Instant Pot Beef And Broccoli
Diana Rattray
Skip the delivery service and use your Instant Pot to cook this quick, nutritious beef and broccoli that rivals takeout. Made with fresh broccoli florets and tender strips of steak, cooked in a tangy ginger and garlic sauce, it packs in tons of nutrition and flavor. Cook it up in a snap, without creating a mess of dishes to clean up.
What Does An Instant Pot Do
Yeah, why can’t you just get a regular slow cooker? At their core, Instant Pots are electric pressure cookers. The proprietary locking lid creates a seal that heats any water inside far past its boiling point, turning it to steam. When that steam has nowhere else to go, it creates pressure thus cooking food 2-10 times faster than what an oven or slow cooker could do.
The Instant Pot’s heart is a microprocessor aided by built-in temperature sensors that give Instant Pots the ability to 1. Mimic the cooking functions of multiple different appliances and 2. Switch between those functions at the press of a button. This collection of programs can be tweaked and tailored to perform super specific tasks that you may have struggled with pre-Instant Pot . They get down to the nitty-gritty of heat intensity, pressure, and cooking duration to achieve more precise results in the kitchen. Some of the more advanced models even offer personalized programming and will remember your settings for the next time.
Instant Pots rock because models ladder up in skill and price: Each model gains a new cooking method, so you aren’t paying for functions you won’t use.
Instant Pot For The Seasoned Cook: Instant Pot Pro
Like the Duo Plus, the Instant Pot Pro is a pressure cooker, slow cooker, sous vide, sauté pan, sterilizer, yogurt maker, food warmer, rice/grain cooker and steamer, but it’s also a cake baker, offering 10 uses in 1.
There are also 28 program settings for essential meals, and five programmable settings for your own favorite recipes. This model has an upgraded gentle steam release switch with a diffusing cover, to reduce noise and prevent splashing on your countertop. It’s available in 6-quart and 8-quart sizes.
Read Also: How To Cook Frozen Hamburger Meat In The Instant Pot
Should I Buy An Instant Pot And Which One
Its no surprise that the Instant Pot is as popular as it is today, since the main claim is that it can cook food in a fraction of the time. You simply set it, and then walk away until your food is ready. That makes the Instant Pot a perfect solution for when you want to get a home cooked meal on the table fast.
It has all the advantages of using the slow cooker, but it takes a fraction of the time. One reviewer aptly said, Its like a slow cooker on steroids.
If youre not quite ready to buy one and give this modern take on pressure cooking a try, this post might help make up your mind. Will you end up loving it, as so many other people already have? Read on to discover the pros and cons of the Instant Pot.
While the Instant Pot is a genius machine all on its own, there are lots of extra accessories you can get for your Instant Pot that will revolutionize the way you cook. See all our favorite accessories in this post.
The Target Person Is Anybody
If you’re not one of the millions with an Instant Pot in your kitchen and aren’t sure exactly what it even is, here’s a run-down: Basically, it’s an electric pressure cooker, slow cooker, steamer, rice cooker, and yogurt maker, all in one. IP enthusiasts use it to do everything from boil eggs, cook meat, and even make cheesecake.
Yes, it’s a multi-purpose dream, but that’s not its main selling point. “The main reason why people love Instant Pots so much is because it cooks food fast,” says Kara Nielsen, the vice president of trends and marketing at CCD Helmsman. Thanks to the technology of pressure cookingâwhich uses pressurized steam heat to cook food really quickly without drying it outâyou can make pretty much everything that you could in a slow cooker in a fraction of the time.
And while it has many similar functionalities to a traditional slow cooker, the Instant Pot is designed for a very different generation. In the ’70s, the Crock-Pot gave a new class of working women a way to feed their families a home-cooked meal while still being in the office for a full day, according to the Washington Post . That’s similar in some ways to how we live now, where everyone still works and yet still wants something homemade. But the big difference is that no one has time to prep food in the morning to eat after work several hours later.
Recommended Reading: How To Cook Frozen Hamburger Meat In The Instant Pot
Instant Pot Safety Features To Consider
All Instant Pots are made with at least 10 important safety features that aren’t always found on other types of cooking appliances. Several of the safety features are focused on maintaining safe pressure levels when using the pressure cooker setting. These multicookers detect if the lid is properly closed before pressurized cooking will begin. Leaks are also detected by the device in case the seal is installed incorrectly. This is to prevent food from scorching.
