Instant Pot (IP) is it the latest craze or will it stick around for awhile?

I wonder what they said when the crock pot came on the market, so many moons ago?

I purchased a small one for my hubby for christmas (on a whim) – I saw someone post about it on facebook and we are all about gadgets so I said why not.

If only I knew then what I know now about these things I would have purchased a little different.

They come in 3 common sizes: 3qt (mini), 6qt and 8 qt. I have even seen a 10qt advertised. Mine, however, turns out it is a 2 qt, which is not a bad thing except I have to cut down all recipes that are in the FB groups.

A couple things you should know:

• The infusion of flavors in the recipes you make is undeniably undefinable. I have made some things in this gadget that I have always made in crock pots and I will never again make them in a crock pot. I now make Chicken Wild Rice soup once a week (ok, it is winter, but still) and we have been making this recipe for years the same way and until I made it in the IP, we had never had wild rice that was this tender.
• Meat will be so tender you will want to check to make sure you used real meat. I just made a full chicken (5lbs) in my newer larger one (yes, I went and purchased a 6qt using Walmart rebate dollars) and it was moist, tender and fell off the bone. In fact, taking the chicken out of the pot the legs and wings fell off.
  • So here is what I got out of my 5lb chicken:
    • Dinner for 2 (I made mashed potatoes & steamed carrots in the mini pot
    • 10 cups of chicken stock when I cooked down (yes in the IP) the carcass of the chicken after taking off all the meat
    • took 4 cups of chicken stock and made chicken wild rice soup – got 2 lunches and 3 good sized servings of soup in freezer bags
    • enough chicken left over for 2 sandwiches tomorrow for lunch
• Vegetables – we are not a big vegetable family, but I have made mashed potatoes in the IP (the only place we make them now) and it’s amazing what they are like. I have always boiled potatoes for mashed potatoes and the first time I made them in the IP my hubby was astonished at how they tasted – they were not water logged.   I made a twist on this recipe last week: instant pot egg roll bowls and it was out of this world. I could not find the cabbage mix, but I did find a “Super Blend” that I used in it’s place and I was amazed how green the steamed veggies were when I dished it up.
• You will NOT use less dishes – most of the time. In fact, sometimes it seems I used more than usual. And you will probably buy more “specialty” dishes to use with it.
• Cooking times – when a recipe says it will cook in 10 minutes (rice for example) – there is a little more to it:
  • Your pot may take 10 minutes to come to pressure – this is not counted in the cook time
  • after you have cooked it for the 10 minutes you programmed it to, there is the depressure time – 
    NPR (Natural Pressure Release) – let it sit and depressurize on it’s own – usually another 10 minutes
    QPR (Quick Pressure Release) – you press the button to rapidly release pressure and stop the cooking process – usually for vegetables. This can be dangerous because you are pressing open the valve but also takes a couple of minutes to release
  • If your recipe calls to saute the meat or vegetables (google this because I don’t do this now and the flavors are way different now) that time is not counted in the cook time of the recipe
• The key to the IP is cooking with liquid that is pressurized – so liquid in the recipes is very important.
• Meat does not get color to it – for the most part. Most of the recipes I’ve seen say “throw the meat under the broiler for 10 minutes on each side”  This 10 minutes per side is not part of your cooking time either.
• I was worried at first, because the most you see done in these things is eggs and we don’t eat eggs here. But I can say that if I come home and decide I want chicken wild rice soup for dinner because the hubby was working out in the snow/weather all day, I can have it made and on the table in an hour.

When it comes right down to it, I am so happy that I got, not just one of these, but now two of these “gadgets” for my hubby for Christmas.