Using the Instant Pot

[Time2re]

I'm going to try this recipe/method for frozen chicken breasts in my IP.

https://fitfoodiefinds.com/instant-pot-chicken-breast/

If it works that would be a huge win because it's so simple (that I'm not even convinced it'll work). Then again I can never cook meat (especially chicken and steak) without it turning dry. Last time I tried making shredded chicken following a recipe in the IP book I got to finish it alone over the next 3 days...if that tells you how it turned out lol

I make shredded chicken frequently. I add a couple of tablespoons of the pot juices after shredding with a mixer. Very moist, but needs lots of spices.

 

[dvalley]

I make shredded chicken frequently. I add a couple of tablespoons of the pot juices after shredding with a mixer. Very moist, but needs lots of spices.

Now which kind of pot are we talking about here?

 

[Pellice]

I like Indian food, and using my pressure cooker (Instant pot equivalent) really cuts the time and mess. I can brown the meat/chicken, remove to a plate, fry to onions, add the ginger, garlic and spices, and whatever else the recipe calls for, purée with a stick blender, then add the protein back in, pressure cook fo a few minutes, add finishing ingredients, and I’m done.

Cooking cauliflower is a cinch. Hard-boiled eggs (there’s a whole thread on this topic) are amazing.

How do you cook a cheesecake in an instant pot? Wouldn’t the crust be mushy?

I have some reservations about the saute function. The surface area is too small for much browning proper, and the two saute settings do not allow for much fine-tuning, which matters for some things. And if you add all the time spent, including the pressurizing and depressurizing, does it really save time? But I do use mine a lot!

 

[AnneG]

...

How do you cook a cheesecake in an instant pot? Wouldn’t the crust be mushy?

They sell a 7" springform pan that fits inside the instant pot on top of the trivet. You cover the top with tin foil to keep the condensation from getting it wet. It actually works pretty well. I always use a nut crust instead of a graham cracker one and the crust was fine - not mushy at all.

 

[audreyh1]

I have some reservations about the saute function. The surface area is too small for much browning proper, and the two saute settings do not allow for much fine-tuning, which matters for some things. And if you add all the time spent, including the pressurizing and depressurizing, does it really save time? But I do use mine a lot!

I have had terrific results browning in the instant pot using the sauté setting and I have three levels of control.

You have to do things in batches, depending on the recipe. For stews I follow the good advice of dadcooksdinner.com and brown just on one side to save time. For larger pieces of meat like lamb shanks I brown on most sides.

Here is an example of the lovely browning on a piece of chuck roast in preparation for pot roast in the IP.

 

[W2R]

I use mine almost every night. […] My favorite meals are […] baby-back ribs

Thanks for the suggestion!!! I cooked baby back ribs in my Instant Pot for dinner last night, and they were amazingly good. I never would have thought of cooking them in my Instant Pot so thanks again.

I get my meat from butcherbox dot com. They send a fairly random selection of meats, but lately they have included ribs in every box. I never normally cook or eat ribs (not my kind of food!!). So, I didn't really know what to do with them and they were stacking up in the back of my freezer. I have five packages of them stacked up in there by now. Anyway, now I know what to do with them. They were so surprisingly delicious when cooked in the Instant Pot. So tender, fall-off-the-bone tender as they say.

I didn't use any BBQ sauce or other sauces or ingredients because I don't like BBQ plus I am working hard on weight loss. They were still fabulous and satisfying. Much to my surprise, this morning my weight is down another pound too. The calories were not as high as I had thought they would be.

 

[walkinwood]

...I have found the "natural release" to take twice as long as advertised. Supposed to be a maximum of 25 minutes for most items; mine goes much longer than that, 50 minutes yesterday. I'm going to check the valve, but it doesn't look clogged.

I had a similar experience last week when I made brisket in the instant pot. I released the steam after 15 minutes of natural release and was surprised at how much steam came out. It went on for almost a minute! This was the first time that's happened to me. Usually, after 15 minutes, it splutters a bit and is then done.



