Need to get dinner on the table fast? You can feed your family a homemade meal in minutes with electric pressure cookers! From Instant Pots – one of their most popular brands – to more advanced models that offer air frying and sous vide capabilities.
These countertop wonders have become kitchen staples. And thanks to ingenious safety features (no explosions necessary!), it’s never been easier or safer for cooks of all skill levels to whip up restaurant-worthy dishes from home. But how do you know which model will suit your needs best? After four years of testing them and developing objective tests & criteria along the way, I’ve got plenty of recommendations available online so be sure to check those out before deciding what fits right into your kitchen setup!
The best pressure cookers in 2023
Best pressure cooker overall: If you’re looking for a pressure-cooking powerhouse, the Crock-Pot Express Crock XL Multicooker is your jam. It breezed through our cooking tests quickly, and its simple button controls make it easier to whip up delicious meals!
Best pressure cooker on a budget: Get ready to have your cooking game taken up a notch! The Instant Pot Duo Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker is the perfect choice for anyone looking for an affordable and multifunctional way to get food on the table without breaking their budget. You’ll be whipping up delicious meals in no time with this powerhouse kitchen appliance from one of the most trusted brands around.
Best smart pressure cooker: If you’re looking for a pressure cooker as intelligent and precise as your cooking style, the Chef iQ Smart Cooker is it! With hundreds of pre-programmed settings plus interactive recipes on tap, this kitchen must-have will have every dish cooked to delicious perfection.
Best multitasking pressure cooker: Stop wasting time, space, and money on multiple kitchen appliances – trust the Instant Pot Duo Crisp Pressure Cooker to help you do it all! This revolutionary pressure cooker is a must-have for anyone looking to simplify their lives without sacrificing quality. Make your cooking dreams come true with this 4-in-1 appliance that can slow cook, air fry, sous vide, and pressure cooks delicious meals in no time.
Best pressure cooker overall
When it comes to easy cooking with delicious results, the Crock-Pot Express XLMulticooker is top of its class. With a single press of button controls and an 8-quart pot large enough for any family gathering, this model made all our dishes look like they came from your favorite restaurant! In no time at all—less than an hour, in fact (including pressure build and release)—our test kitchen was able to enjoy tender shredded pork that melted in their mouths and hearty pinto beans cooked perfectly every time. This cooker outperformed expectations; we’d highly recommend trying out one yourself!
Crock-Pot Programmable Slow Cooker and Pressure Cooker
- 7-in-1 functionality: Pressure cook, slow cook, rice cooker, yogurt maker, steamer, sauté pan, and food warmer.
- Quick one-touch cooking: 13 customizable Smart Programs for pressure cooking ribs, soups, beans, rice, poultry yogurt desserts, and more.
- Cook fast or slow: Pressure cooks delicious one-pot meals up to 70% more quickly than traditional cooking methods, or slow cook your favorite traditional recipes – just like grandma used to make.
- Quick and easy cleanup Fingerprint resistant stainless steel sides dishwasher safe lid inner pot and accessories.
- Safety features include over ten safety features plus overheat protection and a safety locking lid
- Great for growing families – Cooks for up to 6 people, perfect for meal prepping, batch cooking, or singles
Pros
- With intuitive controls, superior browning abilities, and gasket accessories galore – your days of cooking endless meals are over.
Cons
- Some tasks were on the brink of victory, only to be thwarted by that pesky sealing gasket – and it’s a bad habit for going loose.
Best budget pressure cooker
Ready to join the Instant Pot craze? Look no further than the Duo Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker! This top name in cooking tech comes in three, six, and eight-quart sizes with a stainless steel inner pot that will make slow cooker pulled pork so tender you won’t stop yourself from giving it an extra squeeze. We tested out pressure-cooked offerings as well – they had great flavor but were a bit tougher…maybe ten more minutes of cook time would do the trick!
Instant Pot Duo 7
- The Instant Pot has seven functions: pressure cooking, slow cook, rice cooker, yogurt making, steamer, sauté pan, and food warmer.
- It has 13 customizable Smart Programs for pressure-cooking ribs, soups, beans, rice, poultry yogurt desserts, and more.
- The Instant Pot is a quick and easy way to cook fast or slow.
- Clean-up is easy with the dishwasher-safe lid inner pot and accessories.
- The Instant Pot is fantastic for growing families, with its capacity to cook for up to 6 people.
Pros
- Pros: Produced tender and juicy slow-cooked pork, builds pressure quickly, good browning, dishwasher-safe and metal utensil-safe stainless steel inner pot, Instant Pot app features 100s of recipes.
Cons
- Cons: It takes experimentation to get cooking times right, and controls take some getting used to.
