I know I’m not alone. Among the questions that pop up in my inbox or in our weekly live Q&A (every Wednesday at noon Eastern time!), Instant Pot inquiries are common. A frequent topic: How can I make this recipe in my Instant Pot?
The good news is that many stovetop and oven recipes are prime candidates for pressure cooking in an Instant Pot or other electric multicooker. Here’s what you should keep in mind about whether and how to convert them.
Decide whether the Instant Pot makes sense. Let’s get one of the more obvious exceptions out of the way first. If the dish you’re considering is intended to be golden brown and crispy, Instant Pot cooking is not the way to go. Ask yourself, “Is this a recipe that needs pressure cooking?” says blogger Archana Mundhe, author of “The Essential Indian Instant Pot Cookbook” and source of the recent Instant Pot Chana Masala recipe I shared here. Dishes needing dry heat, such as quick sautes or stir-fries, are best left to the stovetop.
The Instant Pot is a sealed environment, meaning moist heat — either through direct contact with liquid or above it, as in steaming — is a given. But that still leaves large swaths of recipes in contention for Instant Pot cooking: braises, soups, stews, curries, risotto and more. Dishes that transform dry or tough ingredients into tender, soft perfection are ideal for pressure cooking. Think beans, grains (steel-cut oats, rice, barley, etc.) and large, sinewy cuts of meat.
Some foods cook so fast on the stovetop that the Instant Pot isn’t worth it, Mundhe says. She gives the example of upma, an Indian semolina dish that comes together in minutes. Similar would be something like couscous (which I recently realized doesn’t even need the cooktop if you just boil the water in your tea kettle). Sometimes the question is more of a personal preference, depending on what equipment you feel like dealing with or whether you care about a few minutes’ difference here or there. Do you have to make lentils in the Instant Pot? No. Can you? Absolutely.
Particularly delicate foods aren’t always candidates for the Instant Pot, or at least not without adjustments (more on that below). Take care with delicate pieces of fish or quick-cooking vegetables. Dairy products can also curdle under pressure, says cookbook author Ivy Manning, who has written several Instant Pot cookbooks, including “Instant Pot Miracle 6 Ingredients or Less.”
Adjust the timing. One of the best things about the Instant Pot is the time it can shave off many recipes. Manning’s very vague rule of thumb is to start by reducing the cook time — the time under pressure vs. what it would be on the stove or in the oven — by about a third. The timing will vary depending on what you’re cooking, but it’s a good place to start. It’s better to underestimate the reduction than overestimate. If something is not done, you can always return the Instant Pot to pressure and cook for additional time. In that scenario, you may find it hard to put the lid back on. Manning says that’s because the silicone gasket expands under pressure to allow for a seal to form. You can remedy the situation by briefly running the lid under cool water and trying again.
Adjust the liquid. Because it’s a sealed environment that doesn’t allow for evaporation, you may need to reduce the amount of liquid in a recipe. Still, “there’s no equation for this,” Manning says, though her general rule of thumb is to cut the liquid by half. For soups, Manning doesn’t reduce the liquid that much since they generally aren’t cooked down much, even on the stovetop. If you decide you want to concentrate the flavor more or achieve a slightly thicker consistency, you can always simmer the soup with the lid off after pressure cooking using the saute function.
Keep in mind that 1/2 cup liquid is a pretty safe minimum amount to avoid burning. You may be able to get away with less, even a few tablespoons, if you anticipate that whatever you’re cooking will give off a fair share of liquid. Vegetables such as cauliflower and broccoli are especially prone to releasing water, Mundhe says.
Mind the browning. Many recipes with meat require that you brown it before proceeding with pressure cooking (see the Instant Pot Arroz con Pollo pictured above for one example). If you’re doing that in the Instant Pot, keep in mind that you typically have less surface area to work with than in a wide skillet on the stovetop. You may need to brown the meat in more batches, as overcrowding will cause it to steam more than sear, resulting in a “sweaty mess,” as Manning says. She offers a few pointers for this step. First, she recommends brushing the meat with the oil rather than adding the meat to oil in the pot. That’s because fat tends to pool at the edges of the Instant Pot insert due to its shape with a raised center. If you place meat in the center where there’s no fat, you may get sticking. She also says you shouldn’t feel obligated to brown every piece of meat on every side. Often, she’ll sear just a portion of it, which is enough to get the benefit of the flavor without spending an inordinate amount of time on the process.
It’s also easy to set the saute feature to high and then forget to adjust it. But as with a stovetop, you may need to play around with the heat level in an Instant Pot. Even more so than on a cooktop, I find that foods can go from fine to scorched in a matter of seconds. So do pay attention and use the lower saute levels as needed. To keep onions from burning, Mundhe likes to saute them with the glass lid from one of her skillets set over the Instant Pot. That allows them to soften faster with less risk of scorching, as the lid will trap a little bit of the moisture that tends to cook off rapidly in the appliance. And don’t be afraid of hitting the cancel button, either, if something is starting to get too dark or you need to step away. The top rim of the insert tends to stay cooler, so it’s safe to lift it out if you have to, especially while wearing oven mitts. Have your ingredients measured and nearby so you can work as quickly as possible. A little bit of your liquid poured into the insert followed by a scrape along the bottom with a spoon or spatula can save you in many instances when food is threatening to burn and trigger the automatic cutoff.
Adjust the order of ingredients. Much burning can be avoided simply by adjusting the order in which ingredients are added to the Instant Pot. Mundhe notes that dry ground spices are prone to burning, so if you’re going to be cooking them under pressure, sprinkle them on top of the other ingredients. Or simply stir them in at the end of cooking, as with the chana masala, which also allows you to adjust the spice level for varying tastes before you add the entire amount called for in a recipe. Manning sometimes takes a similar approach to dishes with thicker tomato sauces susceptible to burning, choosing to place the tomatoes on top of the other ingredients before pressure cooking.
Consider elevating more delicate proteins, either on top of the other ingredients or on a trivet, so they don’t overcook either. This works with chicken breasts and some cuts of fish. Many types of seafood, though, are best left to the end of cooking. Mundhe makes a salmon tikka masala in which the salmon is stirred in after the sauce has been pressure-cooked. The fish pieces cook in just 2 to 3 minutes on the high saute setting. Likewise, Manning adds the shrimp to her gumbo at the very end, when even just the residual heat can be enough to cook them. Stir in dairy (milk, cream, cheese, etc.) at the end of cooking, too. Flours or starches used for thickening are best added at the end as well, Mundhe says, because they can scorch on the bottom of the insert.
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