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Home » Chicken Recipes

Published: Feb 28, 2020 · Modified: May 13, 2025 by chhavi

Instant Pot Chicken and Yellow Rice

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Instant Pot Chicken and Yellow Rice- A NewYork halal street cart style Turmeric Rice with flavorsome juicy Chicken- all made in the instant pot!

This dish is so good that I couldn't stop eating it while filming! Thank god I made a lot of it. The Chicken is so juicy, and the rice is fluffy and flavored.

It is a gluten-free, dairy-free dish. It's a great recipe for family dinners, especially if you want to impress!

Ingredients

Here is what you need to make this yellow rice.

  • Chicken Thighs with Bone in.You can also use boneless thighs or Chicken Breasts but the pressure cooking time will change from 8 minutes to 5 minutes.
  • Lemon Juice
  • Ground Cumin
  • Ground Coriander Powder- This is optional though it adds a lot of flavour
  • Paprika or any Mild ground chilli.If you like it spicy, use
  • Garlic Cloves- Minced
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Basmati Rice
  • Chicken Stock or Water
  • Ground Turmeric
  • Ground Cumin

Ingredients for the Yogurt Sauce

In my opinion, this is the bit that ties the whole dish toghether. It's crazy how simple this sauce is! I am going to be drizzling this over all sorts of things.

Here are the ingredients

  • Yogurt
  • Mayonnaise
  • Sugar
  • Salt
  • Vinegar

Swaps and Alternatives

Rice- You cannot use Brown rice in this recipe because that will take way too long to cook and leave the chicken overcooked and tough.

Other Additions- Cranberries, almonds, pistachios, Vegetables such as peppers and peas.

How to make Halal Cart Style Chicken and Yellow Rice

Step 1: Marination

Mix all the ingredients of the marinade. It should have a good kick so the marinade seasons the chicken from within. This is also the main flavor of the dish, so make sure you use all ingredients.

Add the chicken to the marinade and mix it up. Let it sit on the counter for at least 15 minutes.

For best results, I suggest at least an hour of marination.

Step 2:Browning the Chicken

Select SAUTE setting on the instant pot. When the instant pot reads HOT, add oil. Let it sizzle for 20 seconds.

Place the marinated chicken one by one using tongs, bone side up. Save the leftover marination. Let it cook undisturbed for 10-12 minutes, based on how much color you want on the chicken.

Cancel Saute. Remove the chicken to a plate.

Step 3:Deglaze

Add water or chicken broth to the inner pot. Using a silicon or a wooden spoon, dislodge all the burnt caramelized bits.

This is important because otherwise, the instant pot will show the burn message and stop cooking prematurely.

Step 4:Pressure Cook

Add the rice and the rest of the spices. Add any leftover marinade too. Mix it up.

Place the chicken with skin side up. Tip in any leftover chicken juices too. Select Pressure Cook for 7 minutes on HIGH.

Step 5:Pressure Release

After the cooking time is over, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, after which Quick Release the pressure.

How to serve Chicken and Yellow Rice

The best way to serve this Newyork Halal cart style Chicken and turmeric rice is with a heavy drizzle of yogurt sauce and some crunchy salad on the side.

Looking to switch it up?Spice things up by trying Piri Piri chicken and rice.

More Instant Pot Rice Recipes

Instant Pot Mexican Rice
Instant Pot Egg Fried Rice
Instant Pot Mushroom Parmesan Rice
Instant Pot Vegetable Biryani
Instant Pot Chicken Biryani

More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes

Instant Pot Butter Chicken
Instant Pot Lemon Garlic Chicken
Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken
Instant Pot Chicken Curry
Instant Pot Chicken Wings

Tried it? I’d love to know! Tag me or drop a comment below — your feedback totally makes my day.

Mention #yellowthyme or tag @yellowthyme on Instagram or follow me on Pinterest.


