21 Easy And Comforting Instant Pot Recipes To Try This Winter (2024)

FAQs

What is the best first thing to cook in an Instant Pot? ›

When it comes to breaking your Instant Pot in, it's a good idea to start with some basic foods and simple meals you're already familiar with, then slowly expand your Instant Pot repertoire from there. Try making staples like eggs, sweet potatoes, rice, or lentils using just the pressure cooker function.

Instant Pot comes with an owner manual and recipe book.

It is safe to cook frozen food in a pressure cooker because it uses pressure to move food through the "Danger Zone" quickly. As a result, you don't run into the issues that you would find by cooking frozen food in a slow cooker, where it can stay too long in the Danger Zone and could become unsafe.

Con– The Instant Pot uses steam under pressure to cook food and not everything is meant to be cooked in the Instant Pot. I attempted a crustless quiche which turned out well but it was too wet and moist to my liking and I prefer to cook it in the oven with dry heat.

Foods containing dairy, like milk, cream, or yogurt, should not be pressure-cooked. The high heat and pressure can cause dairy products to curdle or separate, ruining the texture, taste and flavour of the dish. Cooking fried foods is a strict no no, when it comes to pressure cookers.

You can still pressure cook leaner pieces – like eye of round and top sirloin – but these work best if they've been stuffed, shredded or rolled (with other ingredients). Best cuts of beef to use: Chuck steak, Round Roast, Shoulder, Pot roast, Ribs, Brisket, Oxtail.

Your Instant Pot. A trivet. A sling (you'll need aluminum foil) An oven safe dish (like Pyrex or a Springform pan)

Under different ownership after last year's bankruptcy, the popular multicooker is no longer part of the appliance conglomerate that owns Pyrex and Corelle.

If you are interested primarily in slow cooking, you should buy a dedicated slow cooker. They're more reliable with a range of slow-cooker recipes than an Instant Pot. We found Instant Pot multicookers specifically could not successfully slow-cook dense, high-volume recipes such as beef stew or pot roast.

How full is too full for Instant Pot? ›

Every pressure cooker manual has an “Important Safeguards” section at the beginning that says a pressure cooker should not be filled with food and liquid more than 1/2 full when pressure cooking beans, grains and rice (or “foamy” foods) and no more than 2/3 full for cooking anything else.

Also, an overly-full Instant Pot can lead to a clogged pressure release knob, because food and liquid can get sucked up inside. To stay on the safe side, don't fill your pot over that two-thirds line, and stay below half full for foods that expand while cooking, such as beans and lentils.

Unless otherwise specified in the recipe, you'll need just enough liquid (usually water or broth) to bring the cooker to pressure. The Instant Pot manual suggests 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups, depending on the size of the cooker.

Instant Pot Duo Plus 8-Quart Multi-Use Pressure Cooker

Easy to clean and super straightforward, this appliance is suitable for beginners and pros.

✔️ Size: There are three different sizes of Instant Pot: 3-quarts, 6-quarts and 8-quarts. The most popular — and the one favored by our Lab and test kitchen pros — is the 6-quart option.

First, you must add liquid to the Instant Pot before cooking. Without sufficient liquid, pressure won't build — and you'll likely get the dreaded “burn” error. Unless otherwise specified in the recipe, you'll need just enough liquid (usually water or broth) to bring the cooker to pressure.