Instant Pot Shrimp Orzo is ONE POT DISH done in 30 MINUTES! Orzo with Shrimp is the most mouthwatering combination, pressure cooked only for 3 minutes. It’s a traditional Mediterranean recipe made in your pressure cooker!
Instant Pot Shrimp Orzo is simple, healthy and hearty meal, with lots of Mediterranean flavor as well as many health benefits. It’s a saucy dish, fragrant with parsley and dill herbs. It’s easy to make, but incredibly delicious and destined to elicit serious finger licking.
Perfectly cooked Tomato and Shrimp Orzo is just bursting with juicy goodness and is so easy to cook when using your Instant Pot. Only 3 minutes of cooking on high pressure manual mode with quick release method at the end.
What is Orzo?
ORZO is a type of pasta, shaped like a large grain of rice. It’s adaptable in many dishes, and delicious warm or cold.
Why make Instant Pot Shrimp Orzo
- SHRIMP alone here is excellent source of vitamins and minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper, iron, niacin, phosphorus, selenium, vitamins A, D, K and B12.
- FETA. Made of goat’s milk, feta is another good source of calcium and potassium. Feta like every dairy product can improve the bone health significantly.
- PARSLEY can reduce the risk of cancers such as breast, digestive tract, skin and prostate. Parsley contains high levels of a flavonoid called apigenin. Not only does apigenin possesses remarkable anti–cancer properties, it’s also a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.
- DILL is a good source of calcium, manganese and iron, and as an antioxidant food. Its flavonoids provide anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties that can kill fungus and protect against free radicals.
Instant Pot Orzo Troubleshooting Checklist
- Are you preheating the Instant Pot WITHOUT adding oil first? If you add oil from the beginning the oil can burn to the bottom.
- Do you add enough oil once the pot is hot? If not enough oil is added, it can easily burn to the bottom.
- Are you frying your onions and garlic ONLY until translucent, not stuck to the bottom?
- Do you deglaze after sautéing onions and garlic? Deglazing removes brown bits getting stuck to the bottom of the pot which will cause BURN warning.
- Did you take out your chicken stock out of the fridge ahead of time to allow it to come to room temperature? If cold water hits the hot pot more water evaporates immediately after adding.
- Are you bringing your chicken stock and tomatoes to a boiling point? This will allow the IP to come to pressure faster.
- Do you add all ingredients swiftly and immediately put on the lid? Doing things quickly avoids water evaporation, which in turn will cause rice to stick to the bottom and cause BURN warning.
How to make it
- Set Instant Pot to Sauté mode and add olive oil.
- Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until softened and translucent, about 3 minutes.
Make sure to deglaze the pan with a splash of water or chicken stock to avoid anything getting stuck to the bottom of the pan as that may cause BURN warning. Now add the tomatoes and chicken stock and bring to a boil.
- It’s important to ensure that the liquid reached boiling point.
- Stir with a wooden spoon to ensure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pan.
These two steps will ensure that IP will come to pressure fast enough without orzo getting stuck to the bottom of the pan.
ADD ORZO to the tomato mixture.
Next, add all the fresh dill and parsley. Lots of amazing aroma there! Mix them well in to the sauce and orzo.
Now it’s time to add shrimp.
FETA CHEESE. Followed by feta cheese on top of the shrimp. Close the lid, set to Manual, 3 minutes, High Pressure.
Once done, use Quick Release to release pressure.
Instant Pot Shrimp Orzo is done!
How to store leftover Shrimp Orzo
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Keep in mind that the orzo will soak up some of the sauce so it will need extra liquid when reheating. Simply add a little bit of water, or broth. If you get a chance to try this tomato orzo recipe, let me know what you think in the comments.
Delicious instant pot recipes
And if you cook with Instant Pot as much as I do, take a look at these recipes with easy to follow instructions:
- Instant Pot Cajun Chicken and Rice
- Instant Pot Spaghetti in Homemade Meat Sauce
- Instant Pot Spatchcock Chicken with Mustard Crust.
Instant Pot Tomato and Shrimp Orzo
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Two 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, (with their juices, sodium free)
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoons fresh dill
- 1 ¼ pounds medium shrimp, (peeled and deveined)
- ¼ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
- ⅔ cup feta cheese, (crumbled or cubed)
- 1 ¼ cup chicken stock, (sodium free)
- ¾ cup orzo
Instructions
- Set Instant Pot to Sauté mode and preheat before adding any oil. Add olive oil, and then the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, until softened, and translucent, about 3 minutes. Deglaze with a splash of water or stock to prevent anything getting stuck to the bottom and BURN warning.