Instant Pot Chicken and Yellow Rice

Instant Pot Chicken and Yellow Rice- A New york halal street cart style Turmeric Rice with flavoursome juicy Chicken- all made in the instant pot!
4.10 from 40 votes
Pin Recipe Rate Recipe Print Recipe
Prep Time: 1 minute minute
Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes
Servings: 5
Calories: 495kcal
Author: Chhavi

Equipment

  • Instant Pot

Ingredients 

  • 4-5 Chicken Thighs with Bone
  • 1 tablespoon Olive Oil

Marination

  • 2 tablespoon Lemon Juice
  • 1 tablespoon Dried Oregano
  • ½ teaspoon Coriander Powder
  • 3 Cloves Garlic Chopped
  • 1 tablespoon Paprika increase this as per spice tolerance
  • 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
  • 1 teaspoon Salt increase it as per your taste

Rice

  • 1 Cup Basmati Rice
  • 1 ¼ Cup Chicken Stock or Water
  • 1 teaspoon Turmeric
  • 1 tablespoon Ground Cumin
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

Marination

  • Mix the ingredients listed under marinade- lemon juice, oregano, coriander powder, galirc, paprika, olive oil and salt.
  • Add the Chicken and let it marinade for 1-2 hours in the refrigerator.If you don't have the time, you can skip the marination time or try to do it for 10-15 minutes atleast.

Browning the Chicken*

  • Using the SAUTE setting, Heat the instant pot.Let it read "HOT" before you add oil.
  • Place the Chicken, skin side down.Brown* it for 3-4 minutes till you get a nice sear.Flip and sear the other side.
  • Cancel Saute, Remove the chicken from the instant pot and set aside on a plate.

Pressure Cooking

  • To the inner pot, add Chicken Stock or Water and deglaze**Check Notes)
  • Add Rice, salt, turmeric and cumin.Mix it up.
  • Place the seared Chicken Thighs on top.(Do not mix!)
  • Close the lid and PRESSURE cook for 8 minutes on HIGH.
  • 10NPR- Once the cooking time is over,Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes before QUICK RELEASE.

Video

Notes

Browning the Chicken*
You can also do this step in a cast iron pan instead of the instant pot.It will be faster and you will get better colour.
To make sure you get all the pan Juices,Add the water to the pan after you have seared the chicken thighs, use a spoon to dislodge any caramelized bits in the water and add it to the rice while pressure cooking.
Deglaze**
After you brown the chicken in the instant pot, there might be some brown bits stuck to the bottom.These needs to be gently removed to avoid the BURN message.
The best way to do this is to add some liquid and using a wooden spoon, gently rub the brown bits to dislodge them.(see the video for more).
Sweet & Sour White Sauce
½ cup Greek Yogurt
1 tablespoon Mayonaise
1 tablespoon Sugar
1 tablespoon Vinegar
¼ teaspoon Salt
Mix it all toghether and drizzle over the rice and chicken while serving.
 

Nutrition

Calories: 495kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 16.5g | Fat: 33.3g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 88mg | Sodium: 474mg | Potassium: 65mg | Fiber: 0.6g | Sugar: 1.2g | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 1mg

More Chicken Recipes

  • Cottage cheese buffalo chicken dip
  • Elote chicken pasta salad
  • Baked Lemon Pepper Chicken Drumsticks
  • Instant Pot Salsa Chicken

Reader Interactions

Comments

    4.10 from 40 votes (38 ratings without comment)

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Rw says

    June 18, 2020 at 11:57 pm

    Great recipe

    Reply
  2. Luge says

    November 16, 2022 at 7:52 pm

    5 stars
    The ingredients are great but I have no idea how you can do rice in instant pot without getting burn message. I deglazed, got burn message, I added more water and scraped up bottom again, rice still giving burn message. Followed recipe exactly. Had to throw in oven to finish.

    Reply
    • Kelly says

      December 10, 2023 at 12:21 pm

      I haven't made this recipe yet but I did another that required deglazing and I ended up just using another pot entirely to be safe (I have two instant pots) because I didn't think it deglazed well enough. So that's an option.

      Reply
  3. Fazlin Samodien says

    April 15, 2024 at 11:13 am

    5 stars
    Hi,
    Thanks for this easy yet flavoursome recipe.

    Reply
    • Des says

      February 23, 2025 at 2:45 pm

      I’ve made this several times and served it with all of the suggested accompaniments and it is WONDERFUL…so delicious. Thank you!

      Reply

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