Instant Pot Sour Cream Taco Rice Bake–a layered dish with taco meat, rice, sour cream, seasoned tomato sauce and cheddar cheese.

Instant Pot Sour Cream Taco Rice Bake
This easy ground beef layered casserole is filling, delicious, and easy to put together, so it’s one of those dishes that you’ll love making as much as your family will love eating it. It’s got taco flavors but it’s different enough that you could eat this on back to back nights with tacos and nobody would complain. It’s pantry friendly too and I bet you have everything you need at home to make it right now!
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Lean ground beef–or ground turkey, pork or chicken
- Dried onion–or ½ cup diced onion
- Taco seasoning–or make your own
- Water–or broth
- Converted rice–or long grain white rice
- Sour cream–or plain yogurt or cottage cheese
- Tomato sauce–or spaghetti sauce
- Garlic salt–make your own by using 3 parts salt to 1 part garlic powder
- Black pepper–or white pepper
- Cheddar cheese–or another cheese of your choice (like a Mexican blend)
How to make sour cream taco rice bake in the Instant Pot
This is an easy recipe to make for any weeknight! Try it for taco Tuesday.
- Brown the ground beef and add in taco seasoning.
- Deglaze the pot
- Sprinkle rice into the pot…don’t stir in. This will prevent the burn error message.
- Pressure cook.
- Layer the ingredients in a 9×9 inch baking dish
- Bake in the oven and serve.
Notes:
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
- This recipe can be gluten-free. Make sure to use a gluten-free taco seasoning.
- Try adding in a can of refried beans or pinto beans. You can spread it over the top of the rice when you layer the dish.
- If you have already cooked rice and already cooked ground beef you can forego the Instant Pot portion of this recipe. Layer ingredients in the baking dish and add 15 extra minutes to the baking time (if the rice and ground beef are cold).
Can I use my air fryer lid instead of the oven?
You can also finish this dish off in the Instant Pot (instead of the oven) if you have an air fryer lid. Instead of layering in a baking dish layer in the Instant Pot and then bake with your air fryer lid for 5-10 minutes at 350° F.

What is converted rice?
Don’t confuse converted rice (also called parboiled rice) with pre-cooked or minute rice. Converted/Parboiled rice has been processed in its husk by soaking, steaming, and drying. As a result, all the nutrients from the husk are absorbed into the grain before it’s removed. The starch content alters in the process, making cooked parboiled rice less sticky than regular white rice. The rice kernels aren’t clumpy and glued together instead they are more separated. I found a bag of parboiled rice at Walmart next to the normal long grain white rice. Often times you can find it in the orange Uncle Ben’s box.

Can I use another type of rice?
Yes you can. Just follow the chart below to find water to rice ratio and cooking times. Because the pot will already be heated up after browning the ground beef you may want to add a couple extra minutes to the cooking time.

Can I make this ahead of time?
If you’d like you can complete steps 1-8 ahead of time. Cover the dish with foil and refrigerate until you are ready to bake (up to 24 hours ahead of time). This is perfect to make the night before and then pop into the oven when you get home from work. If you are putting the casserole in the oven straight from the fridge please cook with the foil for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for another 10-15 minutes.
How to store leftovers?
Store leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. If frozen, the sour cream may separate upon reheating.
More Instant Pot Beef and Rice Recipes…
Porcupines in a Skillet (Instant Pot Recipe)
Instant Pot Lazy Stuffed Cabbage
Instant Pot Shop the Pantry Casserole
Instant Pot Sour Cream Chili Bake
Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for.

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Instant Pot Sour Cream Taco Rice Bake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 6–8 servings 1x
Description
A layered dish with taco meat, rice, sour cream, seasoned tomato sauce and cheddar cheese.
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef or ground turkey
- 1 Tbsp dried onion or 1/2 cup diced onion
- 3 Tbsp taco seasoning
- 1 1/2 cups water or broth
- 1 cup converted rice or long grain white rice, uncooked
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
- 1/4 tsp garlic salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 cups shredded cheese
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. When display says HOT add in the ground beef and break it up. Add in the dried onion and taco seasoning. Brown for about 5 minutes. Taste test and add more seasoning, if needed. Taco seasonings have different potencies.
- Pour in the broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking.
- Sprinkle rice into the pot.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 5 minutes. When time is up let the pot sit for 10 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Stir well. Scrape the mixture into a 9×9 inch baking dish.
- Spread the sour cream over the top.
- Stir tomato sauce, garlic salt and pepper together and spread over the top of the sour cream.
- Sprinkle with the cheese.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 350° F.
- Scoop onto plates and serve.
Notes
You can also finish this dish off in the Instant Pot (instead of the oven) if you have an air fryer lid. Instead of layering in a baking dish layer in the Instant Pot and then bake with your air fryer lid for 5-10 minutes at 350° F.
- Category: Beef
- 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.
We followed the recipe exactly and found it to be too greasy. Also really bland.
★★
My guess is if it was greasy you didn’t use a lean ground beef? I’m surprised at your comment that it was bland. I am not sure which taco seasoning you used but it shouldn’t have been bland. Sorry you didn’t like it.
I made this recipe, and loved it. I had some left over cooked orzo, so I used that, and replaced tomatoe sauce with salsa. I couldn’t wait to have the left overs! Thx.
Love that idea with the orzo
Can I make this in my oven? Think my family would love it!
If you have already browned ground beef and cooked rice then yes this would make a great oven recipe. Layer the ingredients in a pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350
Karen. Sounds great & will definitely try when I get the IP back. In the meantime, can this be done in a slow cooker?
★★★★★
If you have cooked rice and ground beef you could layer the casserole in the slow cooker and cook on high for a couple of hours
Made this tonight with ground turkey and Colby Jack cheese. Two third graders gobbled it up with no leftovers. We sliced some avocado on top. Super easy and really flavorful!!
I love the idea of avocado! Yum!