Instant Pot accessories and combos?

September 14, 2021 7:59 AM

What are your favorite Instant Pot accessories, especially for PIP (pot-in-pot) cooking - and your favorite PIP combos (two or more foods that have the same cooking time)?

There are SO MANY Instant Pot accessory sets, and I have no idea which ones are any good.

I have a 6 quart Instant Pot. I mostly use it for rice, beets, potatoes, and hard-boiled eggs, and I like it for all those things. I especially like cooking eggs and potatoes at the same time, and I'd like to do more combos, but it's hard finding foods with similar times (beets take way longer than potato chunks).

So:

What specific Instant Pot accessories do you really like - for pot-in-pot, or anything? Please link to products, if possible. I'm especially interested in egg holders, steamer baskets, and pans for making cornbread or cheesecake.

What are your favorite combinations of foods or pot-in-pot duos or trios - what foods time out well together?

Thank you!

posted by kristi to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

This one depends on how hard you like your eggs and how soft you like your oatmeal, but I sometimes make steel cut oats and hard boiled eggs together.

Sometimes when I'm pressure-cooking anything that'll take 5+ minutes, I'll throw in a whole head of garlic, which becomes a bunch of little packets of garlic mush I can squirt onto bread. The flavor isn't as strong or as interesting as roasted garlic, though.
posted by moonmilk at 8:04 AM on September 14, 2021

I really like this sling for lifting out cake pans/other pot-in-pot things. You can just use the little rack, but the sling has longer handles so you don't risk steaming your fingers or burning yourself on the inner pot.

I also have this springform pan for cakes and these egg bite pans. I haven't used the bundt pan yet but the springform is great.

I use the egg bite pans more than anything else--for eggs, but also for little muffins, brownies, stuff like that. You can put different things in the different holes so sometimes I do one batch of eggs and put all different fillings in.
posted by assenav at 8:50 AM on September 14, 2021

I've made pot in pot chicken teriyaki and rice and it's really good. Here's a typical recipe.

If you want to do it really easily just use pre-made teriyaki sauce.

I like to put the cooked chicken on tinfoil and put it in the oven under broil for a few minutes to crisp up the skin after cooking.
posted by kaefer at 8:54 AM on September 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Related: For other idiots like me who have spent years trying to find space on a crowded counter for the lid: Your Instant Pot Has a Built-In Lid Holder.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 9:23 AM on September 14, 2021 [8 favorites]

I came to mention that OXO sleeve, it's so incredibly useful.

The actual Instant Pot brand silicone mitts, at least the ones I got a couple years ago, are highly superior to the thin-ass crap I've tried ordering several times from Amazon.

I have two inner pots, which means when I'm meal-prepping I can whip one out to cool and have the second one staged to drop in right away.

IP have produced a bunch of their own pot-in-pot products in the past couple of years, many of which look better than the stuff I was winging it with in the past.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:35 AM on September 14, 2021

I love this fire-breathing dragon steam diverter because it sends released steam forward, instead of up and directly at my cabinets. But also, to be frank, because it just fucking looks rad.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:45 AM on September 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

great side dish combo to serve with fish, if you have a steamer attachment:

Lemon Rice - except instead of following the instructions to this recipe and toasting/boiling in a pan, I just toss the ingredients into a rice cooker with a steamer basket full of green beans, and the two are ready at the same time.

Pair that with a baked fish like rainbow trout or salmon, which also takes about the same amount of time in the oven, and you've got a really awesome meal.

To do the fish - line a baking sheet with tinfoil, place fish skins side down on tinfoil, sprinkle with salt pepper and garlic, add a few thin slices of lemon, or a shaking of panko, pop it into a 375 oven at the same time you turn on the rice cooker. When serving the fish, just slide a spatula between the fish and the skin, so the skin stays stuck to the tinfoil. Makes cleanup crazy easy.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:10 PM on September 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

Tangentially related: we replaced our Instant Pot with the ten-quart one, and it turns out there are no steam diverters that fit. I base this on the fact that the ones that claim to fit also claim to fit the smaller pots, and the nozzle (whatever it’s properly called) is significantly smaller in diameter. It was fun watching it blow off onto the floor, though.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 8:45 PM on September 14, 2021

I bought various pot-in-pot accessories — a mini loaf pan, a soufflé dish sized to fit in the pot — but have found that I honestly don’t wind up using them. My most-used accessories are two extra silicone gaskets. I reserve one for strongly-flavored savory dishes like curries, reserve another for bland foods like rice or potatoes, and reserve a third one for desserts, to avoid transferring unwanted flavors.

My most-used pro-tip is that the manufacturer says the Instant Pot lid is top-rack dishwasher-safe. I haven’t manually scrubbed a lid nook or cranny since I learned that fun fact.
posted by snowmentality at 6:54 AM on September 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

Apologies, I don’t have any recommendations but I just want to say to Mr.Know-it-some: Oh my GOD
posted by CtrlAltDelete at 7:48 AM on September 15, 2021