Instant Pot Jambalaya with chicken, andouille sausage, shrimp and lots of spice makes a flavorful New Orleans-style meal. Jambalaya is super easy to cook in a pressure cooker and it doesn’t take much time at all. The Instant Pot does a great job of melding all the flavors together in a short amount of time.
First you use the saute mode to brown the sausage and the chicken. If you can’t find andouille sausage, you can use any smoked sausage. I like to use chicken thighs because they are juicier and have more flavor, but you could sub chicken breasts.
Then you saute onion, celery, red bell pepper, and garlic. Green pepper could be used instead of red.
Next a can of undrained diced tomatoes, rice, Creole seasoning, thyme, bay leaves, Tabasco sauce, and 2 cups of chicken broth get added.
The Instant Pot gets set to Pressure Cook for 7 minutes. Do a quick pressure release after the time is up and add the shrimp, parsley, and green onions. Cover the pot and let the residual heat cook the shrimp.
Serve Instant Pot Jambalaya with some crusty French bread for a spicy southern one dish meal.
More Southern Instant Pot Recipes
- Instant Pot Grits
- Instant Pot Low Country Boil
- Instant Pot Crack Chicken
- Instant Pot Mississippi Roast
Instant Pot Jambalaya
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
- 12 ounces Andouille sausage, sliced
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 celery ribs, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 1/2 teaspoons Creole seasoning, divided
- 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups long grain rice
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
- 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to "Saute" and add oil to inner pot. Add sausage and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add chicken and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon Creole seasoning. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside with sausage.
- Add onion, celery, and red pepper and cook until onion is soft, about 4 minutes.
- Add garlic and cook 1 more minute.
- Stir in 2 teaspoons of Creole seasoning, thyme, salt, tomatoes, rice, Worcestershire sauce, broth, bay leaves, and Tabasco sauce. Stir in sausage and chicken.
- Turn Instant Pot to Pressure Cook/High (or Manual) for 7 minutes. Be sure valve is in "Sealing" position.
- Do a quick release and open Instant Pot. Do not open until the pin drops. Stir in shrimp, parsley, and green onions. Cover Instant Pot and turn it off. Let the residual heat cook the shrimp for about 8 to 10 minutes.
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Recipe adapted from Paint the Kitchen Red
You may like to also try this Slow Cooker Jambalaya. Watch the video below to see how to make it.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Love this recipe! We make it with less Cajun seasoning and no Tobasco because we’re wimps. For anyone wanting to try brown rice, 20 minutes cook time followed by 15 minutes natural release does the trick. (Followed by another 10-15 minutes of sitting while the shrimp cooks)
Loved it. Made it just as the recipe wanted. It was great. A bit spicy which we love. If you don’t want it as hot cut back on the hot sauce. I used Jasmin rice because that’s what we had.
I substituted cooked brown rice for the uncooked white rice, adding the cooked rice with the shrimp. My jambalaya was very tasty but came out too watery because it didn’t have uncooked rice to absorb liquid. Next time, I’ll drain the diced tomatoes and reduce the broth to 1 cup. The last instruction says to add “green onions”, but the ingredients list doesn’t include green onions.
Absolutely delicious!!!!
I have an 8 qt instant pot. I also did the layering of rice on top of meat with tomatoes on top of rice. No burn at all. Rice was not done when added shrimp so I left lid on for 15 minutes and still not done so put lid back on for additional 15 minutes and rice was done. Next time I will cook for 8-9 minutes but leaving lid on is a good option to finish cooking rice. I used Slap Momma for creole seasoning but was a bit spicy. We like spicy but was too much. So will either use less or something different.
I was looking at a similar recipe in an instant pot cook book. It wasn’t jambalaya, but it was a chicken, sausage, and rice dish. the recipe was designed for 6 qt, and the book said to add 50% to all ingredients. I am going to try that to see if it helps
Mine got the burn notice too had to switch everything to the stove top. Just wish when reading recipes it had a notice about either not using this recipe if your instant pot gets the burn notice or ways to go around that when making certain recipes I was super disappointed as I’m still learning how to cook with my instant pot.
It’s all about the mixing technique! Put the rice in LAST, after everything else is stirred together, and then give it a very gentle stir so the rice is all wet but stays on top, then seal and cook. Whenever I forget to do this it burns, but if the rice is on top it’s fine.
I made this today using chicken, sausage and bay scallops. I used brown rice and had to cook it slightly longer after I added the scallops. The result was quite a tasty meal and I will make it again.
I have some frozen cooked shrimp in the freezer.
Can I use that?
How did the frozen shrimp turn out? Thinking of doing the same.
Absolutely delicious! Perfect meal my husband loved it also. Only change I made was the only diced tomatoes I had was fire roasted so used them and left out the Tabasco. Perfect not to much heat just enough.
Can I double this in a 6 QT or do I need to bring my 8QT?
Just made this tonight for the first time in my 6QT – if you double it I would definitely go with the 8QT. 6QT might MIGHT hold it doubled, but it would be too close for comfort in my opinion.
The dish was amazing. I saw from previous posts about the dreaded “burn”. In my experience it’s usually from either not scraping the bits off the bottom or the tomato. I changed up the order and put everything in except the rice. Added it after the broth. Pushed the rice down just until it was covered in liquid. Don’t stir. Then put the tomatoes on top. Don’t stir. Came out perfect.
Made this and it was delicious! Based on all the comments regarding the rice and burn notice, I used already cooked brown rice and reduced the broth to 1 cup. Perfection!
I just cooked this last week and got the “burn” display as well. So disappointing.
I have wanted this recipe to turn out 3 times now.. (my daughter tried to talk me out of trying again) I have gotten the “burn” EVERY time! I even emptied the pot, scrubbed and oiled the pot before returning contents. Sooo disappointing. I am hoping to salvage on the stove as others have mentioned. If it doesn’t turn out, what a waist of ingredients! I am soo sad!! ☹️
I’ve made the recipe several times successfully. I did get the burn notice once before pot came to pressure— not sure what I did differently. My remedy was to dump the contents into my spare pot (for the instant pot; I have two) and restart the pressure cooking. Came out fine. Another time, my rice wasn’t cooked. I tried to turn on the instant pot for 2 more minutes but that didn’t work. I ended up dumping the instant pot to a stove top pot and let simmer for 10 min (like when cooking rice). I haven’t figured out what as different the two times it didn’t come out as expected, but both times I was able to salvage. (My guess for the under cooked rice is that I had to much chicken and sausage and not enough liquid).
Wow! Fantastic! I only had chorizo and it worked well. Also used riced cauliflower to de-carb it… again it worked well! Just hot enough and lots of flavor. A definite keeper.
I love this recipe, but could you please update the ingredient list to have the green onions listed as an ingredient? I made my shopping list and missed them since they are only mentioned in the last sentence.
Me again. Just made the Jambalaya exactly as the recipe said. No burning and the rice turned out perfectly. The prawns are now heating up and we are looking forward to our meal. Thank you.
I am making this tonight. I noticed that you add green onions at the end however there are no green onions in the recipe. How many do I use? I am just going to dice up 2 – 3 tonight and see how it goes.
I just add them for a little extra flavor and garnish. One or two is plenty.
I keep getting the burn error. 🙁
Have you doubled the recipe?