Seeking: Instant Pot Recipes

So I’ve had an Instant Pot for several months now, and have mostly used it to make hard-boiled eggs, oatmeal, and artichokes. (Not at the same time! 😆 ) BTW, it does all of those brilliantly.

But I’d like to start using it to make actual meals. The number of cookbooks and recipes out there is just overwhelming. My friend Karen recommended this cookbook, which does have some tempting recipes, and I’ve bookmarked a couple to try.

I’m looking for some additional recommendations for cookbooks or recipes that aren’t totally meat-centric (chicken and fish OK) but aren’t too starchy either. Ideally not a bazillion ingredients, especially those that require a trip to a specialty grocery. Not too spicy. And gluten-free (for Jeune Homme) a bonus.

So Instant Pot aficionados out there…what are your favorites??

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64 Comments

  1. will be following this….so far this has turned into a really expensive hard boiled egg machine….granted they ARE perfect everytime, but still……i tried mac ‘n cheese -didn’t love it, tried a chicken breast and actually throw it out it looked so disgusting that i didn’t even try to eat it….FYI l cook for 1 so bought the smaller one

  2. I have several Instant Pot cookbooks but my favorite is Dinner in an Instant by Melissa Clark. She does a little bit of everything – there is an extensive meat chapter but also good sections on seafood, beans, soups, and vegetables, even desserts. The thing that I think makes this book stand out is that the recipes are new, interesting in and of themselves – it’s not just the same old stuff you’ve made before re-worked for the Instant Pot.

    1. I’m here to second the Melissa Clark suggestion! She actually has two Instant Pot cookbooks, and everything we’ve made from them has been delicious! Our neighbors were the ones who suggested we buy the IP, and one night they brought theirs over and made brisket while we made a batch of baby potatoes and then another batch of Brussels Sprouts. Everything was great, and while I think I have a top-notch brisket recipe, I actually likes Melissa Clark’s better. I’ll go so far as to say the Instant Pot has changed my life, if only because my husband loves it so much (if we’re being honest, he also has a thing for Melissa) that he’s started to cook! 🙂

      1. I’ll third that vote for Melissa Clark’s first IP book. Got it for my son and he loved it too. He and his fiancée have used it to cook a big batch on the weekend and then freeze a couple portions for a quick defrost dinner during the busy work week. The recipes are dependable and interesting, like coconut curry chicken or Moroccan chickpeas and kale.

  3. I’ve found this is a better pressure cooker than a slow cooker. I bought it to replace my 50 year old pressure cooker which I only used to make beef stew. The IP was an adequate replacement. Kept my old slow cooker, which I love.

  4. When I first got one it sat unopened in the box for about 3 weeks; I now use mine all of the time. Whatever recipe you want to make just google it and include Instant pot. Many will come up. I don’t have a cookbook. I bought an Instant pot for each of my adult children and they both consider it one of the best gifts ever. I do keep it simple. Nothing complicated.

  5. I learned a few things when looking at cookbooks for my IP. There is a big difference between “pressure cooker” and “Instant Pot” recipes. Not the ingredients, but the process. Unless you’re a real expert with the IP you just can’t take any pressure cooker recipe and make it work. And, I found some of the cookbooks for IP’s lacking in good recipes. But, I found one book that should have been noted “for dummies” as every recipe highlights exactly what you do when you get to a certain step, “stovetop” versus “electric”. It’s called “The Great Big Pressure Cooker Book” (500 recipes) by Weinstein and Scarborough. I’ve only made the cheesecake (delicious) and really need to get it out and make something else.

  6. My daughter has an Instant Pot and wasn’t using it very much so I picked up Melissa Clark’s (NYT food editor) Instant Pot cookbook at Costco. It apparently has good information and recipes and so far, she’s liked the recipes. Another one I’ve read a lot about is Instant Loss Cookbook by Brittany Williams. Keep us updated !

