Instant Pot Hawaiian Haystacks—this throwback recipe is super kid friendly. The bonus is that you make the chicken, sauce and rice all at the same time in your Instant Pot. Prepare all the toppings while the chicken is cooking. A perfect weeknight dinner.
Get the SLOW COOKER version of the recipe here
Instant Pot Hawaiian Haystacks
If you’ve never had Hawaiian haystacks then you’re missing out. It sounds a little weird but it is truly so yummy! Basically instant pot hawaiian haystacks consist of a scoop of rice covered with chicken and gravy and then a bunch of toppings. The toppings are the most fun part since they add so much color and texture. We like to add celery, peppers, green onions, olives, tomatoes, pineapple, mandarin oranges, chow mein noodles, cashews, grated cheese and shredded coconut.
I was so excited when I realized that you can cook the chicken, sauce and rice all at the same time in the same pot. And while the chicken is cooking you can cut up all your toppings. Here is a video of my daughter demonstrating how to make this recipe. We enjoyed this so much that I think that we will eat it again tomorrow for dinner!
More Instant Pot Recipes you might like…
Salsa Lime Chicken (from frozen chicken)
Pressure Cooker Chicken Coconut Curry from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
What Instant Pot Did You Use?
For this Instant Pot Hawaiian Haystacks recipe I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1 for this recipe. I also own the 6 quart Instant Pot IP-LUX60 V3 Programmable Electric Pressure Cooker. They are both great pressure cookers! The first one I mentioned has a yogurt making function but other than that they are fairly similar. The price difference between the two is about $20.
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Instant Pot Hawaiian Haystacks
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
This throwback recipe is super kid friendly. The bonus is that you make the chicken, sauce and rice all at the same time in your Instant Pot. Prepare all the toppings while the chicken is cooking. A perfect weeknight dinner.
Ingredients
- 1/2 tsp better than bouillon chicken base
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat and cut into bite size pieces (you can also used chicken breasts)
- 1 (13.75 oz) can cream of chicken soup (or you can make your own, this is the recipe that I use)
- 1 cup long grain white rice
- 1 1/2 cups water
- Topping ideas: tomatoes, peppers, mandarin oranges, chow mein noodles, celery, olives, shredded coconut, pineapple chunks, cashews, green onions, grated cheese
- 1 cup sour cream
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Stir the better than bouillon and 1/2 cup water into the bottom of your Instant Pot. Add in the chicken. Then scoop the cream of chicken on top of the chicken. Try not to let it touch the bottom of the pot.
- Pour the rice and water into an oven safe bowl that will fit inside your Instant Pot. I used this stainless steel pan*. Place the dish on top of the trivet. Slowly lower the trivet* into the bottom of the Instant Pot on top of the chicken.
- Secure the lid on the Instant Pot. Set to manual high pressure for 8 minutes. Make sure the valve is set to “sealing.” When the timer goes off gently move the valve to venting. If it starts to foam then put the valve back to sealing for 20 seconds and then try again until it doesn’t foam. Mine didn’t foam but sometimes grains do foam a bit.
- While the chicken and rice is cooking, prepare the toppings that you’d like by chopping and dicing them up. We put ours in little bowls or ramekins.
- Once you can, remove the lid and use oven mitts to carefully lift the trivet and rice bowl out of the pot. The bottom of the bowl will be dirty from sitting on the chicken and rice. Place it on top of a plate to prevent the counter from getting dirty.
- Stir the sour cream into the chicken and sauce. Then salt and pepper to taste.
- Scoop some rice into a bowl and then top with the chicken and gravy. Top with desired toppings to make a visually pleasing and tasty dinner!
Notes
I used a 6 quart Instant Pot for this recipe.
- Method: Instant Pot
*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.
In the video your daughter put the cream of chicken soup in first, but your recipe instructions say to put the water and better than bullion in first and to be careful not to let the soup touch the bottom. Which version is the best to use? Or do you get the same outcome? What is best? Thanks
My version works better to prevent the burn error message.
I followed the recipe, but the chicken was NOT cooked at all (it was 87 degrees in the center… so not done!)–I had to cook it again for 4 extra minutes. When it was finally done, I felt the mixture was too thin. I’m used to thicker sauce for the haystacks.
★★
I’m sorry you had a bad experience. How thick were the chicken breasts you used?
Very tasty! My family loved it! I followed the instructions to a T but the rice came out a little hard and had water still in the bowl. So I put it in for another 7 minutes and it was perfect! I was a little nervous since I have never made 2 things at once in the ip, but it was easy! Thank you!
★★★★★
I made the recipe and I used frozen whole breasts. I cooked it for 8 min. The gravy somehow got into the rice and the rice wasn’t cooked all the way.
Can I use frozen chicken and still put the rice in there as well? How long would that be?
I bet you could. Is the chicken frozen breasts? I would increase the cooking time to 12 minutes.
I want to double the chicken recipe in my pressure cooker, and cook the rice separately. Can I simply double the chicken recipe in my Instant Pot? Would I need to increase the time?
No keep the time the same.
If I wanted to do this with frozen chicken but without the rice, how long would I need to set the time for?
I would increase the time to 12 minutes. Will the frozen chicken be cut into pieces or whole? If it’s whole, you’ll probably need more time than that.
Whole. I’ll do 15 and see how that goes.
yep try that and see how it goes!
Did you use minute rice?
nope just plain old white rice!
Did you put the lid on the rice?
nope!
This looks fantastic and I love the video demo! I’d like to prepare this without the rice (I cook brown rice in bulk and freeze it) and would like to know if I still need to add the 1 cup of water in order for the Instant Pot to come to pressure, or if the cream of chicken soup and 1/2 cup of water will be enough?
yes, it will be enough water.