Whats The Difference Between An Instant Pot And A Crockpot
The biggest difference between an Instant Pot and a Crockpot is the speed at which the two appliances cook food. An Instant Pot can cook food much faster than a Crockpotand even quicker than conventional cooking methods too .
Other than that, both appliances have inner pots that are removable and washable both come in six-quart, eight-quart and ten-quart sizes and both are capable of cooking one-pot meals that would feed a crowd .
Instant Pot Easy Recipes
I am a busy mom who needs quick and simple dishes to serve. Never do I use seasonings or spices that are hard to find and cant be bought at a local grocery store. If you are the same way then this list of one pot meals will work well for your family as well.
- Lots of other tips are here too like this handy free printable with Instant Pot cooking times.
- We have Instapotvegetable cook times here as well
These will help you know how to cook beans in a pressure cooker perfectly. Then you can make things like homemade baked beans and tons of different soups. I mean canned works great if you want to throw 1 into a quick recipe like our fajita soup, but you can cook from dry so easily now too.
- It helps figure out how to cook pressure cooker frozen chicken wings as well as the directions for frozen chicken in the Instant Pot. You can serve both with Jasmine rice in Instant Pot for a complete low fat meal.
Both can come in really handy when you dont have any fresh meat in the house .
Instant Pot Chicken With Quinoa Pistachios And Apricots
This is going to be your new go-to healthy weeknight dinner. Full of protein and fiber, this dish is light, yet satisfying. The heat of the chile and ginger balance out the sweetness of the apricot, and the pistachios provide a pleasant crunch.
Get the Recipe: Instant Pot Chicken with Quinoa, Pistachios and Apricots
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What’s Better: An Instant Pot Or A Crock
An Instant Pot does have more functionality than a slow cooker, but if you don’t plan to use all of its extra functions and just prefer the simplicity of a slow-cooker, then you might prefer a Crock-Pot. They’re both great countertop appliances and you’ll get excellent results from whichever you choose!
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Instant Pot Sunday Sauce
Your Sundays are now free! No more standing over the stove babysitting Sunday supper. This sauce is fully loaded with pork, beef, sausage and meatballs, and is sure to become a family tradition that won’t leave you short on time to relax and enjoy Sunday Funday.
Get the Recipe: Instant Pot Sunday Sauce
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Creamy Instant Pot Corn Notes:
- Looking for more recipes? Our Recipe Finder can help you find exactly what you need.
- Check out all our favorite recommendations for cookbooks, slow cookers and low carb essentials in our .
- As with any of our recipes, carb counts, calorie counts and nutritional information varies greatly. As a result, your nutritional content depends on which products you choose to use when cooking this dish. The auto-calculation is just an automated estimate and should NOT be used for specific dietary needs.
- Finally, all electric pressure cookers cook differently, so cooking times are always a basic guideline. Recipes should always be tested first in your own electric pressure cooker and time adjusted as needed.
Pressure Cooker Holiday Recipes
Instant Pot sausage recipes are always a hit! Whether you have ground spicy sausage, regular, or links these are super yummy and of course easy.
If youre eating healthier this list of pressure cooker fish recipes are always helpful. This pairs well with homemade or Instant Pot dumplings that are steamed from frozen.
- If its holiday time check out our Christmas and Instant Pot Thanksgiving recipes. If you just got it and need easy meals, try a few 5 ingredient Instant Pot recipes first.
Instant Pot French dip sandwiches are always a winner for dinner too.
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Instant Pot Pork Loin With Carrots And Onions
Pork Loin is so lean that it’s often overcooked and turns out dry –but not with the Instant Pot. After just thirty minutes, you have tender and juicy pork in a rich, savory sauce. Serve with mashed potatoes for a quick and easy comfort meal.
Get the Recipe: Instant Pot Pork Loin with Carrots and Onions
How To Use Your Instant Pot As A Slow Cooker
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Printable Slow Cooker To Instant Pot Conversion Chart
Yes! We have a slow cooker to instant pot conversion chart for cooking times that you can print below.
Why?
Because all my favorite dinner recipes that were easy to make were slow cooker ones! And now I can speed up the cooking time with my Instant Pot!
But what ARE those instant pot cooking times?
Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup
Dont be fooled by the dark color of this soup. With five different types of colorful vegetables, this is a sure way to get your veggie servings for the day. Not to mention its packed with ingredients that are naturally vegetarian, vegan and even gluten-free. Make this soup your own by adding extras like cilantro, tortilla chip strips, diced avocados, or sour cream and cheese.
