Boiling Potatoes in Instant Pot

Boiling potatoes in Instant Pot or Ninja Foodi is easy! Great to dice, mash and make into our popular palt recipe, or butter as a dinner side dish. Gluten free and a cheap choice everyone loves.

Ninja Foodi Boiled Potatoes

You can use a Mealthy, Crockpot Express or your Ninja Foodi. You are just using the steam function to make these and all the newer pressure cooker pots offer this. High pressure works too. No worries if your brand isn’t the same as mine, they basically work the same.

Yes we make Ninja foodi mashed potatoes quite often, but sometimes you want a bit of different texture. Instead of diced, just slice them in half next time. It is the perfect amount for kids (and me). These will come out just like boiling potatoes on the stovetop, but much faster. Fork tender you can add butter and serve with your meal easily.

We live in Idaho so we eat a lot of taters. From baked potatoes in Ninja foodi to Instant Pot bacon potatoes that are cheesy, there are hundreds of ways to change them up. Russets are the cheapest and most common. You could boil red potatoes this same way with just about the same timing because those are smaller, but firmer.

How to Boil Potatoes in Instant Pot

As always you want to wash any type you have well. There is always dirt and debris on the outside and you don’t want to eat that. There is NO need to dry when done because they’re essentially going to get steamed inside your pot. They will get wet anyway so don’t bother.

I like medium potatoes in size to make any version of Instant Pot diced potatoes, and I prefer to leave the skins on. That is where the fiber and nutrition is anyway. If you are totally opposed to that then you could easily decrease your cook time by about 1-2 minutes depending on how large they are.

Pressure Cooker Boiled Potatoes

You really can use any variety to get these done. Thing to remember is the timing = size. WE are discussing medium size russets cut in half so keep that in mind if you use something else.

How Long to Boil Baby Potatoes

You could choose those cute bags of petite potatoes too. Not the really teeny tiny ones but they are basically the same size of a small russet cut in half. These you will NOT cut at all. Just rinse, poke each one with a fork, pour them inside the vegetable steamer and steam whole. Things you’ll need for this easy Instant Pot side dish

How Long to Boil Red Potatoes

So there isn’t a big difference between the two when boiling red potatoes in pressure cooker because they are smaller. Yes they’re firmer in general but if because there is a smaller surface area when sliced in half the cook time doesn’t change. Choose large sizes for these.

Ingredients

1. Potatoes
   1. Medium potatoes – Russets cut in half
   2. Large potatoes – Red cut in half
   3. Large petite / baby potatoes kept whole, poked with a fork
      1. leave skins on, if you remove them decrease cook time from 10 to 7
2. Water or broth
3. I like to sprinkle on a little salt but you’ll want seasonings and butter when serving for sure

Of course if you choose to make pressure cooker garlic mashed potatoes when done <—–you’d need other items too.

This is NOT a sponsored post for this Real salt brand but larger granules are just my favorite. If you have never strayed from using boring Mortons there is a HUGE difference y’all. I even have truffle salt which is amazing when they’re done with some salted butter and sour cream!!

You could do this at the same time as eggs so you can make Instant Pot potato salad! With that I prep the pieces much smaller so the cook time for both foods are the same. About 5 minutes is all you need for that, seriously.

Other ideas we love – Pour some velveeta cheese sauce on top when done, kids love this one for sure. Add steamed broccoli under that to get more veggies on the plate too.

How much time does a potato take to boil in a pressure cooker?

That depends on the size, whether you cut in half like we did here or put in there cubed but 6-15 minutes is typical. Smaller pieces obviously take the least amount of time which is what we do with large chunks used to make mashed potatoes when done. For whole pressure cooker baked potatoes you’re looking at 15.

You can print recipe card at the bottom of this post. Print it out and keep if you have a recipe book or just come back every time you need the instructions. We love to “see you” of course.

How to Boil Russet Potatoes in Instant Pot

• Pour your cup of water or broth into the pot. Lower down vegetable steamer basket.
• Wash your type of potatoes and slice in half width-wise (unless petite, leave those whole). Place into the basket and shake sea salt on top of all of them (optional).
  • or place potatoes on top of the trivet if you don’t have a basket
• Close lid and set steam valve to sealing position. Select steam function for 10 minutes, allow pot to naturally release steam for 2 minutes.
  • Then quick release the rest of the steam.
  • Open the lid away from you, the steam is hot.
    • If you remove the skins I would set to 7 minutes with 2 min natural at the end instead
• Remove, serve, or use them however you wish in another dish.

What to make with leftovers

If you have leftovers, don’t throw them away!! You can mash and make air fryer potato pancakes or leftover mashed potato balls with them.