Instant Pot Uncle Willie’s Casserole–an easy ground beef, long grain and wild rice and vegetable recipe that comes together very quickly with the help of your pressure cooker.

Instant Pot Uncle Willie’s Casserole
This is a simple dinner of rice and ground beef with onions, mushrooms, celery and carrots. It was easy to make and yummy to eat. My son especially loved it!
This recipe gets a head start by using a box of Ben’s long grain and wild rice with seasoning packet. There is just a little bit of peeling and chopping but overall it’s a fairly easy recipe. It only needs a 5 minute pressure cooking time too so it’s fast to get dinner on the table.
The original recipe comes from the author’s Uncle Willie. She stated, “I’m used to the rustic form of Cajun food with origins along the bayous of Louisiana. That’s where meals are based on available ingredients and preparation is simple. Whatever happens to be available goes into a pot, gets seasoned well, and served with rice oftentimes. Nothing fancy, and never wasteful.” If you like this way of cooking you can use what you have in your cupboard/fridge for this recipe and use it up! Some ideas are cabbage, olives, water chestnuts, green beans, peppers, green onions, zucchini, etc.
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Lean ground beef–or ground turkey
- Onion–or 2 Tbsp a minced dried onion
- Ben’s original Long Grain and Wild Rice–or you can do the Rice-A-Roni brand
- Chicken or beef broth–or you can use Better than Bouillon and water
- Celery
- Carrot
- Mushrooms
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Garlic powder
Steps
- Brown the ground beef: Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. When display says HOT add in the ground beef and break it up. Add in the onions. Brown for about 5 minutes. Drain off excess grease.
- Deglaze the pot: Stir in half of the seasoning packet that is in the rice box. Pour in the broth and scrape the bottom of the pot so that nothing is sticking.
- Layer ingredients: Sprinkle in the rice. Dump the celery, carrots, mushrooms, salt, pepper, garlic powder and remaining seasoning packet on top of the rice. Don’t stir.
- Pressure cook: 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 pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Serve: Stir. Serve and enjoy.

Notes/Tips
- How I drain grease: Tilt the Instant Pot to one side while holding the ground meat against the other side with a wooden spoon. This should make most of the grease pool on the tilted side. Lower the Instant Pot down, the meat should stay to its side and the grease on the other. Place a couple paper towels into the grease and use the spoon to sop up the grease. Discard the paper towels.
- Serve with a side of vegetables like roasted broccoli or green beans.
- You may like this drizzled with some hot sauce.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot with no changes.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Another recipe you can make with Ben’s Long Grain and Wild Rice is Instant Pot Panera Bread Chicken Wild Rice Soup.
More Beef and Rice Recipes…
- Instant Pot Taco Tuesday Casserole
- Instant Pot Popeye’s Cajun Rice
- A Cowboy’s Jambalaya (Instant Pot)
- Instant Pot Amish Shipwreck Casserole
- Instant Pot Crispy Cowboy Casserole
- Instant Pot Hamburger Jazz
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.

Get a daily Instant Pot recipe delivered to your email!
Print
Instant Pot Uncle Willie’s Casserole
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
An easy ground beef, rice and vegetable recipe that comes together very quickly with the help of your pressure cooker.
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 (6 oz) package Ben’s original Long Grain and Wild Rice
- 1 1/4 cups chicken or beef broth
- 2 ribs of celery, diced
- 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
- 4 ounces mushrooms, chopped
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting. When display says HOT add in the ground beef and break it up. Add in the onions. Brown for about 5 minutes. Drain off excess grease.
- Stir in half of the seasoning packet that is in the rice box. Pour in the broth and scrape the bottom of the pot so that nothing is sticking.
- Sprinkle in the rice. Dump the celery, carrots, mushrooms, salt, pepper, garlic powder and remaining seasoning packet on top of the rice. Don’t stir.
- 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 pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Stir. Serve and enjoy.
- Category: Beef
- Method: Instant Pot
Stay in touch!
- Sign up to receive daily Instant Pot recipes (it’s FREE)
- Join the 365 Days of Instant Pot Recipes Facebook group
- Subscribe to my YouTube channel
- Buy the 365 Days of Pressure Cooking Cookbook
*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.
Easy to make, but extremely bland.
★★★
Did you not use the flavor packet that came with Ben’s rice?
When do you add the other half of the seasoning packet?
★★★★★
Sorry I accidentally left out that info. It’s now it step 4
This was super easy and delicious. I added a little soy sauce to mine.. will definitely be making again..
★★★★★
Good idea! Thanks for the 5 stars Candy!
Hello!
Do you think 6oz of basmati rice would work? With same amount of broth?
Thank you.
yes it would work. however you’ll be missing out on the seasoning packet that comes in the box.
Thought of that. Was thinking i could add dry ranch seasoning.
I’ll let you know how it comes out. 😀
Made this last night it was a hit😍
★★★★★
So glad to hear it Dee!
Will this fit in a 3 quart Mini?
yes it will
Thanks so much. It looks so good!
Thank you, Great recipe!
Your notes said I could add cabbage. How much thin-sliced cabbage could I add to this?
I would add in 2-3 cups of chopped cabbage
Thank you! I’m on it. Will be back with stars.
Was sooooooo delicious! Another winner. And pretty easy on the pocketbook. Thanks!!
★★★★★
good good!!