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Hold Off On The Thickeners
As we already mentioned, creamy ingredients are best saved for adding to the pot after the pressure has been released. This includes dairy products, like milk and sour cream, and canned cream of soups.
Similarly, hold off on thickening agents, like cornstarch or arrowroot, until after youve finished the pressure cooker setting. If a recipe calls for flour-coated chicken, for example, saute the chicken without the flour and add a thickening agent before serving.
Instant Pot Vegetarian Recipes
You can see here that those combinations do come out successfully in the correct amounts. The issue is that if you dont, youll receive the dreaded burn notification which nobody wants.
Did you know you could cook a whole cabbage in your IP too? Takes less than 10 minutes to get tender and drizzled with butter, salt and pepper its a cheap wonderful side dish. Throw some into your Instant Pot vegetable ramen for a hearty meal packed with veggies.
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Should You Use Your Instant Pot As A Slow Cooker
I know I can use my Instant Pot as a slow cooker, but should I? Were giving you the scoop about if its all its cracked up to be.
I think before jumping into the question in the headline of this article, we have to answer a different one first. Can you use your Instant Pot as a slow cooker? Absolutely. In fact, its one of the appliances purposes. The Instant Pot is most often used as an electric pressure cooker but yes, it also has a slow cooker setting.
Instant Pot Mac & Cheese
“Making macaroni and cheese in an Instant Pot seemed, to me, counterintuitive at first thought,” Quittner says. “Wouldn’t the noodles get all mushy, instead of remaining beautifully al dente? No, it turns outnot if you cook them for the perfect amount of time. Plus, after some testing, I realized I could infuse the actual pasta with way more flavor by cooking it directly in broth, cream, and Pecorino. Seriously: way more.”
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How To Make Melt
Aunt Lou here.
So this all started with Crock Pot Melt-In-Your-Mouth Pork Chops. Then came along Crock Pot Melt-In-Your-Mouth Chicken, which became an instant family favorite around here, so you know I had to figure out how to make it on nights where I dont have much time. So, now you have Instant Pot Melt-In-Your Mouth Chicken!
Consider Adding Ingredients In Stages
Since meat and vegetables cook at drastically different timings, you may not want to add them at the same time like you do in your slow cooker. If your meat is cut into 1-inch or smaller pieces, it should be safe to toss them in together. But, if youre using a larger chunk of meat, like pot roast or pork shoulder, make the recipe in stages. Start by cooking the meat first and releasing the pressure. Then, add the vegetables and either simmer using the Saute function or cook under pressure for an additional 1 to 5 minutes.
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Dump And Go Instant Pot And Slow Cooker Recipes
Instant Pot dump dinners are my jam! They usually take hardly any prep time and once the up-front steps are completed its just a matter of pushing some buttons and walking away. These easy instant pot dinners are perfect for those busy weeknights when you want a home-cooked meal but dont have a lot of extra time to hang out in the kitchen.
Quick And Easy Instant Pot Recipes
- Pressure Cooker chicken and rice is great, or amp it up with our Instant Pot Mexican chicken and rice or our Instant Pot teriyaki chicken and rice recipes!
You can use ready made or this is how to make your own Instant Pot bone broth at home. We have done it with chicken bones as well if we are making Instant Pot chicken thighs and rice soon.
We have a creamy Instant Pot chicken and rice casserole version and a Instant Pot cheesy chicken and rice style as well. Both of these are part of our leftover chicken recipes Instant Pot roundup we have made up for you.
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Tips For The Best Beef Stew In An Instant Pot
- Brown the beef so that it gets that delectable crust. Crust = FLAVOR, so dont skip this step. It takes a little bit of patience but will be well worth your time.
- Deglaze the pot and scrape up every brown bit. Deglazing adds richness to the stew and ensures you dont receive the dreaded Instant Pot burn warning.
- Use wine if you like. I wrote the recipe for deglazing the stew with beef broth to keep it simple, but you could certainly do an Instant Pot beef stew red wine and deglaze with that instead.
- Pile on the veg. Forget Instant Pot beef stew with few ingredients! I loaded this soup with lots of healthy vegetables, so its incredibly flavorful and truly can hold its own as an all-in-one meal.
- Size matters. The Instant Pot can turn finely chopped veggies into mush pretty easily. For best results, cut the potatoes and other vegetables roughly into larger pieces. They will hold up better during the cooking process.
Converting Slow Cooker Recipes For The Instant Pot
Since we can see that the settings dont perfectly correspond between these two appliances, not all slow cooker recipes will work exactly the same in your Instant Pot.
