Joining the Electric Pressure Cooker Crowd!

Well, folks!  I did it!  I’ve officially joined the “Instant-Pot” craze! I must admit that I’ve been skeptical of the whole thing, but thought I’d like to try one if I got the chance. From what I’ve read, it seems that you either love them or hate them.

Now, if you know me very well, you know that meal planning is not my strong point! I might do good planning for a while, but then I always fall back into my “It’s 4:00!  What’s for supper?” mode. So, I love quick, easy recipes and my lack of planning abilities has become kind of a running joke between my husband and me.

Because of that, when my slow cooker broke a couple months ago, my husband and I decided to try an electric pressure cooker instead of buying another slow cooker.  And I am SOOO glad I did! I am thoroughly impressed and in love with mine!

After doing a little bit of looking around, we decided to go with this “off-brand” cooker from Amazon. As soon as it came, I decided to try it out making a recipe for lunch. So, looked up a recipe to make frozen chicken and found this one for Salsa Chicken at flavorrd.com. In 50 minutes, from pulling the chicken out of the freezer to one the table, I had a yummy meal of chicken served over rice for my family! I was pretty impressed! Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it!

http://flavorrd.com/2015/07/instant-pot-insta-chicken/

Since then, I’ve tried several different recipes and have fallen in love with my cooker! If you’d like to know the ones I’ve tried, I always pin them to my “Instant Pot” board and mark the ones that I’ve tried.  You can follow me here at https://www.pinterest.com/jbrazytis/recipes-~-instant-pot/. Just to give you some ideas, I’ve made the Red Beans and Rice, brown rice, several chicken dishes, Shredded Italian Beef sandwiches, and several others!  MMMM!!!!

So, I am so happy with my pressure cooker, but I have found a few cons to it.  I don’t know about other cookers, but the one I got does not do well on the slow cooker setting. I went to make a soup on the slow cooker setting one Sunday, and within just a few minutes of turning it on, the liquid was boiling! It would have been way overcooked if I left it on that setting! So, I haven’t been able to use that setting, but it did encourage me to try out the timer setting which worked very well! But, because of that, I am planning to eventually get another slow cooker, although I’m not in a huge rush to get one.

The only other thing that I’m not sure about is how much smell the ring retains. From what I’ve read, the smell can affect milder-flavored things like rice or yogurt.  I have tried making rice and didn’t notice any odd tastes because of the ring odor. I haven’t tried yogurt yet (It’s on my list!), but after not noticing any difference with the rice, I don’t know if it’ll affect it or not. It is recommended to have two rings, one for stronger-flavored meals and one for milder-flavored ones. I did order a ring that was supposed to fit all 10-qt pressure cookers, but it was too big. So, before ordering another one, I need to measure my ring and then buy it by measurements instead of by “quart size”.

Those are honestly the only cons I can think of! I can totally understand why people love their pressure cookers, and would happily encourage anyone to invest in one!  And coming from this planning-challenged momma, I can say it’s been such a help and dinner saver for me! I would love to know recipes if you have tried them and what your favorite recipes are! Let me know in the comments below!

(This post contains affiliate links that will earn us a small commission without any extra cost to you! Thank you for helping support our family!)