Try this pressure cooker (AKA Instant Pot) version of Hawaiian Haystacks! Tender chicken, creamy rice, and ALL the toppings you can stack in a bowl! Fast, whole grain, and healthy with minimal effort on your part!
Hawaiian Haystacks always remind me of my college days. It was a recipe that my roommates and I would throw together easy peasy and feel like we were seriously destined to be the ultimate wife/homemaker someday. However, the recipe of my school years consisted of frozen chicken nuggets, cream of chicken soup, minute rice, canned pineapple tidbits, and zero veggies (because younger Marci thought eating vegetables was, like, so lame and gross).
So fast forward to grown up Marci who loves veggies and fancy food, but also has kids and laundry and dishes and only a few minutes a day of silence and quiet time. I still want the classic flavors of the Hawaiian Haystacks I so loved, but I want it to be real food, whole grain, fast, and easy. And this recipe is it my friends!
To develop this, I took a spin off of the Green Chile Chicken and Brown Rice from our cookbook coming out in September (eek!), and made it creamy, coconutty, and piled to the moon with pineapple, mandarin oranges, peas, cheese, tomatoes, olives, and crunchy rice noodles. I use chicken thighs in this recipe because they cook up like a dream in the pressure cooker, staying so tender and flavorful and withstand the longer cook time for brown rice. One pot wonder for sure and definitely ultimate homemaker status!
Not only will it cook up with minimal effort on your part, it also reheats and freezes like a dream! Check, check, and check! Enjoy!
Pressure Cooker Hawaiian Haystacks
Electric pressure cooker (AKA Instant Pot) version of Hawaiian Haystacks! Tender chicken, creamy rice, and ALL the toppings you can stack in a bowl! Fast, whole grain, and healthy with minimal effort on your part!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Entree
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 1 cup diced onion
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 2 cups brown rice
- 1 1/2 cups lite coconut milk
- 2 cups chicken broth
- Optional toppings: cheddar or pepper jack cheese, chopped tomato, chopped pineapple, olives, peas, mandarin oranges, diced bell peppers, cashews, crunchy rice noodles, etc
Instructions
- Season chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Add coconut oil into the pressure cooker pot. Using the brown function, heat the oil until hot. Add chicken and brown 2-3 minutes on one side (browning just one side will give you that good flavor without scorching the bottom of the pot). Remove chicken from the pot and set on a plate.
- Select saute on the pressure cooker and add onions (add an extra teaspoon or 2 of oil if the pot is dry). Cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and stir for 1 minute. Turn off pressure cooker. Add salt, pepper, and brown rice and stir to coat the rice with oil. Pour coconut milk and chicken broth into the pot and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Place chicken on top, do not stir. Secure the lid and turn pressure release knob to a sealed position. Cook at high pressure for 25 minutes.
- When cooking is complete, use a natural release. If in a hurry, let pressure naturally release for 10 minutes and then use a quick release to release remaining pressure.
- Remove chicken to a cutting board and shred into bite size pieces. Stir rice.
- To serve, spoon rice into a bowl, top with chicken, cheese, and desired toppings.
Notes
To make this even easier, throw all the ingredients in the pot and proceed with pressure cooking directions. You'll miss out on some of the depth of flavor, but it is still super tasty!
Keywords: pressure cooker, instant pot, rice bowl, Hawaiian
Ot seems like 2 cups of rice is a lot.. did anyone use less? There isnt much chicken…2 cups of rice will yield way more than two cups in all..
Laura, I’ve never tried it but I think I would work just fine to half the rice mixture. You could also make the recipe as is and shred the chicken separate from the rice. Then if you have left over rice you can freeze it for another day. I’ve done this on a couple different occasions.
I made this last night for my daughter and her college roommates. They loved it! Thanks for another fabulous recipe. Your Thai soup is in the instant pot now. I couldn’t wait for my daughter to try it also.
Pamela, I’m so glad they loved it! It’s one of my kids favorites as well. And the Thai soup is my heaven on earth :). I hope you enjoyed that one as well!
What about the creamy sauce that comes from the cream of chicken soup? How does your recipe make up for that. I don’t see any sauce in the pics.
Brandi, My goal was to make the rice more creamy than usual to cover that part. It’s definitely a spin on the classic!
I have crockpots, an elec.pressure cooker I am afraid of and now I think I need an instant pot. Is it easier to use, my niece loves hers but I can remember why????
Gayle, An Instant Pot is a type of electric pressure cooker (sorry if you already knew that!). What brand is the one you have now? I’ve used a few different brands and they have all worked very well, you just have to get use to which buttons to use on each one. I think the Fagor Lux Multicooker is the most intuitive, but honestly, with any brand, once you’ve used it a few times, you’ll know which buttons to push. Bust that pressure cooker out and lets get cookin!
I’m assuming I shouldn’t use minute rice or other quick cooking rice?
Beth, no I wouldn’t use any type of white rice with this dish, it would be complete mush by the time it was done. I have tried it with long grain and short grain brown rice as well as wild rice and they all work really well.
I made your haystacks for dinner for my family. Huge hit! I know my kids loved it because the ate all the leftovers for breakfast!!
Lyn, Now that’s saying something! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
What brand and size pressure cooker do you use?
That’s a tough question because I have several models and sizes from working with companies. So I’ll just tell you from the pressure cookers I’ve used, my favorites and most used are the Instant Pot Duo 60 6 quart and the Fagor Lux Multicooker 8 quart. The past few months I’ve been using the new Instant Pot Duo Plus and the new Fagor Lux with the LCD screen and while I like them, I feel like the older models work just as well, are slightly more user friendly, and are cheaper. I do think it’s worth buying an 8 quart. I’ve been happy to have the bigger size many of times. I hope that helps! Let me know if you have more questions!