Instant Pot Cilantro Lime Brown Rice (Chipotle copycat)

Cool fall evenings mean cozy weeknight meals. Make this Cilantro Lime Rice in the Instant Pot during your weekly meal prep and the possibilities are endless.

If you like cilantro, check out these Fish Tacos with Cilantro Lime Sauce or these Steamed Carrots with Cilantro Lime Gremolata.  

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The cilantro lime combo in this rice makes a great base for Mexican-inspired rice bowls but also works well with many other combos as well. It uses only 5 ingredients, making it an easy, tasty side dish or base for all of your rice bowl creations!

Contents:

• Let's make a copycat of Chipotle's brown rice!
• Ingredient Notes
• How to make this recipe
• Variations
• How to store for meal prep
• Frequently Asked Questions
• What you'll need for this recipe
• Serving Suggestions - try this brown rice with:
• Instant Pot Cilantro Lime Rice

Let's make a copycat of Chipotle's brown rice!

If you are a fan of Mexican food and live in an urban or suburban area, you've likely been to Chipotle at least once. Their cilantro lime rice takes center stage in many of their dishes. This copycat version of their brown rice is a great addition to your weekly meal prep routine. It pairs well with just about any Mexican food making it the ideal side dish for Taco Tuesday.

Since it's made in the instant pot, the hands-on time is just 10 minutes.

This is the perfect recipe to add to your everyday meals recipe collection. Read on to learn more about how to make this Cilantro Lime Rice, or jump straight to the recipe to start cooking!

Ingredient Notes

The full list of ingredients and quantities can be found in the recipe card below.

You only need 5 ingredients to make this brown rice.

• Long-grain brown rice: I like the texture of long-grain rice for this recipe. You could substitute short-grain, however, the recipe was not designed that way so the cooking time would change.
• Cilantro: This recipe definitely calls for fresh cilantro as it's one of the star ingredients.
• Lime zest and juice: Be sure to zest the lime before you juice it! You'll need one lime.
• Mirin: Also called sweet rice wine, can be found in the Asian cooking section in most larger grocery stores.

How to make this recipe

I love this dish because it’s a one-pan recipe and it’s really easy to make and requires very little hands-on time, which means it’s ideal for a weeknight dinner or as part of your meal prep routine.

Step 1 | Cook the rice. Add the rice and water to the Instant Pot and set it to manual, high pressure for 20 minutes. Then let the Instant Pot do the work for you!

Step 2 | Finish the rice. Once the rice is finished cooking, as the lime juice, cilantro and mirin to it and mix well. 

Step 3 | Serve or store. Either serve the rice with your dish of choice or cool it and store it for later.

Why Use an Instant Pot? 

It took me a while to get into using the Instant Pot, but now that I have, I'm hooked. While an Instant Pot is not always quicker than cooking something on the stovetop, it does mean you don't have to watch over cooking grains or other dishes while they cook. You just set the Instant Pot and let it do its thing. Genius!!

Instant Pot and High Altitude

Since moving to Colorado I've learned all about high altitude baking but did you know that high altitude can also affect cooking times when you are using a pressure cooker? It depends on the recipe but you'll often need to increase the cooking time by about 5% for every 1,000 feet above 2,500 feet in elevation.

Variations

• Add black beans: After the rice has cooked, mix in about a half cup of drained and rinsed black beans.
• Add peppers and onions: If you want to create a fajita-like side dish, sauté some peppers and onions and then toss them into the rice after you've mixed in the cilantro and lime juice.

How to store for meal prep

Once cooked, mixed and cooled, the rice can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for about 5 days. You can also freeze cooked rice for about 2 months.

Frequently Asked Questions

What you'll need for this recipe

Instant Pot Mini Duo Plus  – The three-quart Instant Pot is the perfect option for those who are cooking for two or making small-batch recipes.

Serving Suggestions - try this brown rice with:

Serve this Cilantro Lime Rice with just about any Mexican food for a delicious meal. You can add it to refried black beans for a great side dish or use it with:

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This post was originally published in November 2018. It was updated in September 2023 with some new information and photos. No changes were made to the original recipe.