If you aren’t one of the many people who were gifted an Instant Pot over the holidays, you might be on the hunt for one, particularly if your new year’s resolution involves eating better and cooking more regularly. This fall, the company has added even more multicookers to its dizzyingly large lineup, as well as new products like blenders, air fryers, and toaster ovens. Though it is functionally similar to all other Instant Pots, it is obviously the better cooker for creative chefs than its previous generations. Now it’s time to have a look at the main advantages of the Instant Pot Duo Nova. Again, this product isn’t much different from the Duo electric pressure cooker, but it has some key features that help it stand out from the crowd. One cool thing that the Instant Pot Duo Nova has is an auto-sealing lid.
First up, slow cooked chili, the sauté function comes in handy here, allowing you to brown your meat and soften onions in the Instant Pot instead of having to use a separate pan or stove top. Despite the pot not having a non-stick coating there was no sticking during the sauté stage. We slow cooked our beef chili for six hours on the ‘more’ setting and the result was a delicious meaty chili moosoo air fryer with soft beef. The Instant Pot beeps to alert you that cooking has finished and the temperature of the chili at the end of cooking was 176 F/ 80 C. The chili wasn’t thickened to our liking but by switching back to saute it was easy to reduce it to the perfect consistency. During slow cooking the handles and sides all stayed cool, the lid reached 113 F/ 45 C which isn’t too warm to touch.
Other than that, it can do everything the Instant Pot Duo can do. Since then, it feels like Instant Pot has released a zillion new models (some with different versions), and all with slightly different features. But before we start, I just want to make sure everyone knows I absolutely adore all Instant Pot models. They all have something that makes them incredibly useful in the kitchen, which is why I can’t choose just one best Instant Pot.
After I took this picture I went to put my lid on and it would not go on. After checking the seal ring, I did notice it wasn’t pushed down under the bar correctly. If food gets in and around the pin there is a chance that pressure will not build.
However, both share the improved auto-seal lid that makes them worth the extra expense. Here are all the built-in cooking functions of the Instapot instant vortex Duo Nova. If you opt for the 6-quart model, it’s compatible with the Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid that will open up to six more cooking techniques.
My in-depth Instant Pot Duo Plus Whisper Quiet Review will be posted next week. As a quick preview, the Whisper Quiet is a great mid-range option. My favorite feature is the combination dot-matrix and LCD display, which provides text that indicates what’s going on in the pot. The redesigned lid is quieter (though not truly as quiet as a whisper), and it has a lot of the high-demand buttons.