  7. Personally my feeling is to forget the cook books. You are only limited to the recipes in them. I have two Instant Pots, the 6 quart and the 8 quart and use them weekly. First, join The “Instant Pot Community” on Facebook. You will receive thousands of recipes, you can ask specific questions and read problems other people are experiencing that may also help you out. Secondly, there are loads of Instant Pot recipes on Pinterest. I hope you will love using your Instant Pot as much as I do.

  8. I love my IP! Many slow cooker recipes are adaptable to the pressure cooking application as well the Instant Pot has a slow cooker function. I gave away my slow cooker! Working full time I really appreciate the ease of throwing ingredients in the pot, pressing a button and having dinner ready in less than half an hour. My husband and son adore the macaroni and cheese ( it took a few recipes and tweaks to make it great:) I agree about roaming Pinterest for ideas, there are the good, bad and completely awful represented so be judicious! I believe that if you just type in gluten free ip recipes you’ll find what you are looking for. Try googling instant pot recipes for celiac diet as well. Since gluten free is the corner stone of a celiac diet you might find something too.

  9. We recently purchased an Instant Pot. The only thing we’ve made are short ribs from a Pinterest recipe. They were fabulous. Yesterday, we picked up a Keto Instant Pot cookbook at Costco. The recipes look great. We don’t actually eat the Keto diet, but we do like to limit the carbs in our diet. In scanning the book, it looks like we’ll be trying many of these soon! The cookbook author is Maria Emmerich.

  10. Susan, the author of that cookbook, Urvashi Pitre, has wonderful website full of fantastic recipes: https://twosleevers.com/
    Go to the recipe index and filter for what you’re looking for. I tend to filter for “instant “pot” , “pour and cook” and then something specific to what I’d like to cook , ie, “ chicken”. You can also filter by diet, for example, “gluten free” , “low carb” , etc. It’s an absolute treasure trove!

  11. I also simply google recipes and have never been disappointed. On Facebook, The InstantPot Community and This Old Gal Cooking groups are very helpful. Even though I was intimidated at first, and only made yogurt (which is easy and economical) for months, I’m glad I kept trying new recipes. This cooking style is so easy and can be very healthful. (You don’t even have to presoak dried beans to cook them into a soft and deliciously edible protein! I love not having to plan ahead! )

  12. Buy Melissa Clark’s Instant Pot cookbook. Fabulous recipes. Also, the website “Serious Eats” has good info and recipes. Think soups, stews and braises. An Instant Pot is also fab for cooking Indian cuisine.

  13. May I recommend instantloss.com. Author of this website used the instant pot to create a healthy eating lifestyle for her family—-that said, her recipes are amazing and varied. She has a new cookbook out that is great. Well worth checking out

  14. Slow cooked a delicious boeuf bourguignon for 6 hrs last weekend. Tip from a French friend, always use a wine that you would drink !!!

  15. My daughters make heavy use of their Instant Pots, but mine is more occasional. I’ve made many Melissa Clark recipes, and while they are very very good, I’m lazy and want things with only a few ingredients. I recently stumbled on this recipe via Pinterest which we like a lot, Lemon Garlic Chicken– it uses the saute function before continuing the cooking process, so there’s only the one pan to clean. It’s gluten free (I think), tastes better the next day (so many things do): https://therecipecritic.com/instant-pot-lemon-garlic-chicken/

  16. I love my instant pot. I have found that relying on well-recommended cookbooks to be the best way to go, especially if you have a particular dietary concern. Those recipes have been carefully tested, which is important considering the time and expense involved in meal preparation with high quality food items. Be aware that cook times can vary wildly among different sources, that is why I rely on hip pressure cooking.com for pressure levels and cooking times.

    Good luck!

  17. I’ll second Ann Mah’s Instantly French!: Classic French Recipes for Your Electric Pressure Cooker – wonderful adaptations of recipes we know and love.

  18. I’m a proud booster of the Instant Pot as it was invented in my home town (yay Ottawa!!). Three of my go-to IP cookbooks are: Dinner In an Instant and Comfort in an Instant, both written by Melissa Clark and Urvashi Pitre’s Indian Instant Pot Cookbook.

