Kyle's Instant Pot Adventures

[Kyle]

Last night for dinner we tried an old favorite of mine that I used to love before I had to quit the dairy and gluten. So- of course- I didn't get to eat it. But the rest of the family enjoyed . It was simple enough- chicken breast, italian dressing dry mix, cream cheese and some spices. Cook it for twenty minutes, shred the chicken and voila: dinner. I was concerned because it was a lot of chicken- five huge chicken breasts- and it didn't seem like enough time to cook the chicken to properly shred it. But was I ever wrong. The chicken shredded perfectly. The next perceived problem was that the sauce in the pan seemed too liquidy. But again, I was wrong. Once the chicken was shredded and added back in- boom- perfection. There was one mistake I made. Earlier in the day I made white rice, but I didn't rinse the rise before cooking it in the Instant Pot- so it turned out super sticky, which my family didn't care for. But that was a minor thing and will be an easy fix for next time. The picture's not much to look at, but everyone thought it was great:

[Mike]

First attempt:

Honey Garlic Chicken... chicken in the pot with a honey garlic sauce. 20 minutes of cooking. Then, for fun, I added some halved baby red potatoes. Asparagus on the side.

Excellent meal.


Next night:

Tuna Noodle Casserole... Noah made this one all by himself. Egg noodle. Cover them with water. Add tuna, peas, and cream of chicken on top. Set the pot for 5 minutes. Stir in some cheese when it's done. Start to finish... 15-20 minutes. We made a double batch, and after setting aside a small bowl for Lisa's lunch the next day, the kids finished off every bit of it. Super-satisfying and Noah was very proud of himself.

[akiva]

How is the texture of meat with the instant pot? I’m not crazy about the texture of ground beef and chicken breasts if you cook them more than a couple of hours in a slow cooker.

[Phoebe]

I am curious about this too because most of the results appear to be "shredded" type meat, or else it was necessary to brown it all first, in which case I'm like, why? That's the hard part, that's the part that dirties up extra stuff, and I'm already dealing with a kitchen audience that would rather spend whatever $$ it takes to go out to dinner rather than have to wash the resulting dishes. We should just start eating on nothing but paper plates. Someone should be living my life instead of me, someone who likes going out to dinner and having servants and shit.

[Kyle]

It depends on what you're cooking. You can either shred or cube the meat. The only "browning" I've done is if I'm putting in a ground sausage or if I'm searing the sides of roast before putting it in. Either way, that only takes a couple minutes and can be skipped if you don't want to. I also usually saute garlic and onions in to a lot of what I make (because sauted onions and garlic make almost everything better), so browning something is almost no extra time.

The meat is usually pretty tender-- i.e., fall off the bone tender. But again, it depends on the recipe and the amount of cook time.

[WillyGilligan]

[Mike]

I also did a pork roast with potatoes and carrots. Total prep and cook time around 1.5 hours, following the guidelines that came with the Pot. Everything was perfectly done by the end. Meat you could cut with a fork. Veggies soft without going to mush.

It is astounding how well this works.

[buckett]

i swear this a sponsored thread

[Kyle]

Instant Pot Cuban Pork-- the bomb. Next time I'll add a half cup more liquid for the rice.

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/in ... 195f1ea758

[Mike]

Whoa! Chicken fettuccine alfredo. Didn't bother to thaw the meat. Through all the frozen chicken breasts into the Instant Pot with spices and a little water. 25 minutes.

While that's cooking, make fettuccine and sauce as usual. When the chicken was done, it was so tender that it shredded itself when I tried just cutting it.

Everyone was thrilled with the results, and the convenience was as impressive as ever.

[Phoebe]

How do you feel about the size of the pot you are using? There was recently a pretty good deal on a 6 quart, which I determined is the size of my normal large crockpot. However, given the shape and the inserts and whatnot, maybe you need 8 quarts to do what a person needs to do? As an example, suppose you wanted to put a 3 lb roast, two bags of baby carrots, and two large chopped onions into the mix? Is that filling the 8 quart, or would you have plenty of leftover space with something like that?

One other question: how long does it take to reach cruising altitude in this thing? Like am I sitting around for 20 minutes while it pressurizes itself, or does that happen in just a few minutes, and then the 20 minute cooking time is added upon that, so your total wait time for a meal would be less than 30 min?

I'm tempted but not entirely sure yet.

[Mike]

Beef barley soup!

