Instant Pot Chicken Surprise–Surprise! This tasty chicken casserole only has 7 ingredients! Chicken casserole that is helped along with your Instant Pot.
Instant Pot Chicken Surprise
This is an old fashioned casserole that I’ve updated by using the Instant Pot to cook the rice and chicken portions of the recipe. Who knows why it’s called chicken surprise? Maybe because it’s surprising how easy it is to put together, how few ingredients are needed to make a tasty dinner and the tangy zing that the mayo gives the casserole.
Notes/Tips
- Try adding in vegetables to make it a full meal. Some ideas are steamed broccoli, slightly cooked asparagus, roasted cauliflower florets, cooked carrots or sauteed celery and onions. I would layer in the vegetables on top of the rice in the 9×9 inch baking dish.
- This recipe can easily be doubled. Double all the ingredients but keep the cooking time the same. Use a 9×13 inch pan to bake the casserole instead of a square baking dish.
- I like using a combination of chicken breasts and chicken thighs for this recipe. You can also exclusively use one or the other.
- Use any type of cream of soup that you like best. With the mayo, I like the cream of chicken variety best. You can also make your own cream of soup from scratch.
- If you don’t like mayonnaise you can try using sour cream or plain yogurt in its place.
More Chicken Recipes…
Instant Pot Garlic Cheddar Chicken
Instant Pot Tuscan Parmesan Chicken
Instant Pot Smoky Mountain Casserole
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Instant Pot Chicken Surprise
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Chicken and rice with a creamy sauce and topped with bubbly mozzarella cheese.
Ingredients
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts (or a combination)
- Salt and pepper
- 1 1/2 cups uncooked white rice
- 1 (10.5 oz) can Campbells cream of chicken with herbs soup
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Pour chicken broth into Instant Pot. Add in the chicken. Salt and pepper the chicken.
- Place a long legged trivet into the Instant Pot around the chicken. In a pot-in-pot dish add 1 ½ cups rice and 2 cups of water. Place the dish (covered or uncovered) on top of the chicken.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook time to 10 minutes for fresh chicken or 12 minutes for frozen chicken. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Carefully remove the pot-in-pot dish and pour the rice into a 9×9 inch baking dish.
- Remove the chicken from the Instant Pot and place it on a cutting board. Shred or chop the chicken (you can discard the broth). Spread the chicken evenly over the rice.
- Add the cream of chicken soup, mayonnaise and milk into a bowl and whisk until smooth and combined.
- Sprinkle half of the mozzarella over the chicken. Then spread the cream of chicken mixture over the top. Finally top with the rest of the mozzarella.
- Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is bubbling and starting to brown.
Notes
Try adding in a few cups of steamed, chopped broccoli on top of the rice in the baking dish.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot and Oven
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Very delicious though I replaced the milk with the chicken broth after cooking the chicken because I didn’t want to throw it out.
★★★★★
Good idea! Thanks for the 5 stars!
This was good and easy. Added a little hot sauce to the topping. I did have to turn the heat up a little and cook a little longer to get the top brown. I love pot in pot recipes, my small bundt pan works great for the rice.
★★★★★
Thanks for the 5 stars Linda!
I’m wanting to make this recipe, but the only thing I have that’s small enough to possibly use as a PIP is a small crockpot. Is there another option I can do for the rice? Or do you think the crockpot will work as a PIP?
I wouldn’t use the crockpot because if it’s ceramic it will probably shatter. I would cook the rice separately on the stove until you get a pan that will work 🙂