It shouldn't depend on the pressure valve or any other valve since pressure reduces because the cooker & contents cool down. The pot was quite full and that may be the cause.



I've used a stove top pressure cooker for years and it takes about 15-20 minutes to lose pressure after turning off the heat.


At first, I was skeptical about the instant pot. The selling point for me (to use it - DW bought it) is that I don't have to monitor the flame & turn it down to maintain pressure & then turn it off at the exact time. The deep pot also keeps oil from soiling the stovetop when sauteeing, but that's true in a stove top pressure cooker too. Once I get it started, I can walk away and wait for it to be done. If I'm not there at the exact time, it doesn't matter that much except for delicate items.



IMHO, pressure cookers are a waste of time for delicate items unless they somehow taste better or have a better texture when cooked under pressure.

 

[fosterscik]

Thanks for the suggestion!!! I cooked baby back ribs in my Instant Pot for dinner last night, and they were amazingly good...
...I didn't use any BBQ sauce or other sauces or ingredients because I don't like BBQ plus I am working hard on weight loss. They were still fabulous and satisfying. Much to my surprise, this morning my weight is down another pound too. The calories were not as high as I had thought they would be.

Glad you enjoyed them!
One of the benefit of the recipe is the ease with which you can modify the spices and seasonings. I use the rub in the Dad's recipe but I make my own variation of the sauce used at the end. Like you I avoid sugary things so I eliminate the brown sugar, honey etc. in most recipes. In this case I eliminate the honey, keep some ketchup (I know, lots of sugar in that ) and add sriratcha.

 

[DFDubb]

Wish I could find a way to like the IP. I bought one after reading people constantly praise them on sites similar to this one. After a year or so, my thoughts are meh. A couple of things I've made were decently good, but most have been lackluster at best. Tried making baby back ribs once and they just came out like a weird lump of rib meat (think mcdonalds rib sandwich). I'm no slouch in the kitchen by any stretch, but this thing has gotten the better of me. It's about to become a soup only making machine.

 

[W2R]

Glad you enjoyed them!
One of the benefit of the recipe is the ease with which you can modify the spices and seasonings. I use the rub in the Dad's recipe but I make my own variation of the sauce used at the end. Like you I avoid sugary things so I eliminate the brown sugar, honey etc. in most recipes. In this case I eliminate the honey, keep some ketchup (I know, lots of sugar in that ) and add sriratcha.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[dvalley]

I'm going to try this recipe/method for frozen chicken breasts in my IP.

https://fitfoodiefinds.com/instant-pot-chicken-breast/

If it works that would be a huge win because it's so simple (that I'm not even convinced it'll work). Then again I can never cook meat (especially chicken and steak) without it turning dry. Last time I tried making shredded chicken following a recipe in the IP book I got to finish it alone over the next 3 days...if that tells you how it turned out lol

I tried this and it worked! Next time I'll up the cook time to 13mins instead of 12mins because the thick part of the breast was a hint crunchy but frozen to cooked in less than 20 mins is awesome!

 

[W2R]

Wish I could find a way to like the IP. I bought one after reading people constantly praise them on sites similar to this one. After a year or so, my thoughts are meh. A couple of things I've made were decently good, but most have been lackluster at best. Tried making baby back ribs once and they just came out like a weird lump of rib meat (think mcdonalds rib sandwich). I'm no slouch in the kitchen by any stretch, but this thing has gotten the better of me. It's about to become a soup only making machine.

I have been a little perplexed by mine too, but I am getting into it gradually. One thing that helped me was looking at youtubes of people showing how they cooked various things in the Instant Pot. I have gone from just staring at it, to using it maybe 3 times a week.

I have never tried soup in it yet! I can tell that I have lots more to try and experience. I do love homemade soups.

Here's what I like about the Instant Pot:

(1) My favorite thing about the Instant Pot is that it won't burn the house down if I forget about it for a few hours by mistake. I am (sometimes) a little drifty and tend to get distracted easily if something interests me, just like my late mother. I need to plan around that.

