You all know how much I’ve become a true belieber believer in the Instant Pot….we seriously have become two peas in a pod. The other day I made Instant Pot Loaded Baked Potatoes and I may never make them in the oven again.
I was always a bit nervous about cooking up baked potatoes in the Instant Pot. What if I cooked too long and they became mashed potatoes? What if I didn’t cook them long enough and I’d have to start the pressure cooker all over again? THE PRESSURE!!!!
But also, why not just give it a go….those “problems” would be easy fixes. So I did. And it was amazing.
Here’s some things you need to know before Instant Potting whole potatoes:
- You need to use the rack. If not, well you will have mush, or actually….mash.
- 1 cup of cold water. Don’t forget.
- Poke your taters with a fork so that the steam can go through.
- Do not stuff the potatoes into the Instant Pot. I’d say no more than 6 small to medium size ones. If you do 6, you will need to up the time a bit to make sure all of them cook through.
- To make it extra special, finish it off under the broiler
Ingredients
- 1-6 medium size russet potatoes
- 1 cup cold water
- sea salt to taste
- 1 tbl ghee or butter
- 1 cup spinach
- 1/4 cup bacon crumbles
- 1 green onion, sliced
- OPTIONAL: grated cheese, sour cream
Instructions
- Place your rack inside your pressure cooker and add 1 cup of cold water to it.
- Wash your potatoes and then poke them a few times with a fork.
- Place potatoes on the rack and then close pressure cooker.
- Set on manual for 12 minutes. 15 minutes if you have more than 3 in there or if you have very large potatoes.
- While potatoes are cooking turn oven onto broil (this is completely optional)
- In a small skillet cook up your bacon and saute your spinach. Set aside.
- Once timer goes off on the Instant Pot, let it naturally release the pressure for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, finish releasing whatever pressure is left.
- Take your potato and place it on an oven safe pan. Drizzle oil and add sea salt all over the top.
- Place under broiler for another 5 minutes or until skin gets nice and crispy.
- Remove from oven and slice open potato. Careful it will be super hot.
- Add you ghee, spinach, bacon crumbles, and green onion.
- Top with a little more salt and enjoy.
Broiling afterwards is completely optional. I like crispy potato skin, so that’s why I do it. But if you ain’t got time for that, then skip it! Remember it takes about 7 minutes or so for the Instant Pot to come to pressure, so the total cooking time is around 25 minutes. Way better than 45-60 minute cook time!! Time and method is the same for a sweet potato.
And as always, add whatever fixings you feel like loading onto the potato! If you have any great ones tell me below in the comments.
Whole30: yes
Paleo: no, unless using sweet potatoes
