This Jamaican Rice and Peas has all the delicious flavors of the traditional Caribbean side dish, but is quickly cooked in the pressure cooker! Have this easy coconut rice ready to eat with your favorite protein and Jamaican sides in less than 30 minutes.
By using canned peas (kidney beans), we're able to pressure cook this twist on Jamaican peas and rice in just 6 minutes. Perfect to make for Sunday dinner or any night of the week when you need something filling and flavorful.
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Ingredients
- Coconut milk. Use full-fat coconut milk from a can or homemade coconut milk. Please do not substitute lite coconut milk or coconut milk from a carton. These varieties of coconut milk are too watery and won't bring enough richness to the dish.
- Kidney beans. If this is your first time making rice and peas, you may have expected this recipe to include green peas. Beans are called peas in Jamaican cooking and this traditional coconut rice dish is almost always prepared with kidney beans.
- Thyme, garlic, and scallion. In Caribbean cooking, thyme, garlic, and scallions are referred to as the trinity of spices. It is important to use fresh ingredients for the best flavor.
- Scotch bonnet. Scotch bonnet peppers on their own are incredibly spicy. You'll get additional savory flavor without the heat by pressure cooking a whole, uncut pepper in the rice.
See the recipe card below for the remaining ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions & Variations
- Ginger substitute: Use ½ teaspoon ground ginger in place of the fresh ginger.
- Substituting the Scotch bonnet pepper: Use serrano pepper, habanero pepper or even a chili pepper in place of the Scotch bonnet pepper if needed. The flavor won't be an exact match, but it is better than leaving the heat out altogether.
- Using dry kidney beans: If you are cooking your beans from scratch, be sure to do so before starting the recipe and pressure cooking with the rice. Ideally, cook and cool the peas before starting so the peas do not overcook in the Instant Pot.
Instructions
Drain the kidney beans and rinse them and the rice thoroughly with cool water. This will help remove the excess starches to help make the rice not stick together. Shelly rice is a popular term in Jamaica to describe this type of "flaky" rice.
Step 1: Add all ingredients to the Instant Pot. Make sure that all of the rice is submerged in the liquid to help it cook through evenly. Secure the lid, set the valve to seal and pressure cook at manual high pressure for 6 minutes.
Step 2: Remove the pepper and fluff the rice with a fork. Make sure all the spices are evenly distributed before serving.
Sarah's Top Tips
- Before cooking, give the rice and peas a good stir and mix in the spices. This will make for the most balanced flavor. Be careful not to burst the scotch bonnet or your peas and rice will be very spicy.
- Remove the lid when the rice is fully cooked. If you leave the lid on, the rice will keep cooking and be soggy.
- Easily freeze cooled leftovers in an airtight container or freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months.
Serving
Serve Jamaican peas and rice with jerk chicken, curry chicken, pork, fish, and more.
More Instant Pot Recipes You May Like
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below-I'd love to hear how it turned out! THANK YOU!
Instant Pot Jamaican Rice and Peas
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Ingredients
- 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
- 1 cup long grain white rice, rinsed
- 1 stalks of scallions, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 1 Scotch bonnet pepper, whole
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
- 1 (13.5 ounce) can full fat coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning
Instructions
- Begin by draining the beans and washing the rice.
- Add all of the ingredients to the Instant Pot. Set the valve to seal and cook for 6 minutes at high pressure. Allow the pressure to naturally release for about 10 minutes then switch the valve to manually release the remaining pressure.
- Remove the scotch bonnet from the Instant Pot and fluff the rice with a fork.
- Serve immediately.
Sarah's Tips
- Before cooking, give the rice and peas a good stir and mix in the spices. This will make for the most balanced flavor. Be careful not to burst the scotch bonnet or your peas and rice will be very spicy.
- Remove the lid when the rice is fully cooked. If you leave the lid on, the rice will keep cooking and be soggy.
- Easily freeze cooled leftovers in an airtight container or freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months.
Tools I Use for This Recipe
- Cutting board
Allaya says
I should have listened to my gut here -- cooking rice in nothing but coconut milk doesn't work so well. In the instant pot, it resulted in my rice and peas scorching/burning on the bottom of the pot, so it couldn't ever come to pressure. In Thailand, we mix the coconut milk with water to prevent this from happening. I guess I'll try again in my rice cooker
Sarah Hill says
Hi Allaya, so sorry to hear this recipe didn't work for you. I would be happy to help troubleshoot as I have tested this recipe multiple times with and without water.
Rose W says
What size I’d canned beans is used?
Sarah Hill says
Hi Rose, 15 ounces. I just added it to the recipe card, sorry for the confusion!
Sarah M says
Delicious flavor and easy. seemed like too much liquid though, my rice turned out a little bit gummy. I don't know if you could just omit the water, or if it would be better to cut back a smidge on the coconut milk. But either way, my family loved it and I would definitely make it again! I substituted a habanero for the scotch bonnet since those are not available where I live.
Sarah Holt says
Hi Sarah, thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you and your family enjoyed the flavor of the rice. I will retest the recipe by adjusting the amount of liquid and change the recipe as necessary.
Sarah Holt says
Hi Sarah, I just retested this recipe without the water and it came out great so I edited the recipe to remove the water. I hope you make this again and let me know how it turns out next time 🙂
Naquisha Larks says
Hi Sarah,
I was wondering if when cooking the Jamaican rice and peas do we just let it pressure cook for 6 minutes on low pressure after it heats up or do we actually gave ti press the rice setting on the instapot and set it for 6 minutes on low pressure?
Sarah Hill says
Hi Naquisha, I realized there was a typo in the recipe card and I just fixed it. You cook it at high pressure for 6 minutes after it heats up. I don't use the rice setting for this recipe. Let me know if you run into any issues, I am always open to feedback and retesting recipes 🙂