Do you ever look at recipes online and wonder, are these really as delicious as they seem? Yeah, same. So over the last 6 weeks, we made 10 of the Internet’s BEST Instant Pot recipes.
We Tried 10 of the Internet’s Best Instant Pot Recipes. And These Are Our Favorites.
Do you ever look at recipes online and wonder, are these really as delicious as they seem?
Yeah, same.
So over the last 6 weeks, Krista (our shoot assistant at POY and a blogger at Destination Delish) and I together made 10 of the Internet’s BEST Instant Pot recipes. Whoa.
We decided to pick out ten recipes from blogs and websites around the Internet that seem to have people all in a tizzy with their high reviews, pins, saves, comments, and all-around popularity, and actually put them to the test.
We grocery shopped, we sautéed, we natural-pressure-released, we sampled and sampled some more, we took notes, we raved, we critiqued, we felt happy eating a lot of really good food. There were chicken recipes, soup recipes, pasta recipes, and more.
And here it is today – our big report. Our big Best Instant Pot Recipes report.
Here’s what you’ll get with each recipe:
- a link to the recipe
- a photo of how each recipe turned out for us
- a list of what we liked about the recipe
And at the end, we attempted the impossible and picked our top three recipes out of this list that we think you NEED to try.
In This Post: The Instant Pot Recipes We Tried
- Instant Pot Butter Chicken from Two Sleevers
- Instant Pot General Tso’s Chicken from Jo Cooks
- Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana from Damn Delicious
- Instant Pot Spaghetti from The Salty Marshmallow
- Instant Pot Creamy Ziti from Cooking with Karli
- Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup from Feasting at Home
- Instant Pot Mushroom Risotto from All Recipes
- Instant Pot Loaded Potato Soup from Belle of the Kitchen
- Instant Pot Orange Chicken from Sweet and Savory
- Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings from Simply Happy Foodie
- The Winning Three Recipes 🏆
This was a long project, and it was really, really fun.
Are you ready?
If you haven’t yet experienced the magic of the Instant Pot, you can find the one we use right here! (affiliate link)
Instant Pot Butter Chicken
Click here for this popular recipe from Two Sleevers.
What we loved:
- The sauce is really, really, really good, and the leftovers get even better.
- You’ll have extra sauce to save for another recipe later. Butter paneer, anyone?
- No sautéing! Thank goodness.
- Urvashi includes lots of detailed notes to help you be successful and get as close to traditional as you want (for example, making your own garam masala which is what we did)!
Instant Pot General Tso’s Chicken
Click here for this popular recipe from Jo Cooks.
What we loved:
- Nice texture on the sauce: just thick enough, silky, savory, sweet.
- This is a super easily adaptable recipe – you could add nuts, vegetables, more spice, etc. to make it exactly the way you want it.
- Kid-friendly! Our families loved it.
Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana
Click here for this popular recipe from Damn Delicious.
What we loved:
- We liked it when we tried it, but we LOVED it when we brought it home to our families that night for dinner. Overall: high yum factor.
- Straightforward process, short-ish ingredient list. Just one sautéing step for the sausage, then dump everything in and cook.
- Creamy and cozy, but still brothy enough to sop up with some crusty bread.
Instant Pot Spaghetti
Click here for this popular recipe from The Salty Marshmallow.
What we loved:
- Wonderfully super easy!
- Something really delicious happens to the texture of the noodles when they cook in the Instant Pot – they get sticky and starchy with the sauce in a way that is just really nostalgic and comforting.
- Very family-friendly: quick, adaptable, kids loved it.
Instant Pot Creamy Ziti
Click here for this popular recipe from Cooking with Karli.
What we loved:
- Just pure carb and cheese decadence. Can’t beat the cozy factor.
- Probably the easiest of all the Instant Pot recipes we tried!
- Super kid and family friendly. It’s kind of one of those can’t-go-wrong recipes.
Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
Click here for this popular recipe from Feasting At Home.
What we loved:
- Big-time flavor. We opted for chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts, and the juicy shreds of chicken did not disappoint.
- This makes a HUGE batch of soup, and it is very freezer-friendly!
- Kind of a blank slate of a recipe that goes with whatever toppings you like. We did tortilla strips, extra lime wedges, cilantro, and (unpictured) Cotija cheese.
- A lot of Instant Pot recipes can get kind of heavy – this one was light and fresh-feeling, but still full of flavor. Awesome.
Instant Pot Mushroom Risotto
Click here for this popular recipe from All Recipes.
What we loved:
- The creaminess, the earthiness of the mushrooms, and that rosemary in there! Oooh la la.
- Much less maintenance than a normal batch of risotto.
- Short-ish ingredient list – always something we like!
Instant Pot Loaded Potato Soup
Click here for this recipe from Belle of the Kitchen.
What we loved:
- So super cozy, nostalgic, and family-friendly. This reminded me of something I would have grown up eating in small-town Minnesota.
- Short and sweet ingredient list.
- Potatoes kind of go with anything, so it gives you a good base where you can play with the toppings! We had it with bacon, cheddar cheese, and green onion, but I think you could go lots of directions with this, like adding roasted broccoli, kale pesto, grilled sourdough toasts, etc.
