I will be the first to tell you that when somebody handed me an Instant Pot for Christmas a few years back, I looked at it the way you might look at a spaceship that landed in your kitchen. I had my Dutch oven. I had my slow cooker. I had been cooking beans and greens and roasts my whole life without any electric pressure cooker, and I did not see why I needed one. But I am also not the kind of person who lets something sit on a shelf collecting dust, so I plugged it in, and I started learning. And I will tell you this — that thing earned its place on my counter.
Now, let me be clear about something right from the start. An Instant Pot does not replace everything in your kitchen. It does not replace your Cast Iron Cooking: The Southern Way skillet, and it does not replace the patience of a real low and slow braise on a Sunday afternoon when you have nowhere to be. But what it does do — and it does it well — is take some of the dishes that used to take you half a day and get them done in a fraction of the time without losing the soul of the food. And for a busy person who still wants to eat the way their grandmother cooked, that is worth paying attention to.
This is everything I have learned about using an Instant Pot for real Southern cooking. Not the trendy recipes you see floating around the internet. The real food — the beans, the greens, the roasts, the stocks, the tough cuts of meat that need time and pressure to become something wonderful. I am going to walk you through what this machine actually does, how to use it without being afraid of it, what it does best, and where it falls short. Because it does fall short in some places, and I will be honest about that too.
What an Instant Pot Actually Does and Why It Works for Southern Food
An Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker, and that is the most important thing to understand about it. When you seal that lid and it comes up to pressure, the temperature inside gets higher than boiling — up around 240 degrees — and that extra heat is what breaks down tough fibers in meat and dried beans so much faster than a regular pot on the stove. It is the same science that your grandmother’s old stovetop pressure cooker used, just wrapped in a safer, more forgiving package.
Now, the reason this matters for Southern cooking specifically is that so much of what we cook is built on patience. Dried beans. Tough cuts of pork. Collard greens cooked down until they are silky. Beef roasts braised until they fall apart with a fork. Stock made from bones and scraps. Every one of those things traditionally takes hours, and the Instant Pot can get you there in a fraction of the time. Not every single time does it taste exactly the same as the long way — I will get into that — but most of the time, the difference is so small that you would have to be looking for it to find it.
The Instant Pot also holds in every drop of liquid and every bit of flavor. Nothing evaporates the way it does when you have a pot simmering on the stove with the lid cracked. That means your pot likker is richer, your broth is more concentrated, and your meat stays moist because all that steam has nowhere to go but right back into your food.
Getting Over the Fear — Understanding the Buttons and Settings
I know that front panel looks like the dashboard of an airplane, but I promise you, once you understand a few things, the rest falls into place. Most of those buttons are just preset times and pressure levels for different types of food. You do not need to memorize all of them. The ones that matter most for Southern cooking are these:
Pressure Cook (or Manual): This is the one you will use ninety percent of the time. It lets you set the time yourself and choose high or low pressure. High pressure is what you want for almost everything — beans, meat, greens, stock. Low pressure is for delicate things like eggs or fish, and honestly, I almost never use it.
Sauté: This is your best friend, and it is the setting that makes the Instant Pot different from just a pressure cooker. Before you seal anything up, you hit Sauté, and that inner pot gets hot enough to brown meat, sweat onions, and build a fond on the bottom — all the things that create flavor. If you skip this step, your food will taste like it was boiled. Do not skip this step.
Slow Cook: Yes, it has a slow cooker setting. It works fine in a pinch, but I will be honest — it does not hold a candle to a real Slow Cooker Southern Classics dedicated slow cooker. The heating element is on the bottom only, and it does not wrap around the food the way a proper slow cooker does. Use it if it is all you have, but do not throw away your Crock-Pot.
Keep Warm: This one turns on automatically after pressure cooking finishes. It holds your food at a safe temperature, and it is genuinely useful when dinner is done but the family is not at the table yet.
The rest of the buttons — Rice, Soup, Bean/Chili, Meat/Stew, Poultry — are just presets. They set a default time and pressure level. You can use them if you want, but once you get comfortable, you will probably just use Pressure Cook and set your own time. That is what I do.
