Keto Spicy Chicken and Rice Bowls in the Instant Pot

Low Carb Spicy Chicken & Rice Bowls Recipe

These spicy chicken and rice bowls should be on your meal plan. With the help of your instant pot, this chicken recipe is ready in no time. You can even prepare it ahead of time on meal prep day and freeze it, uncooked, for later. My preferred lunch is one that can be prepped ahead of time and portioned into microwaveable containers. That’s why these chicken & rice bowls are an ideal meal to take with you to work. This recipe starts by combining chicken with frozen cauliflower rice and a few items that you probably already have in your pantry – crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, green chiles and taco seasoning. The finished dish is topped with cheddar cheese for a cheesy, scrumptious bite.

Instant Pot Chicken and Rice

As a busy mom who works full time outside the home, I rely on my pressure cooker to prepare meals quickly. Oftentimes I get home late or my kids have to run off to soccer practice leaving me only with 30 minutes to prepare a home cooked meal for the family. The Instant Pot is able to cook recipes quicker than if you were to use conventional cooking methods like the oven or stovetop. Plus with recipes like this dump and go recipe, I just add my ingredients to the liner of the pressure cooker and hit start! That’s why this keto chicken and rice recipe makes a great freezer meal too.

What Cut of Chicken is Best on Keto?

I’m glad you asked because there is a difference in cuts of chicken meat when it comes to keto. Dark meat like that from chicken thighs, legs and wings has a higher fat content than white meat, which makes up the chicken breast. I usually use chicken thighs in all of my chicken recipes because of the higher fat content. High fat means more flavor too! Plus it is less expensive compared to breast meat and it is more forgiving when you cook it and doesn’t dry out as easily as chicken breast meat does.

Are Tomatoes Keto?

Tomatoes do have carbs in them. One medium tomato has 4 grams of net carbs. In this recipe, we use a small amount of canned tomatoes and tomato sauce. So they don’t contribute to a ton of carbohydrates per serving. When selecting tomato sauce, make sure you look for one that doesn’t contain any additional sugars. Some companies will sneak in sugars because it helps it taste better but we are trying to find tomato sauce without added sugar so always check the label.

Essential Pantry Items

Speaking of tomato sauce, this easy chicken recipe uses some basic canned foods that I always keep in my pantry. I like to stock up on no-sugar added tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes and diced green chiles. These are staple items that you can use to create delicious recipes on the fly when you have nothing else planned.

Freezer Meal Recipe for Easy Meal Prep

My favorite meals are ones that I can prep ahead of time. It makes meal planning so easy when I can do all the work one day and then dump the freezer meal into an instant pot or slow cooker the day of. This leaves time for me to do other things or helps get warm meals out to my family before we are off to our next activity. To make this chicken and cauliflower rice recipe as a freezer meal, simply add all the ingredients to a freezer safe bag, seal and freeze flat. For the easiest way to add ingredients during prep day, I use these food prep freezer bag holder stands. To prepare your freezer chicken and rice bowls, it’s easiest to unthaw the bag in the refrigerator the night before. But if you forget, you can still cook this meal from frozen in the instant pot. I do recommend adding ¼ cup of water to the base of the instant pot. That way you won’t get a burn notice as your pot comes to pressure.