Questions for instant pot and multi-pot gurus:
Everyone has their strengths and their weaknesses. Sadly, cooking is not a strength in my skill set. Fix and forget it recipes are really good recipes for me. Nothing too fussy.
My "tried and true old standby" was the crockpot. I say "was" because I planned to make a crockpot pot roast (2lbs) with potatoes and carrots. I seared my roast to seal the flavor. And then, heartbreak! (yes, I'm being intentionally melodramatic!) I plugged the crockpot this morning. Nothing. Won't turn on. I desperately moved to three other outlets, but no luck. Last week, I thought it was strange that about every hour/half hour the crockpot would turn itself off. My crockpot is about 10 years old.
So, I switched to plan B, my NinjaFoodi xl. It was a gift from last year. I never really made friends with it so it's sat mostly unused in the cupboard. The crockpot function on the Foodi tended to dry out any meat I tried, so I always used my "old" crockpot.
Anyway, I looked at about 3 recipes for the Foodi and picked one for pressure cooking a pot roast. It had about 2 cups of liquid. I didn't get the lid on right on my first attempt so it sat steaming for about 10 minutes before I realized I needed to fix the lid. After I got a tight seal, I cooked it for 45 min and did a 30 minute natural steam release.
Potatoes and carrots are actually good. Not mushy. The roast is dry and stringy. I do have gravy to cover it up. And, I figure I can always make BBQ sandwiches to hide the dry meat.
How do I keep from meat turning out too dry? Undercooked? Overcooked? I see all these reviews claiming melt in year mouth roasts? I did a quick google search, but all that comes up are recipes with glowing success stories.
Later, I noticed that the recipe for the 8qt recommended 2.25 cups of liquid instead of 2 cups. It's possible that when the lid wasn't on correctly, I steamed off too much of my liquid?
Anyone have recipes or suggestions for the Foodi/pressure cookers to get tender, juicier meat? I won't be replacing my crockpot any time soon. So, I need to figure out the Foodi.
Please share! Thanks in advance!
I just got an Instant Pot for Christmas. I think that is similar to a Ninja Foodi? If it's not an electric pressure cooker you have then disregard the following. While I haven't quite mastered it, for cooking large pieces of meat here's what I have noticed/what has worked best for me with my IP:
1. It's better to cut up a big piece of meat into 3-4 inch chunks, use the saute feature to sear the outside of each chunk and then cook the pieces for much less time, rather than trying to cook a large piece of meat whole for a longer cooking time. If your Foodi doesn't have a saute feature then sear your meat off on the stove top. You're not trying to cook the meat through, you just want to get a cooked outside crust to seal in the juices. Use tongs to rotate the meat and get all edges just barely cooked.
2. After searing your meat in your inner pot you need to deglaze the pan with the water you are using. All this means is you remove the meat, pour the water in while the pot is still hot and use a spatula or a whisk to stir and get the bits of meat off the bottom of the pan. If you don't do this you may get a burning food warning.
3. The less liquid you can use the better. You always need to use some liquid, but usually only enough to cover the bottom of the inner pot (check your cooker's minimums but I only use 1/2 a cup of liquid for mine). Don't submerge the meat in water. I've had best results when I use the metal rack to keep the meat elevated out of the water. The water is only used to steam the meat, not to boil it like you might do in a slow cooker.
4. When in doubt on your cook time do a shorter cook time first, natural release for 15-20 minutes and check your meat to see if it's done. I've found that it's usually done sooner than I expect with less cooking time than most recipes call for. I start with 30 or 35 minutes cook time (with the meat cut in chunks and seared off first) and for most cuts that has actually been a better time than some recipes that call for 45-90 minutes on full pressure. Even with less cook time my meat has sometimes been too dry. I haven't mastered my ideal cook time yet but I'm getting close.
4. If you don't sear your meat and deglaze your pan, then make make sure to heat your water before putting in the pot. This is not specific to meat only but anything where you are putting liquid in the bottom to steam something above-- if the water or the pot is heated first your pot will come to pressure faster. You can microwave the water, use a tea kettle or just turn on your saute feature for a few minutes to warm the water.
5. Don't cook frozen meat. Lots of people say you can cook frozen meat in an electric pressure cooker with no problem but so far I have not had good results with it. You need a longer cook time if your meat is frozen or super chilled. And frozen meat will release a bunch of water into your pot meaning the meat might partly boil, rather than steam, and be unevenly cooked. Maybe someone has better tips but every time I've tried frozen meat it has turned out super dry. I also have better results waiting about 30 minutes for chilled meat to come closer to room temp. I'll pull the meat from the fridge first thing and put it aside while I prepare a marinade or spice rub and chop veggies. or while heating my water up.
6. Add salt and other seasonings when done cooking instead of at the start. One thing I have noticed is the flavor seems to dilute if I season the meat first. I add salt, pepper and sauce at the end and then let it rest or let it stay on warm until dinner time. But do not leave it on warm for hours and hours. The warm feature on my instant pot seems higher than my slow cooker on low and it will dry the meat out. This is one of the things I have struggled with the most-- timing my meals to be done but not done too early. Sometimes the meat has been perfectly cooked but done 2 or 3 hours before we are eating and when I left it on warm I ruined it. It's usually better to pull it out when it's ready, let it rest before cutting and eat it cold or reheat in small portions rather than leave it on warm in the pot for several hours.
I'm still learning what works and what doesn't for many things. I learned the hard way that there are many recipes out there on the internet that are fake and simply don't work. Many bloggers have tried to cash in on the electric pressure cooker craze by claiming you can cook things in it that don't make sense to use it for or by copying bad recipes they haven't actually tried out themselves. I try to only use recipes from bloggers I trust (if most of their normal recipes have been successes, then they are more likely to have actually fine-tuned their instant pot recipes as well before posting). Or if I can't find a recipe from a blogger I trust I will look for recipes that have lots of good reviews and read the reviews to make sure that most people followed the recipe and didn't do their own thing.
So far the best, most succesful uses of my Instant Pot have been:
1. Cooking dried beans without soaking
2. Making bone broth
3. Pureed vegetable soups such as broccoli cheddar or butternut squash
4. Risotto
5. Mashed potatoes from scratch
6. Steamed potatoes for use in potato salad
7. Hard boiled eggs
I really haven't been happy with the texture of chicken from it at all. I can get it to cook okay but I much prefer to oven bake or pan cook or grill my chicken for the texture. Meatloaf is not bad in an instant pot but I still had to put it under my oven broiler to get a caramelized top, which sort of defeats the purpose of the instant pot to me if I have to also heat up my oven. And you can't very well do meat and veggies at the same time due to the drastically different cooking times. Many recipes claim you can but they are usually sacrificing quality of one or the other item by either over cooking the veg or stopping the cooking of the meat to add the veg at the end and continue cooking, in which case you risk having tough meat. So I don't mess with trying to cook a full meal in my instant pot anymore. I mostly use it for a side dish or for items I'm making in advance for future meals. I have made a decent cheesecake in the instant pot once. I haven't tried any other baking. Pasta was a total failure for me but I have to use Gluten Free pasta which turns to mush quickly, so YMMV. Hope some of these suggestions help someone.