The Sauté Step — This Is Where Southern Flavor Starts
I cannot say this strongly enough — if you are not using the Sauté function before you pressure cook, you are leaving half the flavor on the table. This is where The Skill of Layering: How to Build Flavor from the Ground Up begins, and it is what separates a good Instant Pot meal from something that tastes like it came out of a can.
Here is what I do nearly every time I use my Instant Pot for a savory dish. I hit Sauté and let that pot get hot. Then I put in a little bacon grease or oil — sometimes butter, depending on the dish — and I brown my meat. Not steam it. Not warm it up. Brown it. I want that dark crust on the outside of a chuck roast. I want those pork neck bones to get some color. That browning is flavor, and once you seal that lid, the pressure is going to push all that flavor deep into the meat.
After the meat comes out, I toss in my onions, celery, and bell pepper — what we call The Southern Holy Trinity: Onions, Celery, and Bell Pepper — right into that hot pot with all those brown bits stuck to the bottom. Those onions are going to pick up every bit of that fond, and when you pour in your liquid, everything loosens up and becomes the base of your sauce or your pot likker. This is the exact same thing you do in a Dutch oven on the stove. The technique does not change just because the pot is electric.
Natural Release vs. Quick Release — And Why It Matters
When the cooking time is up, you have two choices for letting the pressure out, and which one you pick makes a real difference in how your food turns out.
Natural Release means you do nothing. You let the pot sit there and the pressure drops on its own as the food cools down slowly inside. This usually takes 10 to 25 minutes depending on how full the pot is. This is what you want for large cuts of meat, dried beans, and anything with a lot of liquid. The slow drop in pressure lets the fibers in the meat relax gently, and it keeps beans from splitting and turning to mush. Every time I cook a roast or a pot of pintos, I do a full natural release. Every time.
Quick Release means you turn that valve on top and the steam comes screaming out all at once. It stops the cooking immediately, which is what you want for vegetables or anything that can overcook in a hurry. If I am doing corn on the cob or potatoes that I want to stay firm, I do a quick release. But I never, ever quick release a pot of beans or a piece of meat. The sudden pressure change toughens the meat and blows the skins right off the beans.
There is also a middle road that I use a lot — a timed natural release. I let the pressure drop naturally for 10 or 15 minutes, and then I flip the valve to release whatever is left. This works well for things like chicken thighs or smothered pork chops where you want the meat to stay tender but you do not want the vegetables to cook into nothing.
Southern Beans and Peas — Where the Instant Pot Truly Shines
If there is one thing the Instant Pot was born to do, it is cook dried beans. And I mean dried beans that you did not soak overnight, that you pulled straight out of the bag and put in the pot. That alone is reason enough to own one, because I cannot count the number of times I have wanted a pot of pintos or butter beans for supper and realized I forgot to soak them the night before. With the Instant Pot, it does not matter.
For a good pot of pinto beans, I put about a pound of dried beans in the pot with a smoked ham hock, a chopped onion, a few cloves of garlic, and enough water or stock to cover the beans by about an inch and a half. A little salt — not too much yet, because you can always add more — and then I seal it up and set it for 35 minutes on high pressure with a full natural release. When that lid comes off, those beans are creamy, the ham hock is falling apart, and the pot likker is rich and dark and full of smoke. It tastes like it has been simmering all day.
If you want to learn more about the different types of beans and peas we cook in the South, A Guide to Southern Beans & Peas covers every variety and how to cook them. But here are the times I have found work best for dried beans in the Instant Pot, no soaking required:
Pinto beans take about 35 to 40 minutes on high pressure. Black-eyed peas take 25 to 30 minutes. Lima beans and butter beans take 25 to 30 minutes. Navy beans take 30 to 35 minutes. Great Northern beans take 28 to 32 minutes. Crowder peas and field peas take 20 to 25 minutes. Red beans take 35 to 40 minutes. If you did soak your beans overnight, cut every one of those times roughly in half.
