100 Best Fall Instant Pot Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Is it cheaper to cook with Instant Pot? ›

An Instant Pot or slow cooker could save you some serious dough on your monthly energy spend. Cooking food low and slow (often called braising) is the best way to get tough, cheaper cuts of meat fork-tender and full of flavor.

The Instant Pot Duo Plus 8-Quart Multi-Use Pressure Cooker, V4 had a nearly perfect score for easy use, and it didn't falter in any other category, either. The control panel was straightforward, with the preset buttons and status updates making it simple to get the cook we needed with the pot's guidance.

An Instant Pot is not going to plan your meals and make everything in 9 minutes start to finish. It's really easy to over-steam your veggies and it's not any faster on THAT task. But. There are many advantages to pressure cooking that can't be beat.

A: A 6-qt instant pot only really draws about 850 watts until it builds pressure. After that the power shuts off and only intermittently runs for maybe 30 seconds every few minutes after that.

The average lifespan of an Instant Pot ranges from 2-5 years, but it can last longer depending on how often it's used and how well-maintained it is. So it's safe to say Instant Pots aren't commonly being replaced, and may even be a one-time purchase.

Best Cuts for Your Pressure Cooker/Instant Pot

You can cook any cut in a multi-cooker, but we recommend those from the chuck and round.

Instant Brands, the company that makes the Instant Pot (as well as Pyrex, Corelle, and a few other product lines), announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2023. But that doesn't mean the company is going under, and for now it hasn't affected the availability of the Instant Pot.

The recall was announced on March 1, 2018 for the “Instant Pot Gem 65 8-in-1 Multicookers” after at least 107 reports involving overheating, including 5 incidents that caused property damage. The problem is caused by a manufacturing defect that allows that cooker to overheat and melt on the underside of the unit.

Benefits of a 6-quart Instant Pot: The 6-quart (and new 6.5-quart variation) Instant Pot is the most popular size for home cooks, as most recipes are written for that size. Generally, a meal cooked in a 6-quart model feeds three to six people.

What's the first thing I should cook in my Instant Pot? ›

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.

It is safe to cook frozen food in a pressure cooker because it uses pressure to move food through the "Danger Zone" quickly. As a result, you don't run into the issues that you would find by cooking frozen food in a slow cooker, where it can stay too long in the Danger Zone and could become unsafe.

The invention of the Instant Pot not only made cooking times literally half of what they used to be but also created new ways you can cut down on your monthly food budget as well. Cooking with the Instant Pot is a great way to cut costs and save even more money than you ever thought possible.

Slow cooker

Slow cookers are among the kitchen's most energy-efficient appliances. Although they take longer to cook food, they're rated at as little as 200 watts – less than a tenth of some electric ovens.

If you're looking to save counter space or don't want to spend a lot of money on separate appliances, then an Instant Pot could be worth the expense. However, if you're only going to use one or two functions of the Instant Pot, it's worth considering if separate devices would be more cost-effective.

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.