    Bon appétit!

  19. Hi, I use my instant pot more than I thought I would. I make chicken stock from that costco chichen carcass, artichokes, stews, soups, beans etc. I google my ingredients and the words instant pot. I use it mainly as a pressure cooker. I was afraid of my old pressure cooker, but this one is great and easy. patval

  20. Are use my Insta pot probably 3 to 4 times a week. My husband and I follow a keto diet and this incredible appliance makes eating delicious food easy for two people who both work. Soups are a breeze – sauté veg on the sauté setting first and then add bone broth and meat if you choose. Everything from squash soup to chicken vegetable to beef and mushroom comes out perfectly. You can make a perfect pulled pork or roasted chicken in it, as well as a stew that tastes like it has simmered for hours. As for recipes, I have found that Google is the best place to go. Enter in the foods you have and Insta pot and miracles will happen!

  21. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s recipe on Serious Eats for Pork Chili Verde is amazing! I halve the peppers and double the tomatillos because I do not like spicy, and it’s gotten raves from everyone I’ve made it for. He also has a chicken chili verde recipe that looks good, but I haven’t tried it yet. For cookbooks, several people have mentioned Melissa Clark’s “Dinner in an Instant” and I also like America’s Test Kitchen “Multicooker Perfection”.

    One thing I learned is that if you’re going to cook with onions and peppers, it’s wise to buy an extra silicone ring. I have one that I use for anything where a bit of pepper smell or flavor wouldn’t matter and a blue one that’s for everything else.

    1. Thank you for the tip about the silicone ring. I concur about the Pork Chili Verde from Serious Eats (altho I never eat pork). My husband said it better than any he’s ever he’s had in a restaurant! And that was the first time I made it, in other words, I was winging it lol. I followed the recipe as printed in SE.

      Melissa Clark is a terrific cook/chef. I subscribe to NYT Cooking on-line and have made many of her *regular* recipes w great success, including her sheet pans. I will look for her IP recipes.

      Thanks to all.

  22. The big difference between and Instant Pot and a regular pressure cooker is that once you start it, you can walk away. My childhood pressure cooker had a round weight that jiggled, so the noise told you how it was doing. My adult pressure cooker didn’t make any noise. It needed constant visual monitoring, so I rarely used it.
    My IP isn’t really all that “instant” — prep time always takes me longer than they predict, and the pot takes a lot longer to reach cooking pressure than I anticipated. Nevertheless, the “set it and forget it” aspect makes up for that. Still getting the hang of it, but I love a good stew so I’ll keep at it.

    1. You could use rice with the chicken soup of course, and, I still make our brown rice in a rice cooker because I couldn’t get it to come out well in the IP.

      1. Lisa,
        Rinse the brown rice in the IP pot. Drain, but don’t be careful, you want a little remaining H2O.
        Make the proportions 1:1, we always make 3-4 cups at a time in our 6qt. IP.
        So 3 cups water, 3 cups rice. Yes, I know… sounds ridiculous.
        21 minutes at high, let it rest 15 minutes. Seems to come out great every time.
        We use Cajun Country Long grain brown. I’d imagine a medium grain would take less time.
        Susan, We have a red beans and rice recipe we love. I’ll ask husband to dig it up.
        Pulled pork and whole chicken soups and stews come out great using just about any recipe if you use common sense for the time conversions.

  23. I love the website Skinnytaste.com. She has tons of healthy recipes, and her website is well organized and so easy to search. There are categories for things like four ingredient recipes, gluten free, mediterranean, Instapot, etc. Great place to find recipes easily, and always healthy.

  24. I used to use one but decided no matter what I put in it and no matter the seasoning, it all tasted the same and had the same texture. Then once I began living a ketogenic lifestyle it became useful for only a few things like making bone broth, non sugar red sauce and carefully measured out stew meat sans high glycemic veggies and sans potatoes and other starchy stuff. So…I’m not very helpful. Darling pup!

