If you’re looking for that last-minute easy recipe to complete your dinner menu on a busy weeknight, this Instant Pot Fried Rice is perfect for you. Instant Pot fried rice with frozen vegetables has simple ingredients that you probably have on hand and requires minimal prep work. Add some sriracha sauce to give it that extra flavor!
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Table of Contents
Introduction
I make this reader-favorite Instant Pot Chinese rice frequently because more often than not, evenings at my house are super busy and this recipe goes well as a side dish with any kind of cuisine, but especially Chinese food.
If you want a mostly hands-off pressure cooker fried rice recipe with hardly any clean-up, this Instant Pot recipe is for you. If you want a truly authentic recipe, I suggest you get out the wok. Stir-frying the white rice in the Instant Pot, which I know some recipes do suggest, doesn’t work for me – the rice becomes glutinous and sticky.
Unlike my traditional wok-based Chinese fried rice recipe, when I make fried rice in the Instant Pot I scramble eggs separately and add them to the rice at the end. This avoids the sticky mess that can happen when you fry an egg in the Instant Pot! But the downside is that you do have another pan to clean.
If you’re looking for some other seasoned rice recipes, you might like Instant Pot Brown Fried Rice, Instant Pot Jambalaya, or Instant Pot Wild Rice Pilaf. Or for plain rice, try Instant Pot Jasmine Rice, Instant Pot Pot in Pot Rice (basmati rice), Instant Pot Parboiled Rice.
TIPS AND SUBSTITUTIONS
Rice
I like to use jasmine rice for this Instant Pot Asian rice recipe. If you substitute different rice, you may need to change the cook time. White rice, including long grain rice or basmati rice, would most likely take 6 to 7 minutes, and change the rice to water ratio.
Experiment with the cooking times. You might want your rice to be a bit chewier; in that case, you can pressure cook for 4 minutes.
After pressure has been released, open the Instant Pot, gently fluff the rice and let it rest open for a few minutes. This allows the grains to separate and for the rice to dry out a bit.
Vegetables
If you want your vegetables to be less cooked and more crisp-tender, stir them into the rice as soon as you open the lid. Close the lid again for about 5 minutes.
I use frozen peas and carrots for convenience. You can use fresh vegetables if you prefer.
If you’re using fresh vegetables, saute the veggies first in the vegetable oil, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Stir into the rice once it’s cooked.
You can also use other vegetables including green beans, bell peppers, or mushrooms.
Chicken or Shrimp
If you’d like to make Instant Pot chicken fried rice, briefly saute the bite-size chicken thighs (no need to cook through) after sauteing the onions, then proceed with the rest of the recipe as written.
If you want to do shrimp fried rice instead, season the shrimp with salt, pepper, soy sauce, or oyster sauce. Stir-fry the seasoned shrimp at the beginning, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the shrimp back in once the rice is cooked.
Broth / Stock
You can substitute the water with chicken broth or vegetable broth for more flavor.
Cilantro
I’m partial to cilantro and like to sprinkle some chopped cilantro on the rice before serving.
Spices
To spice up the rice, add 1 to 2 teaspoons of sriracha sauce or hot sauce with the other fried rice sauce ingredients before pressure cooking.
Oyster Sauce
If you’re a pure vegetarian, you can substitute vegetarian oyster sauce for regular oyster sauce.
Soy Sauce
You can use either regular soy sauce or low sodium soy sauce if you’re watching your salt intake.
Oil
You can use peanut oil, vegetable oil, olive oil or avocado oil for the recipe. You can omit the sesame oil if you wish.
Burn Notice
Here’s a pro tip: this recipe doesn’t normally produce the burn message but if your Instant Pot is prone to the burn error, you should add the rice in last, and don’t stir it. Just push it down with a spatula.
FAQs
No, you can double the ingredients and keep the cooking time the same.
– If you’re substituting regular white rice for Jasmine rice, the ratio of rice to water needs to be modified. This recipe is written for Jasmine rice which has a 1:1.25 ratio. White rice has a 1:1 ratio.
– After cooking is complete, open the lid and remove the inner pot. Place it on a protected surface, stir up the rice gently, and let it cool down without a lid.
– When you rinse the rice, drain it well. If it’s not drained well, you’ll have too much liquid and that can cause mushiness.
