Instant Pot Chicken Risotto

Risotto is easy in a pressure cooker, and this loaded Instant Pot Chicken Risotto is a fantastic, hearty main dish risotto. I use a store-bought rotisserie chicken for the shredded meat and a fantastic homemade broth. (You can use store-bought broth, but homemade broth from rotisserie chicken is easy and delicious). The broth takes an hour at high pressure, but once it is made, the risotto only needs about 30 minutes. I sauté some vegetables, mix in the rice, sun-dried tomatoes, and peas, and cook the risotto for 5 minutes at high pressure. Garnish with diced fresh mozzarella and minced basil, and I have creamy risotto and chicken ready for dinner.

Jump to:

• 🥫Ingredients
• How to make Instant Pot Chicken Risotto (with a store-bought rotisserie chicken)
• 🥘 Substitutions
• 🛠 Equipment
• 📏Scaling
• 💡Tips and Tricks
• ☃️ Storage
• Instant Pot Chicken Risotto Recipe
• 🤝 Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

My Instant Pot chicken risotto recipe is inspired by the Roasted Chicken Risotto at Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurant. It's a main dish risotto, overloaded with ingredients, and I loved it.
My version of the recipe is a mashup of two basic techniques - Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Broth and my Instant Pot Risotto Recipe. I need broth and cooked chicken for the risotto, so why not cheat and get a store-bought rotisserie chicken for both the meat and my Instant Pot chicken stock?

🥫Ingredients

Rotisserie Chicken Broth Ingredients

• 1 (2- to 4-pound) rotisserie chicken, breast meat removed and saved for later
• Juices from the rotisserie chicken container
• 1 onion, peeled and halved
• 1 carrot, scrubbed and cut in half (or 4oz baby carrots)
• 1 stalk celery, cut in half
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 8 cups water

Rotisserie Chicken Risotto Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, minced
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 cups of Arborio rice (Or Carnaroli or Vialone Nano rice)
• ¼ cup dry white wine (optional)
• 4 cups Rotisserie chicken broth (from above, or use store-bought low-sodium broth)
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt (skip if using store-bought broth)
• 4 ounces (½ cup by volume) julienned sliced sun-dried tomatoes (drained if oil-packed)
• 2 shredded cooked chicken breasts (from the rotisserie chicken, above)
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into 1 tablespoon pieces
• 6 ounces petite frozen peas (about 1 ½ cups by volume), rinsed to remove any ice
• 6 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced
• Slivered basil for garnish

How to make Instant Pot Chicken Risotto (with a store-bought rotisserie chicken)

Pressure cook the broth for 60 minutes with a Natural Pressure Release

(See my Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Broth recipe for extra details.)
Cut the chicken breast meat off the rotisserie chicken and set aside for later. Add the rotisserie chicken carcass, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaves, and salt to the Instant Pot or pressure cooker, then add the 8 cups of water. (It should just cover the rotisserie chicken – it's OK if the knobs of the drumsticks are poking up.) Lock the lid and pressure cook on high pressure for 60 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric PC (Manual or Pressure Cook mode in an Instant Pot) or for 50 minutes in a stovetop PC. Let the pressure come down naturally – about 30 minutes. (It takes a long time for all that water to cool off.) If you're in a hurry, let the pressure come down naturally for 20 minutes, then quick release the remaining pressure. Scoop the chicken carcass and vegetables out of the pot with a slotted spoon and discard; they've given their all to the broth. Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer, and set 4 cups aside for the risotto. (Refrigerate or freeze the extra broth for another meal - or a second batch of risotto.) If you're reusing the Instant Pot liner, wipe it out with a paper towel before continuing.

Sauté the onion and rice

Melt the 2 tablespoons butter in an Instant Pot set to sauté mode (medium heat in a stovetop pressure cooker). Add the onion and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Sauté until the onion softens, about 3 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally to ensure nothing is sticking, until the rice turns translucent at the edges, about 5 more minutes.

Simmer the wine (optional)

Pour the wine into the pot, bring it to a simmer, and simmer for 1 minute, scraping the bottom with a flat-edged wooden spoon to ensure the rice isn't sticking.

Load up the pot

Pour in the broth. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt, the sun-dried tomatoes, and half of the shredded chicken breast.

Pressure Cook the risotto for 5 minutes with a Quick Release

Lock the lid and cook at high pressure for 5 minutes in an Instant Pot, electric pressure cooker, or stovetop pressure cooker. (Use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook-Custom mode in an Instant Pot). Quick release the pressure, then carefully remove the lid, tilting it away from you to avoid the scalding hot steam.

Stir in butter, steam the chicken and peas

Leave the pot in keep warm mode (or put a stovetop pressure cooker over low heat.) Stir the butter, frozen peas, and the rest of the shredded chicken into the rice. Cover the pot (but don't lock the lid) and let the residual heat steam the chicken and peas until they are heated, about five minutes.