Best smart pressure cooke
Get your dinner cooking quicker and tastier with the Chef iQ Smart Cooker. It’s easy to set up and offers hundreds of personalized programs and recipes, plus a full-color screen that takes all the guesswork out of meal prep. With its precise customization functions, this cooker will have you enjoying beans cooked perfectly in record time – 13 minutes faster than any other model!
With the Chef iQ Smart Cooker, you’re just a few clicks away from home-cooked perfection! Choose between three release methods – natural, quick, and pulse – or get recommendations based on what’s in your pot. Its interactive app guides will adjust settings to fit recipes perfectly while sending push notifications when it reaches each cooking step. I tried out the whole chicken recipe and was amazed at how well my bird browned up with near-perfect rice made in under 20 minutes.
CHEF iQ Smart Pressure Cooker
- The Chef iQ app connects your Smart Cooker to the app via WiFi and Bluetooth, allowing you to access 600+ recipes, videos, and the Cooking Calculator.
- The built-in scale measures ingredients by weight, simplifying prep and cleanup.
- Auto Pressure Release automatically releases steam at the end of pressure cooking for increased safety and convenience.
- Guided Cooking provides step-by-step video cooking instructions stored on the cooker or in the app.
- Cooking presets are stored on the Smart Cooker or in the app. Input your ingredient, and we’ll provide the exact cooking time and temp settings.
Pros
- Pros: WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, a helpful app with 1000+ interactive recipes, full-color screen with 300+ present programs, quickest to cook rice and beans, good at searing, easy to set up
Cons
- Cons: Didn’t do well in our pulled pork tests
Best multitasking pressure cooker
The Instant Pot Duo Crisp Pressure Cooker is a double threat! Not only does it provide multi-cooking options, but this handy appliance also offers air frying and sous vide capability. The unit comes with two lids – one for multitasking and another for fan-based airflow to produce delicious fried dishes without all that oil. We took it for a spin by making some French fries from frozen – in no time flat.
For those seeking steak perfection, we gave its sous vide feature a try; while slower out of gates than expected to heat water bath temps. Our cut was fork tender when finished. Working your way around setup shouldn’t be an issue as long as you take just a few moments to familiarize yourself with the user manual beforehand, so everything runs smooth sailing right off the bat.
Instant Pot Duo Crisp 11-in-1 Air Fryer
- The Instant Pot Air Fryer comes with two convenient removable lids.
- Even crisp Technology: The included air fryer lid delivers all the crunch and tenderness of deep-frying with 95% less oil.
- Quick One-Touch Cooking: 11 customizable Smart Programs for air frying, pressure cooking ribs, soups, beans, rice, poultry, yogurt, desserts, and more. Includes a free app with over 1900 recipes!
- Versatile Inner Cooking Pot: Food-grade stainless-steel cooking pot with a tri-ply bottom offers even cooking and an anti-spin design that secures the pot for perfect sautéing.
- Cook Fast or Slow: Pressure cooks delicious one-pot meals up to 70% faster than traditional cooking methods or slow cook your favorite traditional recipes – just like grandma used to make.
- Perfect For Larger Families: Cook for up to 8 people – perfect for larger families or meal prepping and batch cooking for singles and smaller families
Pros
- Pros: Enjoy air frying, sous vide cooking options, and access 100s of recipes through an app. Setting it up is simple, too – you’ll be making delicious rice in under 20 minutes flat.
Cons
- Cons: Tended to build pressure and heat up slowly, didn’t sear well
Other Instant Pots and pressure cookers we tested
After rigorous testing, only a select few electric pressure cookers made the cut. The rest of them simply got cooked!
What else we recommend and why:
Zavor LUX LCD: The Savor LUX LCD is an excellent addition for anyone looking to make the most of their culinary creations. With over 30 programmable settings and an easy-to-read display, you’ll be able to craft mouthwatering dishes with plenty of options. We were particularly impressed by its juicy pulled pork results – although bean cooking and meat searing could still use some work!
Ninja Foodi XL Pressure Cooker: Give your meals a unique touch with the Ninja Foodi XL Pressure Cooker! Don’t just take our word for it; check out how this new kitchen gem stacks up against its counterpart Instant Pot Duo Crisp, to see what fits best into your Chef’s hat of tricks! Not only can it air fry and pressure cook, but in our tests, it also seared, slow-cooked, and produced delicious dishes -giving you that extra flavor.
Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus 80 (Discontinued): With the Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus 80, you may not need potholders anymore! Full of preset programs on its screen, this multicooker delivers more than meets the eye – but unfortunately, it was discontinued due to mediocre results with slow cooking and rice dishes. Its stay-cool handles are designed to provide extra protection from scalding.
Instant Pot Duo Plus: With the Instant Pot Duo Plus, you get a top-notch cooking experience without breaking your budget. This model is easy to use and has all the great features with sous vide cookers – plus, it devours pulled pork! It may take longer than other models to build pressure, but that’s nothing its golden-brown sear can’t compensate for, which makes this an excellent pick if you’re looking for affordable kitchen goodness.