The lids on Instant Pots lock until the pressure dissipates so accidental opening isn’t an issue. The vent is designed to prevent blockages so the steam can’t reach levels that are too intense to keep you safe. When you set the temperature for the type of food you’re preparing, a thermostat that’s seated under the inner pot keeps the heat at a safe temperature. If the Instant Pot begins to overheat, it notifies you so you have the opportunity to turn it off before your food burns. In fact, if the temperature climbs too high, an integrated fuse shuts off the cooker’s power to keep your food, and your family, safe.
Each Instant Pot contains a built-in pressure control sensor, and it’s used to ensure the cooker stays within a safe range while your food is cooking. There’s a steam release in the lid of these multicookers that releases pent up steam when necessary, and there’s a back-up pressure release system built into the pots to provide extra safety support to the first pressure sensor.
You Can Cook Elaborate Meals In Less Than An Hour
The Instant Pot hits food with a one-two punch of high pressure and heat. The result: Things that usually take all day to cook are done in hours. We’re talking about tough cuts of meat like pork ribs, beef brisket and pork shoulder. The same goes for soups and stews, plus beans and grains. Normally they’d need to simmer for what feels like an eternity. Not so in the Instant Pot, which speeds up ordinary cook times by a factor of 3.
The Instant Pot has many safety features built right in.
Recommended Reading: How To Make Perfect Sushi Rice Instant Pot
What Size Instant Pot Should I Get
There are four Instant Pot sizes: 3-, 6-, 8-, and 10-quart options. The 6-quart Instant Pot is the most popular optionmany recipes call for a 6-quart Instant Pot, and a meal cooked in the 6-quart variety feeds 36 people. The 8-quart and 10-quart sizes, on the other hand, are ideal when youre feeding a large family, cooking for a party, or doing weekly meal prep. Last but not least is the 3-quart Instant Pot , which is perfect for cooking for 12 people.
The Pressure Cooking Experiment
Match-up: Instant Pot vs. pressure cooker
Pressure cooker: 50 min
Instant Pot: 1 hour 20 min
Assessment: Browning the chicken took double the time in the Instant Pot, and the pot needed to be cleaned to remove the over-done bits at the bottom, so a lot of flavour was lost from the final result. It also needed double the time to boil down the remaining sauce in the pot.
Verdict: Both were tasty, but for speed and maximum flavour, the pressure cooker took this round.
Total time: 8 hours
Instant PotTotal time: 4 hours 15 min , 8 hours 15 min
Assessment: The Instant Pot did well on both its high and low slow cooker settings, yielding delicious soup in almost half the time.
Verdict: Well played, Instant Pot.
You May Like: Ground Turkey Instant Pot Recipes
The Size Of The Instant Pot Matters
For safety reasons , the Instant Pot should be filled no more than 2/3 full. That means if you buy the6 quart Instant Pot , you can only safely put 3 1/2 quarts of food inside. If you buy the8 quart Instant Pot, you can put 6 quarts of food inside.
This may not be a big deal, but I know that one batch of chicken stock in my 6-quart slow cooker gives me a full gallon worth of stock. I would have to make multiple batches of stock in a 6-quart size Instant Pot to get the same yield.
How The Instant Pot Changes The Way Food Is Cooked
Instant Pots help you prepare your favorite dishes in less time than usual, and the flavors are enhanced by the cooking technology. These pots reduce the amount of time it takes to cook many types of food, so they preserve the flavor of the food you cook and ensure nutrients remain in the foods rather than cooking away. Using an Instant Pot also helps food cook to a more even inner temperature, which is important when cooking most types of meat.
Don’t Miss: How Long To Steam Broccoli In Instant Pot
Should You Buy An Instant Pot
If you dont have a pressure cooker, rice cooker, and slow cooker and are planning to buy these individual appliances, then my answer is a big YES, most especially if you want to save money and space. With just this one kitchen appliance, you can cook rice, pressure cook, slow cook, make yogurt, and more. Effortlessly.
However, most people already have a rice cooker and maybe aslow cooker/crockpot before the Instant Pot came out. So, I bet the most commondilemma most people have when buying this appliance is: What if I already havea rice cooker and a slow cooker, should I buy an instant pot? Is the InstantPot worth it?
My honest answer is maybe. It really all depends on your needs, so I recommend reading the Instant Pot pros and cons below to know whether its worth it.
Full disclosure: I didnt own any pressure cooker before. Although buying a pressure cooker had been on my bucket list for a long time, I put off getting myself one because I was terrified of the stories I heard about pressure cookers blowing up. But the Instant Pot comes with great safety features which made me change my mind!
Instant Pot Duo Crisp
The next entry on our list is a fan-favorite, especially if you have a soft spot for fried and crispy foods, and its called the Instant Pot Duo Crisp.
