How To Cook Baked Potatoes In Instant Pot

Tips And Tricks For The Best Instant Pot Baked Potatoes

This recipe is beyond easy as-is, but a few simple tips and tricks can make your baked potatoes taste out of this world! The result is fluffy golden goodness that your family is sure to be drooling over.

• Dry Potatoes: It is really important to wash the dirt off of your potatoes before you cook them. But one mistake that is often overlooked is to dry them completely before use. If there is too much moisture on your potato, it can seep into the skins and prevent them from crisping.
• Crispy Skins: If you want baked potatoes with perfectly crispy skins that still have a soft fluffy inside, dont skip the broiling step! A quick spritz of olive oil spray and broiling your potatoes for a few minutes is just what they need for the best texture possible.
• Making Sure Your Potatoes Are Ready to Eat: Once your timer goes off, you will want to make sure your potatoes are cooked through completely. One surefire way to check is by inserting a toothpick. If you are able to insert and remove it easily, your potato is ready to eat!
• Cut Your Potatoes Immediately: Its common sense to want to let your potatoes cool down completely before cutting them open, but unfortunately, letting them sit will alter their texture. Unless you cut them open immediately, the insides will continue to cook and retain water, ultimately becoming more dense rather than fluffy.

Instant Pot Baked Potato Tips

• You can do a quick release after the timer is up. You can also leave them to naturally release the pressure, just keep in mind they keep cooking during that time.
• Drain the water out of the Instant Pot after pressure cooking your potatoes. The water gives your potatoes a bit of a facial, so a lot of extra dirt and junk comes off the potatoes and falls into the water.
• Serve your baked potatoes as a main meal in a baked potato bar! Some topping ideas are butter, sour cream, chives, cheddar cheese, crispy onions, tomatoes, steamed broccoli, soup, and cheese sauce. If youd like a bit more of a substantial meal, add any kind of cut up protein.
• Baked potatoes are also a great side dish to add to Instant Pot Ribs, Instant Pot Chili, Instant Pot Chicken Drumsticks, or Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken legs.
• Use a steamer basket to quickly wash and cook baked potatoes in your Instant Pot. The times stay the same.
• You can get crispy baked potatoes by broiling or air frying the potatoes after pressure cooking.
• Cut the potatoes in half, scoop out the insides, and make twice baked potatoes!
• Cut the potatoes in half, scoop out the insides, and bake with cheese for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is melty to make potato skins!

More Tips For Baked Potatoes

• Cold water: Make sure to use cold water as it prevents potatoes from overcooking.
• Prick potatoes:;It helps steam to escape and prevents potatoes from exploding.
• Stacking: It is OK to pile up potatoes on top of each other.
• Jumbo potatoes: Lets say from Costco, I would cook them for 23 minutes. Just in case.:) I would not recommend cooking more than 8 large potatoes at once.
• Crispy skin: Brush cooked potatoes with oil and sprinkle with salt. Then bake on baking sheet for 10 minutes in preheated 400 degrees F oven.

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How To Use These Baked Potatoes:

There are so many different things you could do with these Instant Pot baked potatoes, but here are a few suggestions!

• Make ahead if youre a meal prepper! These will keep well in your fridge for 4-5 days.
• Dress it up with all your favorite toppings! Here are some ideas of what you can pile on top of a baked potato:
• Bacon. Obviously. Try baking your bacon. Its easy, theres way less cleanup, and it turns out perfect.
• Chili, because were taking things seriously here.

How To Make It

Set a programmable electric pressure cooker to SAUTE on normal heat. Add olive oil and onions and cook, stirring constantly, until softened and golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Add 1/4 cup water to loosen browned bits. Transfer onions to a small bowl and let cool completely, about 20 minutes.

While onions cool, pour 1 cup water into pot and insert wire metal steam rack. Place potatoes on rack. Cover Instant Pot, and fasten lid. Lock and seal steam valve. Set to HIGH pressure for 15 minutes. Allow pressure to naturally release for 15 minutes, then carefully release pressure by turning valve to VENT. Remove lid and transfer potatoes to serving plate.

Stir onions together with sour cream, yogurt, parsley, chives, salt, and pepper. Set aside. Cut a lengthwise slit in each potato. Gently squeeze potatoes at both ends to open. Top each potato with about 2 tablespoons sour cream mixture and top each potato with 2 teaspoons grated cheese. Garnish with chives, if desired.