If you are using a recipe meant for a slow cooker on low, set your Instant Pot to normal with the slow cooker function for the same amount of time. However, if your recipe calls for the high setting, youll need to use the more setting as well as add 15 minutes per hour because of the temperature differences.
So a Crockpot recipe that asks you to cook on high for 4 hours, will need to be cooked on more in the Instant Pot for 5 hours.
Slow CookerRecipe |
More, plus add 15 min/hour |
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Slow Cooker And Instant Pot Recipes
These slow cooker and instant pot recipes are perfect for busy weeknight meals or to meal prep for the week. In many of the recipes you can use either a crockpot or an instant pot to make the meal with edits for timing.
If you’re craving a cozy vegetarian soup, try my Instant Pot Autumn Squash Soupor a freezer-friendly Sweet Potato Stew.
Want shredded meat for tacos, salads, enchiladas, or quesadillas? You’ll love these Chicken Tinga Tacos and shredded Flank Steak Tacos.
Slow Cooker To Instant Pot Cooking Times Conversion
At its basic, the slow cooker is easier to guess because the answer is alwaysa really long time. Instant Pot cooking times are super quickin many cases the instant pot cooking time is so quick that I wouldnt have guessed it correctly.
For instance, roast beef takes 15 minutes per pound in the Instant Pot and 8-10 hours on low in the slow cooker! That is a big difference in cooking times!
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Instant Pot Bone Broth
We sip on bone broth all winter longit’s like tea, but… with more protein!this recipe offers a slow-cooked stovetop methodand we’re talking slow, like 16-24 hours. But if you want bone broth tonight, let the Instant Pot come in to save the day! Using the pressure cooker shaves hours off the cook time, and you’ll have a steamy batch of broth in just four hours.
Instant Pot No Fuss Chicken
Instant Pot No Fuss Chicken–chicken, carrots and potatoes in a savory gravy. An easy one pot dump and go meal!Pin this recipe for later!Instant Pot No Fuss ChickenThis is a simple meal with just a handful of ingredients but it is so homey and delicious! You’re going to love the savory Read More »
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Easy Instapot Dinner Ideas
To start here is the best way to cook Instant Pot chicken and an explanation of pressure cooker times for meat as well as a printable
Here is how to defrost Instant Pot frozen ground beef as well which will help you make a lot of these recipes quickly
- We love Instant Pot cream of celery soup too
- 2 different recipes for Pressure cooker frozen meatballs are great little appetizers or a quick main dish
More dinner ideas below..
We make our 5 ingredient crockpot chili recipe almost weekly and normally it takes 6-8 hours but we made it in here and it was done in 45 minutes or less!
During the cooler months this pressure cooker chicken soup recipes come in handy as well as whole chicken recipes of all kinds.
On that one I still prefer a slower cooking to seep in the flavors so I set it on the slow cooker setting. That is done in just 4 which is quicker AND I can skip precooking the beef in it by using the saute function.
I love it.and have now created a roundup of easy Instant Pot beef recipes too.
We have even made Instant Pot baby food so it can be used for everyone.
My Instant Pot butter chicken has been a hit too. I firsts tasted this popular Indian dish when I was in Utah and it was amazing.I tinkered with it and came up with a version that reminded me of that dinner.
The Pros And Cons Of An Instant Pot Vs Slow Cooker
Does the idea of not having to wait hours for your favorite slow cooker recipes sound too good to be true? While overall the Instant Pot provides more benefits than drawbacks, there are a few things to keep in mind when making slow cooker to Instant Pot conversions.
- Not everything can go in an Instant Pot. Generally, you wont be able to cook recipes with dairy, thickening agents or alcohol in the Instant Pot, while you would be able to cook them in the slow cooker. On the flip side, an Instant Pot has many more cooking functions than a slow cooker, like steaming and sauteing. When choosing the best Instant Pot for you, keep in mind what functions you want it to offer.
- An Instant Pot requires more attention. With a slow cooker, you can often add all the ingredients at once, stir occasionally, and call it done. But with an Instant Pot, there may be extra steps. To start, you may have to wait for the pot to come to pressure. For some recipes, youll wont want to add all the ingredients at the same time, which means youll have to come back to tend to your recipe.
Theres no one-size-fits-all rule for making slow cooker to Instant Pot conversions. It depends on your appliance and the ingredients youre using, down to the particular cut and weightso youll likely have to do some experimenting. A good place to start is by checking Crock Pots slow cooking vs. pressure cooking guide and Instant Pots cooking time table.
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