Greens in the Instant Pot — Good, With One Condition
I will be straight with you. Greens in the Instant Pot are good. They are tender, the pot likker is wonderful, and they come together fast. But they are not quite the same as greens that have simmered on the stove for two or three hours with a ham hock and a little vinegar, low and slow, the way I talk about in How to Cook Collard Greens: The Traditional Southern Way. There is a depth of flavor that comes from that long, slow cook that the pressure cooker does not quite replicate. It gets you about ninety percent of the way there, and for a weeknight, that is more than good enough.
Here is how I do collard greens in the Instant Pot. I use the Sauté setting to cook down some diced onion in bacon grease until it is soft and golden. Then I add a smoked ham hock or a few pieces of smoked turkey neck, pour in about two cups of chicken stock, and add a splash of apple cider vinegar. I pile in the cleaned, chopped greens — they will seem like too much, but they cook way down — and seal the lid. Twenty minutes on high pressure with a natural release, and you have a pot of greens that will make a weeknight feel like a holiday.
Mustard greens and turnip greens take a little less time — about 15 minutes — because they are more tender than collards. If you are doing a mix, go with the collard time and everything will be fine. And do not throw away that pot likker. It is liquid gold. Sop it up with cornbread or save it for cooking rice or making soup.
Pot Roast and Tough Cuts of Meat — Sunday Dinner in an Hour
This is where the Instant Pot really makes its case. A chuck roast that would take three to four hours in the oven or in a Dutch Oven Cooking on the Stovetop: A Complete Guide comes out fall-apart tender in about 60 to 75 minutes under pressure. And if you do the sauté step properly — browning that roast on all sides until you get a good dark crust — you are not sacrificing flavor to save time.
For a three to four pound chuck roast, here is what works. Hit Sauté, get the pot hot, and sear the roast in a little oil or bacon grease on all sides. Take it out. Cook your onions, carrots, and celery in the drippings for a few minutes. Deglaze with a cup of beef stock, scraping up every brown bit. Put the roast back in on top of the vegetables, add another half cup of stock, season well, and seal the lid. Sixty minutes on high pressure with a full natural release. When that lid comes off, you can pull the meat apart with two forks.
If you want potatoes and carrots that are not overcooked to nothing, add them after the natural release. Open the pot, tuck the vegetables around and under the meat, seal it back up, and do five more minutes on high pressure with a quick release. They will be perfectly tender without turning to paste. I learned this the hard way the first time I put everything in at once and ended up with potato soup instead of pot roast.
Chicken in the Instant Pot — Fast and Forgiving
Chicken is one of the easiest things to cook in the Instant Pot, and it comes out moist and tender almost every time. I use it most often for bone-in chicken thighs and for whole chickens that I am going to shred for other dishes — chicken salad, chicken and dumplings, enchiladas, or just to have ready in the refrigerator for the week. If you want a deeper guide to cooking chicken all kinds of ways, How to Cook Every Cut of Chicken: A Southern Style Guide covers it all.
For bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, I sear them skin-side down on Sauté first to get that skin crispy and rendered. Then I add my liquid — usually chicken stock with some garlic and herbs — and cook on high pressure for 12 minutes with a 10-minute natural release. The meat slides right off the bone.
For a whole chicken, I do not even bother trying to brown it. I set it on the trivet that comes with the Instant Pot, pour in a cup of stock, season it generously, and cook on high pressure for 25 minutes for a four-pound bird. Add five minutes for every extra pound. Natural release for 15 minutes. The meat will be perfect for shredding — moist, tender, and ready to go. If you want crispy skin, you can pull it out and run it under the broiler for a few minutes after, but for shredding, it does not matter.
And do not throw away that liquid left in the bottom. It is the start of a beautiful stock, and if you add the bones back in and pressure cook for another 45 minutes, you will have a rich How to Make Bone Broth the Southern Way that you can freeze and use for weeks.
Stock and Broth — The Instant Pot’s Secret Superpower
If I had to pick one thing the Instant Pot does better and faster than any other method, it is stock. A rich, gelatinous, deep-flavored stock that would take eight to twelve hours on the stovetop comes together in about 90 minutes under pressure. And it gels when it cools, which tells you that all that collagen came out of the bones the way it should.