Instant Pot Orange Chicken
Click here for this popular recipe from Sweet and Savory.
What we loved:
- We liked having the flavor of orange chicken without all the fried-ness of orange chicken.
- The texture of the chicken ended up being really good – little bite-size pieces that kind of fell into tender shreds as we ate them.
- Kids loved it, making it a good semi-healthy weeknight family recipe!
Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
Click here for this popular recipe from Simply Happy Foodie.
What we loved:
- It is creamy, cozy, and nostalgic. Very, very delicious.
- It actually had a lot of really good flavor – we really liked the combination of dry and fresh herbs that were used, and once again, the chicken thighs were delicious.
- We opted to go for refrigerated biscuit dough dumplings rather than homemade (listen, we had made TEN of these recipes at this point) and actually, they were super good! So even if you don’t do the homemade dumplings you will get a very delicious end result.
The Winning Three Recipes
Oh my gosh, HOW TO DECIDE? This was unbelievably hard, and being that all these recipes are already extremely well-rated and popular, I think you could make any of these and be very happy with your choice.
We deliberated on this for a long time, reviewing our notes and ratings and calling back to mind all the taste-testing we’d been doing.
In the end, we landed on three recipes that just really spoke to us:
- 1st Place: Butter Chicken
- 2nd Place: Tortilla Soup
- 3rd Place: Chicken and Dumplings
- Honorable Mention: Zuppa Tuscana
The base of our decision was how the recipes tasted, but we did also consider the amount of work involved with each recipe and, combining both the taste and ease factors and considering how likely we’d be to actually make them at home.
There are several others on this list that Krista mentioned she’d make again, and same goes for me. But if we listed them all for you, we’d just list the whole list again!
It was so super fun to try the best of Instant Pot recipes from around the internet. Thank you to the authors of these recipes for keeping us all well-fed with your delicious creations!
Readers: This is a new type of post for us! Tell us what you think! (Uhh, hopefully you liked it?) What was helpful, and what were you wishing for more of? It took several weeks to put this together, but we had so much fun doing this and would love to do more of it in the future.
And most importantly: which Instant Pot recipes do you think we need to try next?
Frequently Asked Questions About The Instant Pot
Are Instant Pots really worth the hype?
Depends on who you are! If you like to meal prep, if you utilize freezer meals, if you find your weeknight margins for cooking dinner are very slim, if dinner feels chaotic and you can’t be hands-on, then yes, it is absolutely worth the hype. Our favorite part is that last point – you can put your ingredients in, set it, and then do something else while you’re dinner cooks, whether that’s parking yourself in front of the TV or chasing around your toddler.
What is the BEST thing to cook in the Instant Pot?
All of these recipes above are easy, delicious, and perfect for the Instant Pot! But if we had to choose the BEST thing to cook in the Instant Pot? SOUP. All the soup. Dump everything in, set it and forget it, and eat.
What should you not cook in an Instant Pot?
Generally, any dairy-based sauces (not including this Mac and Cheese!), anything that you’d typically fry (like fried chicken), desserts that you’d typically bake (cookies, pie, etc.), raw ground meat (like burgers – it’s typically best for you to sauté that meat beforehand).
Is there any prep you need to do before first using an Instant Pot?
Besides becoming somewhat versed in the manual and giving it a quick wash, nope! It should be ready to go.
Does cooking food in an Instant Pot destroy nutrients?
Based on research, no, it does not. In FACT, a study done in 1995 found that pressure cooking is one of the best methods to cook food because it actually RETAINS more nutrients.
Our Top-Rated Instant Pot Recipes To Add To Your List
- Instant Pot Spicy Short Rib Noodle Soup (cozy, gingery, and so delicious)
- Instant Pot Red Curry Lentils (a vegetarian weeknight wonder!)
- Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings (our version of the comforting classic)
- Instant Pot Short Rib Ragu (perfect over pasta, gnocchi, or polenta)
- Instant Pot Korean Beef Tacos (tender beef, fluffy tortillas, spicy mayo,and kimchi – YUM)
Before you go! If you’d like to purchase the Instant Pot we use in our test kitchen, you can find that right here (affiliate link) and check out all the ways we love to use ours below.
September 17, 2021
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
Yes! Love this post! I’ve tried a few of these and I am excited to try the rest. I love that these aren’t spicy and are family-friendly. Thanks for testing these and reporting back!
I love this post! I can’t wait to try the Chicken and Dumplings. As the weather gets cooler I use my pressure cooker the more and more, especially for comfort foods like these!
Where are the rustic speckled serving bowls from? I love them! These recipes are great!
Lindsay’s father-in-law made the bowl!
Yay! So glad to hear it, Caroline!
These all look so delicious! I’m having a hard time finding instant pot vegetarian recipes. Do you think some of these would still be good without the meat? Any suggestions? We will definitely try the risotto and zitti. Thank you!
I am also always on the look our for instant pot vegetarian recipes. I have few on my blog If you want to hop around:)
I love IP Risotto! Kenji at SeriousEats has a great mushroom risotto recipe too ☺️
I could see the spaghetti, tortilla soup, and chicken and dumplings working without meat! You could sub in some extra beans or corn for the tortilla soup, and maybe some chickpeas with the dumplings? Definitely some options!
