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Post by alicechalmers on Dec 6, 2020 18:21:03 GMT -5
I have never tried from frozen. But a full size pot roast will cook beautifully in 90 minutes, and if you cut it into chunks first you can cut that to 40. I do think they’re worth having but they’re not as versatile as is claimed. Good to know. My biggest cooking problem right now is I (as you know) buy meat in large amounts from local sources and keep it frozen. I don't seem to manage to think ahead far enough to set it to thaw the night before and then get it all put in the slow cooker before I leave at 6:20 am. My main goal is to be able to walk in the door, thaw meat in the microwave while I clean veggies, throw it in the instapot, and have dinner a couple of hours later with meat that is tender and done. I cannot say I have a perfect solution, but one thing I find helpful is to ask myself in the evening, what’s for dinner tomorrow?” It could even be a written reminder on the dishwasher or something similar. If it’s been thawing overnight, most cuts will be perfectly ready for the Instant Pot by the time you get home the following day.
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Post by Peachy on Dec 6, 2020 18:53:37 GMT -5
I think the IP does a better job with roasts than the crock pot. I could have a roast cooking in the crock pot all day and it would still be tough sometimes, but the IP makes it so wonderfully tender. I think I've made chicken once from frozen, and it must have turned out fine because I can't remember not liking anything I've made in the IP so far.
I don't use it to the full extent that I could. So far I've only used it for roast, beef tips (OMG so good!), chicken, and turkey breast.
I just ordered replacement seals because mine smells like roast no matter how many times I wash it.
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Post by RobinAnn on Dec 6, 2020 19:45:15 GMT -5
I made 8 quarts of chicken stock yesterday from "used" bones and frozen chicken feet. It took 3 batches as I had a lot of bones to use up. (I keep all the bones from rotisserie chickens in the freezer until I have enough. I had more than enough hence the three batches of broth.)
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emmjay
Full Member
Posts: 1,734
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Post by emmjay on Dec 7, 2020 4:29:45 GMT -5
I only use my IP for pressure cooking, but I have thrown frozen meat in when I forgot to thaw and it comes out exactly the same. I just add a few minutes to the time.
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Post by niccikatie on Dec 7, 2020 10:29:13 GMT -5
I only use my IP for pressure cooking, but I have thrown frozen meat in when I forgot to thaw and it comes out exactly the same. I just add a few minutes to the time. I have no issues putting things directly from the freezer into the Instant Pot, either. I do primarily chicken in the instant pot, but have done pork chops and pork/beef roasts and beef ribs - all directly from frozen without issues. One thing to note when timing your recipes is the time that it takes to come to pressure is not typically listed in recipes - the times will be based on the countdowns after the pot comes to pressure. If you're going from frozen, the time to pressure will be significantly longer. I did get rid of my crockpot after getting the Instant Pot. I don't use the slow cooker setting on my Instant Pot, ever, though. It just cooks things so quickly that I found I never reached for my crockpot. We also got the air fryer lid for our Instant Pot and that has been magical. My daughter makes chicken wings or a boneless skinless chicken breast/thigh from frozen with the air fryer lid almost every day for lunch. Here are some of my favorite no-fail recipes: Butter Chicken: twosleevers.com/instant-pot-butter-chicken/ (I do this one from frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs all the time) Cabbage Rolls (you could sub rice for the cauliflower if you're not low carb): www.ibreatheimhungry.com/keto-stuffed-cabbage-instant-pot-sc/Porcupine Meatballs: instantpotexploits.blogspot.com/2016/02/porcupine-meatballs.htmlMashed Potatoes: peel (if desired), cut potatoes in thirds (yes, you can use really big chunks), enough water just to cover the potatoes, salt the water. Set your time to 7 minutes. Release pressure, drain, return to pot on "keep warm", let any remaining water steam off, and mash with your favorite ingredients. I use milk, a pinch of season salt and a little butter. Rice: www.pressurecookrecipes.com/instant-pot-rice/Simple Potato Soup: www.simplyhappyfoodie.com/instant-pot-simple-potato-soup/Crack Chicken: www.adventuresofanurse.com/instant-pot-crack-chicken/Yogurt: instantpotexploits.blogspot.com/2016/02/instant-pot-yogurt.htmlHope this helps!
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Post by niccikatie on Dec 7, 2020 10:30:03 GMT -5
I made 8 quarts of chicken stock yesterday from "used" bones and frozen chicken feet. It took 3 batches as I had a lot of bones to use up. (I keep all the bones from rotisserie chickens in the freezer until I have enough. I had more than enough hence the three batches of broth.) YES! I love making stock in my Instant Pot, too. I usually only make it when I'm going to make soup, but making it ahead is a great idea, too.
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emmjay
Full Member
Posts: 1,734
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Post by emmjay on Dec 7, 2020 13:37:55 GMT -5
I need this air fryer lid! But I can’t find it for sale anywhere here. 😭
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Post by niccikatie on Dec 7, 2020 14:02:31 GMT -5
I need this air fryer lid! But I can’t find it for sale anywhere here. 😭 Ooh, I hope you can find it. We LOVE it. I love making a fryer chicken in the instant pot and then putting the air fryer lid on and crisping it up. SO YUMMY! It's definitely not the same as having a dedicated air fryer (not as much capacity and bit cumbersome to flip things) but not having to have a whole different appliance and getting most of the benefits is awesome for us.
