What Is The Largest Instant Pot You Can Buy

How To Know What Size Instant Pot To Buy

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Have you been considering buying an Instant Pot? The fact that you can put the food in, close the lid, push a couple of buttons, and then walk away, even out of the kitchen makes this a must-have appliance in todays kitchen. Its just so easy to use. But what size Instant Pot should you get?

Maybe you already own one and youre thinking of buying another one and youre not sure which size you should get. Well, I took the three main sizes of Instant Pots 8 qt., 6 qt., and 3 qt. and compared them to help you have a better idea of which one is right for you?

The Air Fryer Basket Wore Out Quickly

After a few uses, I started having trouble with the air fryer basket that is included with the pot. The non-stick coating started to wear down quickly, leaving me with fries and chicken that were sticking to the bottom. To work around this, I purchased some perforated parchment paper inserts, and theyve made ALL the difference!

Also Check: Reviews Of Power Air Fryer 360

Update: What About The New Duo Evo Plus

My friend Vickilynn, and co-teacher of our Pressure Cooking I and II eCourses, introduced me to the Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus. Otherwise, I might not have considered it. I’m so glad she spoke up!

Here are the bullet points of why the Duo Evo Plus beats out the Duo. Watch the January 2020 update video above to see all these features in action!

• overall faster and easier to use
• it’s a 9-in-1 over the Duo’s because it has two additional functions sous vide and bake
• it has 48 customizable settings
• the pre-heating time is up to 70% faster due to the 1200w heating element which reduces preheating time, allowing you to make meals faster
• the pressure release time is shortened with updated quickcool technology
• the screen dialogue shows you the stages of pre-heating, program/cycle, and then warm time/pressure release time afterward
• the insert pot has a flat bottom so you can evenly brown foods
• the insert pot has handles! they fit right into the base to lift the pot in and out easily
• the handles have cool-to-touch easy grip handles no need for a potholder!
• the insert pot’s handles fit into the base so the post doesn’t spin around when stirring
• the insert pot is an upgraded cookware grade 18/10 stainless steel it’s dishwasher safe and can be used on your stovetop, too!
• the lid automatically sets to sealing position when lid is closed

I only have 4 cons:

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Why You Should Trust Us

Wirecutter senior writer Lesley Stockton has spent her entire career in the culinary industry and has covered electric and stovetop pressure cookers for Wirecutter since 2016. For the original version of this guide, she interviewed pressure-cooking experts Lorna Sass, author of Cooking Under Pressure, and Mike Vrobel, author of the blog Dad Cooks Dinner. In 2020, she tested the Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus against our picks.

For the 2019 update, staff writer Anna Perling spent more than 20 hours cooking butter chicken, rice, beans, and risotto in pressure cookers, and air-frying two whole chickens, french fries, and mozzarella sticks in new and notable cookers. She also consulted Hip Pressure Cooking, The Veggie Queen, Serious Eats, and Miss Vickie for guidance.

Create Delicious Meals With Less Oil

Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the bestproducts youcan learn more about ourreview process here.We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links.

The Spruce / Chloe Jeong

Air fryers have gained popularity for producing crispy, evenly browned fried foods without the use of an actual deep fryer. They work by circulating hot air around food, similarly to a convection oven, and eliminate the need for much, if any, cooking oil, resulting in grocery savings and less clean up.

Many consumers are convinced air fryers produce a superior fried finish on French fries, tater tots, and chicken wings, compared to a standard oven. They can even be used to make homemade chicken tenders and potato chips, making them worth the investment for fried snack food lovers.

Many air fryers are programmed with multiple cooking functions and can double as a toaster oven, convection oven, warmer, rotisserie, indoor grill, and more. No matter which features youre looking for, theres an air fryer to meet your needs.

Heres a roundup of the best air fryers available now.

Read Also: How To Cook Frozen Tamales In Instant Pot

Instant Pot Duo Nova 10 Quart Specs

Heres a closer look at the specifications of the 10 quart Duo Nova to help you decide if its the right size for your family and kitchen.

The dimensions of the new Instant Pot Duo Nova 10 quart are: 14.8L x 15.5W x 14.7H inches.

And this Instant Pot weights just under 21 lbs, coming in at 20.9 lbs.

Set It And Forget It With These Top Picks

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Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the bestproducts youcan learn more about ourreview process here.We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links.

Chloe Jeong / TripSavvy

The multi-cooker, all-in-one gadget known as the Instant Pot makes an appearance on every list of must-buy kitchen equipment. Its popularity has led amateur chefs, both veterans and newbies, to simplify their culinary efforts into one-pot meals and make pressure cooking trendy again. The electric Instant Pots ability to regulate its own heat is its advantage over older stovetop pressure cookers. This means whether you want to quickly whip up a batch of beans or a weeks worth of egg bites, you can literally set it and go about your business. Theres also a multitude of other features, like slow cooking, yogurt making, and air frying, to explore.

