If I haven’t said so yet, I LOVE MY INSTANT POT! I used to be tied down to the kitchen while pressure cooking a meal, or making bone broth. Now I have a bit of freedom! I don’t have to keep an ear out to make sure the pressure isn’t being released too often or not often enough, indicating the burner is up too high or not high enough, respectively. The Instant Pot does all that for me. No more counting pressure gauge jiggles, adjusting temperatures and setting the timer once it comes to pressure! Now I can sit back, relax and maybe fold some laundry 😉

The Instant Pot is to pressure cooking the way automatic transmissions are to cars.

Just like it’s becoming rare to know how to drive a stick shift (this girl can!), I think it’s also going to be rare to know how to work a manual pressure cooker! The Instant Pot is taking over and I’m totally OK with it!

One of the easiest things to make in the Instant Pot is a simple roast. Nothing too fancy, just some meat with seasonings and broth. That’s it! Sometimes it’s OK to be simple.

Here is my recipe for a simple and tender grass fed chuck roast in the Instant Pot.

For this recipe you will need:

• An Instant Pot 😉
• Grass fed chuck roast, any size (mine was between 2 and 2 1/2 pounds)
• 1 tsp each salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder
• 2 tbsp cooking fat. I used the fat from the top of my homemade bone broth. Lard, Tallow, avocado oil or coconut oil would work too.
• 2 cups bone broth, water, or a combination of the two.

Here’s how you do it!

• Measure out seasonings and mix together in a small bowl.

• Dry the roast with paper towel and coat with seasoning mixture.

• Turn the Instant Pot on by pushing the saute button once. This should bring it up to the ‘normal’ setting.
• Once the pot warms up a bit, add the cooking fat followed by the seasoned roast.

• Brown about 5 minutes per side.

• Add bone broth and/or water and put the lid on making sure the steam release handle is set to ‘sealing’.

• Push the cancel button to turn off the saute feature, then push ‘pressure cook’. Using the – and + buttons, set the time for the appropriate amount of minutes depending on the size of your roast. According to the Instant Pot website, roasts are cooked for 15-20 minutes per pound. I did 19 minutes per pound for mine and I thought it turned out great! Once you get to the appropriate time, just wait a few seconds and the Instant Pot will beep, indicating the process has begun. It took my instant pot about 6 1/2 minutes to reach pressure. Once at pressure, the 45 minute countdown began.

• When the timer goes off, push cancel to turn off the ‘keep warm’ function. Use the quick release method by turning the steam release handle to ‘venting’. Be careful here, the steam that comes out is hot and LOUD! On a side note: never use the quick release method when you’re making soups or broths, TRUST ME!!

Bonus:

I paired this with some carrots and purple potatoes. After removing the roast, I added whole carrots and very small potatoes (smaller than the size of a golf ball) to the instant pot and cooked for 3 minutes. This makes it a great 1 pot meal.