Meal Prep Chicken & Rice
Chicken & Rice are the original meal prep heroes. It’s generally considered an incredibly bland, high protein option for body builders in prep. Here we have taken a slight spin on the classic, transforming it into an everyday staple. Perfect for bulk prepping lunches for work or a quick weeknight dinner.
This dish certainly isn’t lacking in flavour with the warming flavours of ginger, turmeric and black pepper – complimenting the tender poached chicken. By cooking it all together, the rice absorbs all the brothy goodness so no flavour or nutrients are wasted.
While not as creamy as a traditional risotto, the Chicken & Rice in this dish have a soft texture and will have soaked up almost all of the broth. As hands-off as it gets, cooking in the instant pot requires no stirring or careful monitoring over the stove. This Chicken & Rice can be paired with almost any vegetable or frozen vegetable mixture, so please check out the Recipe Notes below for inspiration.
You can mix and match the seasoning to suit your preference, the spices listed below are a basic starting point. If you prefer to use seasoning blends – indian, mexican and spanish flavours all pair well and can change up the mixture. For an extra bonus, mix and match your vegetables to match the seasoning choices and you can have an endless variety of fast and easy combinations.
If you’re looking for more high protein meal ideas, check out the category archive here.
Meal Prep Chicken and Rice
Combine Water and Spices in the pot of a pressure cooker. Add the Chicken Breasts and cook on high for 20mins with quick realease pre-selected.
Once the pressure cooker has come down from pressure open the lid and shred the chicken in the liquid.
Add the Rice and frozen vegetables to the hot shredded chicken in broth. Check and dry the pressure cooker seal if required, ensuring it's all still in place. Cook on medium-high for a further 10mins with natural release.
Open the pressure cooker and fluff the rice with a large fork. Serve with fresh herbs or transfer to containers for meal prep.
Ingredients
Directions
Combine Water and Spices in the pot of a pressure cooker. Add the Chicken Breasts and cook on high for 20mins with quick realease pre-selected.
Once the pressure cooker has come down from pressure open the lid and shred the chicken in the liquid.
Add the Rice and frozen vegetables to the hot shredded chicken in broth. Check and dry the pressure cooker seal if required, ensuring it's all still in place. Cook on medium-high for a further 10mins with natural release.
Open the pressure cooker and fluff the rice with a large fork. Serve with fresh herbs or transfer to containers for meal prep.
Notes
Recipe Notes
Using two forks, gently pierce the chicken and pry apart. Repeat the piercing and prying movement until the cooked breastmeat is seperated into chunks. Continue further if you want the meat shredded more finely.
Be careful of the hot liquid if you’re shredding in the poaching broth. Quick release can cause the chicken to retain some of the pressure which may splatter boiling liquid as you pierce the meat.
Yes – frozen spinach, capsicum, beans, peas, corn, broccoli, carrot and cauliflower are my go-to choices. If you’d prefer to use fresh vegetables you can add harder or root vegetables with the chicken. Alternatively, you can add most vegetables at the rice stage. Soft vegetables can be steamed with the lid closed after the final pressure release if desired.
1tsp Garlic Powder can be substituted for 2 minced Cloves of Garlic or 1tsp garlic paste. For a low fodmap option, you can omit the garlic entirely.
Key Ingredients
