I am glad there is someone else who is not sure about the pot. My food was ok, but not great. hope others that love their instant pots, before the one I got goes away.

"So while it is impressive that the device can greatly overcook chicken in under 10 minutes, whereas similarly overcooking chicken in an oven would take hours and hours and hours, I don't think that is really a great selling point."

That made me laugh out loud.

I'm sorry, though, that I don't have any suggestions. Hubs bought an Instant Pot several months ago, but I think he's only used it once - to make soup.

I love my Pressure Cooker! No I P for me!

I had one and ended up selling it. While I made lots of things I liked, I really didn't need it. You really need to get some recipes and follow them to the letter. You probably started a very complicated one without knowing the pot very well. There are lots of recipes online. Find some easy ones and start with that. It makes great oatmeal from steel cut oats, hard boiled eggs (lots at one time), great for pork recipes. There are a lot but it takes some getting used to. Good luck.

I love my IP. Google for recipes. There are recipes for everything. Most say to use natural release method. That means to let the pressure release naturally. When you see the red button go down it is ready to open. Except vegetables they need a quick release so they do not overcook.

HUH! And here I thought that an IP was the next best thing to sliced bread! I don't have one but thought I was missing something. So now I guess I'm not! I thought that an IP was basically a pressure cooker that could do other things too. But, I have to admit that I haven't given it a lot of thought.

Undercooked chicken is tough and chewy. Overcooked chicken is dry and powdery. It sounds to me like your chicken didn't cook quite long enough.

Nothing like having an amateur try cooking an elephant as an initial effort!

Interesting that your friend felt it important to recruit your assistance for the first project.

Would it be fair to invite her over while you worked together on some simpler projects while developing your "sea legs"?

Once both learn to use it, maybe consider joint ownership so that it could be used by whoever had need of its unique capabilities, depending on need?

ole joyful

I don't have the "Instant Pot" brand, but an extremely similar cooker from another major brand.

So far I have only made pot roast. The first 2 times I followed the included recipe exactly. The outcome was indeed cooked, but not tender beef -- far from the falling-apart tenderness expected.

The 3rd time I reset the pot after the 30 minute pressure cook to slow cooker mode and let it slow cook for 2 hours. That produced the result that I wanted -- how much time saved? 2.5 hours vs 4? I wonder if I ran it through another 30 minute pressure cook what the result would be. Next time I may.

I am going to try my multi-bean soup this week in it.

Sorry, I can't help you. I was waffling on getting one last year. Hubby and I went to visit his brother and SIL and there, under the tree was an IP! I eagerly went to look at it, we browsed thru the manual, and I gave up. Waaaay to complicated for this girl. Plus the thing is huge! That fixed my urge to get one.

I have 2 slow-cookers which suits me to a T. Rice I get perfect results in my cast iron chicken fryer/dutch oven. I don't need to have a meal on the table in minutes, that's why I make enough in a meal for leftovers, for a quick re-heat when needed.

SIL ended up by taking it back, she too didn't have the need or patience for it. She loves her slow-cookers as well.

I bought one on Prime Day, gave it away still in the box. I remembered that I hate to cook!

Oh, I got me one even though, I'm not sure whether I'd like or need it or not. It was Amazon's fault for lowering the price and tempted me.

Actually, my sister has one and uses it almost everyday. She loved it which made me looked into one.

I've been watching YouTube tutorials and browsing for Asian cooking that uses the IP. I found lots of recipes and would like to try them out.

I also learned that if you don't release the steam, it will continue to cook even after the beep. Maybe, that was the reason why your chicken didn't get a chance to get tender?

I think if you work outside the home and have a family, you will love it and find out what works well in them. If you don’t, you really don’t need one. My son likes his so much,he has two. I have plenty of time and prefer the oven, grill, or stove top. I have two crock pots if I need them.

I got our IP from a family member as a gift a couple of years ago. While I totally appreciate the thought, I’m just not into it the way others are. I have to admit though, it did do well with spaghetti sauce. That may be a good place for you to start as well.

Love your sense of humor about it, if nothing else you’ll have some fun memories!

