Instant Pot

[luv2rn4fun]

Anyone have one of these? What are ou favorite things to make with it?

I use the crock pot all the time, it’s a life saver for me. But I am hoping I can put together better, more tasty meals with less cooking time with this (and maybe our food will actually be just finishing when DH gets home from work vs being done hours before and we end up heating it up). DH bought me one yesterday on Black Friday deal so I am excited to try it out (it’s a Christmas gift but I am hoping he will just wrap the box LOL).

[estrellita]

I don't but have it on my Christmas list! I have friends that love theirs. One recently posted that they made cheesecake in theirs, and I think I saw someone post about making yogurt in one? Sounds like there are a lot of things you can make in one!

[luv2rn4fun]

Nov 25, 2017 10:51:51 GMT -5 estrellita said:

I don't but have it on my Christmas list! I have friends that love theirs. One recently posted that they made cheesecake in theirs, and I think I saw someone post about making yogurt in one? Sounds like there are a lot of things you can make in one!

Yeah, I looked on Pinterest and saw that you can make yogurt and saw in the ML thread that someone made cheesecake (although my mom’s cheesecake is one of my all time favorite foods so I will just stick to her recipe, which I have but haven’t tried to make it yet).

[katespade]

We looooooove ours. My favorite thing to make right now is BBQ chicken, because it's so quick and easy for a weeknight meal. It's great because, unlike a crockpot, it's completely safe to cook meats from frozen, so we don't have to worry about multiple trips to the store throughout the week for fresh protein. We just stock our freezer during Costco trips and we're good to go for whatever we end up wanting to make later.

[wineandcheese]

I love mine! I love to make rice and baked potatoes in it. I’ve made the best homemade chicken stock in it too. Recently I’ve made pulled pork, shredded chicken, meatballs, and beef stew. I’ll find some recipes later that I’ve made when I’m done decorating.

[pooh8402]

It's on my Christmas list too. I hope I will use it, since it apparently cooks faster than most methods...

[estrellita]

wineandcheese how long does a baked potato typically take? I love having one for dinner but never do because they take so long in the oven!

[wineandcheese]

estrellita 10-15 minutes depending on the size of the potato. Regular sized ones take about 10. I get sweet potatoes at Sam’s Club that are huge so they take 15.

[wanderingenough]

I bought one during either Prime Day or Black Friday madness last year. I promptly realized I wouldn't use it as much as I thought and wrapped it up as a gift for my mom! Haha!

[amaranth]

I kept debating whether to buy one on Black Friday because I hear people rave, but we have so many appliances in our kitchen! A slow cooker, rice maker, keurig, kitchenaid mixer, now a coffee grinder and espresso machine, plus toaster, hot water heater and food processors. Pretty soon all my cabinets will be small appliances! Ahh..


Anyway, I sort of still want one but don't know what to get rid of in its place. I never remember to defrost meat and that's the biggest reason for bad dinners or take out in our house.

[wanderingenough]

amaranth - That's how I am. We've got two slow cookers (a large one for groups and a regular digital one). Three actually! Someone got me one of those tiny ones for dip. Then I've got a rice maker, a sandwich maker, and cupcake pop maker (ha! another "gift"), a toaster, and food processor. No sooner than the Amazon order confirmation came through I was like "where is this going and am I actually going to use it or did I get caught up in sale madness?!"

[amaranth]

Nov 26, 2017 16:16:18 GMT -5 wanderingenough said:

amaranth - That's how I am. We've got two slow cookers (a large one for groups and a regular digital one). Three actually! Someone got me one of those tiny ones for dip. Then I've got a rice maker, a sandwich maker, and cupcake pop maker (ha! another "gift"), a toaster, and food processor. No sooner than the Amazon order confirmation came through I was like "where is this going and am I actually going to use it or did I get caught up in sale madness?!"

You'll have to tell me if it's worth the space

[christy082]

I like to make "hard boiled" eggs in mine. Haven't tried much else yet. Would love some chicken or meat free recipes!