I save chicken carcasses, pork bones, ham hock bones, vegetable scraps — onion ends, celery tops, carrot peels — in a bag in the freezer. When the bag is full, everything goes in the Instant Pot with enough cold water to cover it, a splash of vinegar to help pull the minerals out of the bones, a bay leaf, and some peppercorns. Ninety minutes on high pressure with a full natural release. Strain it through a fine mesh strainer, and you have liquid gold that puts anything from a can or a box to shame.
The reason this works so well under pressure is that the high heat and pressure extract collagen from the bones much more efficiently than a simmer does. On the stovetop, you are waiting for that slow, gentle extraction over hours. The Instant Pot does the same work in a fraction of the time, and the result is just as good. Sometimes better, honestly, because none of the flavor compounds escape as steam the way they do with an open pot.
Rice and Grits — Simple but Precise
Rice in the Instant Pot is dead simple and comes out perfectly every time once you get the ratio right. For long-grain white rice, which is what most of us use for everyday Southern cooking, the ratio is one cup of rice to one cup of water. That is less water than you use on the stovetop because, again, nothing evaporates. Three minutes on high pressure with a 10-minute natural release. Fluff it with a fork, and it is perfect. If you want to learn more about the different kinds of rice we use in the South, A Guide to Southern Rice: Carolina Gold, Pecan, and Long-Grain is worth reading.
Grits are a different story. I have tried making grits in the Instant Pot, and I will tell you what I tell everyone — it works, but it is not a miracle. Quick grits do fine in about 10 minutes on high pressure. Stone-ground grits need about 15 to 20 minutes. The texture is good, but you still need to stir them well after opening the lid, and you will probably want to add a little extra liquid and let them sit on Keep Warm for a few minutes to get that creamy consistency. For truly perfect grits, I still prefer the stove and the patience that goes with it, which I talk about in The 5 Secrets to Making Perfect, Creamy, Lump-Free Grits. But for a weekday morning when time is short, the Instant Pot grits are perfectly respectable.
What the Instant Pot Does Not Do Well
I promised you honesty, so here it is. The Instant Pot is not the answer to everything, and knowing where it falls short will save you a lot of disappointment.
It does not fry. Do not even think about deep-frying in an Instant Pot. No fried chicken, no fried okra, no fried catfish. That is what your Cast Iron Cooking: The Southern Way skillet is for, and nothing is going to change that.
It does not make good biscuits or cornbread. I have seen recipes for Instant Pot cornbread, and I have tried them. They come out pale and steamed, with none of that golden crust you get from a hot cast iron skillet. Biscuits are the same story. These are foods that need dry, radiant heat — an oven — and the moist environment inside a pressure cooker is the opposite of what they need. Stick with the oven for your baking, and if you want perfect biscuits, Perfect Southern Biscuits: A Step-by-Step Guide will get you there.
It does not crisp or brown under pressure. You can sear before cooking using the Sauté setting, and that helps enormously, but anything that goes in the pot is going to come out moist and soft on the outside. If you want a crispy skin on your chicken or a crust on your roast, you either sear it first or finish it under the broiler after.
It does not handle dairy well under pressure. Cream, milk, and cheese can scorch or curdle under pressure. If your recipe calls for dairy, always add it after the pressure cooking is done — stir it in at the end on the Keep Warm or Sauté setting.
Converting Your Stovetop Recipes for the Instant Pot
The question I get asked more than any other is whether you can take a regular recipe and just throw it in the Instant Pot. The answer is yes, with some adjustments, and here is how I think about it.
First, reduce your liquid. Whatever your stovetop recipe calls for, cut it by about a third. The Instant Pot needs at least one cup of liquid to come to pressure, but beyond that, less is more. All that liquid stays in the pot, and too much of it will wash out the flavor of your food instead of concentrating it.
Second, know your cooking time. As a general rule, pressure cooking takes about a third of the stovetop time. If a stew takes three hours on the stove, start with 60 minutes in the Instant Pot. If greens take two hours, start with 20 to 25 minutes. You can always seal it back up and cook for a few more minutes if it needs it, but you cannot uncook something that went too long.
Third, do not forget the sauté step. If your original recipe starts by browning meat or sweating onions, do that same step in the Instant Pot using the Sauté function before you seal the lid. Skipping that step is the difference between food that tastes layered and complex and food that tastes flat and boiled.