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How To Cook Baked Potatoes In The Instant Pot

To start, poke holes in the potatoes. You can use a fork or a paring knife for this. The reason to do this is that there is a lot of water in potatoes and as they heat, that water turns to steam. If there are no holes in the skin, that steam trying to escape can cause the skins to break, and sometimes to even burst. Its therefore best to put the holes in the potatoes yourself.

Next, pour water into the Instant Pot insert. Youll want to check your Instant Pot manual to see how much water needs to be added as each Instant Pot size has different requirements. You can use chicken stock or broth in place of the water for extra flavor, if youd like. Another thing you can do is put half an onion or a couple cloves of garlic into the water. This will gently flavor the potatoes.

Then put your Instant Pot trivet or a steamer into the Instant Pot insert. Add the potatoes on top. The idea here is that the potatoes are not sitting in the water. They therefore dont boil but they steam instead.

Secure the lid onto your Instant Pot and turn the valve to seal. Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook on high according to the times given below.

Potato Size Determines Cook Time

Cooking potatoes in your Instant Pot is not a one-size-fits-all method. Size matters, big time. For starters, youll want to use potatoes that are all roughly the same size. Theres no need to be exact , but cooking potatoes that all look to be the same size means you can be sure that they will cook evenly.

The size of the potatoes will also help determine the best cook time. Similar to other cooking methods, small potatoes require less time , while large potatoes benefit from a longer cook .

Your Instant Pot Potato Cheat Sheet

• Small russet potatoes : 12 minutes at high pressure
• Medium russet potatoes : 15 minutes at high pressure
• Large russet potatoes : 18 minutes at high pressure

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What Kind Of Potatoes Should I Use

I like to stick with the classic potato for baked potatoes: russet potatoes. You know, the giant brown ones you can buy in huge bags. THOSE potatoes.

Russet potatoes have a thick skin and a starchy, fluffy interior. They are perfect for making baked potatoes because the skin acts like a little bowl for that fluffy, mashed potato goodness. They are super starchy, so they will be super fluffy when baked.

Baked Potatoes In Minutes

We dont make baked potatoes very often, mainly because they take forever to bake and often hog much needed oven space. However, thats completely changed now that we started making them in the Instant Pot. Im obsessed!

Whats great about using the Instant Pot is that you dont have to babysit the potatoes, and theyre guaranteed to cook perfectly every time.

If youre like me and you like crisp potato skins, you can rub them with oil after they come out of the instant pot, sprinkle some coarse sea salt them and bake them for 10 minutes in the oven. This trick gives you the best of both worlds!

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How To Make Perfect Instant Pot Baked Potatoes:

Place the trivet that came with your pressure cooker inside of the pot and pour in 1 cup of water. Next, place the potatoes in, stacking if needed.

Cook the potatoes on manual high mode for 15 minutes and then let the instant pot pressure release naturally until the metal pin has gone down. The cook time could vary a decent bit depending on the size of the potatoes. I found that 15 minutes was perfect for average sized, medium potatoes. Smaller potatoes may need just 13 minutes while larger ones could take about 17 minutes.

And thats IT! Super easy, right?

This is totally optional but I like to place mine on a baking tray, spray with cooking spray and sprinkle with sea salt, and then broil for just a few minutes to crisp up the skins a little bit. Its definitely not necessary but a step that I just personally like to take.

Cooking Tips For Instant Pot Potatoes

• Dont forget to prick your potatoes a few times with a fork before cooking them. This allows steam and pressure to escape from the potatoes as they cook.
• Be sure to cook your baked potatoes on the metal trivet to keep them out of the water in the bottom of the Instant Pot.
• The cooking time for baked potatoes depends on their size. Cook the standard large size Russet potatoes that you find at the grocery store for 20 minutes at high pressure plus 10 minutes natural pressure release.
• If you want potatoes with more flavorful, crispy skins you can place them in your oven and broil for a few minutes after they have cooked in the Instant Pot. Rubbing the skins with olive oil and sprinkling them with salt and pepper helps them to crisp and adds flavor.

More Easy Instant Pot Recipes

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How To Make Baked Potatoes With Crispy Skin

If you like crispy skins on your baked potatoes, you can place them under the broiler after you cook the potatoes in the Instant Pot. This step is optional and I often skip it when Im short on time. It does add lots of flavor, though!

Place the cooked potatoes on a baking sheet. Rub the baked potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt before placing them under the broiler in your oven. Watch the potatoes closely so they do not burn. Mine took about 7 minutes to crisp under the broiler.

How To Make Them

First, you’ll want to make sure your potatoes are scrubbed and cleaned well. Russet potato skin can hold a lot of dirt, and if you don’t scrub them well, you will be able to taste it. A 6-quart Instant Pot will hold about 4 medium russet potatoes. Be sure that the potatoes are all roughly the same size so they cook evenly.

