Find out how to make perfectly cooked Instant Pot rice in this step-by-step guide. Use the Pot in Pot Instant Pot method (PIP) to make a smaller quantity of perfectly pressure-cooked Instant Pot rice every time, quick and easy.
Table of Contents
Introduction
You may be wondering whether Instant Pot rice is as quick, easy and perfectly cooked as rice made in a rice cooker. I used a rice cooker for many years and always loved it.
Once I got my Instant Pot and started making rice in it, I’ve found that I have no need for a rice cooker at all. Making rice in the Instant Pot works just as well, if not better.
It’s so convenient because there’s no need to plan ahead. I don’t need to soak the rice when I’m making it in the Instant Pot, so if I need white rice at the last minute when I’m making a curry like Instant Pot fish curry or cashew butter chicken, I can make a fresh pot of rice in short order.
There are two ways to make Instant Pot rice:
- Inner Pot Rice: You can cook it directly in the inner pot that comes with the Instant Pot, as I do in this Instant Pot Jasmine Rice recipe.
- Pot in Pot Rice: You can cook it in a smaller oven-safe bowl that’s placed inside the inner pot. This is called the “Pot in Pot” method (often referred to as “PIP”). I use a Pyrex glass bowl and it works perfectly for one or two cups of uncooked long grain rice.
[Read all about the Instant Pot trivet types and how to use them.]
In this article I’ll be showing you how to make long grain white rice the second way, using the Pot in Pot method.
Here are some other rice recipes you might like to try out!
– Instant Pot Brown Rice (Pot in Pot method)
– Instant Pot Wild Rice Pilaf
– Instant Pot Parboiled Rice
– Instant Pot Chinese Style Fried Rice
– Instant Pot Brown Fried Rice
Tips and Substitutions
Measuring Rice and Water
- The ratio of rice to water is very important. So if you you are cooking 1 cup of long grain white rice or basmati rice, you need to add 1 cup of water. It’s very important that you use the same measuring cup for measuring the rice and the water.
- The ratio of 1:1 means that for 1 cup of rice, you need 1 cup of water and for 1.5 cups of rice you need 1.5 cups of water, and so on.
Cook Directly in the Inner Pot
- If you’d like to make a larger quantity, you can cook the rice directly in the inner pot using my Instant Pot Jasmine Rice method, but use the time and ratio from this recipe.
8 Quart
Making PIP rice in the 8 quart Instant Pot may require more time. Add an extra 2 to 3 minutes to the pressure cooking time.
Flavor
You can substitute chicken broth or coconut milk for the water if you’d like to try something different. The coconut milk needs to be thinned out with water or your Instant Pot will not come to pressure and you can get the Burn Message.
Different Types of Rice
| Rice Type | Ratio | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Long Grain White Rice | 1:1 | 5 minutes |
| Basmati Rice | 1:1 | 6 minutes |
| Jasmine Rice | 1:1.25 | 4 minutes |
| Brown Rice | 1:1 | 22 minutes |
| Wild Rice | 1:1 | 26 minutes |
- If you’d like to make Instant Pot Jasmine rice, increase the quantity of water a bit. I use a 1:1.25 ratio of Jasmine rice to water.
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.
- Instant Pot DUO Beginner’s Manual
- 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 Pot in Pot Rice Ingredients
- Water
- Rice
How to Make Rice Using the Pot in Pot Instant Pot Method (Step by Step Instructions)
- Add rinsed rice and water to bowl
- Add water, trivet, and rice to the inner pot
- Pressure cook
- 10-minute natural pressure release
- Fluff rice
Add Rinsed Rice and Water to Bowl
- Rinse out 1 cup of rice in a fine-mesh sieve.
- Transfer rice from sieve to a Pyrex glass bowl.
- Add 1 cup of water to the bowl.
Add Water, Trivet and Rice to Inner Pot
- Pour water into the inner pot.
- Place trivet in the inner pot.
- Place the glass bowl on the trivet.
Instant Pot Duo Pressure Cook 6 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 ‘6‘ (6 minutes).
Instant Pot Ultra Pressure Cook 6 minutes
- Close the lid.
- Select Pressure Cook mode and adjust the time to 6 minutes (00:06).
- 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. ]
Fluff the Rice
- The white rice should be perfectly cooked.
- Carefully remove the glass bowl from the inner pot.
- Fluff the rice with a fork and let it rest for a few minutes.
Instant Pot Rice | Pot-in-Pot Method (PIP)
Ingredients
- 1 cup Basmati rice or long grain white rice
- 1 cup water + more for inner pot
Instructions
- Rinse out 1 cup of basmati rice in a fine mesh sieve.
