Yes I do. The trick is finding the good recipes. There are a couple of Facebook groups that can help. The one for really quick & easy is Dump & push start. There are also thousands of great recipes on the web. Just Google "instant pot" along with whatever you are looking for.

I like mine but I don't really like the sautee feature. I usually sautee in a pan and then add to the IP. That said I really do enjoy how quickly it cooks. Things I would normally do in a crockpot (which I still use for specific items like beans and pot roast) can be cooked on a weeknight. It does a great job on brown rice which I eat a lot of. Like any appliance it just takes some practice. I had never used a pressure cooker before. Was kind of afraid of them. This just seems safer.

I like mine! I have used it for lots of recipes, I don't use it often.

If you're on face book, search for Instapot groups. You can get lots of info there!

I love mine, and I disagree about the sauté feature. Sautéing in the pot works great, saves time, and cuts down on dirty dishes! I agree about the comments about finding recipes. Once you find good recipes you like, it’s great.

Thanks, everyone. My local grocery store has one on sale for under $70, so I think I will pick one up.

Love my instant pot! Use it all the time...I make lots of soups and stews which take about 2 minutes! Corn on the cob 1-2 minutes. Short ribs which take only 35 minutes and have the most delectable flavor and buttery texture....not cooked to death and mushy with reduced flavor from long cook times ....I will never make them in the oven or on the stove top again and honestly barely use my Le Crueset any more :(. Great for baby backs as well. You can make chili in a few minutes (browning etc. all in the same pot) and it tastes more flavorful than something that has cooked in a crockpot all day. Highly recommend it.

I love mine. I use it for rice, oatmeal, and yogurt making on an almost weekly basis. There is a learning curve but there are so many great recipes on line that you can get up to speed pretty quickly. I have made both whole chicken, baby back ribs and pulled pork that have turned out great. I am getting ready to try a Neapolitan cheesecake. The process is not necessarily presto-change-o quick but when the meal is cooking, at least you do not need to tend to it on the stove. I could never warm up to slow cooking (for the same reason you have).

Have had mine about three weeks. minor, minor learning curve. like the all day chili taste in about 30 minutes. poultry works well if you don't overfill. boiled eggs are a dream to peel. I want to try yogurt soon. We bought one for the two kids' families for Xmas ... (after they heard that 'even dad' likes it) ...

this fossil can still learn new tricks

I love my Breville PC. Easy to use and no real learning curve at all.

Love mine! Will be getting another so I have two! I make home made yogurt several times a week so mine is running almost non-stop. Plus the hard boiled eggs are really good and easy to peel. The chicken comes out really tasty— more so than with other cooking methods.

Well I must be an idiot because to me some of the IP methods were not exactly obvious. For example, the instructions say that you need a certain amount of water to bring the IP under pressure. I think it's one to two cups depending on which instructions you are following. However, what they don't tell you is that there are certain foods that are very liquid that can count as part of that liquid. I made something last week that had NO extra liquid added - all the liquid was provided by the ingredients I was using. I also made a whole chicken following a recipe and the dark meat came out moist but the white meat was somewhat dry (not awful but still needing to be corrected). Next time I make a whole chicken, I will try to figure out a way to prevent that from happening. I really liked everything I cooked in it so far, but I see room for improvement in each and every one of them.

Jerzeegirl, it might help the chicken to put the white parts on the bottom, if you didn't already do that.

I have the Breville as well and love it for slow cooking in a way I never liked my actual slow cooker. I do use the sautesauté, sear and reduce settings, on the Breville, and like them, given their limitations. You're never going to get a hard sear in a bucket, but it's good enough for what's going to be stewed anyway. The sauté is sufficient to start an onion, etc. The reduce is almost too good. It's basically boil. :) I can slow cook in the oven, if I'm going to start in a regular pot on the stove. I've used the pressure cook mode, which can be a lifesaver in a time crunch, but don't like the results enough to pursue it heavily. There's a texture difference. I don't know how these features stack up on the Instant Pot.

Being able to do everything in the one appliance is the great part for me, and I'm more comfortable walking away from a countertop appliance, sitting on the tile, than going out or to bed with the wall oven on. That's probably feelings from old tech--I don't have a problem doing 906° F pyrolysis overnight and going off to bed.

