The Best Pressure Cooker for Fast, Easy Braises Plus Other Cooking You Don’t Have Time For

If you like to cook and have spent any amount of time on the internet, chances are that targeted ads have bombarded you with pleas to buy an air fryer! Buy a food dehydrator! Buy an indoor grill! There are certainly people out there whose lives would be improved by purchasing each of these gadgets, but they’re not for everyone. Not so with pressure cookers. At the risk of overstating the point, a good pressure cooker benefits home cooks of all skill levels. Pressure cookers are versatile, can shrink cooking times for braises and stews without noticeably sacrificing flavor, and might even open culinary doors you’d previously been too afraid or too disorganized to walk through.

Forgot to soak your dry beans a full 24 hours ahead of time? A pressure cooker can eliminate the need entirely. Craving something slow cooked but don’t have the time? Pressure cooker to the rescue. Even better, most electric pressure cookers these days fall into the “multicooker” category, which is to say they offer presets that serve the functions of several separate machines: slow cooker, pressure cooker, rice cooker, even air fryer. The versatility they offer can save time, money, and shelf space.

If you don’t already have a pressure cooker, it’s time to get one—just make it electric. We tested both electric and stovetop models, but found the old-school plugless models simply can’t compete with the ease of their electric counterparts. Read on for our top picks and to learn more about how we tested scroll down the page.

Table of contents

Best pressure cooker overall
Best budget pressure cooker
Will my pressure cooker explode?
Best pressure cooker for people afraid of pressure cookers
How do pressure cookers work?
How we tested
Factors we evaluated
Other pressure cookers we tested
The takeaway

The best pressure cooker overall: Cuisinart High Pressure Electric Multicooker, 6-Quart

Shocked that an Instant Pot isn’t our top pick? Us too. If you absolutely must have an Instant Pot, you can check out our guide to the best Instant Pot for you. While Instant Pot models are certainly great (more on that later), this Cuisinart machine consistently outperformed them on every cooking tasks we tried. Chicken thighs were rendered wonderfully tender with an excellent pull-apart texture; beans were soft and flavorful but still retained their shape; and rice fluffed up perfectly without a hint of gluiness. We liked that the lid was attached to the body of the machine, which eliminated the need to awkwardly maneuver it on and off. The LCD interface is also wonderfully intuitive, and we liked that steam is vented at the touch of a button. When set to the sauté cooking function, heat appeared to be equally distributed on the cook surface; the food browned evenly. Cleaning the nonstick inner pot was a cinch.

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Our only quibble with the Cuisinart is that unlike some other models we tested (the Instant Pot Pro Plus and the Instant Pot Pro), the inner pot isn’t outfitted with heat-safe handles. Still, its consistently excellent performance—bolstered by a reasonable price point of $150—made it our top pick.

$150.00, Amazon

The best budget pressure cooker: Instant Pot Duo 6-Quart

At just $89, the Duo was immediately worth consideration. Yes, it performed slightly less excellently than some other models we tested: The texture of the chicken thighs was a touch less tender than our winning model after the same amount of time; the beans were slightly underdone and required a short cook using the sauté function; and rice was a bit wetter than ideal. (Essentially, it required more time to cook things just-right.) But all three dishes were happily eaten by this tester’s family. Cleanup is easy because the lid and inner pot are dishwasher-safe. Plus it’s hard to argue with that price.

Another bonus: Weighing an airy 11.8 pounds, the Instant Pot Duo is easily the smallest electric pressure cooker we tested, despite having the same capacity as many others. The interface was also very simple. That said, the machine presents more opportunities to scald users than other Instant Pot models: The steam release valve must be turned by hand (if you’re not fast enough, it can eject hot air onto your fingertips) and the inner pot lacks the heat-safe handles that other Instant Pot models feature. Neither of these things are deal breakers, but you should have a good potholder or two on hand.

All said, the Instant Pot Duo is an excellent machine for pressure-cooker-curious cooks looking for a deal, those without much storage space in their kitchens, or all of the above.

$77.46.00, Amazon

Will my pressure cooker explode?

Unfortunately, pressure cookers developed a nasty reputation in the mid-20th century for, well, exploding. This wasn’t some urban legend either. The tops did actually blow off of some models. But the problem wasn’t with pressure cookers broadly, just with some that had specific manufacturing flaws—steam vents that didn’t work properly. Nevertheless those mishaps gave the impression that these were not tools for beginners and should be used by professionals, if used at all. Cooks of a certain age understandably still shudder at the mention of these bad old days—this tester’s 60-some-year-old mother included—but modern models are mercifully much safer, with superior venting and more secure lids. Even better, electric pressure cookers, which dominate the market now, are particularly safe from these explosive scenarios.

The best pressure cooker if you’re afraid of pressure cookers: Instant Pot Pro Plus 6-quart Smart Multi-Cooker

We get it. Even with generous assurances that today’s pressure cookers won’t blow up in your face, if you have that image planted in your brain it might be hard to shake. For those still feeling cautious but jonesing for sticky-sweet baby back ribs in less than two hours, the Instant Pot Pro has some additional safety features to put your mind at ease (though we should say all the models discussed here are quite safe).

