Do you have an instant pot? If so, which one? Do you use it a lot? Worth the $$?
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I have the one below and LOVE it. We use it almost daily. There are a bunch of recipes for it on skinnytaste and we also use it to make hardboiled eggs, steam potatoes, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-IP-DUO60-Multi-Functional-Pressure/dp/B00FLYWNYQ
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I just used mine for the first time last night! I made a whole chicken in there! I'm excited to try more recipes!
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I have the same one. We don't use it every day, but often enough that I think its worth it. We use it to steam, cook, make eggs, etc.
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All the time. I have the 6 qt 7-in-1 and it makes life so much easier. Last night at 9:30pm I realized DH and I didn't have anything to bring for lunch today and I whipped up (delicious) peanut chicken in 20 minutes.
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I have the same one @SKINNYCOW: linked, and it is one of my most used appliances! I use it several times a week.
It is not as "fast" as I initially thought it'd be because it takes time to build up pressure, but I love how you can set and forget it instead of watching over the stove.
Things I've made recently:
- Japanese Curry
- Spaghetti and meat sauce
- Bone broth
- Pho
- "Boiled" eggs
- And all kinds of soupsMy favorite thing about the instant pot is that it has a saute feature. This is great for one pot meals because you can brown/saute meats, before pressure cooking it. Or at the end of pressure cooking, you can turn on the saute feature, and it will reduce sauces or boil down soups to make the flavors more enhanced and flavorful without needing extras like cornstarch to thicken things up. Obviously I'm a huge fan, lol. It's wonderful!
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Got one last Black Friday and it's awesome! While I don't use it because I don't cook, DH uses it all the time. Such a life saver with 2 young kids. We were never into crock pots, but we use IP all the time!
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@Mrs. High Heels: How do you make japanese curry in the IP? Do you saute the vegetables first? Do they turn out too soft?
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I got the 6 quart on Black Friday. I've easily used it 2x a week. It's great for cooking anything that's frozen as well as tenderizing meat. Think of it as a 4x faster croc pot.
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I've had the same one for a few weeks and have been experimenting with it and it's fun! Lots of tasty recipes to try. Im using it tonight too!
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I have the same one linked above. I bet I use it 4-5 times a week. It's awesome to set it and forget it when you have two LOs! Also awesome when you suck at planning ahead and all of your meat is still frozen at 4 pm.
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@Pumpkin Pie: I followed this recipe - http://www.justonecookbook.com/pressure-cooker-japanese-curry/. You do saute the onions and garlic, but the rest of the root vegetables and chicken you just throw into the IP, along with the curry cubes (make sure they're sitting on top of everything, and don't mix it in until after the instant pot is done cooking). It's seriously so good, and no the vegetables came out perfect. The flavors just meld together better and it had a more smooth, velvety texture versus the stovetop way.
P.S. I did not add ketchup or soy sauce like the recipe calls for.
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I don't use mine for much (have the 6 qt, 7 in 1), but for the things I do use it for, I love it. I will never brown ground meat on the stove ever again, throw it in frozen and it's done in about 45 minutes. Same with chicken I want to cook and shred, throw it in ,done. I mainly use it for shredded chicken, ground turkey, hard boiled eggs and yogurt. Just for those things, I think its worth it. I also got it on Black Friday for a good price.
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@Mrs. High Heels: thanks! I've been wanting to make japanese curry in the IP, but didn't know how. I'm going to try this.
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Ok, so I really want an IP but I don't know if we would get enough use out of it. We have a slow cooker but we nevvvvver use it, mainly because I don't like the texture of the meat in it and I feel like everything sort of tastes the same (wet and soggy).
Is the IP like this too? Thanks!
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@QBbride: I've had this issue with a lot of things from the instant pot. I am not a fan. That being said, I think it's useful for other stuff like perfect hard boiled eggs and cooking grains and beans and stuff like that. So I've heard; I lost my cord! I ordered a new one, I am gonna try to figure out recipes that work for me!
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@mrsbubbletea: thanks! That makes me want to pass. I just can't stomach that kind of texture!
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@QBbride: on another thread like 4 bees "came out of the closet" on not loving the instant pot and it made me feel so much better! I mean I had already bought one, so not that much... I told my sister after my replacement cord comes if I don't like it after giving it a good try, I'll give it to her.
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I have one. Not super impressed with it. I found it wasn't the major time saver advertised and most of the recipes I tried turned out watery. I gave it a good shot (doing 2-3 recipes per week over about a 6 week period) but it's been sitting in my pantry for 6 weeks untouched now.
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following as i have one but haven't used it yet.
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I have one, but haven't played with it too much yet. I've made a whole chicken twice and it was good. I made Nom Nom Paleo's kalua pig in it last weekend and omg was that delicious! It was more tender than pork I've done in the crockpot, and it makes a ton so we've had it as pulled pork with BBQ sauce and as carnitas in tacos this week (crisped in a frying pan for carnitas).
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I just got one a couple weeks ago and I have used it so much already! Like @Mrs. High Heels: said, it isn't quite as fast because it does take time to build pressure and then depending on the recipe you have to let the pressure release for a few minutes. That said, I take a freezer crockpot meal bag and put it in when I get home from work, and then make rice afterwards in the IP, and the whole thing takes 45-ish minutes. For me, that's totally worth it because I'm the WORST--seriously, the worst--at remembering to put something in the crock pot in the morning before we leave for school & work. I can get home at 5:30 and have everyone eating by 6:30. And it would be faster if I wasn't doing rice after the main dish. I think some people to a pan in a pot thing to cook rice at the same time, maybe, but I haven't branched out into anything like that yet. We also made steal cut oats for breakfast which was super fast and yummy.
