This instant pot cook-up rice recipe takes all of the labor out of the traditional stove top recipe but keeps all of the flavor. I love cook-up rice. It's one of my favorite comfort foods. In fact, it is one of the first recipes I shared when I started metemgee.com. However, as a busy mom of three I don't always have time to make cook-up rice the traditional way, so I've created this instant pot recipe.

Jump to:
Ingredients
- Rice
- Dried Black Eyed Peas
- Beef
- Carrots
- Coconut milk
- Jasmine Rice
- Onion
- Garlic
- Asian Basil
- Green Seasoning
- Brown Sugar
- Cassareep (optional for color)
See recipe card for exact measurements.
Cooking with an Instant Pot
Making cook up rice in the Instant Pot takes away the guess work of trying to figure out how much time to cook it and at what temperature. It is also quick and easy, especially with tough cuts of meat. There is no burning or sticking. This Instant Pot Cook up rice recipe is guaranteed to change the way you make cook up rice! If you don't already have an instant pot and want to get one, check out my affiliate link here (this is an amazon affiliate link so I get a small amount money if you buy your through this link but it doesn't cost you anything). Seriously though if you don't have an instant pot what are you waiting for?
Here are some other Instant Pot Recipes I've posted: Chicken Foot Souse, Instant Pot Beef Curry and Instant Pot Pepper Pot.
Step by Step Video Tutorial:
Make the recipe your own!

Use this Instant Pot Cook-Up rice as the base for other versions of cook up rice. Swap out the type of peas and meats as you like. You may also use cook-up rice seasoning! Get it from the amazon by clicking here. I love the flavor cook up rice seasoning adds without having to buy a lot of different spices. Add 1 tablespoon of this instead of salt and other spices to your meat and then another tablespoon to your instant pot when making your cook-up and it is like magic. Perfect flavor profile every time.
Printable Recipe Card

Instant Pot Cook-Up Rice
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs of chuck roast cut into ½ inch cubes or stew beef
- 1 ½ cups of dried black eye peas washed
- 2 small carrots or 1 large carrot diced into small cubes
- 2 cups of washed jasmine rice
- 4 cups of freshly made coconut milk or 1 cup of canned coconut milk plus 3 cups of water
- 1 small yellow onions fined chopped
- 2 bunches of Asian Basil
- 2 tablespoon of oil
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- a pinch of black pepper
- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 1 whole wiri wiri pepper or 1 scotch bonnet pepper
- 4 tablespoons of green seasoning:
- ½ cup of cilantro
- 2 tablespoon of fresh thyme
- 4 heads of green onions
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 wiri wiri pepper seeds removed
Instructions
- Make the green seasoning by combing cilantro, thyme, green onions, garlic and wiri wiri pepper (seeds removed) into the base of a food processor or blender cup. Blend until it forms a smooth paste. Then set aside
- Season beef with green seasoning, ½ teaspoon salt and pepper and set aside
- Put Instant pot on Sauté, When hot add oil and then brown sugar to the bowl
- Let brown sugar cook until it caramelizes and gets to a dark brown color. This make take a while depending on how hot your instant pot gets
- Add chopped onions and cook until onions are soft
- Next add the seasoned beef and sauté for 5 to 10 minutes stirring often allowing beef to brown on all sides.
- Once the beef browns add the carrots, black eyed peas, washed rice and coconut milk
- Then add the remaining salt and pepper, the whole wiri wiri pepper and the Asian basil
- Finally put the lid on the instant pot, seal and pressure cook on high for 25 minutes
- When the instant pot has finished cooking, release the steam following the instructions in the Instant pot manual.
- Fluff the rice with a fork and serve warm
Notes

Candace Witherspoon says
Mine started to burn minutes into cooking.
Althea Brown says
After you sealed it up?
Tracy says
Yeah, definitely not a fail proof recipe. Coconut milk is too thick to be the sole source of liquid. My pot couldnt even come to pressure. Opened it, everything was starting to stick. No doubt if it had come to pressure I would have gotten the burn notice as well.
A lot of recipes for the instant pot that call for thicker liquids, like cream etc, call for it to be put in at the end of cooking.
Tracy says
Sorry to report, my pot never came to pressure and while waiting I got the burn notice as well. Opened it up, rice was fully cooked and all mush, meat didn't get soft, peas and carrots still hard. I spent about 20 min trying to get the pot to pressure. Had to throw it all out. Wasted. So sad.
Althea Brown says
I’m sorry that it didn’t work for you. The coconut milk used in this recipe is fresh coconut milk not the thick canned variety. It’s explained in the video but I can see I didn’t break it down in the written recipe. Sorry about that. Take a look at the video and see that the liquid is not thick. I’ve made this countless times but I assume people will look at the video and read the post before jumping to the recipe. That’s my mistake. I’ll make the corrections on the written recipe.
Ralph Rajaballey says
I have made the following adjustments coming from a stove top pressure cooker. i.e. layering.
Brown meat in a skillet.
Add to cold insta pot.
Add liquid and other ingredients except for rice.
Add black eye peas spreading evenly over top.
Add rice at the end spreading evenly over top. ( I also add spinach after that to mine). DO NOT STIR IN beans and rice.
Proceed as normal. The key is to have the liquid at the bottom so it does not burn.
One it is done. Stir every thing together to mix.
Fazana says
My first time making this and it was a big hit. Thanks for your wonderful recipe 😀. I used the fresh coconut milk😀
Althea Brown says
Thank you for sharing
Tellinore says
Can you use canned black eye? I can’t find dry peas anywhere. Also can I sub chicken for beef? Is it the same cook time?
Mandy S says
Love this recipe! Would the cook time be the same if we didn't use meat and wanted to make it a vegetarian cookup?