Instant Pot Rice and Beans Recipe

Perfect for summer when you don’t want to heat up the oven, pull out your Instant Pot for these pressure cooker rice and beans! With peppers and enchilada sauce, this Mexican flavor inspired combo makes a perfect gluten-free dip or filling for burritos. Today’s recipe includes Hatch Chiles and is sponsored by Albertsons as part of their Hatch Chiles event. I love my local Albertsons Market Street and Albertsons on Broadway locations and all the fun events they have year-round!

I’ve been making this bean/rice/tomatoes combo for many years. After seeing the Hatch Chiles at my local Albertsons Market Street, I immediately thought I needed to get some to add to this easy rice and beans recipe! 

I was unfamiliar with Hatch Chiles until last year when my friend Brianna shared how where she lives in New Mexico, they’re super popular and many local stores there roast them. I looked them up and was jealous that I’ve never seen them (or smelled them roasting) in my area.

Fast forward to this month, and my local Albertsons Market Street location let me know they were having this Hatch Chile event this week. The store is full of flavorful Hatch Chiles of different heat levels, from mild to extra hot! 

This display of peppers that you can buy singles of are all mild/medium heat peppers. The other bags and boxes are full of hot or extra hot peppers. Now you can buy these and chop them up and use them as you would bell peppers.

The magic really happens if you roast them though. It makes the heat and flavor more intense. Here’s a look at what they were using to fire roast them out in front of the store. Man, I wish the internet had scratch and sniff so you could smell these! It smelled amazing! While my friend and I were standing there watching the chiles roasting, all these people started strolling up going, “What smells so good?” You can see a video of what the Hatch Chile Roasting looks like on my Facebook page here. 

If you’re in Idaho, swing by Albertsons on Broadway or Albertsons Market Street for their Hatch Chile event. The Hatch Chile Roasting will continue to take place on the front patio August 2-4 from 10am to 6 pm, and August 5-6 from 3pm to 6pm. There are also daily demos and samples throughout the store from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

Those of you outside of Idaho, check with your local Albertsons to see if they’re carrying Hatch Chiles right now! They’re only available for a short season, so don’t wait!

Helpful staff at my Albertsons Market Street location let me know that they love putting the freshly roasted peppers on sandwiches, mixed in eggs, layered in enchiladas, or for chile rellenos. So many flavorful dishes you can create with Hatch Chiles. I also got so many ideas from walking around the store, and seeing items like Hatch Chile hamburgers, sausage, mac & Cheese. Even this Hatch Chile cheese! 

I was kicking myself tonight that I didn’t buy this cheese when I was there, so I’m going to go back and get some!

For this particular recipe, I decided to use the non-roasted, medium heat peppers, and chop them up like I would a bell pepper. If you like heat, then use hot or extra hot peppers, and use two or more of them. You can also take the time to roast some of the peppers yourself at home on your grill to use.

Instead of heating up my oven, I opted to make keep the kitchen cool and instead use my pressure cooker (Instant Pot) to make it. These Instant Pot Rice and Beans turned out perfectly on my first try at converting this recipe from an oven recipe.

This Mexican rice and beans recipe makes for a unique and hearty dip. When we have company, I’ll put it out with chips and sometimes guacamole or chopped avocado to just enjoy this way.

Other times, I’ll put it out in a big bowl like this and we’ll fill up taco shells for gluten-free burritos. It’s such a great gluten-free burrito filling!  Plus any leftovers can be enjoyed with chips the next day.

This is truly a dump and run type of recipe. No pre-cooking, no sautéing, etc. 

How to make this Pressure Cooker Rice and Beans Recipe:

Into your pressure cooker, you’ll add:

1. Add the chopped peppers
2. Add cans of black beans and pinto beans that have been rinsed and drained
3. Add cans of enchilada sauce and diced tomatoes.
4. Add the uncooked white rice (I used Basmati)
5. Add the vegetable broth over the top. No stirring!
6. Just put the lid on the pressure cooker and set it for low for 10 minutes and away you go!
7. It’ll take some time for it to come up to pressure (it took 17 minutes for me), then it will cook for 10 minutes.
8. Once the 10 minute timer is up, do a quick release.
9. Once the steam is released, remove lid carefully, stir in the sour cream and cheese and serve!

The mixture is more soupy right when it finishes cooking and you’ve just stirred in the sour cream and cheese. But as it sits for about 10 minutes, it really thickens up to a great consistency for dipping or for burrito filling.

Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator and just reheat in your microwave when you want to enjoy again.

7 minutes prep + about 17 minutes to come to pressure + 10 minutes cook + 1 minute stir = about 35 minutes start to finish and all without heating up your kitchen with an oven!