- Transfer rinsed rice and 1 cup water to an oven-safe medium bowl.
- Pour 2 cups water into the Instant Pot's main compartment (inner pot) and place a trivet in the water.
- Place rice bowl on trivet and close the Instant Pot.
- Close the lid and pressure cook on High Pressure for 6 minutes.
- Do a 10 or 15 minute natural pressure release. [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods]
- Open Instant Pot and fluff rice with fork and allow it to rest for a few minutes before serving.
Notes
- To substitute Jasmine rice, change the ratio of rice to water to 1 : 1 1/4 and only cook for 4 minutes.
- See the blog post for more detailed recipe tips.
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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Greg from Nashville
I followed the pot-in-pot method with 1 cup basmati rice, 1 cup water, and a pat of butter in a stainless steel bowl, and 1 cup water in the inner pot to build pressure in my 6-quart CHEF iQ smart pressure cooker. 6 minutes cooked under pressure and 10 minutes NPR. PERFECT. The stainless steel bowl was easy to clean, and the rice was just how I like it.
Not sure why the recipe calls for two cups of water in the inner pot – seems like more water than is required. Isn’t that water simply being used to build up pressure? Two cups will simply take longer to heat up. There was plenty of water in the inner pot when I removed the lid. #curious
Paint the Kitchen Red
Hi Greg, thank you for your comment. And to answer your question, there are so many models and sizes of Instant Pots and pressure cookers that I give a safe amount of water to add to the inner pot to cover all bases. Yes, you can definitely use less water – however much your pressure cooker needs to get to pressure. Take care.
Judy C
New to IP cooking. Made your basmati rice tonight and it was PERFECT!! We don’t eat a lot of rice but I’ve been trying to perfect it for 50+ years and this is it. I’m a from scratch cook and never realized how handy an IP would be. Thanks for the great instructions and for your very informative website.
Paint the Kitchen Red
Judy, that’s so great to hear. I hope you enjoy your new Instant Pot!
DWe
I tried this in a glass Pyrex dish on the pre-programmed “rice” setting of the IP, and it wasn’t even close to being done. I put it in for another 2 min on High, QR, and it still was just a soupy mess of water and uncooked rice. Ended up leaving it for 4 hours on Keep Warm, since I figured maybe it’ll be done by dinner and I could use it then, but the consistency never changed. Ended up draining the uncooked rice and made meatballs for Albondigas with it for dinner. I love my iP (actually have two different sizes and use them several times a week), and would consider myself a well seasoned user. The PiP rice, however, sadly didn’t work for me.
Paint the Kitchen Red
Hi there – this method works for every Instant Pot I own so I’m not sure what’s going on. Can you let me know what your Instant Pot model is and when you bought it? Have you cooked this type of rice in your IP before (non PIP?) Sorry to hear you had trouble.
Betty F
The rice setting is not the right way to make PIP rice. The directions say to use 6 minutes at manual.
tim
Sadly, I had the same experience. I have a 6-QT Wifi IP purchased about 1 year ago. I use a glass pyrex dish. I tried 1:1 with rinsed Jasmine rice + 1c water in the main pot.
I tried 5m high-pressure with 10m natural release. The rice was only about 3/4 done with some liquid still in the bowl. I did an additional 3m/QR and it still wasn’t done.
Is it possible that the dish is too thick to heat properly? I am about to give up on this.
Paint the Kitchen Red
Tim, I’m sorry to hear you had trouble with the PIP method that I use several times a week. Have you tried cooking this same rice without PIP? What are the timings that work for you? I would try and add 30% to that time and do a NPR and see how that works for you. It could be your individual Instant Pot or it could be the rice that’s causing this.
tim
Thank you for the suggestions. After some experimentation, I was able to get a good result by increasing the time to 7 minutes with natural release. The rice program which uses low pressure for 12m also gave a good result. I also tried a stainless steel inner pot, but that did not make any difference, so I’ll stick with the pyrex.
Paint the Kitchen Red
Awesome! It could be the newer models of the Instant Pot are performing differently. Thanks for updating us.
bloomy
I love the idea of indirect cooking as I only want to make a single cup. This was the first post that I came across that was explicitly detailed.
Jasmine rice, rinsed, 1:1.25 Rice/Water ratio, 2-cups water in the inner pot, high pressure for 5 minutes…
What am I missing?
It’s not even close to being done.
Back in the steamer for a 10 minutes on high to see what I get.
Paint the Kitchen Red
I’m sorry it didn’t work for you. I use this method ALL the time, like everyday almost! So the only thing I can think of are:
– the container that you used didn’t allow heat to be transferred
– the Instant Pot didn’t come to pressure
– your pressure cooker has a different pressure rating
Have you cooked this particular batch of rice successfully in the Instant Pot? How long did it take? Maybe add a couple of minutes to that.
