20 Easy Instant Pot Recipes

The instant pot has been a game-changer for making food in a pinch – and if you have one, you know what we mean! It’s never been easier to throw a bunch of food in a pot and set it cooking while you do some quick busy work. Dinner is ready soon, so there’s not an excuse anymore! The crockpot has been great, but we’ll focus on easy instant pot recipes in this article.

The instant pot works similarly to a crockpot but is far more versatile. It does the job of multiple kitchen appliances, including electric pressure cooker, rice cooker, saute or browning pan, warming pot, and of course, slow cooker.

It can replace one or all of those appliances, so you’ve got room to open up your kitchen! Sound too good to be true? It isn’t. The instant pot is the real deal!

Before using your instant pot, read through the instruction manual - there are lots of buttons and dials and numbers. You’ll want to know what they all mean before you go on and start using your new appliance. We’ll cover those topics as well as putting frozen meats in the pot and other dishes that you may not have thought of cooking in an instant pot.

Pinterest has a plethora of easy instant pot recipes. We’ve grabbed some of our favorites and some of the best recipes we think you’ll love. From chicken noodle soup and white rice to beef stroganoff, ribs and chicken alfredo, you can make so many delicious recipes. But before we dive in, you’ll need an instant pot. You can’t go wrong with this best-seller from Amazon. It has over 73,000 reviews!

Now, sit back, relax, and let us take you on a tour of the best recipes for your instant pot!

What is the best food to cook in an instant pot?

What’s the best food to cook in an instant pot? They can cook almost anything that is usually cooked in a slow cooker or crockpot, but are also used for several other dishes. We’ll start with instant pot chicken recipes. You won’t want to miss these.

Chicken Instant Pot Recipes

Chicken is one of the easiest meats to make in an instant pot and it’s insanely easy to meal prep it, too! It’s ideal for fast and easy dinners, especially on crowded weeknights when you have places to be and people to see. You can make them frozen, but you’ll just want to cook them a little bit longer.

There are many different instant pot chicken recipes, but this recipe is the easiest for meal prepping salads, protein bowls, and more!

It’s really simple: chicken, chicken broth, and salt. You can replace chicken broth with water if you would like and also add additional spices to flavor the cooked chicken even more.

The whole process will take about 30 minutes: around 10 minutes for your instant pot to heat to the correct temperature and a max of 15 minutes cook time. Finally, add up to 5 minutes resting time to release the pressure, depending on how juicy or dry you like your chicken.

Here’s some instant pot recipes we think you’ll love!

Soups and Stews Instant Pot Recipes

You’ll love cooking up soups and stews in an instant pot so much so that you may not ever cook them on the stove top again! These dishes are super easy to make in an instant pot. Cook them in large batches for a family dinner or for leftovers for the next few days in the winter. Chicken noodle soup on a brisk winter day is great comfort food!

Most soups also freeze pretty well – my mother always froze our homemade split pea and ham soup. Then, you have leftovers if you’re ever cooped up at home for long periods of time. Or if you’re running short on time, you can defrost it in a regular pot in 15 to 20 minutes.

And here are two instant pot recipes that you can cook in under 30 minutes!

Beef, Ribs, Pulled Pork and Red Meat Instant Pot Recipes

Slow cooked barbecue ribs can’t really be beat, let’s be honest with that one. There’s nothing like firing up the barbecue at 9 am for an 8-hour slow cooking feast….but if you’re living somewhere with cold months, the call of ribs may come….and you can do them justice in an instant pot!

Cooking ribs, beef, pulled pork, pot roast, and other red meats in an instant pot is easy, should you know how to do it correctly. The general rule is to make sure you base your time off of how many pounds of meat you’re cooking! Here are some of our favorite instant pot beef recipes.

Can you put frozen meat in an instant pot?

Yes. In contrast to slow cookers, instant pots thaw meat quickly. Slow cookers will leave your meat in what’s called the “danger zone” between 40º and 140º F for a longer period of time than instant pots, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. The “danger zone” is the range of temperatures where bacteria grows most rapidly.

One great feature of instant pots is that, unlike slow cookers, they are manufactured with a built-in pressure cooker. It still takes longer to thaw out and cook frozen food than to cook defrosted food, but the instant pot can do the job.

Here’s a helpful video on how to defrost your frozen meats in an instant pot.

Rice and Potatoes Instant Pot Recipes

Sure, you can use a rice cooker to make rice, but when you have an instant pot, you go with the instant pot! This is an easy way to make sure your rice is cooked thoroughly and it takes the guesswork and pain out of making rice in a stovetop pot.

Mashed potatoes are also super simple in an instant pot, too – they make for great comfort food. For homemade potatoes, simply peel them, cut them into round circles, and put them in the instant pot with the appropriate amount of water and salt.

Once they’re done cooking, drain them, add the rest of the ingredients to make your favorite mashed potatoes, and use a potato masher or an electric mixer to really whip them up!

Pasta Instant Pot Recipes

Yep, you can cook raw, uncooked pasta in an instant pot. You can even make your own homemade pasta sauce while you’re making the pasta in your instant pot. And you can do macaroni and cheese. Do we have you hooked now?

Chicken alfredo, parmesan chicken pasta, mac and cheese, spaghetti and meat sauce….it’s all cooked in the instant pot. We’ll share some of our favorites below for you to try. If you’re thinking you can’t eat all the food made in one sitting, don’t worry - these work great as leftovers for busy weeknights, too!

Check out these pasta recipes from Olena Osipov on ifoodreal.com. She puts out some amazing pasta recipes that are truly delicious - and she makes it all look so easy, too!

What kind of dishes can go in an instant pot?

There’s a large variety of instant one-pot meals that you can make just by tossing all the ingredients into the pot and letting the instant pot do its work! We’ll cover some of our favorite one-pot meals ahead.

What can you not cook in an instant pot?

This list is much shorter and is probably pretty self explanatory as to why these meals or dishes cannot be cooked in an instant pot.

Most of these are either baked items or barbecued items that either won’t cook right or won’t cook the same. Let’s be honest, flame barbecued steak is not going to taste the same in an instant pot, and who would do that in the first place!

Creamy sauces are often avoided in an instant pot, mainly because of the dairy content. The sustained high heat and pressure can cause milk and cheese to curdle and clump together, if you add the dairy before your food is done cooking.

Take a look at this recipe on how to cook broccoli cheese soup, for example. Notice how she cooks the broccoli first, before adding the cheese.

Fried chicken, burgers, steaks are a few other meats that shouldn’t be cooked in an instant pot. Sure, steak in a pot roast is fine, but you won’t get the same taste or texture you get from barbecuing it.

Same with burgers and fried chicken – burgers won’t have the same flame, char-broiled taste they have when done on a barbecue and fried chicken may become soggy. An instant pot will likely take more time rather than less on these dishes.

Finally, we’re onto desserts. Some desserts can actually be made in an instant pot, including apple crisp, but cookies and pies and other baked goods will not flourish – they need hot, dry heat. Plus, trying to fit these into an instant pot will be difficult!

Thanks for stopping by our article on the best easy instant pot recipes. Hopefully you can add some of these to your repertoire.

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