Instant Pot Brown Rice (Perfect Every Time!)

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5 from 5 votes

Making brown rice in the Instant Pot is a huge time saver. Follow these steps to make easy, fluffy Instant Pot Brown Rice!

Cooked brown rice in bowls in front of an Instant Pot.

Table of Contents

Why You’ll Love this Recipe

Making brown rice in the Instant Pot is easy, and yields perfect, fluffy results.
After testing hundreds of Instant Pot Recipes over the years, we’ve nailed down the perfect timing.
Similar to Instant Pot Chicken recipes, making fabulous brown rice in the Instant Pot all comes down to the right timing.
You can throw away your rice cooker. No need for extra appliances.

Stock photo of a bag of Lundberg brown rice.

What Brand of Brown Rice Should I Buy?

I highly recommend Lundberg Organic Brown Rice, as it’s grown in California and is a brand that actively cares about avoiding dangerous arsenic levels in their rice. (Read more about how rice–especially when it’s grown outside California, Pakistan, and India–is contaminated by arsenic here.)

Buy Lundberg Organic Brown Rice

How to Make Brown Rice in the Instant Pot

Decide how much rice you want to make

For Instant Pot brown rice, use 1 cup dry rice to 1 1/4 liquid ratio.

You can scale the amount you want to make up and down as much as you want. Just keep to proportions.

Here’s the scale for cooking different amounts:

Rice to Broth Ratio

1 cups rice to 1 1/4 cups liquid
2 cups rice to 2 1/2 cups liquid
3 cups rice to 3 3/4 cups liquid

Uncooked brown rice in an instant pot bowl.

Rinse the rice and add to Instant Pot

Using a colander, rinse the rice off. Add the rice and liquid to the Instant Pot.

Brown rice and chicken stock in an instant pot steel bowl.

Important Tip

Do not fill your Instant Pot more than halfway with the rice and liquid. This prevents excessive foaming that can block the mechanisms in the lid.

Cook the rice

Lock and seal the lid of the Instant Pot. Cook it at high pressure for 23 minutes. Let the Instant Pot naturally release for at least 10 minutes. (This means don’t touch it!)

Then, do a quick release of the rest of the pressure by opening the pressure valve. Fluff and serve!

Instant Pot brown rice in a bowls on a table.

Can I freeze rice after it’s cooked?

Most people don’t realize this but YES! You can freeze cooked rice! We’ve written a whole article on how to freeze rice here. I use this all the time for brown rice as well as our Cilantro Lime Rice and Coconut Rice. Be sure to read up if you plan to make a bunch of brown rice.

Recipes That Use Brown Rice

Finished Instant Pot vegetarian tortilla soup with lime slices, tortilla chips, and fresh cilantro stems on top ready to be served.

Instant Pot Tortilla Soup

Freezer-friendly lunch wrap cut in half on a plate with fresh fruit.

Make Ahead Lunch Wraps

chicken foil packet with broccoli, bacon, and rice

Chicken, Broccoli, and Rice Foil Packets

Skillet of egg fried rice with wooden spoon.

Egg Fried Rice with Sweet Soy Sauce

FAQs

Should I use water or broth for the liquid?

Either one will work! Most of the time, I prefer to use broth or stock. It adds more flavor without any extra work.

Do I use quick release or natural release?

It’s really important you use at least a 10-minute natural release when making Instant Pot brown rice. This means, don’t nudge the release valve to vent any of the pressure until 10 minutes after its cook time is done.

Does the rice button on an Instant Pot work for brown rice?

We have found recipes get more accurate results when we use the manual button and set it for 23 minutes (instead of the rice button). So no, despite what Instant Pot Manual says, we do not recommend using the rice button on the Instant Pot.