One of the greatest features of this kind of appliance is that it can do most things a range can do, anywhere there's a plug. You can use it outside (sheltered or in fair weather). You can use it in the guest room. In an RV--or just any campsite with an electrical hookup.

I use mine every single day. I have only ever used the manual setting. I haven't touched my pressure cooker since I got it. I make a one pot meal from every region of the world I can think of in it and can easily do a week of dinners in it that cover the world. We are vegetarian though so being able to throw in soaked beans that haven't cooked separately saves me a dish.

By far the greatest feature of the instant pot over a slow cooker is being able to sautee directly in it first. I cannot stand the taste of slow cooker recipes that ask for any aromatic or spice uncooked.

Worth every penny tenfold and I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface of how I could use it. Oh, and I sometimes use it multiple times in a day and it's a breeze to clean out.

I love mine. But I mostly use it to make beans, stock, yogurt. I have made a few stews as well. The instant pot community on FB is helpful but I find the obsessive enthusiasm a bit daunting.

I have both of mine going right now. LOL I don't use them a lot. My 3qt duo is used mainly for yogurt or potatoes (it *just* beeped, potatoes are done). My 6 qt is used mostly for ribs. Right now I have six or seven pork chops that I fried on the stove, then put in the IP with mushroom soup mixed with Liptons onion soup mix and the drippings from the frying pan and some water. I've made soup once, it was good. And I made a roast once, it was tough as a brick. But the potatoes and carrots were delicious.

"this fossil can still learn new tricks"

I hope this fossil can too! mine came last week and I haven't opened it because I can't find my box cutter and I knew I couldn't spend the time yet to attempt to use it. This weekend I will, and will use my scissors to open if I have to... I need to watch a few videos for newbies before I try to do anything with it. So I'll do that in the next day or 2 so come this weekend I'll feel more comfortable with it and won't feel rushed in using it.

I'm a bit uneasy about using the pressure and hearing that sometimes the stuff can spew out the vent and all over the kitchen. that'd be a mess I couldn't clean up myself. But if I can get the basics of it without that happening, it will benefit me a lot with healthier eating and less time in cooking and clean up. I'm hoping that just using it to cook meals a few times a week I'll be able to make up enough food to eat the days I don't cook.

I'll see if I survive the water test and hard boiling a few eggs, then decide what else I should try that's easy and work my way into making a real meal with it.

Desertsteph--just throw a kitchen towel over the valve when you're venting and any liquid will be contained.

throw a kitchen towel over the valve -

I probably would do that if I hadn't read on the IP FB site that it can cause malfunction of the IP, ruin it and / or void any warranty etc.

according to the IP makers that should never be done. so, I'll have to figure something else out.

does anyone use one of those 'chimneys' that I see sold on Amazon to redirect it?

I guess I need to buy a wooden spoon also. does anyone know why they always say to use a wooden spoon to deglaze? I don't like them. I looked at W today for one but didn't see any I thought worth spending even a small amount of money on.

You can use a silicone spatula-spoon instead of wooden. The reason for wooden is that the edge is broad and rounded and does a lot better job scraping the pan than any other kind of spoon. The silicone ones work nearly as well, or, if you need flexibility, perhaps better.

Most important when talking about your Instant Pot is that wood or silicone won't damage the finish. Metal and other materials can scratch. I suppose polished shell might be okay, but who uses a caviar spoon to deglaze a pan?

I’ll dissent. I don’t like mine. By the time I sauté (if needed) whatever it is, let it come to pressure and then cook.... It’s not “instant” enough for me. That can easily be 40+ minutes, in which case I can just make dinner regular-style. Or the crock pot works while I’m not home, and poof, dinner is ready when I walk in the door after work. The IP involves frantically trying to cram food into it when I walk in the door, while fending off whiny hungry children and then answering “when is dinner ready?” every 3 minutes. To which I won’t have a good answer because you can never tell how long the dang thing will take to come to pressure..... I use it to make ribs. It takes up a lot of space to make ribs 4 times a year.

What are some of your favorite recipes?

thx plllog - that's what I wondered about before I spent even a dollar on a wooden spoon. I have a good silicone spatula/spoon I bought a few yrs back.

I think if I need to sauté something I'll use my small Curtis Stone skillet and then just transfer it to the pot. the skillet is 'stick' free and a breeze to clean. less chance of the dreaded 'burn notice' that way. I love my CS skillets!

