Things I Love: My Instant Pot

Kitchen gadgets seem to be a dime a dozen.  The next latest and greatest thing is always coming out and everyone jumps to buy it.  Within a few months, that gadget is relegated to the back of the cabinet in favor of something else.

This could not be further from the truth with my Instant Pot.  I got my Instant Pot for Christmas (thanks Mom and Dad!) and I have used it multiple times a week ever since.

The Instant Pot is basically an electric pressure cooker, but it’s got some additional settings as well that let you use it as a slow cooker, a rice cooker, and as a few other gadgets I never owned in the first place.  I had never owned a pressure cooker before, but I had heard good things.  I had a roommate who regularly used a pressure cooker to cook beans, and I knew it worked fast, but it was never something I thought I needed.

Then I started hearing people rave about the Instant Pot.  How fast and easy it was to use, how people were making delicious meals quickly.  How super easy cleanup was.  This all sounded awesome to me, so I started researching and decided that I needed one.

I was not wrong.

Now I’ll be honest – I’m not a fancy chef.  I don’t make anything super extreme in my Instant Pot, but it has made cooking a lot easier.

On a weekly basis, I use my instant pot to make:

Hard Boiled Eggs – Put the eggs on the rack, add two cups of water, cook on high for 2 minutes, let sit/depressurize for 15 minutes, then turn off and put the eggs into an ice bath

Sweet Potatoes – Potatoes on rack, 1 cup of water, cook on high for 10-12 minutes (depending on size)

Steel Cut Oatmeal – 1 1/4 cups oatmeal, 3 3/4 cups water, cook for 10 minutes

Some of my other favorite things to do with the Instant Pot are shredded chicken (including really easy BBQ chicken – anytime I can cook from frozen, I’m in) and I’ve even used it to make homemade chicken stock (using bones from rotisserie chickens).  I know plenty of people who have cooked whole chickens in their IP.  I haven’t gotten that far, but maybe over the winter.  I also really want to try making yogurt.

There are a ton of recipes out there using the Instant Pot, and I’m super glad I have one.  This isn’t any sort of a sponsored post, just me raving about something I use regularly.  When I’m in heavy training mode, finding time to put together healthy meals is tough.  It’s so nice to be able to just throw things into the IP and press a button.

And the best part?  The inner pot is dishwasher safe!  So easy!

Do any of you Instant Pot users have favorite recipes I need to try?

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