I love my Instant Pot and use it many times a week. I made a pork loin, cooked for 55 minutes, when done put it under the broiler to crisp up the top a bit and served it with a tart cherry sauce. I usually cook chicken for about 10-12 minutes. Frozen chicken pieces a few minutes longer. Cook rice for 5 minutes - 2 cups basmati rice, 2 cups water. When I cook meat except for chicken that is going to be shredded I always cook the meat on top of the trivet. Baby back ribs are so good. I put a rub on them, put the trivet in the pot, add root beer, or apple juice, put ribs in so they wrap around the inside of the pot and cook for 25 minutes. Take them out, put bbq sauce on them and put them on the grill or under the broiler to caramalize the sauce.

Cut up broccoli, put in a steamer basket, press manual for 0 seconds- when it comes up to pressure, 0 seconds quick release. Perfect steamed broccoli.

Pot roasts are good, I usually use a sirloin tip roast -3 pounds. I season and brown the meat, put the trivet in, add 1 or 2 carrots and one onion to add flavour to the liquid for gravy, 1 or 2 cups of beef broth depending how much gravy you want. Manual for 55 minutes, quick release. Take the meat out, make the gravy in the pot by adding a flour slurry until thickened.

Hard boiled eggs, as many as you want, put them on the trivet. 1 cup water. Manual pressure for 5 minutes, natural release for 5 minutes, plunge in water with ice for 5 minutes. Perfect hard boiled eggs, usually with no gray rim around the yolk and easy peel. There is a recipe for soft boiled but have not tried that yet.

I made a banana bread in my IP using the recipe I use in the oven and it was perfect. Put your batter in a pan that will fit in your pot, cover with foil, add water. I think I cooked it for almost an hour. I had one fail on the banana bread when I used 1 less banana - it was dense.

Cheesecake is easy in the IP, I haven't made one yet but I have seen some great cheesecakes online. Youtube is your friend when it comes to IP recipes.

Pasta with sauce is easy.

I made yogurt once and it was good but you need to use fine filtered milk for thicker yogurt you don't have to drain. In the US I guess Fairlife milk is the brand to use, I live in Canada so I used Natrel milk.

The Instant Pot is a Canadian product. It was out in the US before it became popular here or sold in stores just last year. I wish I had found it sooner. I bought mine last year Black Friday.

One thing I don't do, I don't cook my potatoes or carrots along with a pot roast or roast except the few for flavouring the gravy because they become mushy. To avoid this put the veggies in near the end or do them on the stove. Some people say to wrap the potatoes in foil.

I have a Bella brand pressure cooker and love it. I believe your main problems were not letting the pressure release naturally! I never ever released it forcefully, makes a big difference. You may have browned it too much. And I am very surprised it was done in 7 minutes. I have not cooked a whole chicken but I have cooked lots and lots of chicken breast and parts with no problems. Did you have liquid in the pot? Anything else in the pot? It makes great chili and stews and soups. I have not had any negative results. There are so many good recipes out there on pinterest and Google try a few different things.

I've never understood attraction of counter top cooking appliances. I don't get the usefulness nor the resulting clutter so many put up with. Sherry mentioned she prefers oven, grill, and stovetop. I'll add broiler to the list and agree with her completely.

A pressure cooker, as an example, cooks meat with a combination of steaming and or braising. I don't know about others, but I rarely steam or braise meat. I don't like the flavors or the consistency that results. Maybe for the rare occasion we make stew but that's not often. When I want to cook stew, my enamel clad dutch oven, on the stove top then the oven works fine.

For those who work, workday meals can be easily addressed at least a couple of conventional ways.

One, using any of the hundreds of delicious 15 minute meal recipes, for which there are more books available to get than you would ever need. Often seafood (incl frozen), often salads, often stir fried dishes, these recipes are often more exotically/interestingly flavored and also more healthy than the old family favorites people use.

Two, cooking ahead on days off, involving the whole family. This produces immediately available meals on weekday evenings and also dishes that can be taken for lunches.

A lot of people use a crockpot so what is the difference. To them it is conventional to cook in a crockpot. I never liked cooking in a crockpot, I don't like how the food turns out, or mushy vegetables. I also don't like to have something cooking if I am not home the way many people cook. Almost every family I knew in the 1960's had a pressure cooker including my Mom. I would have been scared to use that kind of pressure cooker. The new ones have safety features. There are many things I won't use the pressure cooker for like stew or good cuts of meat but for some things I prefer using it. The Instant Pot is a slow cooker and a yogurt maker if you want it to be. I thought I used to make perfect rice on the stove but the using the pressure cooker it is even better. I also have a bread maker that I love using because unlike some I am not a good bread baker. It is just another aid to help me. I keep my Instant Pot on a stand in the kitchen because I use it often. In the summer it was great because I didn't heat up my house using the oven. Other people use their propane or charcoal grill for the same reason. I am a good cook, I cook many different styles (except slow cooker) the pressure cooker gives me an alternate way to cook something. I find for me using the IP I am eating healthier, less oils and fats and breading.

