Can You Cook A Turkey In An Instant Pot?
As the holiday season rushes at us, there's one thing everybody's been wondering — at least, everybody who got an Instant Pot last Christmas, and has been looking for more ways to make use of this wonder appliance — is it possible for me to prepare my holiday turkey in said Instant Pot? Well, the good news is — yes, you absolutely can cook a turkey, at least a small-ish one, in an Instant Pot.
Not only can you, but you definitely should. We know there are about a zillion ways to cook a turkey out there, ranging from the scary (deep frying) to the inconvenient and messy (wet-brining in a cooler) to the tried-and-not-so-true (oven roasting 'til it's dry, dry, dry), but trust us, Instant Pot turkey will be one of the quickest, easiest, and tastiest ways you've ever enjoyed a holiday bird.
How to cook Instant Pot turkey
A food writer from Canada who maintains a blog with the tasty (and relatable) name of Bacon is Magic experimented with several Instant Pot turkeys, and found that the results were moist and flavorful and the meat just fell off the bone. She started with an 8-quart Instant Pot, which she found could hold a small (8- or 9-pound) turkey.
She then added half an onion, a carrot, a celery stalk, a bay leaf and half a cup of water to the pot, fitted in a small trivet, and placed the turkey atop the trivet. For cooking time, she used the formula of six minutes per pound, plus an additional 10 minutes, so an 8-pound turkey would take 58 minutes to cook.
Crisping the turkey skin
The one problem with cooking a turkey in an Instant Pot is that the skin comes out kind of nasty, but this can be easily fixed with just a few minutes in the oven. While the Bacon is Magic blogger admitted that her own family does not like turkey skin and simply removed it from the first Instant Pot turkey she cooked, she did want to find a way to make her turkey skin-loving friends happy.
To do so, she simply preheated her oven to broil, basted the Instant Pot-cooked turkey with some of its drippings left in the pot, and then broiled it for just five minutes. The skin crisped up nicely, and there were no complaints.
So there you have it — a super-simple, petite-yet-perfect, holiday main dish that's ready in just over an hour, prep time included. Now isn't that something we can all be truly thankful for?