If youre ready to take the plunge with your own Instant Pot or are looking to upgrade from an earlier generation, heres a comprehensive roundup of the six best Instant Pots.

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Where Do I Find Recipes For The Instant Pot

The instruction manual and recipe booklet in the box are a great place to start. The recipes there are limited, but we found the cooking time tables to be pretty helpful in the beginning. Hip Pressure Cooking lists recommended times and pressure levels for most foods and has an active online community. You can also try our one-pot meal recipe or check out the other super-simple recipes Wirecutter staff members cook in their Instant Pots.

You can find hundreds of Instant Pot cookbooks out there, including many tailored to specific dietary concerns . Melissa Clark, food reporter for The New York Times and Instant Pot enthusiast, has written her own cookbook, Dinner in an Instant, and also told us about some of her favorites: Indian Instant Pot Cookbook by Urvashi Pitre, and Coco Morantes The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook.

Do Instant Pot Recipes Work In Any Multicooker

In our testing, the recipes from Eisner’s The Step-by-Step Instant Pot Cookbook turned out just as good in the off-brand pressure cookers as they did in Instant Pots, which Eisner used to develop the recipes. Instant Pot recipes appear to translate well across brands.

Though Eisner has never used another brand, he says his recipes work in non-Instant Pot multicookers. “I’ve had people write to me who have other brands,” said Eisner. “And, they say the recipes in my book work just fine for them.”

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The Best Instant Pots For 2021

Juicy, tender beef Instant Pot Carnitas – browned and cooked until easy to shred in the pressure cooker. This easy to prep dish cooks in about an hour with very little hands on prep time needed. Once done, shred and add to burritos, bowls, tacos, salads, nachos and more!

Our Instant Pot has become the best tool for getting family dinners on the table every night of the week. Not only does the electric pressure cooker cook dinner in a flash, but the Instant Pots slow cooker function also makes it easy to make big-batch dinners in advance. Here are 10 of my familys favorite Instant Pot dinner recipes right now!

The Instant Pot is perfect for make-ahead staples, like shredded chicken and chili. Seriously, it’ll be your new BFF if you’re into meal prep! Next week, we’ll be debuting our very first Instant Pot recipes, and both are perfect if you like to meal plan for the week ahead. Cleanup is a breeze.

What To Serve With Instant Pot Duo Big Mac Recipe. You could serve some french fries with your dish, add a green salad to lighten up the dish, or even some salty plain chips. Feel free to pair with whatever you find fits, or just eat it alone and call it a meal in one. More Recipes for the Instant Pot Duo Crisp you will love:

Instant Pot Duo Nova 8 Quart Vs 10 Quart

If youre wondering how much additional space youll get with the larger model, here are few things to consider.

The 10 quart model has higher power source than the 8 quart, coming in at 1440W. And its the second most powerful Instant Pot, with the Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air fryer coming in at 1500W.

The 8 quart model is a little lighter and smaller than the 10 quart model. The larger model weights just over 5 lbs more. And while the 10 quart is less than an inch taller, it adds another almost 2 inches to the width.

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It Helps To Consider What You’ll Be Cooking

I know it’s hard to think of what a 6- or 8-quart Instant Pot can hold. Let me give you some examples.

Whole chickens The 6-quart will fit a 5 to 6-pound whole chicken comfortably. The 8-quart fits 5 to 6-pound whole chickens comfortably side by side.

Yogurt The 6-quart will make 4 to 5 quarts of yogurt comfortably while the 8-quart will make 6 to 7 quarts of yogurt comfortably.

Spaghetti squash A medium-size or 2 smaller will fit in the 6-quart Instant Pot 2 medium or even a large spaghetti squash will fit in the 8-quart.

Batch cooking If you batch cook at all, whether rice, beans, pre-cooked chicken, etc., you will fit more in the 8 quart, making your efforts stretch farther.

Accessories Many of the accessories I chose fit in both the 6-quart and 8-quart Instant Pots. An exception is the stackable pans I showed you in the second video above. Those ONLY fit the 8-quart Instant Pot. However, there is a greater capacity for stacking and using larger containers inside the 8-quart Instant Pot. Wondering what I’m talking about? Like making this sourdough cornbread in a 7-cup Pyrex bowl it will fit in either size Instant Pot.

See the second video above for real-life examples of how these foods fit in the 6-quart or 8-quart Instant Pot!

If you’d like more ideas for using your Instant Pot, be sure to check out 11 Creative & Surprising Things To Make In The Instant Pot. I think some will astound you!