Yeah, I don't have a slow cooker either. Same thing, I'm not sure what I would use it for. Bread maker - I know what is done with them but I'd much rather buy bread. We have one bread I make - the no knead type - and with that, maybe once a year? Made in an enabled dutch oven.

I make all my chicken and turkey stock in the Instant Pot. Comes out perfectly delicious every time.

Would you rather have a golden brown chicken breast served from a hot sizzling cast iron skillet or a white hunk of chicken from an IP or slow cooker?

I love my IP! I've never browned chicken in it though as I usually just use chicken breasts. I've put them in frozen and had them come out perfectly. I always use the button that correlates to the food - such as the poultry button - that way I don't have to choose the time.

I've enjoyed my Instant Pot. I have a pressure cooker and a slow cooker, but after decades of cooking, it's fun to try a new device, slightly different way of cooking. Much easier to clean than the slow cooker or pressure cooker which are heavy and awkward to wash.

When doing a quick release, I just throw a kitchen towel over the vent.

Brushworks....golden brown is nice but "white hunks" have uses too...chicken salad, can be added to soups, stir fry, etc.

Edited: I'll keep the bulky, heavy slow cooker to take mashed potatoes to family gatherings. Works better than the IP because it has a larger capacity.

For me, the most delicious chicken, whether white hunks or pieces, come from oven roasted chicken. If you want tasty white hunks, roast a skin on, bone in breast for 40 minutes. It cooks itself.

Boneless skinless chicken meat from whatever piece is tasteless by comparison, I avoid it and don't use it at home other than in stir fry when it's loaded with sauce.

IP Mushroom Risotto

For 2 (4 servings in parentheses)

15 minutes prep, 30 cook, 50 altogether

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/4 cup)

• 2 Tbs. olive oil (4 Tbs.)

• 1-1/2 cups diced mushrooms (3 cups)

• 1/2 cup chopped onion or shallot (1 cup)

• 1 sprig rosemary

• 3/4 cup Arborio rice (1-1/2 cups)

• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons white wine (3/4 cups)

• 2 cups chicken stock (1 quart or 4 cups)

• salt and ground black pepper to taste

• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (1/2 cup)

Directions:

1) Select the Sauté function on an electric pressure cooker. Add butter and olive oil; stir until butter melts, about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms; cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in onion; cook for 2 minutes. Add rosemary sprig; cook for 1 minute.

2) Stir rice into the pot until each grain is coated with butter-olive oil mixture and starts to turn color and becomes fragrant, about 2-7 minutes (don't skip this step, it's important for the flavor). Pour in wine; simmer for 3 minutes. Pour in chicken stock, stirring to scrape the sides of the pot. Simmer for 1 minute.

3) Close and lock the lid. Turn the venting knob to sealing. Select high pressure according to manufacturer's instructions; set timer for 6 minutes. Allow 15 minutes for pressure to build. May decrease by heating broth in microwave.

4) Tap venting knob to Quick Release pressure, about 5 minutes.

5) Stir risotto until creamy, about 1 minute. Discard rosemary sprig. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in Parmesan cheese until melted and combined. Serve right away or it thickens.

For other risottos:

• Plain: use shallots, add ¼ cups parm, moz, and fontina, shredded fine after cooking.

• Another mushroom: use white button and portabella, or white and dried porcini, or shitake, or combination. Finish with shredded parm, top with sliced chives.

• May add: Thawed frozen peas after Quick release, stir until warm, add shredded parm at the end.

• May add sliced asparagus (1/4” except tips, leave as is) before starting pressure cooker.

• May use leeks instead of shallots or onion. May add minced garlic to any. Soak saffron in water and add.

On the instant pot thing - I understand there are dishes that can take a lot of time. Our daily meals are simple preparations that are reasonably quick. The things 2many diversions say are easy on a stove top are indeed easy on a stove top and that's what we do without aggravation. Broths take long simmering, soups typically don't. Dishes that take longer are done on days when we have more time. Would I want to be able to do those things more quickly and so more frequently? Nah, not much. And not at the price of having a big item sitting on the counter or needing a parking space in a cabinet.