If that fails I'll use my silicone spatula/spoon. I'll probably also buy a ceramic inner pot when they go on sale again.

I don't want to buy a lot of misc things for the IP until I see what I really do need and will use for what I cook in it. I cleaned out my kitchen stuff a few yrs back and don't want to start buying more things that will just clutter up my cabinets and drawers again.

Although totally unnecessary, a clear lid is nice to have when you are making yogurt (and other things not under pressure).

I don't saute in the pot (at least not yet). I find there's not enough space for me.

Guess, I am much like Blue ostrich Nine. I know it is a thing you need to learn the little ins and outs, but I don't learn very fast, so I think mine will go on a shelf out of the way.

If those with IP's could say what size you have and if you are happy with the size or do you wish you have gone larger, smaller??

I was given one about a year ago, and after considering things, I gave it away because I'm too much of a hands-on cook. Also, I don't currently have a reliable freezer so big-batch cooking makes little sense for me. It's really all a question of what you cook and how. I've never been a big slow-cooker fan, for instance. If I loved to cook that way, I'd probably be using the IP constantly.

I do find the new IP Max interesting, though, since it claims to be useable as a pressure canner in addition to the regular IP stuff.

I love both of mine and use them daily. It does take time to learn to use it to advantage. I am not an instant or dump in the pot type cook that gets everything off Pinterest. I loathed the slow cooker. These make cleanup a breeze and cut a good two thirds of the actual cooking time off when making soups and chili/stew/pot roast type meals. Add to the time savings that the kitchen stays cool. I just bought the AccuSlim sous vide gadget and have made salmon twice. No stink in the kitchen. The drawback: a lot of very nice pots and pans not getting used like before IP.

I don't eat red meat, so I want to use the IP for chicken, soup and stew recipes. (I really want a good chicken tortilla soup recipe.) I think/hope a 6 qt. will work for cooking for two. What I hate about most slow cooker recipes are the cream of [whatever] soup is dumped on top of [protein] and like I said, after simmering all day nothing seems to taste good. We are trying to save money and eat healthy. It's so much easier to pick up take-out, but I'm going to try making dinner with the IP. I read a review on Amazon about the slow release of the pressure. My grandparents cooked with a pressure cooker and it always seemed a bit scary to me. Same thing with turkey fryers. Hope to take the plunge this weekend and buy the IP and a clear lid. I really like the idea of browning something in the pot first; seared meat looks way more appetizing. I tried an air fryer, but geez I spent so much time shaking the thing around, and it was so small I would have had to make dinner and batches, so I sold it at a garage sale. Thanks, everyone.

So I have owned 3 pressure cookers. The first one was from QVC I believe and stopped working a month after warranty :\ The second was an Instant Pot. I believe it was a 6qt. I liked it but noticed it took forever to come to pressure and on certain dishes I'd get a burn notice. So during spring time I saw another 6qt Instant Pot on sale at the grocery store and got it. It was a little different than the one I had. Man what a difference. It comes to pressure so much quicker and haven't had a burn notice yet. I have a love/hate relationship with the sauté function. It's nice to have but it gets way too hot and sometimes things tend to stick.

I've tried posting some "What's your favorite instant pot recipe" posts on here but unfortunately not many respond. :( I'd like some new recipes.

One quick recipe you can make is with small potatoes, baby carrots and chicken (I use thighs). The recipe says to sauté the chicken but I just toss it in. Then you add a bottle of Italian salad dressing. I usually use greek dressing. It's very good and an easy recipe :)

Best Instant Pot Chicken

Hareball I agree with you about the sautee feature. I do use it occasionally but sometimes it seems too hot and other times not hot enough. No rhyme or reason. So now I usually sautee in my non-stick pan which is very quick and easy to clean.

I’ve had no problems with the sauté function. It has the option for 3 different sauté temps (hi, med, low) so you can choose how hot you want it. Also, there are some ingredients that might have a tendency to scorch the bottom during pressure cooking (tomato sauce/products for example) and there are some techniques one can use to prevent this. In a stew or soup for instance that uses tomatoes or tomato sauce I will add that ingredient last so it sits on top of all the other ingredients and I do not stir it into the mix. The flavors will meld perfectly without stirring and it will help prevent scorching.