Preset Pressure Cooking Buttons
Soup
This setting is for making soups and broths. (Oh, really?) The benefit of the soup setting is that it cooks liquid at a steady temperature for a long period of time, which can be hard to maintain on your stove. The Instant Pot automatically adjusts the pressure and temperature in this setting so that the soup never gets into a “heavy boiling state.” The default setting is 30 minutes at High Pressure but you can use the “Adjust” button to change time to “less” or “more” or the “Pressure” button to change pressure to “Low Pressure.”
Meat/Stew
This setting is (if you can believe it) for cooking meat and stew. Think boeuf bourguignon and pot roast. You can use the “Adjust” button to cook for longer or shorter times. You would use the “More” setting if you want really tender, fall-off-the-bone meat, like pulled pork or fork-tender short ribs. The default setting is 30 minutes at High Pressure. (Some versions have the default at 35.)
Bean/Chili
Cooking dried beans in the Instant Pot saves SO MUCH time. And they turn out great. The default setting here is 30 minutes at High Pressure and that really does make a nice chili that’s comparable to one that’s slow-simmered on the stove. You can use the “Adjust” button for “More” (40 minutes) or “Less” (25 minutes) time. Different types of beans take different amounts of time, but you can always consult the manual or do a quick google to find what you need.
Poultry
Most Instant Pot guides I’ve seen around the internet say that the Poultry setting defaults to 15 minutes at High Pressure. Mine does 20 minutes at High Pressure. In any case, you can always use the “Adjust” button for “More” (30 minutes) or “Less” (5 minutes) time. A 5-minute cooking time would be for something with smaller, cut-up pieces of boneless chicken and a 30-minute cooking time would be for something like cooking a whole chicken. (Yes, you can cook a whole chicken in your Instant Pot!)
Rice
This is the only fully automated program; you can’t adjust the pressure or the time because it automatically adjusts depending on the weight of the rice you put in. You can cook as little as one cup of rice in your Instant Pot. 2 cups of rice will take about 12 minutes. Most rice is cooked at a 1:1 ratio, but refer to your manual as some varieties differ. Rice is the only button that is preset to Low Pressure.
Multigrain
The multigrain setting is for things like wild rice and brown rice, which have longer cooking times than white rice. The default here is 40 minutes at High Pressure. The “More” setting has 45 minutes of warm water soaking time and 60 minutes of high-pressure cooking time and is for harder grains like dry split corn.
Porridge
The default setting here (20 minutes at High Pressure) is for rice porridge (congee), but you can also use this setting for things like steel-cut oats. With this setting, you want to always use natural release for the steam valve. If you use quick release, the porridge can splatter out through the steam release vent. And we wouldn’t want to deal with that kind of mess!
Steam
This setting allows you to use the Instant Pot like you would a steamer on the stovetop. You can steam pretty much any vegetable or even seafood. You just put the wire rack into the bottom of pot, pour 1-2 cups of water in and place your ingredients in a metal steaming basket on top of the wire rack.
For this mode, you use the “+” or “-” buttons to adjust the time according to what you’re steaming. I love to steam artichokes in the Instant Pot, they take about 10 minutes, whereas broccoli only takes 2-3 minutes. In this mode, you want to use quick release; the natural release can make your veggies mushy and soggy since they keep cooking a bit as pressure releases.
Well, there you go folks! That’s all of the buttons on the Instant Pot. I sure hope this guide was helpful. It really is a pretty intuitive appliance; don’t be afraid to play around with it. Now go get cooking!