[luv2rn4fun]

Nov 26, 2017 17:31:10 GMT -5 christy082 said:

I like to make "hard boiled" eggs in mine. Haven't tried much else yet. Would love some chicken or meat free recipes!

I just found a ton on Pinterest! Seems to be lots of chicken and pasta type of recipes on there. I just did a search for instant Pot recipes and found a ton.

Mine came today and I plan to make chicken and dumplings in it tomorrow! Excited to try it out!

amaranth- we have a ton of appliances too (slow cooker, rice cooker, kitchen aid mixer, toaster, keurig. We use all of these at least weekly, if not daily. Right now our slow cooker resides on top of the refrigerator and that’s where I also plan to store this too. The rice cooker fits in a cabinet so we “only” have the keurig, mixer, and toaster on the counters.

[luv2rn4fun]

Nov 26, 2017 15:51:18 GMT -5 amaranth said:

I kept debating whether to buy one on Black Friday because I hear people rave, but we have so many appliances in our kitchen! A slow cooker, rice maker, keurig, kitchenaid mixer, now a coffee grinder and espresso machine, plus toaster, hot water heater and food processors. Pretty soon all my cabinets will be small appliances! Ahh..


Anyway, I sort of still want one but don't know what to get rid of in its place. I never remember to defrost meat and that's the biggest reason for bad dinners or take out in our house.

katespade was saying that you can cook frozen meats with the instant Pot. I also saw a chicken recipe where they used frozen chicken so it must be ok? If so, this will be huge for me because I don’t always plan well enough ahead and it makes getting dinner made a hassle at times.

[katespade]

Nov 26, 2017 23:15:35 GMT -5 luv2rn4fun said:

Nov 26, 2017 15:51:18 GMT -5 amaranth said:

I kept debating whether to buy one on Black Friday because I hear people rave, but we have so many appliances in our kitchen! A slow cooker, rice maker, keurig, kitchenaid mixer, now a coffee grinder and espresso machine, plus toaster, hot water heater and food processors. Pretty soon all my cabinets will be small appliances! Ahh..


Anyway, I sort of still want one but don't know what to get rid of in its place. I never remember to defrost meat and that's the biggest reason for bad dinners or take out in our house.

katespade was saying that you can cook frozen meats with the instant Pot. I also saw a chicken recipe where they used frozen chicken so it must be ok? If so, this will be huge for me because I don’t always plan well enough ahead and it makes getting dinner made a hassle at times.

Yep, we toss frozen chicken in ours all the time. My go-to weeknight dinner is BBQ chicken. The ingredients are seriously: Frozen chicken breasts/thighs and BBQ sauce. Cook on high pressure for 18 minutes, remove chicken and shred, add more BBQ sauce until it's at whatever sauce level you prefer, and you're done. We usually toss it on a hamburger bun to make pulled chicken sandwiches.

You can follow those guidelines with pretty much any kind of sauce you'd like. Teriyaki is another good one, which we usually end up eating with rice.

[amaranth]

katespade, you're telling me you get shredded chicken from frozen in 18 minutes???

Okay, sold. It's $75. I'm getting one.

Who wants my slow cooker?

[katespade]

Nov 27, 2017 12:47:05 GMT -5 amaranth said:

katespade, you're telling me you get shredded chicken from frozen in 18 minutes???

Okay, sold. It's $75. I'm getting one.

Who wants my slow cooker?

Yep! And that's for four breasts and four thighs, straight from the freezer. Smaller portions take even less time. It's seriously life changing!

[amaranth]

Nov 27, 2017 12:49:14 GMT -5 katespade said:

Nov 27, 2017 12:47:05 GMT -5 amaranth said:

katespade , you're telling me you get shredded chicken from frozen in 18 minutes???

Okay, sold. It's $75. I'm getting one.

Who wants my slow cooker?

Yep! And that's for four breasts and four thighs, straight from the freezer. Smaller portions take even less time. It's seriously life changing!

Looks like hubby may get consistent dinner again 

luv2rn4fun Only the kitchenaide and espresso machine are on the counter. The rest are in cabinets or the closet, but it's still a lot. I also forgot my mom just bought me a nesco too. That thing is huge. 

eta: Oh, and I just found a deep fryer while cleaning. Omg. THis is insane.