For one, unlike the Instant Pot Duo, the venting mechanism is a simple switch, away from the part of the machine where the hot steam is released. You can also use an app on your phone to vent and change pressure settings via wifi if you’d like. Also great: The inner pot has heat-safe handles that make removal easy, even when it’s piping hot. Of course, the Instant Pot Pro Plus also performs well on the food front; the chicken was tender, beans were soft and flavorful, and rice was fluffy. Cooking times were more or less lined up with recommendations. Our only quibble? We wish this 6-quart model also came in a larger 8-quart version.

$170.00, Instant

How do pressure cookers work?

Though it works on technology that was developed back in 1679, the pressure cooker became a common sight in American kitchens only in the 1960s. It’s essentially a pot with a tight-fitting lid and a pressure release valve to vent steam; when the liquid inside is heated, steam is trapped and the liquid’s boiling point rises. The elevated temperature combined with the pressure inside the pot forces steam into its contents, cooking food faster than traditional methods.

How we tested

We tested three different types of food: chicken thighs, unsoaked lima beans, and short-grain white rice. Cook times, liquid volumes, and temperatures were largely determined by the machines’ individual instructions, unless none were supplied. In such a case, we followed instructions for the machine that was most similar. In the end, specs ended up being fairly similar across all models.

Factors we evaluated

Was the food cooked well?

For the chicken thighs, we looked for a tender, pull-apart texture. We also reduced the liquid the chicken thighs produced to create a sticky sauce (on the sauté function for electric models) to see how evenly it cooked. We wanted the lima beans to be fully cooked through, but still have a firm texture (read: not mushy). Finally, we wanted the rice to be nice and fluffy, not crunchy, wet, or gluey.

Was the machine easy to use?

We examined if lids were easy to secure; if interfaces were easy to navigate; if models were light enough to be easily moved; and if the pressure cookers generally made our lives easier.

Did it cook food evenly?

All machines we tested understandably cooked food evenly during pressure cooking—but using electronic models’ sauté function revealed some major differences.

Was it easy to clean?

This wasn’t an issue for any of the electronic models, but stovetop models proved tricky in this department. It was always preferable if pieces were dishwasher safe.

Is it a good deal?

The difference between the best pressure cooker and the worst wasn’t as wide as one might expect. That didn’t stop some models from costing a small fortune. We don’t think you should pay more for something that doesn’t actually work better.

Other pressure cookers we tested

We were very happy with the Instant Pot Pro 8-Quart Multi-Use Pressure Cooker’s performance, but the Cuisinart just barely outperformed it in our cooking tests. However, this Instant Pot does have an 8-quart capacity compared to the Cuisinart’s six, so we recommend it for cooks looking for a larger machine.

The Breville Fast Slow Pro also performed well. Like most Breville equipment, it has a luxe exterior—this one in stainless steel. We like that it cooked everything relatively well (though not quite as well as the Cuisinart—each recipe required slightly more time to reach an ideal texture and done-ness than instructions suggested), the no-fuss attached lid, the safe venting mechanism, the simple interface, and the ease with which we cleaned its ceramic-coated inner pot. However, the Breville model was far and away the most expensive model we tested at $280—more than three times the price of our budget Instant Pot pick—and that was too much for us to swallow.

The Ninja Foodi 14-in-1 8-qt. XL Pressure Cooker Steam Fryer with SmartLid admirably cooked all three dishes we threw at it, and we liked that its ceramic-coated inner pot cooled down quickly after use. But this machine is a verifiable beast, weighing in at a whopping 25.1 pounds. Even if this was the only kitchen appliance you owned, the countertop would feel crowded when it was out. We also had to hand-turn the vent to release excess steam, which seems more hazardous than other models we tested. Also, this Ninja model costs an eye-popping $250, which we suppose might make sense if you also used this behemoth for air frying, which it supposedly can do.

We tested two stovetop models for this article—the 8.5-quart Fissler Vitaquick Pressure Cooker and the 8.4-quart Zavor DUO—but we unfortunately can’t recommend either of them. Unlike electric models, stovetop pressure cookers require constant monitoring: To ensure that the machine adequately comes up to pressure, to adjust the heat so that it doesn’t get overpressurized, to avoid low pressure, and so on. It’s a lot of work that’s hard to square against the ease of electric cookers. Plus, we had trouble properly affixing the lids to both models, and when we accidentally scorched the bottoms of both pans (oops, our fault) cleaning them proved to be a herculean task. It’s not like these stovetop models are any cheaper than most electric models either: The Fissler costs about $220 and the Zavor $130. If have your heart set on something that doesn’t plug in, we do have a guide to the best stovetop pressure cookers though.

The takeaway

The Cuisinart High Pressure Electric Multicooker is your best overall bet, combining excellent performance with good value. If you’re on a budget, go for the Instant Pot Duo 6-Quart pressure cooker, which more than gets the job done. And if you’re freaked out by pressure cookers because your grandma told you that the lid on her ancient model hit the ceiling? Opt for the Instant Pot Pro Plus, which has great added safety features.

Originally Appeared on Epicurious