For those it works for, great. It reminds me of the craze for microwave cooking when they first became popular. There were TV shows, cook books, yada yada about the glories of microwave cooking. After the initial bang, it died out. I doubt many people cook in their microwaves today and those that do might be better off not doing so. Electric pressure cookers may have the same fate, they've been around a long time mostly in obscurity.

I too have been tempted by all the glowing reports about the wonders of an Instant Pot but decided that since I generally cook just for myself, it was unnecessary. Heck I've managed to cook just fine for almost 50 years without one, including for a family, so I just don't see the need now :-) My sister recently got one and she is still testing it out but she entertains far more than I do.

I do have a slow cooker that I use often, usually for chili, soups or stews and mostly in winter. And I love my rice cooker that I bought on a whim years ago at a drug store of all places for the whopping price of $9.99!! I eat rice a lot with curry or stir fries and it turns out perfectly.

Aside from those two conveniences, I still cook the old fashioned way :-) It may take a bit longer and require more hands-on attention but that's part of the joy of cooking, IMO.

I am curious about an air fryer, tho. Anyone have opinions about that they care to share?

For chicken salad we prefer a roasted chicken, skin on, full flavored. The meat is juicy, flavorful and tender. Skin slips right off and the meat is perfect for salads.

Thanks to everyone for their input, especially those with specific recommendations or recipes.

Last night I decided to use it to heat up leftover beef stew, and then added some of the chicken pieces from the previous failed attempt, plus some of the delicious sauce from that attempt, and then just before sealing it, on a whim, I added some Israeli couscous. I pressed a few buttons and sent it on its way. The result was better than I expected, (although I half-expected to have to throw it out) but the chicken still was only barely edible.

I already have three crock pots, 2 that are 4 qt and one that is 6 qt. I mostly only use them to keep food warm at parties at our house, or for bringing elsewhere and keeping the food warm. The one exception where I actually use one for cooking is to make crock pot pulled pork barbecue, but I only make that about once a year.

I also have a "smart" rice cooker, and do like the hands-off, worry-free, perfect rice that it makes. So I'll definitely keep the IP and give it a few more tries, at least partly because our neighbor hinted that in return for giving it to us that we might invite her over for dinner every now and then. I like oldjoyful's suggestion to invite her over to work together on some simpler projects using the Instant Pot. And she may decide that she'd like to keep it after all. In the meantime I can more easily store it since if you count the adjacent eating area, my kitchen is almost as big as her whole house.

Join us over on Facebook at the IP group Rootitoot Instant Pot, https://www.facebook.com/groups/rootitoot/    Nice people, good recipes and great advise and help.

Next time you try to cook a chicken to see how it works, be sure and check the internal temperature! What if the thing wasn't even cooked!!!!! YIKES!

From what I read on the Instant Pot community FB site, you shouldn't have opened it until it released the pressure itself - NPR / natural release. That seems to be especially important for meat. It continues to cook while it is releasing the pressure.

on things like pasta, you do a QR / quick release - often in several quick, short releases. pasta that stays under pressure once it beeps, will get mushy.

I've been reading on several IP FB sites this past month and there is a wealth of info on them on how (and what) to cook in the IP. I've read on there of numerous users who have cooked a small chicken whole in their pot. It depends on the size of the chicken and the pot. I bought a 3 qt and some have cooked a whole chicken in that size! That's not something I'll ever do. I'd only do 2-4 chicken breasts and most of that would be cut into strips to freeze.

There's a recipe for I think it's called Mississippi pot roast that many just rave about and so I'll try that - maybe with a very tiny piece of roast. More so than meat (I don't eat that much meat), I got one for making yogurt and possibly cottage cheese. Many say they use the plain yogurt sometimes in place of sour cream. I also want to be able to cook beans without soaking them and make my own refried beans (no more canned beans). For those who make bread, you can proof it in the IP if it has the yogurt button. I think the LUX is the one that doesn't have it. It can still be used to make yogurt, but not to proof bread.

hard boiled eggs usually take 5 min cook time and 5 min of release time and then 5 min in cold water. From what I read, the shells easily slip off of the egg.

you can go to the site and read. I think you need to 'join' (which is no big deal to do) in order to ask questions or comment on posts. I had to join on other sites just to read the posts.