[luv2rn4fun]

katespade- do you add water or just the sauce and chicken?

I am making the chicken and dumplings tonight. Chicken is thawed, peas and carrots are frozen. My plan was the add the chicken, cream of mushroom soup, and veggies and cook for 6-8 minutes (full sized boneless/skinless breast’s)? Then add the biscuits for a couple minutes? Should I add a little water in the beginning as well?

[katespade]

luv2rn4fun - We usually do only sauce. The key is to have some sort of liquid in there. We've done it with only water, 50/50 water and sauce, and only sauce, and all of those versions have turned out fine.

[luv2rn4fun]

Nov 27, 2017 18:17:39 GMT -5 katespade said:

luv2rn4fun - We usually do only sauce. The key is to have some sort of liquid in there. We've done it with only water, 50/50 water and sauce, and only sauce, and all of those versions have turned out fine.

So, I made the chicken and dumplings like I mentioned above; however, it took 40 min or so just in “pre heat” mode? I placed the chicken, soup, water, and veggies in the pot, closed the lid, selected the poultry setting and it took forever for it to finally start the actual cooking. Did I do something wrong? Dinner took about an hour which isn’t much different than the oven (although probably more energy efficient since our oven is electric).

[katespade]

Nov 27, 2017 22:31:57 GMT -5 luv2rn4fun said:

Nov 27, 2017 18:17:39 GMT -5 katespade said:

luv2rn4fun - We usually do only sauce. The key is to have some sort of liquid in there. We've done it with only water, 50/50 water and sauce, and only sauce, and all of those versions have turned out fine.

So, I made the chicken and dumplings like I mentioned above; however, it took 40 min or so just in “pre heat” mode? I placed the chicken, soup, water, and veggies in the pot, closed the lid, selected the poultry setting and it took forever for it to finally start the actual cooking. Did I do something wrong? Dinner took about an hour which isn’t much different than the oven (although probably more energy efficient since our oven is electric).

Hmmmm. Preheat does take a little while, but I don't feel like it takes that long for us. We don't use the poultry setting, though. We just use the manual high pressure setting and set a time. We did chicken again tonight - 6 frozen breasts, chicken broth as liquid, tossed in some butter and seasonings, set it for 18 minutes, and it was done well before we had the rest of dinner ready (we were making spaetzle at the same time).

[wanderingenough]

Nov 26, 2017 16:26:09 GMT -5 amaranth said:

Nov 26, 2017 16:16:18 GMT -5 wanderingenough said:

amaranth - That's how I am. We've got two slow cookers (a large one for groups and a regular digital one). Three actually! Someone got me one of those tiny ones for dip. Then I've got a rice maker, a sandwich maker, and cupcake pop maker (ha! another "gift"), a toaster, and food processor. No sooner than the Amazon order confirmation came through I was like "where is this going and am I actually going to use it or did I get caught up in sale madness?!"

You'll have to tell me if it's worth the space

Oh no, I had shoppers remorse and regifted to my mom.

[amaranth]

Nov 28, 2017 20:19:01 GMT -5 wanderingenough said:

Nov 26, 2017 16:26:09 GMT -5 amaranth said:

You'll have to tell me if it's worth the space

Oh no, I had shoppers remorse and regifted to my mom.

LOL. Well I'll let you know if you should rebuy.

[luv2rn4fun]

Nov 28, 2017 21:30:47 GMT -5 amaranth said:

Nov 28, 2017 20:19:01 GMT -5 wanderingenough said:

Oh no, I had shoppers remorse and regifted to my mom.

LOL. Well I'll let you know if you should rebuy.

So far it’s “just okay” for me. For some reason it’s taking 40 min to pre heat so meals are taking just under an hour (and that’s with everything already prepped...just need to dump and cook). I don’t know if I would have bought it had I known this but at the same time it does cook faster and better than the crockpot. Also, we tend to leave our leftovers in the crockpot (and place it in the refrigerator) and can’t do this with the instant Pot.