Not going to lie, though, I made boiled eggs in it for the first time last night, and I think it literally changed my life. It isn't any faster than making them on the stove, but they peeled perfectly. That never happens for me, and I feel like I lose so much egg and then they're ugly on top of that. I'm not sure why the IP makes it so much easier to peel, but I'm a convert.
Oh, and I have the same one as the first link.
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I really want to get one of these!!
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@MsMini: I'm kind of where you are. I've made somethings that have been good in it- oatmeal, black bean soup (straight from dry beans), a beef curry recipe was pretty good. But I'm struggling with it in other areas. There is something off on the slower cooker function from a normal slow cooker. Need to do more digging, it either runs hotter or colder. Can't figure it out. So my slower cooker stuff has not come out as well as it did in my normal slow cooker. Also a lot of the "instant pot recipes" floating around I've tried I haven't been that impressed by (flavor wise). And I haven't figured out how to adjust other (yummy) recipes perfectly to the instant pot yet. So lots of watery or overcooked things because I rarely follow recipes to the T. I usually am doubling or maybe 1.5x. Also, it's not that big of a time saver to me. Sure it could do a roast in 20 min but it takes awhile to come to pressure and then awhile to wait for the pressure to release naturally. The rice I did in it was very good but it sure didn't save any time. Still struggling with loving it so far. I do want to try doing some yogurt in it. It was amazing for the black bean soup though lol- dry beans in and soup 40 min later. Did a good job with steel cut oats and oatmeal. So the meat and pasta have been the tricky areas for me.
But since things need time to come to pressure and then release I've found myself preferring the slow cooker (because it's already done when I get home). I'm about to go back to my old slow cooker because I can't figure out WTF is wrong with the slow cooker setting on this one.
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@QBbride: @mrsbubbletea: I feel the same way about meat in the crockpot, but I've had really good luck with the instant pot so far. I usually cut my meat up (usually chicken) into smaller pieces so it cooks faster/more evenly. Boneless chicken breasts cut in chunks only seem to need about 8-10 min on high pressure, depending on whether you do quick or natural release. I think 8 min on high and then ~5 min on natural release keeps it the most moist for me.
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@kes18: I've never used the slow cooker function, but wondering why you would use that function over the normal pressure cooker? I've done braised chicken and braised beef in the IP, manual high pressure and I thought they came out much better than in the slow cooker.
I also had trouble with the watery consistency, but someone else here suggested putting in saute mode after the cooking is done. Its worked for me the few times I tried that.
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@Pumpkin Pie: I was trying to use it as a slow cooker to save counter space (put my slow cooker in the basement). You could use the pressure setting but by the time I got the stuff ready, brought it to pressure, released, and then still had to finish (shred or whatever) it would be a good 30-45min sometimes to do all that. With slow cook it's already done when I walk in the door- just shred. So it seems the slow cooker would be faster in this case. So saves me 30-45min since it's cooking while I'm at work. I could set it to delay and then do pressure but then it'd be sitting out all day and a health hazard.
So I'll probably just go back to my slow cooker for most things. I was reading online and it seems that a lot of people have issues with the slow cooker setting. Since it heats only from the bottom and a slow cooker heats from all sides they weren't getting similar results. Seems to be my issue as well. I do like the pressure for slow cooker chicken recipes since I find that chicken burns easier in the slow cooker. Pork and beef is pretty much impossible to screw up in the slow cooker. So I may just go back to my slow cooker for that stuff and then use the IP for chicken or other recipes. Definitely want to try the yogurt, although I can't eat yogurt right now but I really want to make some for my 3 year old since she eats it every day.
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I've also had bad luck with the slow cooker function. Glad to hear I'm not the only one - I thought I might just be overlooking something obvious. It works wonderfully as a pressure cooker, though.
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I love my IP but you have to know what you're getting yourself into and what it does really well. I also hate the slow cooker functions so I have kept the other slow cookers that I have. As others mentioned, if I just used it for hard boiled eggs, rice, and chicken stock, I would consider it worth it. Seriously, the best chicken stock I've ever made and in less than 2 hours. I can also make risotto in less than 20 minutes. Just about any soup recipe comes out amazing. I bought an extra liner so that on my really hard core batch cooking days, I can have my 2 crock pots going along with multiple things cooked in the IP. Yogurt does take time but it is so easy and my kids used to love it (when they used to eat yogurt.
)There really is a learning curve in using it though when it comes to cooking meat. There can some times be a small margin for error, especially when it comes to cuts that aren't that fatty. But overall, I've had a lot of success.
One thing to note, I've seen the complaint that food comes out watery or bland. I think that's the same case with the crock pot too. You can turn the saute function as someone mentioned to reduce the "juice" or thicken it with a slurry. I always find that you need to add acid at the end of cooking to brighten the flavor. I use a lot of red wine vinegar, lime/lemon juice etc. at the end of all of the recipes that I cook in there.
And I agree that the name Instant is possibly a misnomer since things do take time to come to pressure and I hate that recipes never seem to factor that in. But I think the great things is that it's basically hands off once everything is in there. I don't need to babysit it and can get other things done while I wait for it to be done.
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For some reason 8 quart is currently cheaper than the 6 quart: https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-IP-DUO60-Multi-Functional-Pressure/dp/B00FLYWNYQ
Does anyone have the 8 quart version?
)Reply
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