Prick the potatoes all over with a fork about 10-15 times. Place the metal steamer rack in your Instant Pot and fill with water until just below the bottom of the rack. Layer your potatoes in , close the lid, and set the pressure release valve to “sealing.” No foil needed!

How long to cook them will depend on the size.Cook on high pressure for:

• 12 minutes for smaller potatoes. Less than 2″ in diameter.
• 15 minutes for medium potatoes. About 2″ to 3″ in diameter.
• 18 minutes for large potatoes. Above 3″ in diameter.

We use a 6-quart Instant Pot and it takes 12 minutes to come up to pressure. After cooking for 15 minutes, let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes, then manually release the rest of the pressure. Open the lid and your potatoes will be baked to perfection!

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More Instant Pot Potato Recipes

My family cant get enough of these creamy, crispy, and savory potato side dish recipes. Bonus: theyre all made in an Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker:

• Pressure Cooker Savory Mashed Sweet Potatoes because sweet potatoes are potatoes too! These are creamy, decadent, and perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas.;
• Quick Potato Salad. Light, summery, and refreshing with hard-boiled eggs that cook at the same time as the potatoes in the Instant Pot.;
• Garlic Roasted Red Potatoes are for the crisp potato lovers out there!
• Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole are cheesy comfort food with crispy breadcrumbs and potato chips.;
• Chunky Potato Cheese Soup is a surprisingly filling soup loaded with chunky potatoes, bacon, corn, and two kinds of cheese.;
• Loaded Potato Casserole from the Feathered Nester features a generous amount of bacon, butter, and cheese in an easy-to-make, flavorful side dish.
• Cheesy Potatoes and Sausage from 365 Days of Slow & Pressure Cooking features smoked sausage, corn, and tender potatoes in a cheddar cheese sauce.;

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Additional TimeTotal Time

Crisp on the outside and creamy and fluffy on the inside, Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker Baked Potatoes are one of the best side dish recipes.

Don’t Skip The Natural Pressure Release

When testing Instant Pot baked potatoes, I found that potatoes cooked with a quick release required a much longer cook time, and always ended up dry on the inside. Letting the potatoes rest while the pressure naturally releases may help the moisture settle in the potatoes, as their insides were far more tender and moist.

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More Easy Potato Recipes

Potatoes are the lifeblood of any meal. They go with everything and are always so delicious and hearty! These are some of my other favorite recipes that you are sure to love!

• Place the metal trivet into the instant pot. Prepare the potatoes by scrubbing them and piercing them all over with a fork.

• Pour the water into the instant pot and place the potatoes on top. You can stack them on top of each other if needed.

• Close the lid and set it to the sealed position. Press the manual/pressure cook to high and cook for 12 minutes for small potatoes, 15 minutes or medium, and 18 for large potatoes.

• Let the pressure release naturally. Then quickly release any remaining pressure and carefully open the top.

If you want your potato skins crispy:

• Lay them on a baking sheet and spray with olive oil spray. Place in the oven and turn on high broil for 3-4 minutes or until the skin is slightly crisp. Sprinkle the potatoes with some sea salt and serve as desired.

Serves: 4

Calories168kcal Carbohydrates38g Protein5g Fat1g Saturated Fat1g Polyunsaturated Fat1gMonounsaturated Fat1gSodium14mg Potassium888mg Fiber3g Sugar1g Vitamin A2IUVitamin C12mg Calcium29mg Iron2mg

All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.

Course Side Dish

About Air Fryer Baked Potatoes

Can you make a baked potato in an air fryer? You sure can!; The method is similar to oven baking, but an air fryer baked potato comes out with an even crispier skin in my opinion.; You can also eat the super crisp skin! Mostly I like that I do not have to heat up the entire oven to make these. The Vortex Plus 7 in 1 air fryer works perfectly for them.

You can also make baked potatoes in any other brand of air fryer. Simply follow the directions, put them in the basket, and dont crowd them.;

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Printable Instant Pot Cooking Times Chart

Looking for a chart to help you with cook times, liquid measurements and whether you need to use natural pressure release or manual release? You can download my;Instant Pot Pressure Cooking Times Chart HEREits totally free, and you can print it or download it to your computer or phone to use later!

How To Make Baked Potatoes In An Instant Pot

The only equipment you’ll need when making baked potatoes in your electric pressure cooker is the trivet that comes with the Instant Pot. Alternatively, you can use your own metal steamer basket.

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