Are you wondering if youve made a mistake in purchasing that Instant Pot thats taking up a prime spot of real estate on your kitchen counter? If youre second-guessing that decision, you can stop right now and rest assured that its totally deserving of your purchase, your counter top, and the learning curve involved in starting out with an Instant Pot. Read on to learn how and why! #Instant Pot #ElectricPressureCooker #PressureCooker
12 Tried-And-True Reasons That Will Show You How the Instant Pot is the Best Dinner Tool Your Kitchen Will Ever Own.
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Yep, the Instant Pot is the Best-Ever Small Appliance for Your Kitchen, and I can Prove it to You.
Howdy! Chef Alli here. Lets Get You Cookin!
The Instant Pot saves SO MUCH TIME in the kitchen its way faster than using your cook top, your slow cooker, or your oven. Below Im sharing 12 ways thatmy Instant Pot saves me loads of time and effort.
After cooking for 5+ years with an Instant Pot, almost on an every day basis, I know I could never live without it its a dinner time game-changer, not to mention a total life-saver. This small appliance work-horse is the multi-cooker of my dreams, proving itself to me time and time again. Ive been redeemed!
Heres How The Instant Pot Saves Me Time in the Kitchen.and My Life:
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The Instant Pot Cooking Frees Me Up to Do Other ThingsBoth In and Out of the kitchen.
I have discovered that this is one of my absolute favorite features of using the Instant Pot: Set-It and Forget-It! I love it that once my Instant Pot has fully come up to pressure, I can walk away no babysitting required!
Definitely not something you can do if youre having to tend a pot of Tex Mex Corn Chowder on the stove or a Cuban Pork Tenderloin with Black Beans and Rice in the oven, eh? If I want to I can walk out my door for a quick walk before dinner, help my husband check or feed cattle, or do laundry.
Plus, if I need to, I can work on other tasks right in my kitchen since the Instant Pot is also HANDS-FREE cooking.
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Instant Pot Cooking is the Best Cooking Style for Me and the Meals I Want to Serve My Family.
For whatever reason, Ive never had a good slow-cooker system for feeding my family. I think this because when my family leaves home, we tend not to return for very extended periods of time usually 10 or even 12 hours later.
And even when my slow cooker automatically moves over from the Low-Cooking Temperature setting to the Keep-Warm setting, our food is still over cooked and pretty mushy. Never a good thing at my house.
This is not fault of the slow cooker, mind you, but rather a logistical problem on our part its just how our lifestyle works, and that does not include the Crock Pot!
We have made the conversion to primarily using the Instant Pot for cooking meals and WOW! does this ever save me a ton of time. This was my biggest hope when purchasing my first Instant Pot (I now have four electric pressure cookers, all different sizes, all different brands) so I feel pretty dang good about this method of cooking yippee!
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Pressure Cooking in the Instant Pot is the Fastest Option for Getting My Family Fed.
Once I got past the learning curve that comes with using an Instant Pot at first, I discovered there are tons of meals that I can cook in 30 minutes or less after I arrive back at home to make dinner.
Talk about life-saving and a game-changer for me and feeding my family! Once I began to see how many recipes could be cooked so quickly and were meals my family loved, I felt so relieved. Not only was I feeding my family in a quicker (and healthier) way, I no longer felt like a failure because the slow cooker system I was trying to implement didnt work out.
Here are a few of our favorite really fast Instant Pot meals:
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Instant Pot Pepperoni Pizza Pasta
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Instant Pot Honey BBQ Wings
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Instant Pot Cheesy Bacon Egg Bites
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Instant Pot Broccoli Cheese Noodle Soup
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My Lunch is Already Cooked For the Next Day All I Have to Do is Quickly Re-Heat the Left-Overs In the Microwave Score!
I primarily use the 6-quart Instant Pot for cooking for my family of 4, which includes 2 big sons, plus my husbandand they can eat a lot in just one setting. But, we usually have one-two servings leftover and I always store these in a microwaveable container so I can pop it into the microwave the next day at lunch, instead of having to stop to make a sandwich or a salad.
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I Have Come to Realize How Many Foods I can Cook Faster in my Instant Pot, Even When The Ingredient Im Cooking Isnt Actually Part of an Instant Pot Recipe.
For Instance: Yes, I can cook the mashed potatoes I need for my fried chicken dinner on my stove-top (20-25 minutes boiling in a pot) OR I can opt to cook them much more quickly in my Instant Pot. Once youve begun to use your Instant Pot a lot, this will become a no-brainer, but it does take a bit of time to automatically remember that. Youve got to create a brand new habit which sometimes is not as easy as it should be, right?
I can cook large chunks of potatoes in 5-8 minutes, depending on how many pounds of potatoes Im cooking at one time -so much faster than in a pot of boiling water! Same thing with cooking macaroni for my favorite BLT Pasta Salad or hard-boiled eggs for making Bacon Jalapeno Deviled Eggs or Sarah Janes Spicy Deviled Eggs these ingredients are made much more quickly and efficiently under pressure in my Instant Pot.
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Using the Instant Pot SautSetting is Fast, Fast, Fast and Way Less Messy.