They also post links to many of the better recipe websites. I'll post a few in a bit if I can find them. It's a fast moving site but most questions are asked frequently by those who have just received their new IP (and answered by those who are seasoned in using it) . You can just scan down the pages and look for things you might want to cook. I skip over a lot of them because they aren't things I'd ever make for myself. In the past week they had a lot of posts on making dog food in the IP - that's something I am interested in for my furgirl.

tomato products can easily cause a burn notice as can sugary sauces / liquids. and if you're making something like spaghetti, there's an order to how you layer them in the pot for pressure cooking. Always water on bottom, then any meat (on the trivet), pasta is spread out over that with the sauce poured over that. they often say to then add the water around the edge of the inner post / food so that it reaches the bottom of the pot (which is why I listed it first - it needs to be on bottom in order to heat and create the steam). And do NOT stir it or mix them together.

here's one sample on cooking chicken that I copied out (making pages of notes for myself) -

Moist, Sliceable chicken breast using a 6 QUART Instant Pot 1 minute per oz
This recipe is for a 9 oz breast..Manual 9 minutes with a 10 minute NPR
4 to 6 ounce breasts..1 minute per ounce with a 5 minute NPR
7 to 11 ounces breasts.. 1 minute per ounce with a 10 minute NPR
Ingredients
Fresh or frozen 9 ounce chicken breast 1 cup of water
Steps
Add 1 cup of water to your pot
Put your trivet in with the breast on top. You'll need to know the weight of the breast
Close and seal your pot
Set your pot to manual 9 minutes
Allow for a 10 minute NPR

sites often posted as good and safe recipes are Amy and Jacky, this old gal and pressureluck. and I think all 3 of those have videos for newbies on how to use the IP - things to know before you start cooking. I'll be watching those in the next few days before I even run the water test.

there are many more recipe sites listed on it also, I just don't remember them all.

it's also a great source for when things go wrong - like the burn notice, steam coming out from under the lid, it won't come to pressure, etc.

Bob, do you suppose it might have been the chicken itself that was the problem? I know that occasionally one can come across a chicken, or a piece of beef or pork, or any cut of meat, for that matter, that just plain isn't any good no matter what you do (or don't do) to it.

I don't have an Instant Pot, but I've been looking longingly at them for some time now. I think the 3 qt size would work pretty good for me, cooking for just myself. And your questions here and the answers you've received make me realize there is a definite learning curve to using one. But 2ManyDiversion's post above has pretty well convinced me I really do want one! So now I'll be watching for sales. . . . . .

Rusty

Tonight I decided to try 2ManyDiversions risotto recipe (more or less). I purchased shrimp yesterday and a common dish I make with it is "Shrimpy Risotto", in which you make the risotto as usual and then when it is done you stir in the raw shrimp and the heat of the risotto cooks the shrimp.

Normally the recipe involves a pot for the rice and a pot of simmering chicken broth. As the rice slowly simmers, you stir it more or less constantly for about 20 minutes, periodically adding a 1/4 cup or so of the hot broth. There is no doubt that the IP version is both easier and quicker. I'm not sure if it was quite as good. Since the traditional recipe is constantly boiling off the stock the flavor is concentrated whereas in the IP nearly all of the moisture is retained, so the amount of flavor you put in is the amount of flavor you get.

I wasn't clear on exactly what this part of the instructions meant:

4) Tap venting knob to Quick Release pressure, about 5 minutes.

Rusty, It could well have been the chicken. Our neighbor said she got the chicken at WalMart and that she had also picked up a piece of beef at the same time to use to make pot roast in a crockpot, and after a day or so of cooking it the beef was still tough.

I always test the internal temp of meat I cook. Speaking of tough chicken - I went out of town to visit my cousin, she lives in a Mennonite area where she buys her chickens from a local chicken farm. She cooked the chicken, it smelled quite good, after roasting she cut it up with some difficulty which I thought strange. Sat down to eat, I couldn't even put my knife in the piece of chicken to cut a piece. It was unedible, toughest bird I have ever tried to eat. It was a roasting bird, she cooked it the right way but that bird must have been some old hen, tough as all get out haha

I think it probably didn't cook long enough. It's happened to me before. Put the chicken in to cook a little longer and it was much better. Keep trying. It really is a nice gadget to have around. You can get so many things done while your food is cooking and you don't have to babysit.

2Many: thank you for your post(s) and the recipe, they’ve made me wonder if I shouldn’t give my pot another try. My DH loves mushrooms and bean soups. Any recipes you have to share would be really appreciated!