– Every Instant Pot is different and also the type of ingredients you use can also cause variations. Next time, reduce the quantity of liquid by ¼ cup.
Either reduce the quantity of soy sauce or oyster sauce the next time you make the recipe. As a quick fix, just stir in ½ cup of plain white rice.
Make sure that you deglaze the bottom of the inner pot really well before pressure cooking. Also, don’t stir the rice. Just add it on top and gently press down on it to make sure it’s submerged.
Yes, you can use brown rice. Follow my recipe for Instant Pot brown fried rice.
If you’re new to the Instant Pot and aren’t familiar with how to use it, you might find it helpful to first read one of the following guides and then come back here to learn how to make this recipe.
- General Instant Pot Instructions for Beginners
- Instant Pot ULTRA Beginner’s Manual
- Instant Pot DUO EVO PLUS Beginner’s Manual
- Instant Pot DUO NOVA Beginner’s Manual
- Instant Pot DUO GOURMET Beginner’s Manual
- Instant Pot DUO CRISP Beginner’s Manual
- Instant Pot PRO Beginner’s Manual
- Instant Pot PRO CRISP Beginner’s Manual
Instant Pot Fried Rice – Ingredients List
- Water or broth
- Sesame oil
- Oyster sauce
- Soy sauce
- vegetable oil
- Pepper
- Ginger
- Rice
- Frozen vegetables
- Garlic
- Onion
More details in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post
How to Make Fried Rice in the Instant Pot (Step by Step Instructions)
- Turn on Saute setting
- Saute onions
- Add sauces, vegetables, rice, and water
- Pressure cook
- 10-minute natural pressure release
- Cook the eggs
- Stir in the eggs
How to Turn on Saute Mode
- Instant Pot DUO: Select the Saute function.
- Instant Pot ULTRA: Select the Saute function and press Start.
Saute Onions
- Once the Instant Pot has heated up, add vegetable oil to the Instant Pot inner pot.
- Saute onions till translucent, about 2 minutes.
- Press Cancel. This will allow the Instant Pot to cool down while you do the next steps.
- Saute ginger and garlic for 30 seconds, on residual heat.
- Stir in rinsed Jasmine rice until coated with oil.
- Deglaze inner pot with a tablespoon or two of water if there’s anything stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Add Sauces, Vegetables, Rice, and Water
- Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, black pepper, sesame oil, frozen vegetables, and water.
- Stir to mix.
Instant Pot Duo Pressure Cook 5 minutes
- Close the lid and make sure steam release handle is in Sealing position
- Press Manual (or Pressure Cook) and + or – until the display reads ‘5′ (5 minutes).
Instant Pot Ultra Pressure Cook 5 minutes
- Close the lid.
- Select Pressure Cook mode and adjust the time to 5 minutes (00:05).
- Press Start.
Pressure Cooking Process (Duo and Ultra)
- Instant Pot display will change to On.
- Once the Instant Pot is pressurized, the float valve will go up.
- The display will count down to 0; it will then switch to Keep Warm mode and display ‘L0:00’ or ’00 00′ and begin to count up the number of minutes since pressure cooking completed.
How to do a 10-minute Natural Release of Pressure
- Allow the Instant Pot to stay in Keep Warm mode for 10 minutes.
How to Release any Remaining Pressure on the DUO
- Move the steam release handle to Venting. Any remaining steam will come out of the steam release handle.
- When your Instant Pot is depressurized, the float valve will be in the down position.
- Press Cancel and open the Instant Pot.
How to Release any Remaining Pressure on the ULTRA
- Press down on the Steam Release Button until it locks into place, and any remaining steam will come out of the Steam Release Valve.
- When your Instant Pot is depressurized, the float valve will be in the down position.
- Press Cancel and open the Instant Pot.
[Find out more about the pressure release methods and how and when to use them. ]
Cook the Eggs
- Break eggs into a medium bowl and beat with a whisk.
- Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat.
- Add 1 teaspoon vegetable oil and stir to coat.
- Pour eggs into frying pan allow to set for 30 seconds to a minute.
- Using a silicone spatula, gently break up the eggs and flip until scrambled and cooked through.
Stir in Eggs
- Add eggs to the inner pot.
- Sprinkle with chopped spring onions and sesame seeds (optional) before serving.
- Gently stir the Instant Pot Fried Rice.