  25. Susan, your title had me laughing away because my computer jammed and only showed the title, at first. The reason for the humour…here in Canada, “pot” is a daily news fixture and I thought, no, Susan wouldn’t do a post on THAT! Please forgive my silliness! I love your posts.

    1. Well, the Instant Pot is also a daily news item here because of the Ottawa engineer of Chinese origin who invented it and rebounded after the slump in the tech industry.

      A cousin of mine also worked in an executive capacity at Nortel, like Robert Wang. She has also bounced back, but it was a challenge. So he has become a local hero in the Ottawa area.

  26. I got one for Christmas and haven’t made a ton of stuff yet, but what I’ve done comes out nicely. My favourite thing to do in it is a whole chicken. Season up the chicken well (I like to use homemade Emeril’s Essence) and put on the rack. Put about 1 to 1/12 cups of either water or broth (I think it tastes better that way than just water). Close and cook on high pressure for about 8 mins per pound. Let the pressure drop naturally for around 10 to 15 mins and then release. If you want crispy skin then stick the whole thing under the broiler for a few minutes. I don’t bother as we don’t usually eat the skin. Also leave all the drippings in the pot. After you’ve taken the meat off the chicken I stick the carcass back in with some celery, onion and carrot, salt, pepper and whatever else you like to put in your broths. Top up with water and cook on high pressure around an hour or hour and a half depending on how much time you will be home. Let the pressure come down and you have a really nice chicken broth. I can do both in one work night evening versus having to spread that over two nights otherwise. One thing with the broth though is it will have quite a layer of fat on top if you are using the drippings. You can either dump the drippings before making if you don’t like that or I use a gravy separator and just remove the fat after as I think it gives the broth nicer flavour to leave the drippings in.

    While it can be overwhelming to see all the recipes available, I would start but just searching for things you know you like a lot and try the IP option. My daughter uses hers a lot and does one pot spaghetti with meat sauce, chili, ribs, etc. Almost any soup can be done in it more quickly than on the stovetop. And anything you normally braise or cook for a long time can be done in a much shorter period. I find that nice for weeknights but on weekends I still prefer to do those lovely long and slow recipes without it so I get the beautiful aromas in the house.

    1. If you don’t eat the skin, put it back in the pot with the bones and stock vegetables. Don’t worry about the fat; you can skim it off with the rest of the chicken fat. Poultry fat is easy to skim. The skin provides a lot of flavour. I don’t have a gravy separator as I don’t cook red meat, and it is simple to skim poultry stock once it is chilled.

      This time of year I just stick it out on the back balcony to chill it.

  27. I’m going to keep following this. So far I’ve had mostly disasters with my IP. The only thing that has turned out well for me is cheesecake and hard boiled eggs.
    There are some helpful video’s on U-tube about cooking with an Instant Pot you might want to check out.

  28. The best website I have found is the pressureluckcooking.com. Great videos and innovative uses of the instant pot. He’s also on Facebook.

  29. I love my slow cooker. I like that meals are completely finished when I walk in the door. I do not have an instant pot although I know people that love theirs. I also don’t have a lot of storage space so another small appliance has to be something I really want and will use a lot. My suggestion for recipes is be careful using Pinterest. Although I have found some great recipes on there I have found some pretty awful ones also. Recipes found on Pinterest are not always tested as they are in a published cookbook. Anyone can put a recipe on Pinterest. I like cookbooks. And when I google recipes I often rely on names such as Martha Stewart or other well known sites. Then I know the source of the recipe. All these posts are making me hungry!! LOL

  30. I’ve used my instapot for a couple years, I love it!
    My favorite go to for instapot recipes is Nom Nom Paleo, Michelle Tam.
    Lots of great gluten free meals, yes there are meats (paleo after All!) but Michelle has quite a few veggie centric dishes, plus she has a wonderful writing style, and easy to understand.
    Nom Nom Paleo is the name of Michelle’s website, and she has a few cookbooks.

