My New Kitchen Toy - Instant Pot - A Multi-Task Appliance

    OK I caved in and ordered one of these about a week after I discovered them. This is called an 'Instant Pot' and it is a wonderful kitchen appliance.

      When I first heard about this, I pondered whether I would even need one or not. This one has 7 features to it, most of which I already had appliances for. But, there was one feature I did not have; a pressure cooker.

    I had a pressure cooker years ago, and used it a couple of times. I was unimpressed. Eventually, the knob broke off and I got rid of it. I didn't care for the food I made in it. But then again, I only used it a couple of times.

    I saw some appealing looking meals that were made with this appliance, and I must say, I wanted to make those as well. Because the appliance has a saute feature, the finished product was crispy, not soggy. 

      I already have 2 yogurt makers, but wanted one that would use glass jars that would fit inside. One of my yogurt makers uses little glass jars and I love it. That little yogurt making machine is probably as old as my daughter is, so I have had that one for at least 30 years now. I bought another one which works well, but, I can't fit a jar in it, unless the jar is very small. But with this Instant Pot, I can put 4 small or medium jars inside and make yogurt in it. 

   (Note: There are a couple of versions of Instant Pot and not all of them have the yogurt feature.) 

     The first thing I made in this pot was yogurt. It was time again to make more yogurt, and I was somewhat skeptical of how it would turn out. I read the reviews on it and others who made yogurt were very pleased. So, I tried my hand at it. I prepared it before I went to bed that night. Then everything went into the pot and I followed the instructions. When I got up the next morning, the yogurt had been done. It did turn out perfect.

My Instant Pot Cooker - Pressure cooker, rice cooker, saute feature, yogurt maker, and many
other things this appliance can do.

     The next thing I would make was a chicken. Again, I went to the internet to find information on how to make it, and I also bought a recipe book. The chicken turned out fine, but the whole process took about 2 hours or so to make, probably because I was not familiar with how to make a chicken in this appliance. 

     Later on, I was in a forum on Facebook for Instant Pot users. Someone had made popcorn in the Instant Pot. So, I thought I would try that as well. I followed the directions, and it turned out, but, I made the mistake of leaving the pressure valve closed, so when I made the popcorn, I made it under pressure. We learn by our mistakes. Also, I used butter, like the directions said, but the butter burned and made the popcorn dark. The popcorn itself was not burned though, but many kernels did not pop. I will try this again with just coconut oil. 

   I don't know who gets the credit for this recipe, but this is the one I found on Facebook.

Instant Pot Popcorn

Turn on SAUTE and press Adjust to raise temp to High.

When display reads HOT, add olive oil and butter. 

Wait about 1 minute then pour in corn kernels. 

Stir and make sure the fat is covering all the kernels. 

If not add more oil. 

Cover (I use the IP glass Iid) and in 2 minutes or so the corn will start popping. 

When about 2/3 of the corn has popped, turn IP off and let sit to finish popping. 

Add salt and any seasonings.

4 TBS. olive oil
3 TBS. butter
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
Salt/seasonings

Like I said, I would not use butter in the Instant Pot while cooking. Of course, it may have thought it was pressure cooking and that could have been why the butter burned. I would definitely put butter on it afterward. I also used coconut oil instead of olive oil. 

I plan to make a cheesecake tomorrow. Last week, I ordered a springform pan that was made out of safe material, that would also fit in the Instant Pot. 

Here is the one I got from amazon.com

     This one is a six quart pressure cooker with 7 different functions including yogurt making. Some of the other functions are; slow-cooker, saute, steamer/warmer, and rice cooker. I also got a recipe book to go with it. There are a lot of recipes for this on Pinterest as well. I could spend all day looking at recipes for the Instant Pot on the Internet!

  This is the cookbook I ordered:



   There are actually several Instant Pot recipe books. I may order more or maybe will just spend time going through all the recipes on Pinterest.

     The Instant Pot comes in different sizes as well. They also go on sale on amazon.com periodically, so check every day if you are waiting for a sale. I could not wait for the sale so I just ordered it as soon as I was ready and able to.

   How did I miss ever seeing this appliance until now?

   The above items are affiliate links. Thanks for you support!