Without going into technical details, the Instant Pot Duo Crisp is the newest Instant Pot Duo model, and its just like your typical Instant Pot Duo, but with an additional multi-level air fryer basket that allows it to be both a pressure cooker and an air fryer.
Not only that, but it also comes with and dehydrating and broiling tray designed to provide the inside of the pot with optimal airflow, which is the key to cooking foods that are juicy on the inside, yet crispy on the outside.
Because of the additional air frying attachments, the number of appliances that this Instant Pot can replace is 11, but you dont need to worry about not knowing what to choose and how to choose the programs since the Instant Pot Duo Crisp comes with the same standard 1-Touch cooking programs that made the Instant Pot so sought-after.
Thanks to these settings, the Instant Pot Duo Crisp pressure cooks, sautés, steams, slow cooks, sousvides, warms, air fries, roasts, bakes, broils, and dehydrates, all with the push of a button and without having to wait all that long.
You dont need to worry about potential health hazards during the cooking process either, since the Duo Crisp was designed with every possible safety feature possible .
Specs:
Don’t Miss: How To Cook Hoppin John In Instant Pot
Fine You’ve Convinced Me Where Can I Get One
On Amazon, of course. Instant Pot’s own site lists out all the places you can find them, but that list is overwhelming, so to cherry-pick: Costco, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Sur La Table all have them. Plus, if you have an Instant Pot, you’ll need some recipes. We humbly suggest adding Party in an Instant Potto your cart.
How To Clean A Sealing Ring Thats Been Around The Block A Few Times
These are great tips for anyone with a new, or fairly new, Instant Pot, but what about for those of us who are dealing with one thats a little seasoned ?
I took one for the team and stopped washing my Instant Pot sealing ring upon being assigned this article. My go-to method is to wash it on the top rack of the dishwasher after each use , but I wanted to try one of the more popular internet-recommended hacks the vinegar steam.
I left the ring in place and added two cups of distilled white vinegar to the pot and then ran it on steam for two minutes. Then I placed the ring on top of two stainless steel drinking straws on a cloth on the countertop, to allow it to fully dry. This worked perfectly and I definitely see myself using this method during the holidays and other times when Ive got more dishes needing cleaning than I know what to do with.
Recommended Reading: What To Do If Your Instant Pot Says Burn
The Perfect Rice Experiment
Match-up: Instant Pot vs. rice cooker
Test Recipe: Perfect Instant Pot brown rice, from the Instant Pot manual.Total time: 38 min
Assessment: The finished rice was well-cooked with a nice bite to it, and was done in slightly less than 40 mins, the average amount of it takes a rice cooker to turn out a finished product.
Verdict: Again, the Instant Pot delivers.
Cons To Consider Before Buying An Instant Pot
Tip: Earn Amazon gift cards viaSwagbucks so you dont have to pay for this out of pocket. Im saving up to buy a set of colored seals this set of tri-color three seals is the best deal Ive found so far.
Also Check: What To Do If Your Instant Pot Says Burn
Instant Pots Are Fast Not Instant
The instant in Instant Pot is a little misleading. You cant make five-minute meals in the Instant Pot. If anything, you spend at least five minutes waiting for the Instant Pot to pressurize before cooking.
But when it comes to substantial, time-consuming dishes, the Instant Pot is extremely fast. Dry beans, for example, only take between 30 minutes to an hour to cook in the Instant Pot . On a stovetop or in a slow cooker, that process could take three hours or more . The same goes for meats, stews, and fiber-rich grains .
This isnt to say that you cant use the Instant Pot to make relatively quick meals. You can easily make potatoes, white rice, or mac and cheese in an Instant Pot in under half an hour. But for those quick meals, youre really just benefiting from the Instant Pots ease of use, not its speed.
Just keep your expectations in check. An Instant Pot can shave a few hours off of your pulled pork recipe, but it cant cook five-minute meals.
What Is An Instant Pot Heres Everything You Need To Know
Looking for a quick meal, but dont want to use a microwave? An Instant Pot is a multifunctional pressure cooker that can cook anything from roasts to chicken to desserts, and in much less time than most other cooking appliances.
Instant Pots come in a variety of designs, but each one has its own unique set of features. Some of the new technologies include air frying and Wi-Fi connectivity. What can this appliance do? How does an Instant Pot work? This guide explains everything you need to know about Instant Pots.
Recommended Reading: Instant Pot Tamales Cooking Time
Howto Make This Easy Pressure Cooker Ribs Recipe