SAME! I used to use my instant pot all the time for vegetarian recipes and hardly touch it now, save to hard boil eggs.
We’re also looking for vegetarian recipes! I never use my instant pot because I can’t find anything to make with it. And the few things I’ve tried have burned to the bottom. Beans are my only success. 🙁
I love these kinds of posts! It can be overwhelming finding recipes on the Internet, especially from blogs that I’ve never used (and one of the reasons I love POY: the recipes are always amazing!). I’d love to see this become a regular feature!
Yes! I totally agree with this. I can always count on POY recipes to be great! Hearing your feedback/notes to other recipes is super helpful!
I 100% agree! I always know with 100% certainty that all POY recipes will be amazing!! I’ve made many recipes from other sources and a lot did NOT turn out great. So this kind of post is amazing because now I know I can trust that these recipes will actually be good & worth the effort!
Yes! And IP recipes are tricky because not only do you have a blah dinner, but it makes a ton and then you have leftovers that you don’t really want to use!
So glad to hear it, Hilary!
Love this!! I always see recipes I’d like to try, but never know if good or not. Now I know!! Thank you!!
Loved this! Would also be curious to know what the downsides or drawbacks were for each recipe!
I agree, knowing some downsides & drawbacks when encountered would be really useful!
I love this so much! Of course it helps that I totally trust your opinion because all of your recipes that I’ve tried are delicious. I love that you’ve introduced me to some new bloggers too. I would love to see more of these type of posts! 🙂
This is great. Thank you for this post, exactly the kind of thing I like. These are some of the same recipes I have been thinking of trying. Now I will.
I really liked this post! I’d love to see more in the future. I’m so glad you listed all of the positives. I do hope that if it wasn’t a winner or wasn’t something you’d make again, you’d say so! ( I do understand not wanting to put negativity out there!) thanks again!
Epic post! Thank you for the incredible work on this! Looking forward to trying some (or all) of these!
Hope you enjoy them, Amy!
I love this kind of post! I’m just working my way through the list all autumn long. 🙂 Thank you!
I LOVE this post!! You have never steered me wrong on a recipe, so I fully trust these recommendations from you and your team. You’ve streamlined my internet search for worthwhile Instant Pot meals. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
Love, love this post! Thank you for the time it took to put together.
Love, love, love this post!! Would be super excited for a crockpot version, sheet pan version, beat Korean beef version, the sky is the limit!!! Thanks! These will all go on my meal planning list for October! With my best POY recipes of course.
Great ideas! 🙂 Thanks Andrea!
I have been looking for this a long time! Thank you!
Love this! Do it again with dessert recipes. Do it again with recipes that don’t go in the InstantPot. Do it again with cookies. Baked goods. Christmas cookies.
One thing that would be nice is to have a one-click print where all 10 recipes print in just one click. … time saver at my end.
Please post “vegetarian/vegan special” picks from Pinch of Yum. Everything I tried are delicious. Thank you.
Yes! Plant based instant would be great!
LOVE THIS POST!!! love making your recipes as i know i won’t be disappointed. trying other recipes online even with good reviews is a little scary – if it goes wrong you’ve wasted groceries + money and have to order out. love that these got your stamp of approval. would love to see another post like this in the future =)
Hope you enjoy them, Marian!
Love this email newsletter – always curious to try other bloggers, but always nervous! Thank you!
I do like this kind of post for several reasons – sometimes I get introduced to new blogs I hadn’t known about and sometimes the recipes are varied enough there’s bound to be one that really appeals to me. Aces for both o this post.
Love to hear that, Miriam!
Love this post! I never know which recipes will be worth the effort.
Love this post. I always like to see bloggers making other bloggers recipes, especially highly rated ones, cuz ya never know. Plus you do recipe testing all the time, so it’s nice to hear it from a pro on how it stacks up on the yum scale 🙂 Are we all thinking sweet treats should be the next test?
I really liked this style post! I obviously want your original recipes but this was nice to throw in the mix!
Glad to hear it!
Great post! Thank you! This is one of my favorite Instant Pot recipes. The whole family loves it (even the picky one).
Love this type of post! My mom and I love to make all your recipes and have even convinced the picky eaters in the family that if a recipe is written by or recommended by POY it will be amazing!
Love this post! Thanks for doing the legwork of finding great Instant Pot recipes for the rest of us!
Thank you for this post and for your hard work! I can’t wait to try these out.
Thanks for this post! !! I would love to have listed in the summaries how much hands-on time and how much total time. Other than that, it was perfect!!! Thanks for trying something new for us. 🙂
Loved this post!!! So hard to sort through everything online and I appreciate your hard work in doing so. This will make my “bookmarks”. Would appreciate anything along the Mediterranean Diet line…….
Loved the list!! So helpful so thank you very much!!!
I love this post – super duper helpful. There are so many recipes out there – I get overwhelmed trying to find one and knowing if I picked a ‘good’ one! I’m definitely saving this post and will try many of the ones on this list!