What we don’t recommend and why:
Crock-Pot Express Oval Max: While it’s slow to pressure up, this multi-cooker won’t make you wait forever in excitement as your dish is cooked. But watch out! The included recipes may not always be on point, so don’t risk ruining dinner by taking them too seriously!
Instant Pot Ultra: The Instant Pot Ultra may look like it came from a future world, but don’t let its techy design fool you! This model proved one of the slowest to build pressure and fell short on flavor with an included recipe– dry chicken, anyone? Steer clear if you can; try another option for your instant pot needs for better performance.
GoWise USA 14-Quart: GoWise USA 14-Quart might have been the most prominent contender in our test lineup. Still, unfortunately, it was a bit of an underdog: slow to build pressure and lacking in searing ability. Its control panel is just as perplexing – you’ll be scratching your head faster than a hungry hound! But don’t dismiss this big boy too quickly – while its included recipes may not fill up such expansive cooking potential, it managed some mighty fine pork & rice with that all-important steam boost!
Our pressure cooker testing methodology
Here are the main attributes we looked for and how we tested them:
Setup: I wanted to see how quickly I could whip up a delicious dish, and the pressure cooker was my test subject. Most units take five minutes or less set-up time from box opening to building pressure – without even consulting the instructions in some cases! – it’s almost guaranteed that dinner won’t be late tonight.
Pressurizing: Pressure cooking can be a real time-saver, but selecting the right cooker is essential. I tested and tracked each model while they filled up with just four cups of water – those that built pressure quickly earned higher marks! You’ll get your meal at record speed with faster build times without sacrificing flavor or nutrient content.
Performance: We put our multicookers through their paces, pushing them to the limit with five challenging tests – will they rise to the challenge?
- Pressure-cooked pulled pork: We cooked pork butt under high pressure for an hour and found it easy to shred and tasted good.
- Slow-cooked pulled pork: We slow-cooked pork butt on low for 10 hours and found that it was easy to shred and tasted good.
- Rice: We added jasmine rice and water to each unit, selected the rice function (or used the basic recipe from “The Step-by-Step Instant Pot Cookbook” if there wasn’t a rice function), noted the total cooking time, tasted each batch to judge texture, chew, stickiness, etc., and evaluated how uniformly each unit cooked the rice.
- Beans: We combined one pound of pinto beans with two quarts of water in each unit, selected the bean function (or used The Step-by-Step Instant Pot Cookbook recipe if there wasn’t a bean function), noted cooking time, and tasted each batch to judge texture & uniformity.
- Included recipe: To determine, We chose the accuracy of recipes included with units, one featuring chicken, pressure cooking & sauteing. We judged how uniform & close the sear was to golden brown + how the food tasted.
Additional cooking functions: I put three sous vide cookers to the test with a juicy NY Strip, letting it simmer and marinate in 129-degree goodness for two delicious hours. And when I switched gears to air fryer mode, Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food French Fries got cooked up piping hot at 400 degrees– shaking halfway through so every single crinkle was crispier than ever! All units passed this delectable challenge with flying colors — proving what amazing wonders are possible with cooking technology today.
Instant Pot and pressure cooker FAQs
How do electric pressure cookers work?
Pressure cooking helps to break down the tough fibers of food quicker than traditional methods while infusing more flavor into your dish. By heating sufficient liquid and trapping it inside a tightly sealed pot, steam is created, causing higher temperatures that crank up the speed on that casserole or stew – now there’s something to get excited about!
Are electric multicookers safe?
Electric multicookers have been gaining popularity as kitchen must-haves, but are they safe? Well, electric pressure cookers can be considered secure – just so long as you stay on your toes. As chef and chocolatier, Anne Wolf warned, “Be careful not to get burned with all that steam when releasing the lid too quickly!” The other key thing here is never leaving a multicooker simply sitting atop an open flame or else – cue the alarms!
Which is better, a stainless steel or nonstick inner pot?
Are you trying to decide between stainless steel or nonstick inner pot? Stainless steel is ideal for heat masters – it distributes warmth evenly and can handle metal utensils without an issue. But if you’re looking for low-maintenance cleaning, then go with nonstick! Just be sure not to scratch that beautiful surface when scrubbing away debris.
What’s the difference between quick release and natural release?
Should you be swift or take time when cooking with an Instant Pot? Understandably, it can get confusing – so let us break down the difference between quick and natural releases. What’s an immediate release mean exactly? It means immediately releasing steam from the pot while taking advantage of all that cooked-up pressure! The natural release takes things into its own hands by allowing the heat to cool naturally without your intervention. Whether one option is better depends on what type of dish you’re making – but don’t worry about finding out which works best for each recipe; we’ve got details in our article!