(2) I also like that I don't have to do anything once it starts, so I can just sit by it and play my video games or whatever.

(3) Finally, I like that cleanup is such a breeze.

 

[Another Reader]

I tried this and it worked! Next time I'll up the cook time to 13mins instead of 12mins because the thick part of the breast was a hint crunchy but frozen to cooked in less than 20 mins is awesome!

I tried it too. Browned the frozen chicken, added onions, carrots, and garlic and some low sodium chicken broth and cooked for 13 minutes. Used the natural release, less than 15 minutes. I might try cooking 12 minutes next time, as the chicken was slightly dry. Fine for chicken salad or any other use requiring cut up or cubed cooked chicken, and the flavor is excellent.

The 6 quart I have does have one issue, a hot spot. Things tend to stick there and once something stuck and burned to the pot. Did not wreck the dish I was preparing, but I keep it in mind now.

 

[gromit]

For people that have Facebook accounts, there's a group with 500,000+ members for "Instant Pot Recipes Only". For this group every post must include a recipe. Many of the posts are along the lines of "here's a link to a recipe I liked, or I changed this linked recipe a little and like it better my way", etc. I don't read the group frequently, but if I want to see new ideas for say a chicken dish, I can search the group for "chicken" and then read through a bunch of chicken recipe posts.

 

[dvalley]

I tried it too. Browned the frozen chicken, added onions, carrots, and garlic and some low sodium chicken broth and cooked for 13 minutes. Used the natural release, less than 15 minutes. I might try cooking 12 minutes next time, as the chicken was slightly dry. Fine for chicken salad or any other use requiring cut up or cubed cooked chicken, and the flavor is excellent.

The 6 quart I have does have one issue, a hot spot. Things tend to stick there and once something stuck and burned to the pot. Did not wreck the dish I was preparing, but I keep it in mind now.

I followed the recipe exactly so I didn't brown the chicken first. I also did the quick release so as to not overcook it. Turned out almost perfect for me. The broth it made (I just used 2 tablespoons of water, salt and pepper) was also very tasty

 

[audreyh1]

I never thought I'd make oxtail stew. But DH went crazy over it in Andalusia (Rabo de Toro). So I found a Spanish recipe and adapted it to the instant pot, figuring the pot would do a good job of cooking all that gelatinous tissue around to bone. Sure enough - it came out great. DH was really pleased.

 

[AnneG]

Wish I could find a way to like the IP. I bought one after reading people constantly praise them on sites similar to this one. After a year or so, my thoughts are meh. A couple of things I've made were decently good, but most have been lackluster at best. Tried making baby back ribs once and they just came out like a weird lump of rib meat (think mcdonalds rib sandwich). I'm no slouch in the kitchen by any stretch, but this thing has gotten the better of me. It's about to become a soup only making machine.

It definitely takes some adjustment - I had more fails than successes at first, but after a fair amount of experimentation, I've figured out what works and what doesn't. The ones that work come out far better than my other cooking methods. One of my favorite things to do is cook a russet potato for about 10-15 minutes (depending on size) and then put it in the fridge overnight. The next morning, I take it out, peel it and grate it on a big box grater and it makes diner-worthy hash browns. Making hash browns from raw potatoes is messy and difficult, but these turn out amazing!

 

[audreyh1]

It’s interesting that people have had difficulty finding recipes that work in their instant pot. I pretty much just went for recipes that I knew would benefit from long cooking or pressure and used them. I’ve rarely been disappointed and at most had to adjust some times. I do tend to research a recipe fairly heavily online to minimize timing screwups.

I also found a few sites that gave great tutorials like hippressurecooking.com. These gave me good ideas of which recipes and techniques to favor.

