25+ Easy Instant Pot Recipes
Whether you just purchased an Instant Pot or you’ve been using one for a while, you’ll love this collection of over 25 Easy Instant Pot Recipes! You’ll find recipes for Instant pot pulled pork, white chicken chili, mushroom risotto and more! If you’re wondering if an Instant Pot is worth having, this post also covers pros and cons and frequently asked questions to help you learn more about this amazing appliance!
I’ll never forget the pressure cooker that my mom had when I was growing up. It made me afraid to use one until I got to cooking school, which is where I fell in love with pressure cooking.
The pressure cooker that I owned back then was difficult to clean, however, which took the fun out of using it for me.
When the Instant Pot came on the market, I was completely intrigued. It took a while for me to purchase one because I already owned a pressure cooker, but once I finally did there was no going back.
It is so user friendly and so easy to clean that it instantly became one of the best purchases I’ve made.
It does everything my old pressure cooker did so much better, and it does a whole lot more including cooking rice, slow cooking, making yogurt, etc.
There is nothing this wonderful appliance can’t do, and this collection of over 25 Easy Instant Pot Recipes will prove that.
If you don’t own an Instant Pot and are wondering if it is right for you, be sure to check out the the Instant Pot pros and cons, as well as frequently asked questions below.
Table of contents
Instant Pot pros
There are so many pros to owning an Instant Pot — it’s truly one of the best appliances I’ve purchased.
- It cooks food in a fraction of the time. Recipes like pulled pork and beef stew cook up in about an hour as opposed to 3 hours or more.
- Hands-off cooking. Unlike cooking on the stove top or the oven, there’s no need to keep an eye on the Instant Pot. Just set the timer and walk away.
- Flavor, flavor, flavor. The steam is sealed inside the Instant Pot, which means that the flavor of your food will be intensified.
- It is a multi cooker. It browns and sautés food, it steams eggs and fish, it cooks rice, makes yogurt and of course it’s a slow cooker as well.
- It’s extremely safe to use. Many people that I talk to are a bit anxious about using a pressure cooker. That said, the Instant Pot is the easiest and safest pressure cooker I’ve ever used. It has built-in safety features, so if you follow the instructions carefully you should not have any issues.
- Easy clean up. The Instant Pot is extremely easy to clean, and is also dishwasher safe. This includes the stainless steel inner pot, lid, sealing ring and steamer basket.
- It cooks food without heating up the house. There’s nothing worse than cooking over a hot stove top or turning on the oven on a hot day. The goods news is that the Instant Pot makes it possible to cook and keep your house cool!
- It cooks food from frozen. You can easily cook recipes like shredded chicken using frozen chicken breast. Note: the cooking time will be longer and the frozen chicken breasts must not be stuck together.
- You use less water or liquid. My Instant Pot mashed potatoes are the perfect example as all you need is a cup of water as opposed to filling an entire pot.
Instant Pot cons
There are many advantages to owning an Instant Pot, and only two disadvantages as far as I’m concerned.
- Additional cooking time. The biggest disadvantage is that when you’re cooking something in the Instant Pot that cooks fairly quickly, such as this Instant Pot chicken and rice, you have to account for 10-15 minutes extra for the Instant Pot to come to pressure, and 10 more minutes to naturally release the pressure. This turns a 25 minute cook time into a 45-50 minute cook time. However, if you’re cooking something that normally takes hours, you are still saving time!
- Storage space. The only other disadvantage to owning an Instant Pot is that it takes up storage space. If storage is tight, you may feel that it isn’t worth having one more appliance. However, if you own a slow cooker, you could definitely consider replacing it with an Instant Pot because it does have a slow cooker feature.
FAQs
The Instant Pot is an electric multi-cooker that nearly does it all. It is a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker and more.
The Instant Pot does it all. There’s no longer a need to have a separate slow cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker, etc. as the Instant Pot covers all of these bases.
This device is even better than a slow cooker as it provides a way to brown food using the Sauté mode before slow cooking instead of doing it in a separate pot on the stove top. This was a huge selling point for me!
It’s extremely convenient, and it cooks meals like black beans or short ribs in a fraction of the time compared to the stove top or slow cooker. One of the best parts about it is that it provides a hands-off way to cook. Simply set the timer and walk away!
I recommend purchasing the Instant Pot Rio 6-quart (which replaces the Instant Pot Duo). It’s large enough without being too large. It has all of the functions you need (maybe more than you need), without being overly complicated.
25+ Best Instant Pot Recipes
This collection of best Instant Pot Recipes are nice and easy, and perfect for beginners and those with lots of practice using this great appliance as well. It includes everything from black beans and brown rice in the Instant Pot to beef stew and mushroom risotto!