECT—both times I made it, and I’m back to do it again!
That’s so great to hear Jo, thank you for commenting! 🙂
Jacqueline