I bought all of the ingredients for this beans and rice recipe at my Albertsons Market Street location:

Notes on Ingredients for this Rice and Beans Recipe:

• Peppers: I used medium heat Hatch Chile peppers that I removed the seeds from. I used 1 cup chopped pepper, which was around 2 large peppers. You can use hot or extra hot peppers too!
• Beans: I almost always use one can of black beans and one can of pinto beans in this recipe, but have made it with all black beans too when that’s what I’ve had on hand.
• Enchilada Sauce: You can vary your heat level of the overall recipe by choosing a different heat level of enchilada sauce too.
• Vegetable broth: Since this is a meatless recipe, I chose to use vegetable broth to keep it vegetarian. You can definitely use chicken broth instead. The broth basically is there to cook the rice. 
• Sour Cream: I used regular sour cream but you could use a light sour cream if you want to cut calories a bit.
• Cheese: I used a Mexican 4 cheese blend which I like a lot.

What else can you make with these Hatch Chile Peppers? You can add them to my simple guacamole recipe to give it a kick! They would add some great flavor to my gluten-free cheesy bean dip too! And my friend Brianna, who told me about Hatch Chiles first, makes these amazing microwave gluten-free enchiladas that you can add additional Hatch Chiles to! They look so good!

I like heat. How can I make this rice and beans dish spicier?

1. Use the hottest Hatch Chile peppers. They have everything from mild to extra hot, so go for the hotter ones if you like heat!
2. Double the amount of Hatch Chile peppers I used.
3. Chop up some roasted Hatch Chile peppers instead of just using raw ones. You can chop ones you buy roasted at Albertsons or you can char your own over the flame of your grill.
4. Before adding all of the other ingredients to the Instant Pot, you can use the sauté setting to just sauté the Hatch Chile peppers to bring out their flavor. You can also add onions at this stage if you’d like some! Then after sautéing, just turn the Instant Pot off, and follow the rest of the instructions from there.

Gluten-free Instant Pot Rice and Beans Recipe:

Yield: 10 cups

Instant Pot Rice and Beans Recipe

Print

Grab your pressure cooker and make this rice and beans recipe. It's great as a burrito filling or as a dip. Gluten-free and vegetarian too!

Prep Time 7 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Additional Time 18 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 large Hatch Chile peppers (medium or hot)
• 1 can (16 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (16 oz.) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15.5 oz.) enchilada sauce
• 1 can (14.5 oz.) petite diced tomatoes in sauce
• 1 1/2 cups white Basmati rice, uncooked
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese

Instructions

1. Slice the peppers, discard the seeds, and chop the peppers. You should get about 1/2 cup peppers. (Use more if desired!) Add the chopped peppers right into the bowl of your pressure cooker
2. Drain and rinse beans and add to pressure cooker.
3. Add enchilada sauce and tomatoes to pressure cooker.
4. Add uncooked white rice to pressure cooker.
5. Pour vegetable broth over all. Don't stir!
6. Close the lid on your Instant Pot or pressure cooker. Close the steam valve.
7. Press Pressure Cook, set the time for 10 minutes, Press Pressure level and select low pressure. If your pressure cooker has a start button, then push that, mine just automatically starts.
8. Pressure Cooker will take time to come up to pressure. Mine took 17 minutes. Then it starts the 10 minutes of cooking. Once the timer goes off, carefully slip the steam valve to do a quick release of all pressure. Once all pressure is released, carefully remove lid.
9. Stir in the sour cream.
10. Stir in the shredded cheese.
11. Serve immediately or let cool to thicken a bit. Serve as a filling for tacos and burritos or serve with chips as a dip.

Notes

If you like spicy meals, here's some options for increasing the heat in this recipe:

1. Use the hottest Hatch Chile peppers. They have everything from mild to extra hot, so go for the hotter ones if you like heat!
2. Double the amount of Hatch Chile peppers I used.
3. Chop up some roasted Hatch Chile peppers instead of just using raw ones. You can chop ones you buy roasted at Albertsons or you can char your own over the flame of your grill.
4. Before adding all of the other ingredients to the Instant Pot, you can use the sauté setting to just sauté the Hatch Chile peppers to bring out their flavor. You can also add onions at this stage if you'd like some! Then after sautéing, just turn the Instant Pot off, and follow the rest of the instructions from there.
5. You can use a spicy enchilada sauce.

This recipe is adapted from one I’ve been making for many many years that was given to me from my friend Tami. I looked at my friend Justine’s Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Casserole for inspiration on how to convert my existing recipe to be successful in the Instant Pot – particularly how much broth to use and the cooking time. Her Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Casserole Recipe is gluten-free too! Check out her blog for so many Instant Pot recipes!

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This sponsored post was created through my partnership with Albertsons. As always, all opinions are my own. Collaborating with brands I love allows me to keep bringing you new and varied recipes! Thanks for your support!