How to Cook Instant Pot Tilapia

How to cook Instant Pot tilapia and vegetables cooked together. The perfect healthy pressure cooker or Ninja Foodi dinner idea for your family cooked in no time. Try frozen Instant Pot fish this way!

How Long to Cook Frozen Tilapia in Instant Pot

With a trivet and some water you too can enjoy a flaky piece of fish with tender carrots, green beans and potatoes in just 8 minutes. We chose 3 frozen tilapia fish fillets but you could use a different type of fish too.

Timing may vary just slightly but typically it’s spot on. This will work in your Ninja Foodi or Crockpot Express machine too. Surprisingly, cooking meat fresh or frozen doesn’t seem to make a difference under high pressure. You would follow the same directions below either way, just the thickness and amount would change things. Go figure! 😉

Instant Pot Fish

If you’d rather use fresh fish we have a post on different pressure cooker fish recipes here as well. Salmon is another favorite we’ve made pretty often. These are the ingredients we used to make it just right:

Instant Pot Tilapia and Potatoes

You could add chunks of whole or halved baby potatoes into the bottom instead of these. Use as many that will fit under the trivet.

1. Trivet – I like this one with handles
2. 3 medium size frozen tilapia fillets
3. Small potatoes
4. Green beans
5. Carrots
6. Water or broth
7. Butter
8. Salt and pepper
9. Any other herbs or spices you like on your fish and/or vegetables

This is how it looked inside the pot so you can have a good visual. Keep in mind that the larger your vegetables are the more firm they will be once they’ve been steamed / pressure cooked. If you like them quite soft then quarter your new potatoes instead of slicing them in half etc.. When done the best way to crisp the outsides is a minute of air fryer tilapia heat.

Can you put frozen meat in the Instant Pot?

Absolutely. This tilapia was frozen and the timing is appropriate for that. If it had been defrosted I may have set it for 5 minutes instead. With the carrots and potatoes though you’d need a bit longer time so the fact that they were frozen helped balance out the cook time.

We have made Instant Pot fish and vegetables using stackable pans and that works great too. We used defrosted fish for this one. However, if you want to stick with an easy method using inexpensive Instant Pot accessories this is it.

Can you cook Instant Pot tilapia with vegetables?

Yes, that is what we did here. It is a no brainer since they fit under the trivet so why not make a one pot meal all together. Takes the same time to get everything perfect together. Basic steps to get started and ingredients are:

How to Cook Frozen Fish Fillets

You’ll want to prep your vegetables by washing and slicing them. The larger they are the firmer they will be when done.

• Place all of them at the bottom of your pot and season as you’d like.
• Put a trivet on top of that. It may not reach the bottom and might just rest on the food beneath it but that is fine.
• Pour your cup of water or broth in.
  • You will essentially be steaming your fish and liquid is required to reach pressure.
• Fish gets placed on top of your trivet with butter and seasonings.
• Close lid and steam valve and set to high pressure for 8 minutes followed by a quick release.

After you release the pressure, open the lid away from you to avoid burns. Serve on a plate with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon if you like.

How do you know when frozen tilapia is done?

The flesh of tilapia should change from translucent to opaque.When you insert a fork into the thickest part of the fish and twist gently, the flesh should flake easily. Most reliable is to use a meat thermometer. into the thickest part, it should reach an internal temperature of 145°F

You can print recipe below and keep it on hand so you too can make it often for dinner. If you’re looking for more easy Instant Pot recipes we have many.

• Pressure cooker fried cabbage is another great side dish, or dinner with some ham or bacon in it.
• There are a lot of simple June Instant Pot recipes you’d like here.
• Instant Pot cheesy potatoes work well with fish as well.

If you only have a Ninja Foodi no problem!! You can make Ninja Foodi fish like this the same way or air fryer salmon for dinner.

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