Pressure cooker recipes are easy, quick, and delicious! They cut down on cook time and avoid heating the oven. Family favorites in just minutes.
Pressure cooker recipes have become a very popular search term over the last decade and honestly it’s not hard to see why! With a fast paced way of cooking, meals can be on the table in a fraction of the time. For the busy family, this is always a perk we cannot ignore.
Easy pressure cooker recipes are also ideal for those of us that hate washing dirty dishes (everyone fits into this category, right?) many easy recipes area simple one pot meal.
Pressure cookers have so many settings that they can do almost anything, making them the one of the best investments you can make in your kitchen and meal planning.
What are some of the settings of a pressure cooker?
Pressure cookers are all slightly unique and different with their buttons, which is what makes some more appealing than others. This being said, many include common buttons such as:
- Manual.
- This is the most basic and most used button. After sealing your pressure cooker, you’ll push this button and then adjust the time as directed b the recipe ou are using. The default pressure is set to “high” but in some cases you may have to push the pressure button to adjust it to the low pressure setting.
- Saute.
- This setting is so great for everything from browning a roast to caramelizing your favorite foods and ingredients (like onions). You should have a range of normal, more, and less to work with. You may even use this saute setting to thicken sauces or allow foods to simmer. This is all done with the lid open, not closed (think similarly to using a pot on the stove).
- Keep warm/cancel.
- If at any point you have to stop cooking so that you can add ingredients or do something. Pushing the button once basically turns the pressure cooker off, but pushing it again puts it in a “keep warm” state. Some pressure cookers will automatically move to the keep warm setting after a set cook time has elapsed.
- Pressure.
- This button setting changes the pressure of every setting.
- +And-.
- This will adjust the cooking time in any manual cooking but they will not adjust the time in a pre-programmed setting.
- Adjust.
- This allows you to adjust the times on the pre-programmed functions, except for rice- that one cannot be changed.
- Slow cook.
- With the setting of normal, less, and more, you can slow cook your food. Check your owner’s manual for more information.
- I personally do not like using the slow cooker setting on my pressure cooker as it heats from only the bottom, not all the way around.
- Yogurt.
- The yogurt function is not found on all appliances, but the ones that do have it are lucky. It’s a great way to make yogurt as well as proof yeast doughs for bread recipes (it cuts the wait time in half!
Other button settings are usually for pre-programmed settings such as “poultry” “beans” and “soup.”
With all of the different settings making your life easier, and this one machine being able to do such a wide range of stuff the only thing left to do is find a recipe and make sure you understand the lingo.
What is pressure cooker lingo?
Like with anything there is a special kind of language used to help make things simpler, less wordy, and more “to the point.”
Medical facilities use their own terms, the coupon using community has its own terminology, and pressure cooking users have their own special language as well. Thankfully it’s pretty easy and once you learn it, it’s really hard to forget it.
Some common pressure cooker terms include:
- IP = Instant Pot
- PC = Pressure Cooker
- EPC = Electric Pressure Cooker
- HP = High Pressure
- LP = Low Pressure
- NP or NPR = Natural release or natural pressure release
- QR or QPR = Quick release or quick pressure release
Alright, so now that you have found out how the settings work and you’ve got the basic pressure cooker language figured out, let’s look for some tasty multi cooker recipes to try.
To make this even easier, I took the liberty of dividing these incredible recipes into sections so that you can find exactly what you’re looking for! From pressure cooker chicken recipes to soups and easy breakfasts (plus everything in between!)
PC Chicken Recipes
Chicken is a great and versatile meat that is not only lean and healthy but frugal as well. It’s no wonder that it’s such a popular meat to cook with! Check out these pressure cooker chicken recipes for some great meal time inspiration!
PC Beef Recipes
Beef is another versatile meat that comes in many different cuts and uses. These tasty pressure cooker beef recipes can really help you get the ball rolling on finding out what’s for dinner.
PC Breakfast Recipes
Using the pressure cooker for breakfast recipes is such an incredible idea for many reasons. The biggest one is probably because it helps to make breakfast time so much more efficient and quick.
I don’t know about you, but mornings around here can get pretty hectic with everyone on their own schedules, so I love pulling out the pressure cooker to make life a little easier.
PC Soup Recipes
Making soup in the pressure cooker can help to make a flavorful soup that feels like it was slow roasted all day in just a matter of minutes. It’s quite possibly one of the coolest ways to use our pressure cooker.
PC Desserts
Don’t think that you’re limited to just savory dishes! Pressure cooker desserts are a great way to satisfy a sweet tooth quickly (and well). Check out these tasty sweet treats and see for yourself!
One Pot PC Recipes
Say goodbye to dirty dishes and enjoy a simple one pot dinner recipe that can have you eating up instead of cleaning up.
- Creamy Beef and Shells in the Instant Pot
- Instant Pot Chicken Alfredo
- Instant Pot Lemon and Dill Salmon
- Best Ever Instant Pot Pot Roast
PC Pasta Recipes
Cooking pasta in the pressure cooker is one of the nifty little tricks for cutting the cooking time down in half. You’ll be amazed at the wide range of pasta recipes that you can cook inside of your pressure cooker!
PC Sauces
Sauces are another great thing that you can make inside of the pressure cooker.
While most rich and flavorful sauces are cooked on a stovetop for hours so that the flavors can blend, these are all done in the pressure cooker to bring your that same flavorful effect in a fraction of the time! Who wouldn’t love that?
So now that you’ve found your recipe(s) to try, you may still have a few apprehensive notions about your pressure cooker, so I’ll close this post with a few more questions and answers to help calm your nerves.
Can you cook frozen meat in a pressure cooker?
Yes, you can! Pressure cookers do great at cooking frozen meats and depending on the type of meat or what recipe you’re following along with the only difference in cooking may be adding in a few extra minutes.
Cooking frozen meats will take up to 1/3rd longer than the original recipe, but it’s still significantly faster than if you were to cook using a different method other than the pressure cooker!
What are the disadvantages of pressure cooking?
With so many amazing things to say about pressure cooking, there has to be something negative right? Everything has a catch and unfortunately, the biggest one for pressure cookers is that you can’t stop a recipe mid-way through to check and visually inspect the dish.
You have to have faith in your machine and button settings. Cooking times may also vary depending on your altitude location. Still, it doesn’t seem like that bad of a bad trade off.
Can a pressure cooker explode?
So many people are terrified of pressure cookers, especially because they don’t know what to expect or they see a viral post on social media of one exploding. While they can, the chances of it happening are incredibly low.
Most pressure cooker accidents are a direct result of user error so read your owners manual and make sure you understand your machine and the recipes you’re using before you dive in.
Being educated and cautious is a good way to avoid any mishaps and can not only keep you safe but also prolong the life of your PC.
Please note that noises and sounds coming from a pressure cooker as it comes to pressure and releases pressure are normal, so it’s also important to figure out what “normal” is for your appliance so that you can become adjusted to it.
Don’t be afraid to try any number of these pressure cooker dishes, because even the odd sounding ones could actually be some of the best pressure cooker recipes you’ve ever tried. You won’t know until you dive on in and give them a taste!
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