Chicken Yakhni Pulao | Instant Pot Chicken And Rice Recipe

Dinners where you can cook everything in a single pot are one of my favorite things. This recipe for Chicken Yakhni Pulao is one of those recipes, and you're going to love it. When you look at the pictures, this looks like just another chicken and rice dish, but it's so much more flavorful than that.

What Is Chicken Yakhni Pulao

Kashmiri Yakhni Pulao is full of delicious spices like garlic, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves and they all come together beautifully in the chicken. The rice is cooked separately in the chicken broth at the end, making it much more flavorful than plain white rice.

What Is The Difference Between Yakhni Pulao And Biryani?

Chicken Yakhni Pulaos and biryanis have a lot in common in that they are both a mix of meat and rice cooked together. But what makes a Yakhni different is that it is all about the rich, meaty broth that you create. It's actually a very simple, comforting dish and all the flavor comes from the meat broth and the spices.

In contrast, biryanis often have a lot of other spices and aromatics such as onions, garlic, mint, and yogurt added, as with this Lamb Biryani Recipe.

Another way this chicken yakhni pulao recipe is different from a biryani is that the spices are left whole and are cooked in a cheesecloth pouch, and then discarded after cooking, unlike most recipes where you grind the spices and put them directly on the meat itself. This allows the meat to be infused with the flavors of the spices, and not just topped with them.

Thirdly, for a yakhni pulao, you have to cook it in two stages. These stages are:

1. Make the broth
2. Cook the rice in the broth

How To Make This Instant Pot Chicken And Rice Recipe

Like I mentioned above, there are two different steps to making this Yakhni Pulao. While it may sound like it is a complicated recipe, I assure you it is still quite simple. Here's how you do it

Make the Yakhni

1. Place onions, ginger, garlic, and whole spices into a cheesecloth bundle and secure tightly.
2. Place chicken, water, salt, and the cheesecloth bundle in the inner liner of your Instant Pot.
3. Cook at high pressure. Allow the pot to sit undisturbed and then release all remaining pressure.
4. Remove the cheesecloth bundle and discard.
5. Remove the chicken and break into large pieces.
6. You should have 1.5 cups of stock in your Instant Pot (use a measuring cup to be sure).
7. Leave 1.5 cups of stock in the pot for cooking the rice and reserve any remaining stock for a different recipe.

Make the rice

1. To the stock in your inner liner, add the rinsed long grain basmati rice, garam masala, ghee, and salt. Push the rice down to ensure it is covered by the stock.
2. Lay the large shredded chicken pieces on top of the rice.
3. Cook under high pressure. Allow the pot to sit undisturbed and then release all remaining pressure. 
4. Mix lightly and serve.

• You can also make this with beef or lamb if you prefer. If you cut the meat into large, bite-size pieces, you won't need to change cook times. 

Which Is The Best Rice For Pulao?

While you don't HAVE to use a specific type of rice for this Instant Pot Chicken and Rice recipe, some will produce better texture and absorb the flavor of the homemade broth more than others.

For this Yakhni Pulao recipe, I used Basmati rice. It is one of my favorite types of rice to cook in my Instant Pot because of how perfectly it turns out every time.

Want More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes?

• Creamy Chicken And Rice
• Instant Pot Barley and Chicken Soup
• Pressure Cooker Chicken Biryani
• Instant Pot Arroz Con Pollo
• Pressure Cooker Chicken Congee

Pressure cooking this Chicken Yakhni Pulao in your Instant Pot also helps it to be infused with the flavors from the spice pouch. This also saves time from grinding up spices, or from spices losing their flavor because they were ground too long ago. Make it and tell me what you think!

Don't forget to check out my other Best-selling Instant Pot Cookbooks!

Indian Instant Pot, Keto Instant Pot, Instant Pot Fast and Easy, Healthy Instant Pot & Vegetarian Instant Pot.