- Next add the tomatoes and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Stir to make sure nothing is stuck to the bottom.
- Add orzo, dill and parsley and mix well.
- Next shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Add feta cheese over the top.
- Set Instant Pot on Manual High Pressure for 3 minutes.
- Once done, use Quick Pressure Release to avoid overcooking orzo and shrimp.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only. This information comes from online calculators. Although whatsinthepan.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
My favorite way to eat shrimp now!
How long does the tomato mixture take to come to a boil using saute?? i watched it for 10 minutes and it never boiled, so i just moved on. It still came out great but curious if i didn’t wait long enough.
I used highest mode – it’s called “more” mode on my IP of “Sauté” function, but on my IP sauté runs only for 8 minutes and I have to press it again to keep it hot. Not sure if the Sauté function runs the same way on your machine or not.
I made this tonight, and got a burn notice twice. The orzo went to the bottom and stuck. I opened the pot and tried to scrape the bottom a little the first time and then tried it again. It never reached pressure and then gave the burn notice again. I finally took the lid off, turned it to sauté and finished cooking the orzo. I know that pasta can be tricky but would love to know if there’s a secret to keeping this from happening. It was delicious and i would love to make it again, but would love to make it without the orzo sticking. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Here my questions to be able to pinpoint any issues: What is the size of your IP? Are you preheating it WITHOUT adding oil? If you add oil from the beginning the oil can burn to the bottom. Do you add enough oil once the pot is hot? Are you frying your onions and garlic ONLY until translucent, not stuck to the bottom? Do you deglaze afterwards? Do you bring the tomatoes and chicken stock to a boiling point before adding chicken and orzo? If cold water hits the hot pot more water evaporates immediately after adding. Do you add all ingredients swiftly and immediately put on the lid on to avoid water evaporation?
I used my 8 quart Duo for the recipe. I turned the pot to saute and waited 1 minute or a little more before adding the oil and then waited close to another minute before adding the onion and garlic. I cooked them for maybe two minutes and then realized that I needed to peel my shrimp, so I turned the pot off while doing that. When I turned it back on, the onions and garlic were not stuck to the bottom. Since there was nothing stuck I did not deglaze the pot. I waited until the tomatoes, etc. were boiling before adding the chicken broth and orzo. I stirred the broth and orzo, then added the shrimp on top and cheese and put the lid on and started the pressure cycle. I really tried hard to follow the instructions exactly as written. The only thing that comes to mind is the orzo dropped to the bottom of the pot, but I don’t know how to avoid it, unless I try not stirring it in, but I’m unsure as to why it didn’t happen when you made it.. I researched in a couple of Facebook groups and found where a few others had made the recipe and saw that others had gotten the burn notice too. As I said, we loved this and hope to make it again, but hope to figure out the reason for the burn notice. I so appreciate your help!
I used 8 quart Duo for this recipe as well – identical to yours and yet produced a different result. Based on what you described, those were my steps as well. Interestingly enough I also have a rice recipe I made in the same IP where others got Burn notice and I didn’t.
How can I alter this for frozen shrimp? Thanks!
You don’t have to alter anything. Using frozen shrimp means that it will take a little longer for your IP to come to pressure than if you were cooking with fresh shrimp, which will make overall cooking time longer, but no change to the instructions is necessary.
Have you tried this with beef or pork? And how would you adjust the recipe?
I didn’t but I did try pork with noodles which would be similar. If you use pork, then cook on high pressure for 7 minutes and then let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. I hope it turns out well!
This is really good and I’ll make it again, but with prep work it’s definitely more than 15 minutes!
Oh my, I will update the recipe card. Thank you for making it!
I added slightly more broth to it Delicious !
Can you substitute the feta cheese with another cheese? We don’t like feta
Ricotta would be the best option.
I got cooked shrimp??? What do I do? Wasn’t thinking
Would this recipe work in a 3quart instant pot?
Yes, it will. I had feedback from other readers that it worked also in 6 quart and 8 quart pot.
I got a burn notice in the 3 Quart Pot.
Oh:( That’s good to know about 3 quart one. Thank you for being so specific.