Every day, individuals are faced with numerous decisions that shape their behavior. The factors influencing these choices are multifaceted and encompass a range of considerations. Immediate needs and desires often play a significant role in action selection, guided by the value of the outcome. However, it is crucial to recognize the impact of environmental stimuli. For instance, stimuli associated with food can not only direct us toward nourishment but also trigger cravings, even in the absence of hunger. To uncover the role of the rat insular cortex (IC) in stimulus-guided actions directed towards obtaining food outcomes, we used the Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm. Given the well-established role of IC in encoding and tracking general and specific outcome-expectancies, and its critical contribution in choice guided by specific-outcome values, we hypothesized a role of the IC during the PIT transfer test where actions are influenced by reward-predictive stimuli. Using chemogenetics, we demonstrated that IC inhibition during both general and specific transfer tests abolished the ability of Pavlovian reward-predictive stimuli to energize instrumental responding, and to specifically bias action selection towards the same outcome as the presented predictive stimulus, respectively. These results demonstrated for the first time the critical role of the IC in stimulus-guided choice, encompassing both the general motivational properties acquired by Pavlovian stimuli and their ability to specifically bias action selection towards specific outcomes. Moreover, preliminary results suggest that the latter may critically depend on an intact cortico-thalamic pathway involving the mediodorsal part of the thalamus. In conclusion, we provide the first evidence that the GC is required for both general and specific forms of PIT, with the latter depending on an intact cortico-thalamic pathway.