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Post by Inky on Dec 7, 2020 19:33:58 GMT -5
This air fryer lid sounds interesting.
My best instant pot recipe is Lasagna. It's super easy because I make and freeze my own spagetti meat sauce ahead of time.
You bake it in a round corningware bowl that sits on top of the trivit and add 1 1/2 cups of water to the instant pot. Takes 20-30 minutes cooking time.
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Post by justthinking on Dec 7, 2020 19:40:32 GMT -5
This air fryer lid sounds interesting. My best instant pot recipe is Lasagna. It's super easy because I make and freeze my own spagetti meat sauce ahead of time. You bake it in a round corningware bowl that sits on top of the trivit and add 1 1/2 cups of water to the instant pot. Takes 20-30 minutes cooking time. Do you use the noodles you don't have to boil in advance, or do you use regular noodles? Dh makes awesome lasagna. It is really labor-intensive, but if we made and froze the various components it wouldn't be be hard to put a meal-sized dish together.
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Post by Inky on Dec 7, 2020 21:29:45 GMT -5
This air fryer lid sounds interesting. My best instant pot recipe is Lasagna. It's super easy because I make and freeze my own spagetti meat sauce ahead of time. You bake it in a round corningware bowl that sits on top of the trivit and add 1 1/2 cups of water to the instant pot. Takes 20-30 minutes cooking time. Do you use the noodles you don't have to boil in advance, or do you use regular noodles? Dh makes awesome lasagna. It is really labor-intensive, but if we made and froze the various components it wouldn't be be hard to put a meal-sized dish together. I use the fresh flat noodle sheets from the grocery store, and dd uses the the hard ones in the box that you don't boil in advance. Both work equally well. If your Dh has a good recipe it's easy to convert to the instant pot. I bought my corning wares at a thrift shop (I always make 2 because of the cottage cheese lol I hate leftover cottage cheese and no one will eat it. So here's what I do - it's so easy I have it memorized. Tie string to your trivit to make it easy to lift the bowl out of the instant pot. Pour 1 1/2 cups water into pot. Mix 500 ml sour cream with 2 eggs. Add a cup of grated mozzarella (you'll need a whole grated 400g pkg.) Spray your corning bowl with cooking spray Layer noodles (I cut the flat sheets in circles to fit - dd just breaks up the hard noodles) Layer some cottage cheese mix Layer noodles Layer of homemade spagetti meat sauce sprinkle Mozzarella Layer Noodles Layer cottage cheese Layer Noodles Layer meat sauce, top with mozzarella Cover bowl with foil. Set inside instant pot using strings and leave them on top of foil. Set instant pot on manual for 20 or 25 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes when done without venting. Then vent, lift out bowl with the string you previously attached to the trivit and left sitting on top of the foil. This recipe makes 2 lasagnas. One to eat, one to freeze!
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Post by justthinking on Dec 20, 2020 20:49:34 GMT -5
One of my friends and her husband both have covid. They have three teenage kids. I took supper tonight. I know the dad is still sick enough soup was a good idea, but two teenage football players were going to need more than that.
I put a cup of broth and a 2.5 pound bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the quick cooker. 40 minutes later I had perfectly cooked chicken. Some I shredded and put back in the pot with more broth, carrots and celery, and egg noodles. That turned into soup 6 minutes after reaching pressure.
In the meantime, I shredded the rest of the chicken and made sour cream chicken enchiladas.
Seriously, being able to cook the meat that fast is a game changer.
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Post by Inky on Dec 21, 2020 20:11:30 GMT -5
I do love my instant pot, and I know I should use it more often. But when you are cooking for 2 you just don't make as many of those big meals.
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Post by Mamapalooza on Dec 29, 2020 21:38:10 GMT -5
Hah, my instapot. I've had it for 2 years, and I think I've used it twice. I started with the biggest size and swapped with my daughter for her medium one, because she uses hers all the time (at least she did). Didn't make a difference. Turns out the idea of pressure cooking meat squicks me out for reasons I can't explain, and if I want to slow cook then I just use my crockpot.
A bandwagon I never belonged on, it turns out.
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Linda
Full Member
Posts: 77
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Post by Linda on Dec 29, 2020 21:49:55 GMT -5
I use mine regularly. With just two of us in the house, I find it to be a small, fast oven.
Even if I just used it to make rice, that would be enough. It makes great rice.
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Post by justthinking on Dec 29, 2020 21:53:18 GMT -5
Tonight I pulled a 3-4 pound roast out of the freezer at 4:30 and it was ready to go on the table before 6:30. It was a perfect dinner to eat while our first real snow of the season was falling outside.
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Post by Inky on Dec 30, 2020 20:33:24 GMT -5
I made an excellent beef soup with a leftover prime rib bone and a few veggies. It really does a nice job on meat.
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Post by lilone on Feb 13, 2021 0:27:02 GMT -5
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Post by catmom on Feb 13, 2021 13:45:01 GMT -5
I’m totally going to try that! It looks delicious - minus the peas. I don’t eat peas.😼
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Post by Inky on Feb 13, 2021 20:50:13 GMT -5
I really want to try risotto in my instant pot but I hate cooked mushrooms unless they are chopped up on top of a pizza. I know it's weird but that's how I am. (I met my husband working at a mushroom farm and as a child I loved mushroom soup until my older brothers told me it was fungus. Then I didn't like it/them anymore.)
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