Cooking with the Instant Pot – Is It Really Quick?
When you hear people talking about the Instant Pot, they always talk about how quick it is. It cuts down the time needed versus a slow cooker and gets meals ready in an instant. Well, there’s a little more to say on the topic so that if you are considering starting cooking with the Instant Pot, you fully understand what it is all about.
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Understanding how Instant Pot works
Now before we start, I’m an Instant Pot fan for a whole range of reasons. And even when I explained that it is quick but maybe not quite as quick as people portray, I would still 100% recommend it to you, especially if you already have a couple of things like a slow cooker, pressure cooker or a steamer.
Let’s start with the steamer side of things as that’s where cooking with the Instant Pot needs a little planning. When you steam something, you set it up with the LED for the length of time you want to cook – but it does take a bit longer. This is because it takes a bit of time to build up the steam before it cooks for the set period.
The other thing to remember is that when you are ready to serve the food, you need to release all that steam. There are two ways to do this – Quick Release and Natural Pressure Release. The quick release takes about 4-5 minutes where the natural release can take around 20 minutes. Remember with the natural release, the food is still cooking too.
So, while it might take just 12 minutes to thoroughly cook vegetables to my Mum’s standards (and that’s very well done) it takes around half an hour at least to do the whole process. Easier than the old pressure cooker we had and a whole lot less noisy!
Using it as a slow cooker
To use the Instant Pot as a slow cooker, you do want to invest in the separate glass lid. It fits perfectly and means you can easily stir the contents, add more liquid and test to see how things are cooking.
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The slow cooker is definitely a big benefit to cooking with the Instant Pot for me. We had a slow cooker (or crockpot if you like) for years and it took years to cook. A dish that took four hours in the old cooker will take 1.5-2 hours in the IP, no problem. And it has the adjustable settings between low, standard and high in the same way that slow cookers do.
It is also worth getting another stainless steel inner pot for the IP when you are making slow cooker dishes. If you want to steam some veg to go with it, it is helpful to have another pot to swap in to do this. Of course, you can also slide your slow cooker dish into a casserole dish and pop it on low in the oven and reuse the same pot!
Other settings
There are lots of different functions on the Instant Pot and I’ll admit I haven’t used them all yet. So, I’m relying on info from others to help out here!
- Sauté – you can sauté meat or other ingredients using this function without any lid on the pot. Adjust it once for browning and twice for simmer
- Soup – high pressure cooking for soups for a standard 30 minutes but can be adjusted up or down by 10 minutes
- Meat/Stew – high-pressure cooking for meat and stew dishes such as casseroles for a standard 35 minutes than can be adjusted
- Bean/Chilli – designed to cook beans or chilli dishes on high pressure for 30 minutes but can be adjusted
- Poultry – cooks chicken on 15 minutes at high pressure but can be adjusted up to 30 minutes
- Rice – low pressure cooking for white or parboiled rice for 12 minutes (use natural pressure release then let it out after 10 minutes)
Cooking with the Instant Pot
While cooking with the Instant Pot might not be quite as lightning fast as some people portray, it is definitely quicker and easier than other options. The multifunctional design is another thing that appealed to me when we bought it – we got rid of an old steamer, a pressure cooker, a crockpot used for soups and a slow cooker.
It does take a little getting used to when cooking with the IP but the learning curve is well worth it for me! And to help inspire you here’s a Quick Leftover Chicken Pizza to show you how easy it is to do!
Quick Leftover Chicken Pizza
Turn that cooked chicken into a simple pizza with your Instant Pot
Ingredients
Instructions
- Spread spaghetti sauce inside cooker pot. Place chicken breasts on top of sauce. Set pressure cooker to high for 10 minutes.
- While chicken is cooking, heat oven to 350F, lay out pizza dough on pan.
- Quick release the steam then shred the chicken.
- Spread chicken evenly over dough. Sprinkle cheese over top of chicken. Bake at 350% for 10-12 minutes or following instructions for dough or until crust is crisp and browned
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