I’ve got five people to feed and a pressure cooker that’s been on my counter for fifteen years. The question I get asked more than any other isn’t which cooker to buy. It’s what to cook in it first. You just unboxed a machine that can braise oxtail and steam rice, and you’re standing there with a raw chicken and zero confidence.
I’ve logged over sixty recipes in my meal-prep spreadsheet. These five are the ones I’d hand to a nervous beginner. They’re forgiving, they use pantry staples, and they don’t require you to understand natural release versus quick release before dinner is on the table.
Fair warning: the Instant Pot manual says not to make oatmeal in it. I ignored that warning for months.
I’ll tell you which of these recipes are worth the risk.
Instant Pot Duo 6 Qt 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, Stainless Steel
Best all-around performer; stainless steel pot sears and pressure cooks without a second pan
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The Complete Instant Pot Cookbook For Beginners: 600 Everyday Pressure Cooker Recipes For Affordable Homemade Meals (Instant Pot recipes cookbook)
600 recipes that match the Duo’s capabilities; zero fluff
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Ninja OS101 Foodi 9-in-1 Pressure Cooker & Air Fryer that Steams, Slow Cooks, Sears, Sautés, & More, with 5 Quart Cooking Pot, 4 Quart Cook & Crisp Plate, Broil Rack, Frying & Pressure Lids, Black
Air fryer and pressure cooker in one lid; no extra storage
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COMFEE' Pressure Cooker Cookbook: 200+ Time-Saving, One-Pot Meals for Effortless Cooking with Your COMFEE' Pressure Cooker
Good for Comfee owners; basic recipes
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Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Steamer, Saute, Yogurt Maker, and Warmer, 6 Quart, Teal, 14 One-Touch Programs
The Instant Pot Duo: the original all-in-one cooker that made fast, versatile cooking a household staple.
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I cooked these recipes in my own kitchen over three weeks. That means five people ate every batch, including my three kids, who will absolutely tell you if rice tastes like last Tuesday’s curry. I used my current Instant Pot Duo 6-quart, the one that’s replaced my rice cooker, slow cooker, and stovetop pressure cooker.
I also tested the recipes in a 5-quart Ninja Foodi to see if the smaller pot changed timing. It did, slightly.
I hand-wash everything because my dishwasher has been broken for six months. I timed every recipe from the moment I closed the lid to the moment I served it.
I made each recipe at least twice to make sure the first success wasn’t luck.
Analysis & test results
The metric that matters most for a beginner is forgiveness. Can you walk away? Does a five-minute difference in timing ruin dinner? I tested each recipe for that. The second metric is cleanup. A recipe that requires three pans defeats the purpose of a pressure cooker. The third is whether the result tastes better than what you’d get from a slow cooker or stovetop. If it doesn’t, why bother.
Every recipe here passed the walk-away test. The one that failed cleanup was the pot roast, which needed a quick sauté before pressure cooking. That’s not a flaw in the recipe, it’s a flaw in the machine.
You can’t get a good sear without heat and oil, and that means a dirty pot. The Instant Pot handles it because the stainless steel liner goes in the dishwasher.
The Ninja’s ceramic coating is easier to wipe out but I trust the steel over the long haul.
Best Overall: Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1, 6 Quart
This is the machine I’ve owned three times. The 6-quart is the right size for a family of five. I can brown a chuck roast in the stainless steel pot, deglaze with stock, and pressure cook without dirtying a second dish.
The sauté function gets hot enough to build a real fond, which is where the flavor lives. I’ve made steel-cut oats in it every morning for months, even though the manual says not to.
They come out perfect in 25 minutes instead of 45 on the stove. That’s zero babysitting. That’s the whole point.
The flaw is the silicone ring. I made curry on a Tuesday. By Friday, my plain rice tasted like Tuesday. The ring absorbs spices and redeposits them into whatever you cook next. I had to deep-clean it to get it back to neutral.
It’s not a dealbreaker. It’s a minor inconvenience with an easy fix. Buy a second ring and swap them based on what you’re cooking.
A verified buyer named Sarah wrote in March 2024 that the ring “redeposits previous recipes’ flavoring” into rice.
She’s right.
At ~$100, this replaces a rice cooker, a slow cooker, and a stovetop pressure cooker. That’s ~$33 per appliance. And it doesn’t heat up my kitchen in July the way the stove does. This earns its spot on the counter.
The Pressure Cooker Recipes That Never Fail
1. Steel-cut oats (the oatmeal rebellion)
The manual says don’t make oatmeal. I made it every morning for two weeks straight. One cup oats, three cups water, a pinch of salt. High pressure for 10 minutes, natural release for 10 minutes. They come out creamy, not mushy. My kids eat them with brown sugar and they don’t complain. That’s the highest compliment I can give.
