Instant Pot Smothered Greek Chicken and Rice—lemony bites of chicken and creamy rice with a generous scoop of deliciously light and refreshing yogurt-cucumber sauce, diced red onions and tomatoes on top.
Instant Pot Smothered Greek Chicken and Rice
I knew when I envisioned this recipe in my head that it would be a family favorite and I was right. Chicken and rice with lemon undertones and then topped with my favorite tzatziki sauce made a dinner that everyone loved.
What is tzatziki sauce?
The best sauce ever. Basically. It’s a yogurt cucumber sauce with garlic and dill. It’s super simple and it’s so light and refreshing. I like to dip pitas in it or serve it on top of gyros.
I made my tzatziki sauce with homemade Greek yogurt. You can also use store-bought whole fat yogurt, like the Fage brand. I like the thickness and consistency of Greek yogurt best.
What kind of chicken can I use?
For best results use a dark meat chicken like boneless, skinless chicken thighs. They stay tender and are really hard to mess up in the pressure cooker. Other choices would be bone-in chicken breasts, legs or thighs.
If you’re not a dark meat fan you can also use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. They won’t taste as moist and succulent but they will still be tasty.
What kind of rice can I use?
I used long grain white rice. You can probably use other types of rice with great results. Just make sure to use the proper cooking time and liquid (broth and lemon juice) to rice ratios. Also you’ll need to consider how long the chicken will need to cook. If the chicken is in whole thighs or breasts you’ll need at least 10 minutes pressure cooking time. If the chicken is cut into pieces you can get away with a 5 minute pressure cooking time.
How do I zest a lemon?
Lemon zest has an intense citrus flavor with very little bitterness. The bitterness is primarily found in the white part of the lemon (the white pith). The lemon zest adds so much to this dish! Don’t skip it! 1 medium size lemon has about 1 Tbsp of zest on it. Use a fine grater* or microplane* to grate the outer yellow layer of the lemon off.
Lemon juice and zest hack: Buy a huge bag of lemons at Costco and juice them.* Freeze the juice in ice cube trays or your egg bites mold*. Once they are frozen pop them out and store in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. After you have juiced the lemons don’t throw away the peels. Just pop them into a Ziploc bag and when you need some zest you can easily grate off the outside layer of the lemon skin. It is easier to grate frozen than fresh. I can’t wait to use some of my lemon zest for my favorite lemon cookies!
More Greek-Style Instant Pot Recipes…
Instant Pot Greek Chicken Rice Bowls
Instant Pot Greek Lemon Dill Chicken Bowls
Instant Pot Greek Chicken Lemon Rice Soup
Instant Pot Smothered Greek Chicken and Rice
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
Lemony bites of chicken and creamy rice with a generous scoop of deliciously light and refreshing yogurt-cucumber sauce, diced red onions and tomatoes on top.
Ingredients
For chicken and rice:
- 2 Tbsp olive
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 2 cups long grain white rice
- 3 cups chicken broth
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- ½ cup diced red onion
- 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
For the tzatziki sauce:
- 1 ½ cups plain Greek yogurt
- 1 ½ cups seeded, peeled and finely diced cucumbers
- 1 ½ Tbsp dried dill
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 ½ tsp minced garlic
- ¾ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 ½ tsp olive oil
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to the saute setting. When the display says HOT add in the olive oil and onion. Saute the onion for 4 minutes. Add in the garlic and saute for 20 seconds. Stir in the rice and coat it with the oil and onions. Stir in the broth and scrape the bottom of the pot clean. Turn off the saute setting.
- Stir in the lemon juice, oregano, salt, pepper, cayenne and zest. Nestle the chicken into the pot.
- Cover the Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 10 minutes. When the time is up let the pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Slice, chop or shred the chicken.
- Make the tzatziki sauce by stirring the yogurt, cucumber, dill, pepper, garlic, salt, garlic powder and olive oil together in a bowl.
- Serve chicken and rice topped with a generous scoop of tzatziki sauce, diced red onion and tomatoes.
Notes
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. For 8 quart pot, keep the recipe the same. For 3 quart pot, halve the recipe, same cooking time.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Greek
*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.
Thanks for this great recipe. I noticed you have a cup of onion and then a half cup of red onion but I don’t see any instructions on what to do with the red onion.
Oh sorry, the red onions are just for serving on top!
I bought the wrong chicken. How should I adapt using regular thighs with bones and skin? I can probably pull the skin off.
BTW, I have used several of your recipes and will go back through and rate them and comment. They have been a life saver!
I’d remove the skin and then just put them in the pot, same directions as listed in recipe. Then eat chicken with bone-in or pull off meat from thighs chop it up. You may want to add more chicken in since a lot of the weight will be bones.
Did the Sauté part in a pan after reading comments. Everything turned out great, super yummy and lots of leftovers for my lunches this week! Thank you!
★★★★★
Yay! Glad it worked well for you Heather!
Please do update this with pot in pot directions!
I made this tonight and experienced the burn warning X2. I ended up giving up and finishing it in the stove.
Despite all the starts and stops the finished meal was absolutely delicious! Rave reviews and requests to make it again from kids and adults alike. Your tzatziki sauce is particularly flavorful!
I want to make this again and have it work without the burning frustration!
★★★★
Okay! I will have to do that. I’m sad that people are getting the burn notice.