Fourth, think about what goes in when. Dense things like meat and root vegetables go in first. Delicate things like quick-cooking vegetables, fresh herbs, and dairy go in after the pressure cooking is done. This takes a little planning, but it makes all the difference.
A Quick Reference for Instant Pot Cooking Times
These are the times I come back to again and again. Every one of them has been tested in my own kitchen, and they work for high pressure with the release method noted.
Dried pinto beans (unsoaked): 35 to 40 minutes, natural release. Dried black-eyed peas (unsoaked): 25 to 30 minutes, natural release. Collard greens: 20 minutes, natural release. Mustard or turnip greens: 15 minutes, natural release. Chuck roast (3 to 4 pounds): 60 to 75 minutes, natural release. Bone-in chicken thighs: 12 minutes, 10-minute natural release then quick release. Whole chicken (4 pounds): 25 minutes, 15-minute natural release. Pork shoulder (3 to 4 pounds): 60 to 75 minutes, natural release. Neck bones: 40 to 45 minutes, natural release. Oxtails: 45 to 50 minutes, natural release. Bone broth: 90 minutes, natural release. Long-grain white rice: 3 minutes, 10-minute natural release. Stone-ground grits: 15 to 20 minutes, natural release. Potatoes (whole, medium): 12 to 15 minutes, quick release. Corn on the cob: 3 minutes, quick release.
These times are starting points. Every Instant Pot is a little different, and altitude affects pressure cooking the same way it affects everything else. After a few cooks, you will know exactly what works in your kitchen with your machine.
Cleaning, Care, and the Things People Forget
The Instant Pot is easy to take care of, but there are a couple of things that people forget about, and they are important.
The sealing ring — that silicone gasket inside the lid — absorbs smells. If you make a pot of collard greens with ham hock on Tuesday and then try to make rice on Wednesday, that rice is going to taste like greens. The fix is simple. I have two sealing rings — one for savory cooking and one for anything neutral or sweet. They are inexpensive and easy to swap out. You can also wash the ring with baking soda and vinegar or set it in the sun for a few hours, which helps pull the odors out.
The steam release valve and the float valve both need to be kept clean. If food debris gets stuck in there, the pot will not seal properly, and you will wonder why it is taking forever to come to pressure. A quick rinse after every use keeps them working the way they should.
The inner pot washes just like any stainless steel pot. Warm soapy water and a soft sponge. If you have something stuck on from the sauté step, fill it with warm water and let it soak for a few minutes. Do not use steel wool — it will scratch the surface.
My Honest Take — Where the Instant Pot Fits in a Southern Kitchen
After a few years of using it regularly, here is where I have landed. The Instant Pot has earned its place in my kitchen, but it has not replaced anything. It sits on my counter right next to the same cast iron skillet and Dutch oven I have been using for decades, and each one has its job.
When I have time — a lazy Sunday, a holiday, a day when I just want to stand at the stove and cook the way my mother taught me — I use the stove. I use my cast iron. I use my Dutch oven. I let things simmer and braise for hours, because that slow process is part of the pleasure and part of the tradition. There is a depth of flavor that comes from Low & Slow on the Stovetop: Mastering Patience for Meat and Vegetables that no shortcut fully replicates.
But when it is a Wednesday night and I forgot to soak beans, or I want a pot roast and I only have an hour, or I need a batch of stock and I do not want to babysit a pot all day — that is when the Instant Pot steps in, and it does the job beautifully. It does not replace the old ways. It gives you another way to get to the same place when life does not leave you time for the long road.
And that is worth something. My grandmother would have loved having one of these on her counter — not because she needed it, but because there were plenty of days when it would have made her life a little easier. And anything that helps you get real, honest, homemade food on the table instead of picking up something from a drive-through is a tool worth having.
If you are just getting started in the kitchen or looking for a broader picture of how all these tools and techniques fit together, The Complete Guide to Southern Cooking: Techniques, Traditions & Time-Tested Wisdom is a good place to start. The Instant Pot is just one tool in a kitchen full of them, and knowing when to reach for it — and when to reach for something else — is what makes the difference between someone who follows recipes and someone who really knows how to cook.
