Instant Pot Taco Rice

A New Family Favorite

Instant Pot Taco Rice is a wonderful recipe for any time of year. Tender white rice, savory ground beef, and all the taco toppings blend together in an easy “set it and forget it” dish.

This is always a family favorite, and it’ll be your favorite as well when you see how simple it is to make!

Weeknight Friendly

Weeknights are always a busy time to try and get dinner on the table. The Instant Pot is a great way to create quick and easy dinners during the week that taste delicious.

I have become obsessed with my Instant Pot and make everything in it from rice, to hard boiled eggs, to Sunday Roasts.

I never have much luck cooking rice on the stove top but with my Instant Pot it comes out perfect every single time. We got the Instant Pot fro Christmas one year and I didn’t start using it right away because I was scared.

I finally worked up the courage to test it out. I was mad at myself for waiting so long to enjoy its versatility and the great food it makes.

The Easiest Tacos

I came up with the idea for this Instant Pot Taco Rice one Tuesday when we had a taste for tacos and I didn’t feel like going to the store to get the stuff to make traditional tacos.

This recipe is so easy and it also makes for great leftovers. If you have kids who bring a lunch to school, this rice is perfect to heat up and send in a thermos for lunch time.

When I made this Instant Pot Taco Rice I didn’t have a ton of veggies on hand so I simply topped mine with salsa and sour cream. You can add lettuce to this dish, along with olives, onions, green onions, or any other veggies you choose.

If you wanted to make this Instant Pot Taco Rice more nutrient dense, you can add spinach or kale to the meat while you are cooking it. The ingredients you will need to make this Instant Pot Taco Rice are as follows.

There is also a full, printable recipe at the end of this post.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of lean ground beef
• 1 10 oz can of diced tomatoes with green chilis
• 2 boxes of beef flavored rice mix like rice a roni
• 1 packet of taco seasoning
• 3 C of water
• 2 C of cheddar cheese or taco cheese
• sour cream, salsa, onions, lettuce for toppings
• 1 can of refried beans
• Oil for cooking

As I said before, you can top your Instant Pot Taco Rice any way you want, these toppings are simply suggestions.

The beans are also up to you. I have served this with refried beans on the bottom and plated the rice on top of the beans for a more hearty meal.

Tipsy Tip – when you make the rice you only need to use one packet of the seasoning that comes with the rice although you will use two boxes of the rice. If you use both boxes plus the taco seasoning, it is way too salty.

I also want to point out that I have a older model of the Instant Pot. My Instant Pot does not have the burn notice so I never get that notice when I make recipes in my Instant Pot. Some people have messaged me with my recipes and tell me that they get a burn notice, I am not sure how to tell you to fix this issue. Some folks have suggested using an Instant Pot insert that you can buy on Amazon that you cook in so that you do not get this burn notice. If anyone has any other tips please feel free to leave them in the comments below.

The steps for making this recipe are super easy and I love that all the cooking is done in one pot and makes for super easy clean up.

Here is how you make the Instant Pot Taco Rice.

Instructions:

1. Set your instant pot to the saute setting and add your cooking oil. I used a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil.
2. Add your ground beef to the pot and cook it until it is browned and make sure you are crumbling it up as you go.
3. I did not need to drain my beef because there wasn’t a lot of fat or grease but if you do have that, this is the step where you can drain your beef.
4. Next I added the two boxes of just the rice and I let the vermicelli and the rice in the rice mix get a little browned.
5. Next I added ONE seasoning packet from the rice box, the taco seasoning, the can of the tomatoes, the water and I gave it all a stir.
6. Put the lid on, hit cancel, the hit the rice setting for the full 12 minutes.
7. When the timer went off, I let the instant pot naturally release for about 15 minutes then released the little bit of steam that was left.
8. Heat your refried beans on the stove or in the microwave if you are choosing to use the refried beans.
9. Stir in one cup of the shredded cheese into the beef rice mix until it is melted.
10. Plate your dish with the beans on the bottom, the taco rice on the top, and then add a sprinkle of cheese.
11. You can top your taco rice any way you choose with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sour cream, salsa, or hot sauce.

Full, Printable Recipe

Yield: 6 servings

Instant Pot Taco Rice

Print

Instant Pot taco rice is a wonderful recipe for any time of year. Tender white rice, savory ground beef and all the taco toppings. This is always a family favorite.

Ingredients

• 1 lb of lean ground beef
• 1 10 oz can of diced tomatoes with green chilis
• 2 boxes of beef flavored rice mix like rice a roni
• 1 packet of taco seasoning
• 3 C of water
• 2 C of cheddar cheese or taco cheese
• sour cream, salsa, onions, lettuce for toppings
• 1 can of refried beans
• Oil for cooking

Instructions

1. Set your instant pot to the sauté setting and add your cooking oil, I used a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil.
2. Add your ground beef to the pot and cook it until it is browned and make sure you are crumbling it up as you go.
3. I did not need to drain my beef because there wasn’t a lot of fat or grease but if you do have that, this is the step where you can drain your beef.
4. Next I added the two boxes of just the rice and I let the vermicelli and the rice in the rice mix get a little browned.
5. Next I added ONE seasoning packet from the rice box, the taco seasoning, the can of the tomatoes, the water and I gave it all a stir.
6. Put the lid on, hit cancel, the hit the rice setting for the full 12 minutes.
7. When the timer went off, I let the instant pot naturally release for about 15 minutes then released the little bit of steam that was left.
8. Heat your refried beans on the stove or in the microwave if you are choosing to use the refried beans.
9. Stir in one cup of the shredded cheese into the beef rice mix until it is melted.
10. Plate your dish with the beans on the bottom, the taco rice on the top and then add a sprinkle of cheese.
11. You can top your taco rice anyway you choose with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sour cream, salsa or hot sauce.

This recipe was a huge hit and we even enjoyed it a couple more times a week for lunch. I posted this recipe to my Instagram and several people said they were going to try the recipe but put it inside a burrito shell for a delicious loaded burrito.

I also thought that this sounded like a delicious idea!

Another great way to eat this recipe is with tortilla chips. I hope you make this recipe and enjoy it as much as we did. Thank you for reading and happy eating!

Love, Tipsy

For more great recipes, follow me on Instagram or on Pinterest! You can also check the links below for more great recipe ideas!

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