How to Use Your Instant Pot as a Slow Cooker

It is not as straightforward as you would think to use your Instant Pot as a Slow Cooker. This guide walks you through the modifications you need to know when using your pressure cooker as a slow cooker so that you can have Instant Pot success!

The Instant Pot Slow Cooker function is not equivalent to the temperatures on a slow cooker, which can make using your instant pot like a slow cooker tricky.

Therefore, it is not as easy as hitting the slow cooker function on your Instant Pot and expecting the Instant Pot to cook the recipe just as a crockpot would.

While I briefly cover using the slow cooker function on my post covering Instant Pot Settings, this delves into the topic a bit more deeply, giving you the recipe for success when using an Instant Pot as a Slow Cooker.

How to Use Your Instant Pot as a Slow Cooker

To be perfectly honest with you, this is my least favorite setting on the Instant Pot. In fact, it is so finicky and takes longer to cook, that I have kept my crockpot to use when I want to slow cook something.

However, if you only have space for one appliance, I would still recommend purchasing the Instant Pot and with this guide, you CAN slow cook using your Instant Pot.

Instant Pot Slow Cooker Temperatures

• Low on the Instant Pot Slow Cooker Function is like keep warm on a traditional slow cooker.
• Medium on the Instant Pot Slow Cooker Function is like low on a traditional slow cooker.
• High on the Instant Pot Function is more like medium-high on a traditional slow cooker.

To further explain:

• The low setting on a crockpot is about 190-200 degrees Fand the high setting on a crockpot is between 225-275 degrees F.
• For the slow cooker function on your instant pot, the low is about 170 degrees F, normal is 200 degrees F, and the high is 210 degrees F.

Tips for Using Your Instant Pot as a Slow Cooker

• You still need 1 cup of water when slow cooking--this will help the Instant Pot to heat up properly.
• Hit your Slow Cooker Function on your Instant Pot and then hit the adjust button to change the setting to "normal" or "high."
• If you want to cook a recipe like you would on low in a slow cooker, adjust your slow cooker to "normal" on the slow cooker function and cook for as the recipe calls to cook on low.
• If you want to cook a recipe like you would on high in a slow cooker, adjust your slow cooker to "high" on the slow cooker function and cook for as long as the recipe states PLUS an additional 15 minutes for every hour.
• You can use a glass lid or the Instant Pot lid when using the slow cooker function. A glass lid will allow some of the liquid to evaporate, as a traditional slow cooker lid does.
• Because no pressure is reached, you do not need to worry about the position your vent knob is in. However, leave it on the venting position if you want some liquid to evaporate.
• The lid will not lock into place, as no pressure is reached and the temperature inside the inner pot is much lower than when under pressure.
• You can open your Instant Pot to stir during the cooking process, because again, no pressure is reached.
• Your Instant Pot will preheat for 10-15 minutes before it begins to actual slow cook anything. If it takes longer than that, hit cancel and try again.

Recipes adapted from Slow Cooker to Instant Pot

While this post was designed to teach you how to use your pressure cooker as a slow cooker, the whole purpose of the Instant Pot is to SPEED up cooking.

Here are some of my favorite Slow Cooker Recipes adapted for Pressure Cooking:

• Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas to Instant Pot Pork Tacos
• Slow Cooker Steak Fajitas to Instant Pot Steak Fajitas
• Slow Cooker Baked Ziti to Instant Pot Creamy Pasta
• Slow Cooker Pulled Pork to Instant Pot Pulled Pork

Instant Pot Slow Cooker Conversions

Click on Picture to access the DOWNLOAD and print.