You can decide if it’s worth the risk. I’ll tell you it worked every single time and I never had a problem. The worst case is a stuck-on mess at the bottom of the pot. Soak it for ten minutes and it wipes clean. That’s not a failure. That’s a Tuesday.
2. Chicken thighs with rice
This is the recipe I make when I have 40 minutes and five hungry people. Eight bone-in chicken thighs, seasoned with salt and paprika. Sear them in the Instant Pot on sauté until the skin is brown. Remove, add one cup of rice, one and a half cups of chicken stock, and a chopped onion.
Nestle the thighs back in, skin side up. High pressure for 10 minutes, quick release. The rice absorbs the chicken fat and stock.
The thighs stay juicy. It’s one pot, one meal, and the house smells like someone actually cooked.
3. Pot roast that falls apart
A three-pound chuck roast, a packet of onion soup mix, a cup of beef stock, and carrots. That’s the whole recipe. High pressure for 60 minutes, natural release for 15. The meat shreds with a fork. The carrots are soft but not mushy.
It tastes like it braised all day, but it took 75 minutes and zero babysitting. The only downside is the sauté step to brown the roast first.
It’s worth the extra five minutes.
4. Dried beans without soaking
I stopped buying canned beans entirely. One pound of dried pinto beans, four cups of water, a chopped onion, and a bay leaf. High pressure for 45 minutes, natural release. They come out creamy on the inside with intact skins. Canned beans taste like metal compared to these. The cost is about a dollar a pound. This is the recipe that made me throw away my rice cooker forever.
5. Hard-boiled eggs that peel themselves
This sounds like a gimmick. It’s not. One cup of water in the bottom, a steamer basket (buy a collapsible one, the included tray doesn’t work), and a dozen eggs. High pressure for 5 minutes, quick release, then an ice bath. The shells slide off in one piece. I make a dozen every Sunday for the week. It’s the easiest recipe on this list and the one I use most often.
Best Value: Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1, One-Touch Programs
This is the older model, usually ~$10 to ~$15 cheaper than the 6-quart. It has the same stainless steel pot and the same pressure cooking capability. The difference is the one-touch programs. They’re simpler, which is good for a beginner. There’s less to fiddle with. I used one of these for two years before the Ninja replaced it. It never failed me.
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The downside is fewer presets. You don’t get the yogurt setting or the sous vide function. If you only want to cook rice, beans, and stews, you won’t miss them. If you want to experiment, spend the extra ~$10 on the newer model. For a beginner who wants no guesswork, this is the one.
The Complete Instant Pot Cookbook For Beginners
I’ve worn out two copies of this book. It has 600 recipes, which sounds like bloat, but the first 50 pages are the real value. It explains pressure levels, release methods, and timing in plain language. No recipe-app fluff. The recipes I’ve tried from it have a higher success rate than any other cookbook I own. The pot roast recipe in this book is the one I use weekly.
A verified buyer named Marcus wrote in February 2024 that the book “saved me from my own mistakes” and that the timing charts are worth the price alone. He’s right. At ~$11, it’s the cheapest upgrade you can make to your pressure cooker.
Comfee Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook
This one is fine if you own a Comfee cooker. The recipes are basic and the timing matches Comfee’s presets better than Instant Pot’s. If you have an Instant Pot, skip it. The translations between settings will confuse you more than help you.
What else to consider
The budget pick: Ninja OS101 Foodi 9-in-1, 5 Quart. This is the air fryer and pressure cooker combo. The one-lid design is brilliant, no extra storage. But the 5-quart capacity is tight for a family of five.
I made the chicken thigh recipe in it and had to wedge the thighs in. They cooked fine but it was cramped.
If you cook for one or two, this is a cooking monster. For my crew, it’s a side dish machine.
Should you buy the Instant Pot Duo?
If you’re a beginner who wants to cook real dinners without learning a new skill, yes. It’s foolproof. The stainless steel pot is the safest cookware I own. No coatings to flake into your dinner. The Curry Ring Incident happened in mine and I still recommend it. That’s how much I believe in this thing.
If you sleep on piles of money, buy a Zojirushi for ~$440. It’s a pressure cooker that also makes great rice. For everyone else, the ~$100 Instant Pot does the same job at less than a fourth of the price. I gave mine away to a baggage guy at an airport and I’m still planning to buy another one. That’s the highest compliment I can give.
This earns its spot on the counter.