Why should I brown off the chopped ham (that I need for my baked quiche) in a skillet when I can simply use the saute setting on my Instant Pot to do the job? The pot heats up super fast when utilizing the saute setting.
When Im browning meats, I also like how deep my Instant Pot is this really prevents grease splatters (unlike a skillet on my stove) so therefore I spend less time cleaning up.
Or, lets say Im making this Sausage and Bacon Potato Soup that calls for ground sausage. I love it that I can first cook the sausage right in my Instant Pot using the saut setting, add the remaining ingredients for the chowder, then pressurize the pot (for only 5 minutes, mind you!) and quickly cook my chowder. Dinners done.and all in one, single pot.
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The Instant Pot is a Kitchen Multi-Cooker All Contained Within Just ONE Appliance. Cook Foods 8-10 Times Faster!
Not only is the Instant Pot an electric pressure cooker, it also acts as a burner (when using the saut setting) which is perfect for browning foods. And, you can cook big old hunks of meat, pressure cook soups, stews and pasta in minutes, bake the moistest cakes, steam vegetables, make the fluffiest rice and quinoa, plus cook and ferment homemade yogurt.all in one pot. And, did you know you can beans without having to soak them? True story, my friend.
Heres a list of helpful Instant Pot Tools and Accessories to have on hand in your kitchen as you learn to cook with it.
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Most Instant Pot Recipes Are Cooked All in One Pot. Yay Less Clean Up Time, Folks.
Whats the number 1 reason I am overjoyed with this? Way fewer dishes to wash!!!! Clean up is a breeze when youve only got that one pot to worry about. And when Mamma is happy, everybody is happy.
As you progress with cooking in your Instant Pot, youll see that there are oodles of meals where all the ingredients are added at once, or where you will simply and easily stir in a couple of ingredients at the end AFTER pressurizing, such as dairy products and frozen vegetables. The items you stir in at the end of the pressurizing process will cook almost instantly since the ingredients already in the pot are so, so hot.
Shopping is Quicker and Easier. Ive Become a Full-Fledged Speed Shopper.
Since the only foods (mainly) that can be cooked in the Instant Pot are whole foods (meats, grains, beans, pastas, and vegetables) I can shop the perimeter of the grocery store instead of having to peruse the center aisles as much. I love this! I can be in and out of the grocery store in record speed and I find I spend way less money, too.
Also, feeding my family the whole foods I cook in my Instant Pot really makes me feel good about the meals Im serving them.
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I Can Cook Ahead Much Better, so Meal Prep Later is a Breeze.
I like to cook at least two proteins every weekend, usually a big beef roast for Big Bold Beef Carnitas or a Spicy Tender Pork Butt, plus some chicken, either boneless, skinless breasts or boneless, skinless thighs to make Buffalo Chicken Sliders. Or sometimes I even cook up a turkey breast! (Did you know you can even cook a FROZEN turkey breast in your Instant Pot?)
When I can start the week with cooked meat, such as leftover beef roast, shredded pork or chopped chicken, already in my fridge, I feel so much more prepared for making meals both physically AND mentally. (I always contend that the hardest part of cooking is figuring out what to make which consequently leads to a lot of emotional distress wouldnt you agree?)
Cooking ahead is an up-front investment of your time that returns your time on the back-side when youre preparing the meals later that call for pre-cooked meats..such as quick-to-fix skillet pastas, soups, wraps, grilled sandwiches, quesadillas, or even macaroni and cheese!
I Keep My Instant Pot Right on My Counter For Quick Access.
If you have to constantly pull your Instant Pot out of a cupboard or your pantry, it can easily become a chore and something you just dont feel like doing. And pretty soon you wont guaranteed.
Know right from the get-go that if you really want to cook consistently with your Instant Pot, it MUST have a spot on your counter. Otherwise, your Instant Pot is out-of-sight, so its out-of-mind. And what does this do for you?? It means youll very likely revert right back to what your go-to what previous to your Instant Pot: cooking on your stove top or in your oven. Bad move!
Keep your Instant Pot easily within reach on your counter so that electric pressure cooking becomes a HABIT. Depending on your age, this will take from 30 90 days!
I once had someone tell me that for the first two weeks after she purchased her Instant Pot, she committed to only cooking dinner in her pot. If she couldnt make it in the Instant Pot, it didnt happen. What a great way to force yourself to learn how to REALLY cook in your Instant Pot! #Brilliant
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Utilizing the Natural Release Setting After Pressurizing my Instant Pot Makes Meats Shred and Slice Super Fast Because They are So Tender.
When you pressurize meats in the Instant Pot, you always want to use your natural release setting once the timer sounds. This allows for two things your meats can fully finish cooking from the residual heat inside the pot, but even more importantly the meats can REST during the natural release, ensuring the protein fibers can relax and will be super tender. So, once you put those meats onto your cutting board, they shred apart in an instant, or if you slicing the meat, its a breeze. (Remember if youre slicing meats, be sure to slice ACROSS the grain, not WITH the grain!)
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Lets Get You Cookin,
Chef Alli
New to cooking in your Instant Pot? This list of The Top 6 Reasons Your Instant Pot Wont Pressurize can be a real life-saver. Post it in a handy spot in your kitchen for easy reference when your Instant Pot is misbehaving!
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