How to make delicious spicy rice like Nandos in the instant pot pressure cooker. This Portuguese savoury rice tastes amazing, is quick prep and you can also use the instant pot to reheat the leftovers.
You will love how easy it is to make your own Nandos spicy rice using any electric pressure cooker. Then serve it with your favourite peri peri chicken.
This is an updated post. We originally shared with you all about Nandos spicy rice in the instant pot in the summer of 2017. Today we have a better recipe with better tips and better photos and have upgraded our instant pot.
Spicy Rice
We have lived back in the UK for a year now after 13 years living in Portugal. Whilst it feels like the best decision ever to come back, there are still a few foods that I truly miss.
I loved the zucchinis, red peppers, and tomatoes the most. They were much bigger and better than the perfect looking small ones that I now see in the UK. I don’t know why the British supermarkets think I want a perfect looking tomato all the time?
And the other food I miss is the local café that we visited frequently.
This Portuguese café was all about simplicity and simple meals of the day at super low prices.
I think the meal of the day was less than £7 and included bread for starter, mains, dessert, and a drink.
Each time you had the main it was always served with fries and savoury rice. I loved the way you had the diced peppers in the rice with the peas and how delicious it was.
The meat would differ depending on what they had in and sometimes it would be lemon chicken, other times it would be a chicken fricassee. But you were always excited to see what was coming.
The Portuguese savoury rice we had at that café reminds me so much of spicy rice. Just that spicy rice has more of a kick to it. Though don’t think its overly spicy because it’s not.
Today, I am showing you how to cook Portuguese spicy rice just like Nandos in the instant pot pressure cooker. It’s so easy and you will love it for serving with your favourite chicken dishes.
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What Is Spicy Rice?
Spicy rice is a delicious slightly spicy savoury rice. It is spiced with peri peri marinade and that’s why most people call it peri peri rice rather than just spicy rice.
Also because of its familiarity with Nando’s it is often referred to as Nandos rice, Nandos spicy rice, Portuguese spicy rice, Nandos paella, or because of its veggies, vegetable spicy rice.
I like to think of Nandos spicy rice as paella meets savoury rice with a kick of peri peri.
If you like Nandos peri peri flavours and love savoury rice, then you will love this instant pot spicy rice recipe.
How To Make Rice Nice?
The secret to making rice nice, is to cook it in an electric pressure cooker. Whether this is the Ninja Foodi, the Instant Pot, or a classic multi cooker, it makes such a difference.
Whilst when you cook rice on the stovetop its so easy for it to fail, end up too sticky or dry out.
Why Make Spicy Rice In The Instant Pot?
OMG the instant pot is like a dream come true when it comes to cooking rice, especially brown long grain rice, which is what we are using in this spicy rice recipe.
You see, brown rice cooks easier in the instant pot and never fails. Plus, its better for you than classic white rice.
Also, brown rice in the instant pot can be mixed and matched with flavours to create the perfect rice.
For example, you can make instant pot Chinese fried rice, instant pot black beans and rice, instant pot turkey leg and rice and so many others.
Or best of all, if you want to enjoy peri peri chicken and rice, you can make our Ninja Foodi chicken and rice then add peri peri to the chicken as it cooks.
Nandos Paella
My favourite food from childhood (and adulthood too) is paella. I just love the mixes of flavours that make up a paella and have lost count of trips to Spain to enjoy a paella.
In fact, I love paella so much that I have made it several times in the instant pot and you can follow our instant pot paella recipe and we used the leftover seafood stock to make an instant pot paella soup.
If you do love paella and want to make a Nandos paella, then you can do this by adding in our Nandos marinade with the ingredients of a paella and create a delicious instant pot one pot.
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Nandos Spicy Rice Ingredients
Rice – I recommend for best results and for a healthier spicy rice that you use long grain brown rice. It is the easiest to cook and it tastes so good. We buy it in bulk and then can use it in lots of different instant pot rice recipes.
Veggies – You will need some veggies to make your spicy rice taste amazing. I recommend white onion, red pepper, frozen peas, and some garlic.
Stock – Then for stock because we are making Nandos spicy rice you will need some nandos marinade that you can mix with water for the perfect flavoured stock.
Seasoning – Then because this recipe for Nandos recipe is known for its Portuguese influence we are adding saffron, turmeric, and smoked paprika.
Extras – You will also need some extra virgin olive oil for sauteing the onion and garlic and red pepper.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this nandos spicy rice recipe it has just been our Instant Pot. We have this one and it’s my favourite and great for a lot of rice recipes.
