Kidney Friendly Chicken Risotto Recipe (Instant Pot!)

This kidney friendly chicken recipe uses simple, easy to find ingredients to create a comforting, delicious meal that works for the whole family.

What I Love About This Recipe

I make this recipe pretty frequently in my household for several different reasons:

1. This recipe is SO easy. You just throw everything into the pressure cooker, set it, and forget it. Not only that, but I frequently make this recipe using frozen chicken – so I don’t even have to think far enough ahead to defrost the chicken. I can just pull it out of the freezer and plunk it down into the water and rice, season, and cook. This is the perfect recipe when you’re not really in the mood to cook, but you want a warm, comforting meal ready for the family.
2. It is SO delicious. Plain chicken and rice is boring – and would normally require a lot of salt to make it palatable for most people. But adding in the seasonings not only allows you to cut back on salt (without sacrificing flavor), but they will fill your home with the most amazing aroma while cooking. The chicken comes out perfectly tender and juicy and the rice is creamy, savory, and downright addictive (at least in my house!).

Is chicken allowed in a kidney friendly diet?

People with chronic kidney disease (CKD) can certainly continue to enjoy chicken. Protein needs can vary based on kidney function, lab values, and other health conditions, which is why portion awareness matters more than complete avoidance. While including more plant-based proteins is a smart move for your health, even prominent kidney experts in nutrition aren’t advocating for a completely vegan diet. Focus on buying the right kind of chicken (no additives!) and choosing the right portion – which is easy to do in recipes like this.

Additionally, many people with CKD are cooking for more than just themselves – and not everyone at the table is ready to cut back on their animal protein. Flexible recipes like this one allow members of the family to choose what they want – maybe some people prefer a bit less chicken and a bit more rice. Maybe others want that bigger portion of chicken. The most important thing is ensuring that the recipe can work for more than just the “patient”.

Potassium in Chicken

Many people with CKD are surprised to learn that chicken is not considered a low potassium food. A four ounce chicken thigh comes in at around 310mg of potassium (and only 170 calories). Most potassium in the body is not found in the blood, but in the cells of the body. Muscle cells are a big storage site for potassium, so it makes sense that chicken meat (which is the muscle of a chicken!) would also have a lot of potassium.

The good news is that if you have chronic kidney disease (CKD), you may not need to worry about the potassium content of the foods that you eat. Many people with CKD do not need to restrict their potassium intake (and doing so can actually backfire in the long-run if you restrict when you don’t need to!). Be sure to talk with your healthcare team about whether you need to follow a potassium restriction.

If you are still concerned about potassium, or just want to avoid needing a potassium restriction as long as possible, please sign up for our free 5 day email course 5 Ways to Control Potassium Without Avoiding High Potassium Foods. We provide you with simple, actionable steps that you can take right away to better manage potassium – designed specifically for people who are not on dialysis. You can sign up below:

Kidney Friendly Ingredients

• Brown Rice – we chose brown rice for this recipe for a few different reasons. Brown rice tends to be higher in fiber as well as other important nutrients like magnesium. Although it is higher in potassium than white rice, it is still considered a low potassium food with only 154mg per cup (half as much as chicken!). Brown rice also takes a similar amount of time to cook as the chicken, which makes them a good pair for a one pot dish.
• Chicken – Even if you choose to only eat a small portion of the chicken, the juices help give the rice a richer flavor. Be sure to check the label on the chicken to see if is contains any added solution. Meat products are not required to disclose all of their additives, so sometimes even the raw versions can be higher in sodium, phosphorus, and potassium. For sodium, you can check the nutrition facts label. A 4 ounce piece of raw chicken thigh will naturally contain ~75mg of sodium. If your package has significantly more than that, it probably contains added salt (and potentially other additives that they aren’t telling you about!
• Seasonings – Herbs and spices are the key to enjoying delicious food that actually has flavor even though it isn’t loaded with salt. This recipe calls for some pretty common ones, too that you probably already have in your pantry: garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and Italian seasoning.
• Salt – Yes, I still use salt in my recipes. You don’t need to give up salt on a kidney friendly eating plan, but we do have to be smarter and more strategic about how we use it.

A word of caution with the garlic and onion: be sure that the labels say ‘powder’ and not ‘salt’. Many spice companies make garlic salt and onion salt that is most just salt. For this recipe, we want to focus on the garlic and onion flavor – without the extra salt.

Instant Pot Chicken Risotto Recipe

More Recipes

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