Last Updated on March 7, 2024
If you have an Instant Pot, you already know just how quickly and easily you can get fork-tender, fall-apart meat with intense flavors on the table. It absolutely laps traditional cooking methods and standard slow cookers.
Plus, in the Instant Pot, you can make multiple meal components simultaneously. We’re talking umami chuck roast flavored with porcini mushrooms and red wine, with dirty mashed potatoes and citrus carrots, all in one pot, at the same time.
You can make luscious barbecue pulled pork in 90 minutes (normally a much longer process in a slow cooker or Dutch oven) — or try an ultra-quick recipe if you need to get dinner on the table stat. One we love: Spanish chicken and rice that cooks up in under 30 minutes.
Whatever you’re in the mood for, just grab your Instant Pot and one of these recipes, and get ready for a fuss-free meal everyone will love.
Instant Pot Chuck Roast with Dirty Mash and Citrus Carrots
This recipe shows the Instant Pot at its very best, transforming a chuck roast that would take up to eight hours in the slow cooker and getting it on the table in 90 minutes. Yes, Instant Pot chuck roast with dirty mashed potatoes and citrus carrots is the chuck roast recipe you’ll want to add to your weekly rotation.
The incredible part about this Instant Pot meal is the way that the three components of the dish — chuck roast, mashed potatoes, and citrus carrots — all come together in one pot. The result: An intensely flavored meal full of umami, thanks to ingredients like porcini mushrooms and red wine.
Chipotle Orange Pork Loin with Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans
This chipotle orange pork loin with sweet potatoes and green beans is versatile: You could cook it in a slow cooker if you’ve got the time, or use the Instant Pot to speed the process along. Either way, it’s an easy dinner. Simply modify the cooking time as needed. (The official Instant Pot cook time recommendation is 20 minutes per pound for pork loin.)
Plus, this easy pork loin is loaded with sweet, spicy and tangy flavors, thanks to the orange-, tomato- and chipotle-based sauce. Green beans and sweet potatoes on the side add vibrant colors and flavors. Bonus: This meal is totally gluten free.
Instant Pot Pork Carnitas Lettuce Wraps with Salsa Fresca
Whole30-friendly tacos, anyone? There’s so much going on in these veggie-packed Instant Pot pork carnitas lettuce wraps with salsa fresca, you’ll never miss the tortillas.
The Instant Pot works its magic and produces crispy pork carnitas in about an hour. All you have to do is make a quick salsa fresca while it cooks, and then wrap the whole thing in Bibb lettuce leaves. Top the whole thing with slices of rich avocado and that fresh salsa, and you’re in for a healthy but flavor-packed meal.
One Pot Chicken and Spanish Rice
This simple but richly-flavored dish is bound to become a new weeknight favorite. It comes together quickly on the stovetop, but you’ll have to babysit this one-pot chicken and Spanish rice considerably less if you use the Instant Pot.
The official Instant Pot recommendations advise four minutes for rice and six minutes per pound for boneless chicken breasts, but to really let the flavors meld, we’d suggest eight minutes with a 10-minute natural release period.
Don’t forget to garnish your saffron-spiced Spanish rice with green olives and cilantro for even more flavor.
Instant Pot BBQ Pulled Chicken
The Florida chain Sonny’s BBQ serves an outstanding pulled chicken — and now you don’t have to go there to get it, thanks to this copycat recipe. Rub a simple mix made from spices in your pantry, like onion powder, paprika and dried thyme, over chicken breasts, whisk together a quick sauce and pour that over, then cook in the Instant Pot for less than 30 minutes. Finish the sauce in the cooker while you shred the chicken, and you’re good to go.
Instant Pot Baby Back Ribs
Barbecue ribs in under 90 minutes? Yes, it’s possible, thanks to the Instant Pot. While the ribs are doing their thing in the cooker, you have plenty of time to whip up a homemade barbecue sauce with simple pantry ingredients, like cider vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, and cumin. After just 25 minutes in the Instant Pot (and 10 minutes to release the pressure), you brush the sauce on the ribs, give them a quick few minutes under the broiler, and it will taste like you slaved over those ribs for hours,