More Instant Pot Rice Recipes
Do you love the ease of cooking rice in the Instant Pot but are looking for new recipes? Here are a few of my favorite Instant Pot rice recipes that are easy, delicious, and fast to make.
- Instant Pot Mujadara is a Middle Eastern lentils and rice recipe that’s not only healthy, but delicious and easy!
- Try the New Orleans Rice recipe Instant Pot Jambalaya for a one-pot meal that can be made on a weeknight or a special occasion like Mardi Gras.
- Latin chicken and rice is called arroz con Pollo and this recipe can be customized for Cuban or Puerto Rican flavor.
For more rice recipes, be sure to check out my list of amazing Instant Pot rice recipes!
Instant Pot Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Jasmine rice
- 4 tsp vegetable oil divided
- ½ cup onions finely chopped
- 2 teaspoon ginger finely minced
- 1 Tbsp garlic finely minced
- 3 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- ¼ tsp black pepper powder
- 1 ½ cups frozen peas and carrots
- 1 ¾ cups water
- 2 eggs beaten
- 3 tablespoon chopped green onions
Instructions
- Select the Saute function and allow the Instant Pot to heat up.
- Rinse and drain rice; set aside.
- Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to the Instant Pot inner pot.
- Saute the onions till translucent, about 2 minutes, stirring often.
- Press Cancel. This will allow the Instant Pot to cool down while you do the next steps.
- Saute ginger and garlic for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
- Stir in rinsed Jasmine rice until coated with onion mixture.
- Deglaze inner pot with a tablespoon or two of water if there’s anything stuck to the bottom.
- Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, black pepper, frozen vegetables, and water.
- Stir to mix.
- Close the lid and pressure cook for 5 minutes on High Pressure.
- Let the pressure release naturally (NPR) for 10 minutes and then release any remaining pressure using the Quick Release (QR) method. [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods].
- Open the lid and let the Instant Pot Fried Rice rest for a few minutes.
- Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat on the stove.
- Coat the frying pan with remaining vegetable oil and pour in the eggs.
- Scramble the eggs by gently breaking up the eggs and flipping until eggs are set.
- Add eggs to the rice.
- Add green onions and stir the rice gently to mix together all ingredients.
Notes
- Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. minced garlic, cut vegetables, etc.
- If you are prone to getting the burn message, add the rice on top of all the ingredients and don’t stir.
Nutrition
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I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
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Maureen says
I have made this multiple times for my family, and it is always a big hit. Love it!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thanks, Maureen!
Nee says
Made this tonight. It was good. Thanks!!!!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
I’m so glad that you liked it!
Jobby says
Hi Neena,
If I double the recipe in a 6 quartz IP, should I double the water and keep the same cooking time of 5 minutes.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Jobby, yes when you double keep the cook time the same but double all ingredients. Oyster sauce can be powerful, so if you want to add 1.5 times that would be okay too.
Gess says
We love this rice!!!!
Carlos Hernandez says
The rice came out super mushy. Do you think it’s too much rice to water ratio? I used regular white rice. Followed instructions.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Carlos, this recipe was written with jasmine rice in mind. I use 25% more liquid for jasmine rice than white rice. That’s probably what happened. Sorry to hear you had trouble.
Kim Elias says
Fantastic and so easy!!!
Kim
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Kim, thanks for the comment. My husband just made this last night – he’s an Instant Pot newbie and it came out really well.
Tashia says
Hi Neena! I just made this and it cake out great . I would like to make this the next time I have guests over. Do I just double all the ingredients, including the rice and water? I want it to maintain its perfection. Thanks!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Tashia – yes, you should be able to double all the ingredients and keep the same cooking time. I find that oyster sauce can be overpowering if too much is used. But since we’re doubling all ingredients, I don’t see that being an issue.
Tashia says
Thanks!
Ronda says
I followed the recipe to a t, but it came our fairly mushy. What do you think happened? It tasted good with added sriracha. I’ve always had such fluffy rice from the IP. I used 1.5 cups frozen veg and 13/4 cups water as instructed. Maybe it cooked too long after natural release?
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Sorry to hear that, Ronda. It could be that your rice (if rinsed) was wetter, or the vegetables gave off more liquid than mine, or the natural release time, as you stated. I would decrease the water next time to 1 1/2 cups. Hope you have better luck.