Plus, we recommend you head over to our instant pot recipes category as we have many electric pressure cooker recipes and have been using instant pots for 5 years.
How To Make Spicy Rice?
- Saute. Place sliced onion and red pepper into the instant pot and saute with extra virgin olive oil. Press cancel and then stir in your garlic.
- Deglaze. Add in your peri peri stock and deglaze the instant pot. Add brown rice and stir.
- Cook. Place the lid on the instant pot, set the valve to sealing and pressure cook your Nandos spicy rice for 18 minutes, followed by a 5 minute natural pressure release.
- Finish. Do a quick pressure release and then stir in frozen peas and fluff up the rice. You now have spicy nando rice.
And I am sure you can see now how simple and easy it is to cook peri peri rice in the instant pot and why you should be doing the same.
Peri Peri Chicken & Rice
And don’t forget your peri peri rice tastes even better when served with chicken.
I recommend you try our air fryer nandos wings or air fryer nandos chicken. Both work very well with this rice and you can be cooking chicken in the air fryer whilst spicy rice cooks in the instant pot.
Then serve it together like this:
Slimming World Spicy Rice
If you are on Slimming World then spicy rice is ideal. There is only a small quantity of extra virgin olive oil in both the marinade and the spicy rice.
And beyond this, everything else is Syn Free.
Spicy Nandos Rice Tips & Tricks
- I like to make some Nandos marinade and then dilute it with water. Then its not too thick when going to pressure and adds a wonderful flavour.
- Saffron is optional but adds a delicious flavour. But can be replaced with extra turmeric.
- I recommend adding in a little cayenne. Because the instant pot dilutes the spice as it pressure cooks and otherwise it wont give you much of a spicy rice hit.
- We don’t chop the red peppers very small like you would if cooking on the stovetop. This is because as the red pepper cooks it shrinks.
- You can make ahead your nando’s spicy rice and then reheat it later.
- Note the ratio is 2 cups of brown rice to 2.5 cups of stock. We will show you in the recipe card below how to balance water with your Nandos marinade for best results.
More Brown Rice In Pressure Cooker
- Instant Pot Brown Rice
- Instant Pot Brown Rice Pilaf
- Instant Pot Spam Fried Rice
- Ninja Foodi Brown Rice
- Ninja Foodi Chicken & Rice
Your nando’s spicy rice recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.
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Instant Pot Spicy Rice
Ingredients
- 1 Small Brown Onion
- 1 Large Red Pepper
- 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 Tsp Garlic frozen chopped
- 4 Tbsp Nandos Marinade
- 236 ml Frozen Peas
- 472 ml Brown Rice
- Pinch Saffron
- 2 Tbsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 Tbsp Turmeric
- ½ Tsp Cayenne Pepper
Kitchen Gadgets
Instructions
- Slice your onion and cube your red pepper, making sure you get rid of the seeds.
- Load the onion and pepper into the instant pot and saute with a little extra virgin olive oil or until the onion has softened. Press cancel, add in the garlic and then sauté a little longer.
- Add 4tbsp of Nandos marinade with water until it reaches a volume of 2.5 cups (600ml). Add this to the instant pot and deglaze.
- Add in brown rice and all the seasonings and mix well making sure no brown rice is above the liquid.
- Place the lid on the instant pot, set the valve to sealing and pressure cook for 18 minutes followed by a 5 minute natural pressure release.
- After releasing the remaining pressure add in the frozen peas and fluff up the rice as you stir. Then your nandos rice is ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!
I only have easy cook brown rice, will this work the same please???
regards
Ann
Hi Ann,
Yes you can use brown rice but with us not testing it it might cook slightly quicker than white rice 🙂
What is Nandos marinade? This rice sounds delicious!
Hi Gail,
Nandos marinade is just the name we give this marinade as it is just like the marinade they use over at Nandos 🙂
For clarification (I live in the U.S., but I am a big fan of Portuguese cuisine),
1. Does “200 Risotto Rice” mean 200 grams of risotto rice?
2. Is the “red pepper” a red bell pepper (very mild)? If not, what other name might the red pepper be called? About how many grams would be the equivalent of ¼ red pepper?
3. Are the Parsley, Coriander, and Thyme all fresh herbs?
Hi Kathy,
Number 1 is a yes. As is number 2 it is a red bell pepper. You could use fresh herbs and sometimes we do but on this recipe we used dried herbs in the little jars.
Thank you for your comment.
Kind Regards
Sam