Serve

Scoop the risotto into bowls, and top each bowl with a slice of fresh mozzarella (which will start to melt from the heat of the risotto) and a sprinkling of slivered basil. Enjoy!

🥘 Substitutions

Leftover Chicken: If you have a leftover roast chicken carcass, substitute it for the rotisserie chicken. Pick as much meat off the bones as possible, then pressure cook the broth with the bones and any skin or clinging meat left. Use the picked chicken pieces in place of the rotisserie chicken breast meat.
Store-bought broth: You can substitute store-bought low-sodium chicken broth - but please try making your own pressure cooker broth at some point. You'll be surprised by the difference.
What kind of rice to use? Risotto rice is a high starch rice used in this northern Italian rice dish. Arborio rice is my default for risotto because it is the easiest to find at grocery stores. Carnaroli rice is supposed to be better for pressure cooking because it stands up to overcooking a bit better than Arborio. Still, I've made plenty of good risotto with standard Arborio rice. Vialone Nano is another good option and is traditional in the Veneto region. Any medium-grain white rice will work in this recipe if you're desperate.
I want to make it Vegetarian: You can make this a vegetarian risotto by skipping the chicken, and replacing the chicken broth with vegetable broth. But, since this is Chicken Risotto, I'd recommend switching to my Mushroom Risotto recipe instead. (And, unfortunately, risotto is not vegan. Too much butter and cheese.)
No alcohol: The white wine is optional - it's traditional in risotto, but you can leave it out if you avoid alcohol. I use pinot grigio in my risottos - it's a dry Italian white, so it feels appropriate - but use whatever white wine you have on hand.
Oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes or dry-packed? Either works in this recipe. The dried ones will hydrate while they cook. I usually find julienne cut oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes at my local grocery store, so that's what I use.
Frozen Peas? Really?I use petite frozen peas in my risotto because I like the smaller pea size. If all you have are "regular" frozen peas, they will work fine in this recipe. And don't knock frozen peas - they are flash-frozen after they're picked, so they don't have their sugar turn to starch while they age. Unless you have middle-of-summer fresh peas, frozen are probably the better choice.
Fresh mozzarella vs parmesan cheese: I like the rich, creamy bite that fresh mozzarella, packed in water, gives you with this recipe. But you can substitute parmesan cheese if you like. Or, if all you have is regular mozzarella, you can sprinkle shredded mozzarella over the risotto right before serving.
Even More Stuff: Add sautéed mushrooms and red bell pepper if you want to go all-out with this risotto. Before starting the risotto part of the recipe, brown 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms in a tablespoon of olive oil in an Instant Pot set to the Saute function - medium. Set the mushrooms aside, then continue with the recipe. For red bell pepper, stem, seed, and dice a red bell pepper, and add it to the pot with the onions and celery.

🛠 Equipment

A 6-quart pressure cooker. Pressure Cooker risotto converts many people to pressure cooking - no tedious stirring needed, just a few minutes under pressure.

📏Scaling

This recipe doubles easily in a 6-quart pressure cooker. Cut all the ingredients in half, and this recipe will fit in a 3-quart pressure cooker.

💡Tips and Tricks

• Pressure cooking is the key to easy risotto. There is no need to stir for 30 minutes, carefully ladling broth into the pot. I can lock the lid on my Instant Pot, set it to cook for 5 minutes, and have a fantastic risotto without all the extra work.
• Pressure cooker broth is my other PC killer application. (I'm borrowing the killer app phrase from my years working in the computer industry.) I started using my pressure cooker regularly because of the excellent chicken broth it makes. Want to take your risotto to the next level? Use homemade chicken broth.
• That said, you don't have to make homemade broth specifically for this recipe. I make a big batch of broth a few times a month, freeze it in 2-cup storage containers, and then thaw it out for use in recipes. That way, if I have some leftover chicken I can shred, I can skip making the broth and go straight to the risotto part of the recipe.
• I'm tricking you into extra homemade broth with this recipe - a whole rotisserie chicken will make 8 cups of broth, but you only need 4 cups for this recipe. Refrigerate the leftover broth for up to 3 days, or freeze it for up to 6 months, and you can make a second batch of risotto whenever you're ready.

☃️ Storage

The broth can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 6 months. I freeze the broth in 2-cup containers, so I always have frozen assets on hand.

According to the USDA, Leftover risotto is good for up to three days in the refrigerator, or three months in the freezer, as long as it is refrigerated (or frozen) within an hour of cooking. (I portion out my rice in 2-cup containers before I put it in the fridge or freezer.) Also, be sure to reheat the rice all the way through - to be precise, an instant read thermometer should read 165°F in the middle of the rice.

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Instant Pot Risotto Milanese (Risotto alla Milanese)
Instant Pot Asparagus Risotto
Instant Pot Shrimp Risotto
My other Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes

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