One of my favoritest recipes, and it works like a dream in the Instant Pot. I went from groceries in the bag to finished soup in about 65 minutes. So fergin good!

Instant Pot Beef Barley Soup

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 pounds lean beef stew meat
1 medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 pound baby carrots, cut each one into 4 pieces
1 cup uncooked pearl barley
64 ounces beef stock
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn

Instructions
Heat oil in instant pot over on saute setting.
Season beef on both sides with salt and pepper.
Cook beef in oil just a minute or two on each side, just until slightly browned.
Add onions and garlic and toss to coat well with oil.
Toss in carrots and barley and celery salt.
Pour in beef broth, stir.
Seal and cook on high pressure for 30 minutes.
Add peas and corn and allow it to cook on slow-cooker setting 8 to 10 minutes longer or until peas and corn are hot.

[Phoebe]

That sounds wonderful. I'm interested in the fact that you can saute and then pressure cook all in one swoop in one pot. One annoyance of crockpotting is that to make a really good roast, you need to rise at 6 am and brown the darned meat, and then load your pot, and let it go all day, so any failure to do these steps will screw up the process and there you are. Or when you succeed, you've had to clean double the pots at minimum.

Thinking of requesting an instant pot for Christmas. It makes a good gift from the husband, and then I will have more time to experiment with it.

[Mike]

Yes, saute to pressure cook to crockpot. It really is lovely. Again, groceries to table in an hour, for a recipe that used to sit it the crockpot for 8 hours minimum.

The one warning I give is that any recipes you find online will usually be very deceptive about times. Yes, you set the Instant Pot to 30 minutes, but you have to add on five minutes of heating and pressurizing before the timer starts, plus all the recipes say to let it depressurize on it's own, which can add on another 10+ minutes. So a recipe will brag that it only takes 25 minutes, when in reality it's closer to 45 to an hour... which is still a miracle.

It's kinda like when recipes include caramelizing onions and factor that in as 5 minutes of cook time. So much bullshit.

[Mike]

I've had Indian food maybe twice in my life, so I approached this tentatively. I was intimidated by the spices and didn't use as much as recommended. I will not make that mistake again. It was really good, and mo spice woulda been mo better.

Whole thing was super easy and cook/prep time was literally under 30 minutes.

Instant Pot Butter Chicken

Ingredients
6 chicken thighs boneless, skinless, cut into cubes
1 1/2 c heavy cream
1 1/2 c tomato sauce
1/2 onion
5 tbsp butter
1 tbsp garlic minced
1 tbsp ginger chopped
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
3 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp corn starch optional to thicken sauce at the end

Instructions
1. Turn your Instant Pot to saute, medium, and add butter.
When butter is melted add cubed chicken and onion. Cook just enough for chicken pieces to cook just a touch on the outside.
2. Add all other ingredients into your Instant Pot or pressure cooker and mix together well.
3. Put lid on and close steam valve.
4. Set Instant Pot to manual, pressure, low, for 5 minutes. (enough time if cut into bite size pieces, if larger pieces increase time)
5. When done move steam valve just slightly so steam comes out slowly.
6. Carefully lift lid. Serve immediately or remove chicken and set to saute low for just a few minutes. Put some of the hot liquid in a small bowl with 1 tbsp of cornstarch and whisk together, add back into the pot and stir. May do this again with another tbsp. depending on how thick you want the sauce to be. Sauce will thicken more as it sits.
7. Turn off, add chicken back in, and serve with rice and/or naan.

[Phoebe]

Finally bought one but it hasn't arrived yet. I am definitely going to work my way through this thread!!!!!

[akiva]

I might have to get one just to try the butter chicken--I love that dish.

[SumDumTrim]

I hesitated to buy one because who needs another cooking gadget and everything I throw in a crock pot tastes the same, I hate it. Sam's club was having a sale and I bought an 8 quart last winter. It has been amazing! The best stroganoff I have ever eaten, cooks meat perfectly every time, I just had boneless pork ribs last night, 20 minutes cook time and let it pressurize naturally. They were fork tender.

Do not hesitate to get one, they make winter cooking easy. The best thing is that you can use one pot to cook an entire meal. I will post recipes when I am not late for work.

[akiva]

Are there differences between different types other than size?

[Mike]

No clue. I assume not much difference. I have a big one for a big family. Mine is also brand name Instant Pot. I assume all Instant Pots are inherently similar in capabilities, but have no idea about other brands of pressure cooker.