We are bringing to you instant pot Mexican rice which is restaurant-style than you can make easily at home and is healthier too. It’s packed with flavors and is great with any Mexican dishes especially tacos, burritos.

Instant pot Mexican rice served in ceramic bowl garnished with cilantro

Why Should You Try This Recipe?

It’s easy and fast to make in instant pot/pressure cooker.
Making in instant pot takes off so much effort! You’ll have to invest in very little time standing near the pot.
The quality of rice you get is restaurant quality. I’ll say it tastes better than restaurant.
It’s great vegetarian side dish for any Mexican dinner!
Everything cooks in one-pot! Makes for an easy clean-up (have all ingredients on your chopping board and throw them directly into the pot. For shooting video purpose I have the ingredients in separate bowls, else I would just use the IP, spatula and my chopping board)
You’ll need under 30 minutes to bring the dish to the table!
If you want gluten-free and vegan side dish, this rice dish is PERFECT for you!
You can use any vegetable of your choice or use what you have in the fridge!
You can serve this as side dish for quesadillas, tacos, burritos or serve it up as main dish with tortilla chips! YUM!

Ingredients You’ll Need

Below pic shows what you need to make your best Mexican rice at home-

ingredients for instant pot mexican rice arranged on a board

Rice: though Mexican rice recipe usually used long grain white rice, we wanted to make it healthier with long grain brown rice. Use long grain white rice freely. See recipe notes for water ratio.

Spices: cumin power and chili powder adds Mexican flavor to the rice. The two spices are mandatory. If you can’t handle heat/spice, reduce the amount of chili powder. If you don’t have chili powder, you can substitute with cayenne pepper.

Tomato Sauce/Puree: Canned tomato sauce/puree is convenient. If you want to make it more economical, make your own tomato sauce at home. Blanch whole tomatoes in boiling water for 5 to 7 minutes. Remove tomatoes from water, peel off the skin. And pulse tomato flesh in blender. Puree doesn’t have to be smooth, you can keep it chunky.

How To Make Instant Pot Mexican Rice?

Before we begin making the Mexican rice in instant pot, here’s a little tip for you. Rinse your rice! I know a lot of people don’t rinse rice and don’t approve this step. The debate between two groups of people never seems to settle. But let me tell you why you should rinse rice.

Rinsing by gently scrubbing rice with your fingertips not just removes dirt but also the excess starch.

The cloudy water you see when you rinse rice is starch and we want to remove the excess starch which will prevent the rice from becoming gluggy. And I do not like gluggy rice.

If you are someone who loves each-grain-of-rice-cooked-perfect-separated then you want to rinse rice.

Once rice is rinsed, drain off all the water. Keep aside.

Press SAUTE button on your instant pot. Wait for pot to turn hot.

Heat olive oil in IP. Saute minced garlic and onions in instant pot. You want to cook onions until it turns pink or translucent.

Next add rinsed rice and toast it in the oil onion mix. This will take just a minute.

Add tomato sauce/puree along with vegetables. In this recipe I have used diced red bell peppers, diced carrots, frozen corn and frozen peas.

Cook’s Pro Tip: You can make tomato sauce at home easily. It’s inexpensive and takes less time too. Pick ripe roma tomatoes and score X mark on it’s bottom. Bring a pot of water to boil. Place roma tomatoes into hot boiling water. Let tomatoes cook for 5 to 7 minutes.

Drain blanch tomatoes from boiling water. Let it sit for few minutes to cool down so it’s easy to handle.

Peel off skin, and blend blanched tomatoes in a blender. Homemade tomato puree ready.

Pour vegetable stock into the pot.

step by step pictorial for instant pot Mexican rice

Note: Water rice ratio will vary if you use long grain white rice. Use 1 cup water for 1 cup long grain white rice.

For long grain brown rice water rice ratio is – 1 cup rice : 1 ¼ cup water

Add in the seasonings – salt and pepper to taste, cumin powder and chili powder. Stir it well.

Cover pot with lid. Make sure the pressure knob is in SEALING position.

Now select HIGH PRESSURE mode and adjust time to 5 minutes. My rice was cooked perfectly with a bite to it. If you want rice to be cooked to soft consistency increase time to 7 minutes.

Pro-Tip: For long grain white rice set timer to 3 minutes (for soft cooked rice, set timer to 5 minutes).

Once cooking time completes, let the pressure come down naturally for 5 minutes.

Then force the pressure out with manual pressure release (MPR) turning knob to VENTING position.

Open lid.

Add diced roma tomatoes into the pot. Fluff rice gently with fork.