I tweaked this recipe when I cooked tonight, and it came out amazing. I halved it, substituted quinoa for rice, and used a 1:1 liquid quinoa ratio. Just over a pound of marinated chicken breasts. It was perfection!
I really really love the idea of quinoa with the tzatziki sauce on top. That just sounds so delicious!
Hi Karen. I read the review about the “burn” warning so I made sure I had nothing sticking on the bottom and added extra water before I started but still had issues with the burn warning. I turned it off and stirred it and added extra water again I had to do that twice. The third time just left it for 10 minutes. When I checked the chicken it was 200 degrees and rice was cooked so we ate. We enjoyed the flavour but not sure how to stop the dreaded “Burn” from appearing
I’m so sad about this Beth. I need to rewrite this recipe as pot in pot for those struggling with the burn issue.
I had the same issue with the burn message, but I did not rinse my white rice first. I am hoping this may make a difference. BTW everyone loved it and it moves over to my “make at least twice month”
★★★★
I cooked this per the recipe and got the burn notice too….when I checked the automatic rice setting it cooks on low pressure, so I changed it to manual, LOW pressure and it turned out just fine, with the chicken cut into smaller chunks. 🙂 Can’t wait to eat!
Good to know! thanks for sharing 😊
Me too – burn notice, burn notice, burn notice. Hating the instant pot. 🙁
I LOVE greek anything and was excited to try this recipe! TOTAL failure last night! Threw the whole pot of food away and son had to run to get takeout at 9:00 PM! I love your website and use it often. I kept getting the dreaded BURN message and was scrambling for two hours to make it stop! I tried everything you suggested (short of the PIP method as I was already too far in), to no avail. My chicken was frozen in the middle. I added more liquid, scraped the bottom, checked the inner pot, checked the seal….checked everything I could think of!!! Your video shows you making it without the PIP method so I thought I would give it a go, but anytime I try rice directly in the pot, I get the BURN message….Any advice you can offer on what I’m doing wrong would be great! I’m about ready to throw in the towel and pull out my old rice steamer for dinners that include rice as that seems to be fail proof!
Thanks Karen!
★
I often do all “sautee” functions on the stovetop because I find the chances of getting a BURN notice after using the pot for the sauteeing go up exponentially. That’s how I will attempt this recipe – no sauteeing IN the pot. Fingers crossed!
interesting – great tip!!
Hi Suzette,
Can you tell me what model of Instant Pot you have? I think the newer models get the burn message a lot. I have never gotten the burn message.
If I were you I would try using the pot in pot method for rice recipes. You’ll need to increase the cooking time though but upwards of 50% as the food will not be sitting directly on the heating element. I would buy a 3 quart instant pot liner https://amzn.to/2ZIlp7r and use that at the pot in pot since it is so tall and will accommodate most recipes that are made for the 6 quart pot.
I haven’t made this yet but like to read reviews first. I too believe the newer IP get the burn notice more often. I had the 6 quart and never got the burn notice. I recently upgraded to the 8 qt Duo and got the burn notice a couple times. Frustrating.
Tasted great. I would recommend that frozen chicken not be used. It was still partially raw after a 10-minute cook and a 10-minute stand time. The Tzatziki sauce was excellent. Am I safe to assume the cucumber should read 1 1/2 cups and not 1 1/2 cucumbers?
★★★★★
Was it too much or not enough?
Yes that’s right! I’ll correct. I did frozen chicken and it was really quite done but that’s because it was thinner, probably.
Where can I find the crockpot version of this recipe?
Did you get an answer? Wondering the same thing.
Hi Emily I haven’t tried it yet in the slow cooker but if I did this is how I would make it:
2 Tbsp olive
1 cup diced onion
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 cups uncooked brown rice
3 cups boiling chicken broth
¼ cup lemon juice
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp lemon zest
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Heat a pan on the stove over medium heat. Add the oil into the pan and swirl around to melt. Once melted, add in the onion and saute for 4-5 minutes. Add in the garlic and saute for 20-30 seconds. Add in the brown rice and stir to coat the rice in butter and onions. Add the mixture to the slow cooker.
Stir the boiling chicken broth, lemon juice, oregano, salt, pepper, cayenne, lemon zest into the slow cooker.
Nestle the chicken into the slow cooker.
Cover and cook on high for 2-3 hours or until rice is tender. Remove the chicken and cut into bite size pieces. Stir the chicken back into the slow cooker.
Serve chicken and rice with diced tomatoes and onions and tzatziki sauce.
Is it 10 min for frozen too? Love your recipes!
I used chicken thighs that were boneless and skinless (so they are not as thick in the middle as chicken breasts) that were frozen. I used a 10 minute cooking time and 10 minute NPR. They were perfectly cooked. IF you use thicker pieces of chicken then they will likely be raw in the middle. I would suggest using thawed/fresh chicken and using the 10 minute cooking time.
Saving this recipe. Sounds and looks delicious!! Can’t wait to make it!
It’s already become a favorite!!! The tzatziki is killer!
Hi Karen! I love your recipes and have tried so many. I am 70 and now live alone. How might I cut this recipe in half please? My freezer is full of food that the recipes are for 4+ people!
Hi Jane, I would halve all the ingredients and keep the cooking time the same. Here’s a great article that explains how to halve instant pot recipes: https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/how-to-halve-instant-pot-recipes/