120 Best 5 Ingredient Instant Pot Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is best to cook in Instant Pot? ›

When you close the lid and set the desired cook time the Instant pot will look like it's not doing anything. Don't worry. In a few seconds it will beep and the display will say ON. It will say ON until the pot comes to pressure and then the timer will start counting DOWN.

To ensure proper pressure build-up and cooking performance, never fill your cooker more than two-thirds full, and for foods that expand during cooking like grains and rice, aim for only half full. Be careful with your liquids: Pressure cooking typically uses significantly less liquid than traditional cooking methods.

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.

While an Instant Pot cooks food faster than the conventional stovetop or oven, its inner pot undergoes a preheating cycle of 10 to 15 minutes, allowing the unit to pressurize properly before food is added.

While the burn notice on the Instant Pot can be alarming, it doesn't always mean your meal is ruined. Release the pressure quickly, check for malfunctions, and add more liquid if needed, scraping the bottom. To avoid the burn notice, include at least a cup of liquid and deglaze the pot after sautéing.

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.

The 6-quart Instant Pot (in any series) is the most popular size by far, and it's the one we recommend for most folks. It offers plenty of capacity for weeknight dinners, soups and stews, a pot of beans, or even a whole chicken, yet it doesn't take up a crazy amount of counter or shelf space.

How long is 8 hours in Instant Pot? ›

Generally, if your slow cooker meat, soup, or stew recipe calls for 8 hours on the low setting or about 4 hours on the high setting, it should be fully cooked in about 25 to 30 minutes in the Instant Pot. For chicken or turkey, use the 15-minute poultry button.

It takes about 5 minutes for the cooker to come up to high pressure, 5 minutes to cook the eggs, and then 5 minutes of natural pressure release before removing the eggs from the cooker—hence the "5-5-5" method.

Using too much liquid.

Adding too much liquid can leave you with a finished dish that lacks flavor, or a sauce that's too thin. Follow this tip: While at least 1/2 to 1 cup of liquid is essential to well-cooked food in the pressure cooker, too much liquid will pull the flavor out of foods.

Stackable Instant Pot recipes: these are designed to be stacked and cooked together at the same time in the same pressure cooker! These balanced pairings all include one dish cooked in the main pot, along with another “Pot in Pot” (“PIP”) dish cooked in a secondary vessel or steamer basket.

Ease of use: Air fryers are good for beginners, while Instant Pots have a learning curve. Price: Although both are quite affordable, Instant Pots offer better value for the money because of their versatility.

Slow cookers cook food at a lower heat for a longer period of time, whereas Instant Pots have multiple cooking functions, including ones for rice and grains, sauté, and pressure cooking, which is used to cook food at a higher heat for a shorter period of time.

The key benefit of a traditional pressure cooker is that it can deliver a higher pressure than all but the most expensive Instant Pots, so it cooks even more quickly: where most Instant Pots deliver a maximum pressure of 12psi, traditional pressure cookers can go up to 15psi.