The other day, Sarah Jackson, an Instant Pot specialist from Instant Pot Life (“Reviews, recipes, and resources to get the most out of your Instant Pot”), sent us a note telling us about Instant Pot’s Cooking Times Cheat Sheet.

This is good timing, considering the weather heating up. How terrific is it to have a way to cook a FAST and tasty meal without ending up with a hot house! Isn’t that one of the reasons we all love our Instant Pot?

Sarah sent the link and I went right to it, and here’s what the introduction to this marvelous PDF had to say:

“If there’s one reason why Instant Pot has exploded with popularity, it’s because Instant Pot is fast…no more ‘Oh my goodness, I forgot to turn on the slow cooker before work and now we don’t have dinner.’

“If you have an Instant Pot, you know that’s not ever an issue. Just toss in the ingredients for your favorite recipe and voila: Dinner’s ready in a jiffy, even in the least expensive Instant Pot models. While they’re not as automated as a Roomba, Instant Pots are a great side kick in the kitchen.

“To help you understand just how fast Instant Pots truly are, we broke down the cooking times for more than 50 different ingredients, including potatoes, oats, shrimp, steak, and so much more.”

I wish I could’ve copied and pasted the information for you, but PDFs don’t allow that. So if you go to this link, you’ll find everything you need to know regarding Instant Pot cook times for:

• vegetables (asparagus, beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, corn, mixed vegetables, potatoes, sweet potatoes)
  
  

I love how the Instant Pot cooks all types of veggies, whether starchy or non-starchy, to perfection in minutes. The sweet potato is a good example. They can take about an hour to cook in the oven, depending on size and your preferred consistency. But the Instant Pot turns them out in as little as 12 minutes! And if you cube them first, it takes less than five.

• meat and eggs (beef, chicken, lamb, pork, and eggs)
  
  

There’s no more slaving over a grill or waiting hours for a chunk of meat to cook in the oven. And no more accidentally overcooking cubed chicken on the stovetop. In your Instant Pot (such as the Ultra), most meats cook in less than 30 minutes, and many cook in less than 20 minutes. (If you go to this link, you’ll also find tips on how to BBQ like a grill master with your Instant Pot.)

An entire chicken cooks in just 8 minutes! Think of it, that’s far less time than it takes to oven-cook it, and less time than it takes to go to the grocery store for a rotisserie chicken!

• rice and grains (barley, congee, millet, oats, oatmeal, porridge, quinoa, and all kinds of rice)
  
  

Quinoa will cook in as little as one minute in your Instant Pot. Other grains (brown rice, wild rice, and barley), take a bit longer to cook all the way through. This difference is due to the resistant starch content in grains. The more resistant starch and the more soluble fiber, the longer it takes to cook. Most grains, however, are in the two- to 10-minute range. (And again, if you go to this link, you’ll also find Instant Pot’s seven mouth-watering macaroni and cheese recipes.)

• beans and lentils—dry and soaked (black beans, black eyed peas, chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils, lima beans, navy beans, pigeon peas, pinto beans, and soybeans)
  
  

Bean-cooking is MUCH easier in an Instant Pot, regardless of whether you cook them dry or soaked. That stovetop routine of having to babysit the pot to avoid water-boil-over, or to avoid burnt beans, or to constantly check for doneness is for the birds. Don’t you love how in an Instant Pot all you do is immerse them in with your preferred cooking liquid (broth or water) and pressure cook?

• seafood (whole and fillet of fish, lobster, mussels, shrimp, seafood stock)
  
  

No more over-cooked, rubbery seafood. Just place your favorite seafood in the Instant Pot for a few moments and it comes out perfect every time.

I’ll close with a huge “THANK YOU!” to Sarah for letting us know about this very helpful Cooking Times Cheat Sheet. I hope you download it and refer to it often. I taped it to the inside of my cupboard for ready reference, and am committed to using this remarkable appliance more this summer. Here’s to faster and COOLER summertime meal-making!