Why I hate the Instant Pot

There are a lot of things that factor into pressurization time. If the ingredients are all cold they will take longer. The more full the pot is the longer it takes.

Once you use it for awhile, you will get a very good feel for how long it takes to pressurize. For ribs, I would say usually around 20 minutes to hit pressure.

Looks like the average is 15-20 min to get to pressure. The Kitchn blog said 15 and another said 20.

Hi! Sorry - I was out fishing! 

SabrinaP has given you excellent advice.   20 minutes for coming to pressure for a pot full of ribs is a good estimate. 

Things that you can do to help it come to pressure faster is using hot water/broth/liquid when you pour it in.  Also browning your meat and/or onions in it will heat the pot up and some of the ingredients, which will also help it come to pressure faster.  

elaine while you’re here help me please! We tried the cranberry chicken recipe and killed it. Not in the good way. It was only the second or third time we used the instant pot, so obviously user error. But the chicken was dry and the sauce was bland. With those ingredients no way should that have been the case! Any ideas what we might have done wrong?

It is which is why I chose it because it also lets you saute and do other things. I think he actually asked for a slow cooker. I really don't know what any of them really do. I just went with the insta pot because peas.

That is exactly one of the reasons I gave mine away. I am a seasoned cook and feel I really gave it a fair try. But after a year, decided it wasn't for me. It really is ok to not love or even like the IP. To each their own - "no pressure"!

I set it on sauté while I am preparing the food to go in. It shortens the time a lot.

Oh I have zero doubts it was user error instead of the recipe, too much flavor in those ingredients to believe otherwise! We used a single boneless, skinless chicken breast and cooked for 8-10 minutes.

I think that that is part of the problem then. The chicken adds juices as it cooks. The juices add to the flavor of the dish.  The recipe calls for 8 thighs or 2 lbs of chicken. That will add quite a bit of juices to the cooking sauce. 1 breast is going to give up a much smaller amount of liquid as it cooks than 8 thighs. 

Accounting for the liquid in whatever you are cooking (veggies and meats) is part of the nuances of pressure cooker cooking. Unlike slow cookers or even baking in the oven, liquid doesn’t burn off in the Instant Pot. Also, veggies and meats give up a certain amount of liquid when they are pressure cooked - adding to the sauce. So, recipes for a pressure cooker call for much less liquid than you would find for similar dishes cooked by other methods.  So, if you reduce the amount of meat (or celery, etc) that the recipe calls for, it may be drier than expected. 

So, by only cooking one breast, you didn’t boost the liquid in the sauce enough.  Does that make sense? If you only want to cook one breast, trying adding 1/2-1 cup of chicken broth to the recipe.  

Best corn on the cobb, too!

I have definitely found that it does not have the time savings that it advertises. I use it mainly to hard cook eggs. Oh, and I make potato salad in it because that recipe is amazing.

There were a few other things that we liked, but the time it takes was just too much.

I'm anxiously awaiting corn season here in PA for this in the Instant Pot.

I LOVE the walk away and forget it feature of the IP. Timing with other things can be a bit tricky for me, but as elaine and others shared, you can keep things warm in the IP while you prep the rest.

dewryce - what elaine wrote about the lack of liquid makes total sense to me. What doesn't make sense is that your sauce should have been even more flavorful than usual with less liquid diluting it... at least that's what i would expect.