    1. I second Nom Nom Paleo for Instant Pot recipes. I make her chicken stew all the time, and vary it regularly, swapping out veggies by season.

  31. One of my favorite staples to make in the Instant Pot is quinoa. Put 1 cup washed quinoa in the pot with 1 cup of water. Cook on high pressure for 1 minute. Allow natural pressure release. It comes out perfect, however the quinoa sticks to the pot if you let it sit on Keep Warm. I put it in a covered serving dish as soon as the pressure releases.

  32. I’ve learned a lot from the responses already and will follow. I had great hopes for my IP but don’t use it as much as I wanted to/thought I would. Thank you, Susan!

  33. I follow a lady who sends a new recipe daily. The website address is 365 days of crockpot. She does both crockpot and Instant Pot in the same recipe. I have tried a few and they were very tasty.

  34. Check out NomNomPaleo (dot) com Michelle’s website, cookbooks, and FB presence will certainly give you much to consider and LOVE

  35. Is an Insta Pot worth it for mainly vegetarian diet? Not sure if it would gave any advantage over a slow cooker and storage space is limited for another appliance.

  36. I have had an Instant Pot for about a year. It was a gift and I was clueless as to how to use it. First, I took a class at Williams-Sonoma and came home with some good recipes and suggestions. I did purchase The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook by Coco Morante. I am a big fan of Melissa Clark and later purchased Dinner in an Instant. Both of these books have a lot of great recipes that I have made over the past year. They are easy and very good.

  37. I use my Instant Pot multiple times a week and have become an evangelist for it. I’ve got white beans going right now. I bought my IP to make bone broth, and it’s still a champion for that. I make chicken stews and curries, using recipes that I already knew, using the saute button to cook onions and veggies, then adding meat, turning to pressure, and cooking. I steam beets in it (1 cup water, beets in steamer basket, 25 minutes) then dress them with olive oil, vinegar, and mustard. Great for steaming potatoes (like beets, but 5 minutes) to be roasted crispy later on. I make steel cut oats, long-cooking grains like brown and black rice. There are great cook times at Hip Pressure Cooker site. And Nom Nom Paleo has terrific recipes. Enjoy!

  38. Hello Susan!
    Check out Whole 30 Slow Cooker book. It has a whole chapter of Insta Pot recipes and other ones can be adapted for insta pot. These are good recipes and you don’t have to rigidly stick to Whole 30.

  39. I also have not been all that impressed with Instant Pot after hearing and reading raves about it on FB by friends. I think it really depends on what you were doing before and what you’re expectations are. Either way, the prep is the same ( almost ) and that is always the most timely for me. Though my little Cuisart chopper has been a life saver.

    I thank everyone for the Melissa Clark recommendations.

    As for me, I like quick , good and no recipe or minimal because prep time really is the bottleneck. So How to Cook Without a Cookbook by Pamela Anderson is my go to. And my family loves everything. I can sear any meat in 10-15 mins, make a pan sauce and steam Sautee vegetables in about as much time as it takes to Instant Pot things. I also learned how to make a super fast bread crumb in mix fin a little fat from any bread in the house ( including croissants ) and put it on meat after it’s down. It’s a super quick sub for breaded anything.

    Though the Instant Pot is great for pulled pork and such. I did make a rice and enchilada chicken that my kids loved.

    Good luck everyone.

  40. I follow a vegan diet and love my instant pot for cooking dried beans. They taste better than canned, and can be used in so many recipes. I soak them overnight because I think they come out better that way, but you can also just put the dry bean into the pot – or they just take a bit longer to cook. Chickpeas, pinto beans, white bean, black beans. I also use the saute feature to saute onions, garlic, and peppers before adding the pinto or black beans with cumin and (optional) chilies or chili pepper.

    1. Sandra, for you I’m going to say no. I’ve been using mine mostly for making up batches of oatmeal or hard-boiling eggs. It’s great for both and I don’t regret the purchase, but I don’t find it really saves a lot of time for other meals.