Back To Size, Though

What Can You Not Cook In An Air Fryer

You can cook most foods in an air fryer, but there are some exceptions. You want to avoid air-frying battered foods, like beer-battered fish or corn dogs. While these types of foods fare well with deep fryers, they can splatter and cause a huge mess in an air fryer.

Its also a good idea to avoid using an air fryer to cook things with a lot of cheese, like fresh mozzarella sticks or jalapeño poppers. While frozen versions of these items do okay, fresh cheese melts too quickly , leaving you with a mess and a not-so-great finished product.

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Are Pressure Cookers Safe

Yes, electric pressure cookers like the Instant Pot are generally safe and easy to use. The Instant Pot has so many safety mechanisms built in, its hard to make a catastrophic mistake. The lid has two safety catches: a valve that releases excess pressure automatically, and a lock preventing you from opening the pot while its under pressure. If for some reason the steam-release valve isnt doing its job, the appliance has another sensor that shuts off the heating element if excess pressure builds inside the pot.

But as with any kind of cooking, there is a risk of injury if you are careless. If you follow the safety instructions, you should be good. Weve found only one confirmed report of an injury caused by an Instant Pot, and it was the result of user error: The person suffered minor burns after she covered the steam valve with a dish towel while the pot was under pressure. When she touched the towel a few minutes later, hot soup sprayed onto her arm and neck. The Instant Pot manual, however, explicitly states that all venting valves should be clean and free of debris.

Recommended Reading: Instapot Cabbage Rolls

If I Already Have A Slow Cooker And A Rice Cooker Do I Really Need Another Appliance

Well, we cant dictate what you need. However, the Instant Pot is more functional than both a slow cooker and rice cooker combined because it can also pressure-cook. The word instant in the name gives it away: You can cook things astonishingly fast in a pressure cookereven notoriously slow-cooking or labor-intensive foods like risotto and brisket.

We think rice cooked in the Instant Pot is fine for most people, though the grains dont come out as fluffy and light as they do from a high-end rice cooker like our upgrade pick, the Cuckoo CRP-G1015F. Rice aficionados might want to keep their rice cooker, especially for cooking sushi-grade grains.

If youre worried about clutter, you can donate your old appliances to a charity, or hand them off to someone in your life whos just starting out. Were sure theyd appreciate them.

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Ninja Air Fryer Oven And So Much More

Everyone knows that Instant Pots are awesome. And everyone also knows that theyre often on sale at Amazon with great discounts. As we mentioned earlier, the Instant Pot Duo Plus has a small discount, and the fancy $150 Instant Pot Max is also discounted today. As great as those deals are, however, you may first want to consider another pair of sales on products from Instant Brands top rival.

The insanely popular Ninja Foodi OS302 was a fan-favorite model with so many 5-star ratings on Amazon. It has a 6.5-quart capacity plus nine different cooking modes, But the big news is that it has something youll never find on those Instant Pot models we mentioned earlier. On top of all the standard cooking modes youd expect like pressure cooking, slow cooking, and steaming, Ninjas Foodi OS302 has a built-in air fryer!

Ninjas excellent Foodi OP301 multi-cooker isnt really around anymore. But the good news is that it has been replaced by a supersized model with a bunch of additional features! The Ninja Foodi Deluxe FD401 is a fantastic $250 multi-cooker with a built-in air fryer. It has much more capacity and so many more features than the older OS302. And if you hurry, you can snag this amazing 9-in-1 Ninja air fryer oven and multi-cooker for just $179.99 instead of $250!

You really cant go wrong with this Ninja deal. Actually, thats not true you can go wrong by taking too long and missing out.

Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air Fryer Review: The Best Of Both Worlds For Healthy Eating

Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air Fryer review: this is THE Instant Pot you should buy

Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air Fryer is part of an arguably too big family of Instant Pots, however in our opinion Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air Fryer combines the best balance of price, size, and features out of any of the Instant Pot range. So yes, it IS the one you should buy

• Air fryer addition makes it far more versatile

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  8 quart model is practical without being outright huge

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ByJosh RossLast updated 2021-07-15T13:53:21.846Z

Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air Fryer review in a sentence: adding an air fryer to the usual Instant Pot smart pressure cooker is a genius move.

In todays world, it would seem impossible that there are those who dont know much about the Instant Pot brand of multi-cookers. The only problem Instant Pot has left for consumers with its product is deciding which is the best Instant Pot out of the dozens of versions it puts out.

Spend much time `browsing any major recipe blog, and before long, you are bound to see it mentioned. There are recipes for every meal of the day and every imaginable type of food. If you want to live in a tiny house and use an Instant Pot as your only kitchen appliance, you can find guidance. It hasnt always been like this, though.

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