Nell
If you live at a higher altitude, you have to add time. You can do a search and find charts that show how much to add for different altitudes. (Sorry I don’t remember where I found this info)
Carl
You are like a Doctor of cookology!
Thanks for all your hard work!
Paint the Kitchen Red
Carl, lol thank you – that’s so nice 🙂
Lisa
thank you. I just made this and the rice is perfect. It is my first time cooking with my new Instant Pot. I love that I don’t have to clean out the inner pot because I used my Pyrex dish. I appreciate the tip about using a towel over the valve. Thanks again.
Paint the Kitchen Red
Great first recipe for the Instant Pot, a sure success 🙂 Hope you enjoy your Instant Pot adventures.
Jeanine
Hi Neena. I recently purchased the Instant Pot 6 Ultra. It has a rice selection. Can I use that and set it for the 4 or 6 minutes?
Paint the Kitchen Red
Jeanine – the pre-programmed rice setting cooks at low pressure. So you’ll need to leave the time at the default 12 minutes. I don’t ever use that setting, but it does work so it’s definitely an option for you.
Ginger Soule
If I wanted to make 4 servings of rice, that shouldn’t affect the time, is that correct?
Paint the Kitchen Red
Ginger, that’s right. Always keep in mind when adjusting the quantity of rice that the rice + water shouldn’t go over the 1/2 mark due to expansion.
David
I want to try the pot in pot rice recipe. How much water for long grain rice?
Paint the Kitchen Red
David, I do a 1:1 ratio for long grain white rice.
Ruben R
I have 8 quart duo Evo plus and the glass bowl still has water and rice is undercooked. 2:2 rinsed basmati for 6 minutes manual and NPR. Not sure what I did wrong.
Paint the Kitchen Red
Ruben, I think there may be some variation in the different models and sizes of Instant Pot. I would say you probably need to increase the pressure cooking time by 2 minutes and see how that goes. Sometimes these things just take trial and error. I’ve been using my timing for years and it works perfectly for me and I hope you’ll find your perfect. Please do reach out if you have an update!
Terry
Thanks for your clear directions. I have long grain white rice to use up before buying basmati. I’ve tried your recipe several times with different tweaks and times and my rice is either underdone or overdone. I’m a seasoned IP user, so haven’t skipped/missed any steps. Today, I tried the 1.5 cups liquid to 1 cup rice and it wasn’t finished, so I added it to a sealed pot on my stovetop on low heat for 10 mins and then left it covered off the burner for another 10 mins and it turned out perfect. This seemed counter productive, as I might as well have done it the old Fashioned way on the stove top from start to finish. I’ll try one more time with 1 cup rice to 1.25 cups liquid as you suggested and failing that, I’ll resume making it straight in the inner pot, which has always worked fantastic for me
Paint the Kitchen Red
Oh, how frustrating for you. Sorry you’ve had trouble. I use the same settings in the inner pot and PIP! Let me know if you have success with your latest try.
Lynda Brown
Thank you rice worked out great been struggling to get it right in a sauce pan on the stove this was perfect
Paint the Kitchen Red
You’re welcome, Lynda! The Instant Pot is the only way I make rice. You may like to try brown rice too – it comes out really well in the IP.
Joan
My Instant Pot Ultra 8qt is on the way. I’m checking recipes to plan first use. I want to try the P-I-P rice method but don’t have a glass bowl. Can I use one of my Ben safe pottery bowls? Thank you.
Paint the Kitchen Red
Hi Joan, thanks for your question. Oven-safe ceramic bowls have worked just fine for me. If it’s something like rice, you might need to figure out the right cooking time. Cooking time can change slightly with different types of bowls. Do you have any stainless steel bowls? Those work too.
Jackie
I want to try this while making beef stroganoff. My recipe calls for high pressure for 12 mins then quick release. Would this work? Any suggestions?
Paint the Kitchen Red
Hi Jackie – great question. Unfortunately the cooking times for rice and the beef are too far apart – if it had been just a couple of minutes, I’d have said ‘go for it’. So your option is: cook the beef for 6 minutes less i.e. for 6 minutes. Do a quick release (QR), put in the steam rack and rice, and then continue cooking for another 6 minutes. Another option is to cook the rice and beef for 6 minutes and do a 10 minute natural release, take out the rice and rack and then continue to cook the beef for another 6 minutes. Hope that makes sense!
Lindsey
Simply perfect! This was my first time using the pot-in-pot method. Your instructions were so clear and easy!
Paint the Kitchen Red
Thanks for letting me know, Lindsey! The first of many times I hope.