This Instant Pot Cilantro Lime Brown Rice is easy, healthy, and tasty! This Cilantro Lime Rice tastes just like Chipotles. The fresh cilantro and lime flavors make it a wonderful side dish or ingredient for burritos or bowls!
Sometimes the easiest recipes are the best! This cilantro lime rice has wonderful fresh flavors from cilantro and lime. Once you have this, you will not want to have plain rice.
I always had a hard time getting brown rice to cook perfectly on the stovetop. But since I got the instant pot, cooking brown rice has been a breeze. They always cook perfectly. Now once I made the cilantro lime version, we are hooked on it and always love to add in the fresh flavors.
I easily get bored with plain rice, so this chipotle cilantro lime brown rice a wonderful variation to tantalize the taste buds. Or use this brown rice to make this Hearty Mexican Rice & Beans Casserole.
If you are new to the instant pot, do check out my beginner’s guide to the instant pot.
How to make Cilantro Lime Brown Rice in the Instant Pot?
This Cilantro Lime Brown rice has very basic ingredients which you might always have in your pantry – Brown Rice, Broth or Water, Lime, and Cilantro.
I use brown basmati rice in this recipe. However, other brown rice will work too. Just make sure they are not the quick-cooking brown rice.
- Start with rinsing the brown rice in water. Then add it to the instant pot.
- Add water or broth. I used water when making this recipe. Broth works great and adds wonderful flavor too.
- Add salt and oil. I like to add a little oil, as it helps make the rice fluffy and each grain separate.
- Pressure cook for 22 minutes, followed by a 10-minute natural pressure release. This means letting the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then releasing the pressure manually.
- Now add in the lime juice, zest, and cilantro. I like to add the garnishes after pressure cooking so the cilantro remains fresh and the lime flavor is more prominent.
- Mix gently and enjoy the rice!
The rice is so fluffy and perfectly cooked, bursting with cilantro and lime flavors.
How to cook Cilantro Lime Rice with White Rice?
Follow the same steps as above. Just change the cooking time to 4 minutes at high pressure. Everything else remains the same in the recipe.
How to cook Cilantro Lime Rice on Stovetop?
Follow the package instructions to cook two cups of rice on the stovetop or in a rice cooker. Then follow the steps to add the lime juice, zest and cilantro to the rice.
Give this easy Cilantro Lime Brown Rice recipe a try!
Looking for more variations of rice? Check out the below instant pot recipes
Instant Pot Cilantro Lime Brown Rice
Ingredients
- 2 cup Brown Rice
- 2.5 cup Broth or Water
- 1 teaspoon Salt , adjust to taste
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- 1/2 cup Cilantro, finely chopped
- 3 teaspoon Lime juice, fresh
- 1 Lime zest
Instructions
- Rinse the brown rice and add it to the instant pot.
- Add water (or broth), oil and salt to the Instant Pot. Close lid with vent in sealing position.
- Cook on Manual High Pressure for 22 minutes. When the instant pot beeps, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then manually release the pressure.
- Add the fresh lime juice, zest and cilantro into the rice. Gently mix the rice and serve.
For White Rice:
- Follow the above steps, change pressure cooking time to 4 minutes at high pressure.
For Stovetop:
- Follow package instructions to cook rice on the stovetop or in a rice cooker. Then follow the steps to add the lime juice, zest and cilantro to the rice.
Video
One more thing… people always comment that they don’t usually like brown rice, but they love this rice. It’s so good! My teenage sons and their friends will eat it for a snack. Since I often use bottled lime juice, I almost never add lime zest (that would make it even better). Many times I have not had enought cilantro (which is definitely great to have), but the rice is excellent with even a little cilantro. It’s good after it has been frozen, but not as good as fresh.
And it’s so dang easy to make and so much better than plain brown rice.
Hi Tanya – Thank you for sharing back your review. So glad to hear you have been enjoying the rice.
This is a great recipe. I use brown rice. As I look back, I don’t think I have rinsed the rice. I have probably made this at least monthly.
Can I double the recipe?
Hi Susan – Sure, you can double the recipe. Increase all the ingredients proportionally. The pressure cooking time will remain the same.
Hi I am about to make this recipe. It looks so healthy and good. I have a question what is the serving size? I need it to calculate my WW points.. Thank you for this recipe!
Hi – This recipe would yield about 5 cups of cooked brown rice. Just want to mention, the nutrition values are estimates. If you are using it for a diet plan, please do make sure to use your nutrition calculator.
Came out fantastic in the Instant Pot! I made two changes: I used the SAUTE feature to brown the rice in the oil before adding the water. This give the rice even more flavor and it’s an easy step to add. I also added one clove of minced garlic to the rice and oil when I was browning it. I used brown basmati rice, rinsed and drained well. I served this rice with marinated tofu and veggie kabobs that I grilled on the BBQ. My family loved it!
Hi- That brings me great joy. Thank you for sharing your experience 🙂
Does this rice freeze well? I want to make it ahead for a family gathering.
Hi Marie – I have not tried freezing, but I do think it will freeze well similar to any other rice recipe.
This sounds wonderful, I’m assuming you did this in a 6qt, do you think I could half the ingredients to do in my 3qt also when smaller amount is needed? Thank You
Hi Anna – Sure, the same recipe will work even if you half the ingredients in a 3qt. Hope you enjoy the rice!
My husband and I loved this recipe! The rice came out perfect! We used long-grain, and had it with baked sweet potatoes and sautéed onions, peppers, beans, and corn. We loved the lime zest and juice! Thank you very much!!!
Hi – So good to hear that. Thank you for sharing your experience 🙂
Rice was a bit al dente, even cooked it 24 minutes, still al dente. I followed the recipe exactly as is but I used Brown Jasmine rice as that is the type of rice Chipolte uses in their stores…
I made this recipe tonight and LOVED it!! When I tried to save it to my Pinterest board, none of the graphics were titled. And when I tried to edit the pin, there was no option to rename the pin. So it isn’t searchable among my pins! 🙁 Is there something you can do to name your photos on this page with the name of the recipe so it can be searchable? Thanks!
I should add, when I viewed the pin in my Pinterest folder, its title was “Instant Pot”. Not sure if that was assigned somehow by Pinterest, or is somewhere in the coding of your image.
Hello Esther – So happy to hear you enjoyed the rice. Thank you for letting me know about the issue you are facing with pinning the recipe. I tried this on Chrome browser with the same recipe and recipes from other websites, and I seem to be having the same issue of no text being saved. However here is a workaround – I have an additional functionality which shows a pin button when you hover over an image or touch the image on mobile. This will save the pin description correctly. Please give this a try and let me know if you still face issues. Thank you!