Ah, the Instant Pot. This glorious pressure cooker is truly a mom’s best friend.
Once you actually cooking with your Instant Pot, you’ll wonder how you ever got food on the table for your family without it.
Why, let me count the ways.
Even when you forget to take chicken out of the freezer (so, like, always), you can have a fully-cooked meal on your table in 45 minutes or less (see my Creamy Bacon Ranch Crack Chicken recipe, for example).
Most of my Instant Pot recipes are set-it-and-forget-it. There’s usually a couple steps of prep involved (sautéing, mixing, etc.), then you lock the pot, walk away for 30 minutes, and come back to fully cooked perfection.
For those multi-step recipes, you can often do all the steps right in the same pot. Need to brown your meat first? Fire up sauté mode. Need to thicken the sauce at the end of the recipe? Kick it back to warm or sauté. One pot to clean, no need to heat up the stove, no digging through your cabinets to find that dusty old pan that fits the entire meal in it… win/win/win.
Plus, it can literally cook any meal of the day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert – the Instant Pot has got you covered.
Lucky for you, I’ve compiled all the tips, tricks, supplies, and terminology you need to expertly navigate this magical cooking machine. Start with these top tips that ALL Instant Pot beginners should read.
Then, get to cooking! And be sure to let me know which ones your family likes – I absolutely LOVE hearing what your families think of these meals!
Get ready, y’all – this Instant Pot Blueberry Vanilla Oatmeal is about to make your life sooo much easier.
Is it just me or do kids eat five times as much at breakfast than at any other meal?
I wake up in the mornings, just tryin’ to have my cup of coffee and snuggle up on the couch for a little bit… but my kids are ready for a full-on 5-course feast, complete with carving station and made-to-order omelet bar.
It’s no secret that the Instant Pot is one of my absolute favorite things on the planet. That’s because there are SO many kid-friendly Instant Pot recipes for moms to choose from!
Maybe this is a weird statement to make as a food(ish) blogger, but mealtime is probably my least favorite time of the day as a mom. Surely I’m not alone in that, right?
Getting a toddler to actually eat a full meal is a battle to begin with. Finding a meal that is actually acceptable to a picky toddler, and offers them some form of nutrition is its own struggle. And having the time and space to actually cook that meal is a whole ‘nother level.
That’s where the Instant Pot comes in to save the day!
The Instant Pot is an amazing machine, but it’s also an intimidating one. For most of us, pressure cooking is a completely new cooking method, and to be honest, it’s kind of scary – especially if you don’t have any Instant Pot tips in your back pocket!
I wanted to start with something fairly basic the first time I used it, since I pretty much had no idea what I was doing. This was back in 2017, long before the Instant Pot had taken over the internet the way it has now.
After two years of making and testing and making and testing this recipe… it’s finally been perfected.
If you’re just getting started with your Instant Pot, you’ve come to the right place – this is a GREAT first recipe to try out in your new electric pressure cooker.