 

[caninelover]

I don't have an instant pot as I don't want another countertop appliance, but I do have a small (2.5 qt?) stove top pressure cooker that I use on weeknights for salmon, chicken, brown rice. I am cooking for 2, so the small size is perfect, and it gets to pressure quickly. Salmon and chicken breast is done in about 5 min (including the time to get to pressure), brown rice in about 20 min. Love it.

 

[Fedup]

I think instant pot might be a good thing when I’m getting older. In fact, I often cook with a crockpot for that reason. I often worry we accidentally leave the stove on. Fire avoidance.

 

[AnneG]

It’s interesting that people have had difficulty finding recipes that work in their instant pot. I pretty much just went for recipes that I knew would benefit from long cooking or pressure and used them. I’ve rarely been disappointed and at most had to adjust some times. I do tend to research a recipe fairly heavily online to minimize timing screwups.

I also found a few sites that gave great tutorials like hippressurecooking.com. These gave me good ideas of which recipes and techniques to favor.

I agree. There are tons of recipes out there and several Facebook groups too. I do a lot of research too and am finally getting to where I don’t have to look up things I have cooked multiple times. However it’s frustrating when you do need to cook something you're not familiar with and you get so many different times! I usually cook rice on top of the stove because we only cook 1/2 cup at a time, but today I needed to cook a cup and a half for a recipe my husband was making and times were all over the place! I went with 4 minutes with a 10 minute release and thankfully it was just fine but some recipes called for 10 minutes - way too long!

 

[Pellice]

Using a recipe

I just attempted a multi-step recipe tonight rather than a one ingredient steam - but again I had mixed feelings. The recipe was chicken breasts with mushrooms, and it involved browning the chicken breasts, removing them, then sauteeing onions, garlic, etc., adding back the chicken breasts, sprinkling mushrooms on top, and pressure cooking. It was ok, but not as extraordinary as the recipe claimed - and the mushrooms would have been better had they been sauteed at the beginning rather than sprinkled over the chicken at the end as the recipe instructed. The chicken was probably overcooked, but it's in a sauce over rice, so not that noticeable.

Nor did I think it saved time or effort, as part of the recipe called for stirring the onions during the saute part. And it took just as long.

BUT, it saved cleanup time for sure. I just put the pot into the dishwasher.

I am determined to learn to love the Instant Pot. I will keep trying for the best use. It may simply be one ingredient items like cauliflower.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

We're using it less than hoped but we do use our IP a few times month. It's likely due to us needing to find the right meals we want to cook in it and practicing/experimenting to identify what works best to our liking.

We probably should have gone for an 8 quart too instead of the 6 quart because we're used to our dutch oven size and make leftovers for the week.

 

[W2R]

I must guiltily admit that I used my 3 quart Instant Pot to defrost a very hard frozen ribeye last night. I had forgotten to set it out to defrost. Anyway, the Instant Pot just seemed easier for that than the microwave. Easier than the microwave? I must be insane to say that. But it was.

Knowing nothing, and being too lazy to Google it, I put the ribeye on steam for 7 minutes. That is probably utterly wrong for 57 reasons but despite that it worked beautifully.

After defrosting it in the Instant Pot, I grilled it on my countertop electric grill so that it had pretty brown grill marks on it and was thoroughly cooked. Oh, was it ever good..... give someone on a weight loss diet a freshly grilled ribeye and watch it vanish faster than lightning....

 

[Pellice]

I agree. There are tons of recipes out there and several Facebook groups too. I do a lot of research too and am finally getting to where I don’t have to look up things I have cooked multiple times. However it’s frustrating when you do need to cook something you're not familiar with and you get so many different times! I usually cook rice on top of the stove because we only cook 1/2 cup at a time, but today I needed to cook a cup and a half for a recipe my husband was making and times were all over the place! I went with 4 minutes with a 10 minute release and thankfully it was just fine but some recipes called for 10 minutes - way too long!

AnneG, what kind of rice? I use regular white long-grain rice, and it wouldn't even be edible at 4 minutes. I go for 16! Is it some kind of quick-cook rice or short-grain rice?