Have you ever tried to make something in the Instant Pot and get the Burn message? I’ve had this happen twice in the 4 months I’ve owned the Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus. With my 2013 Instant Pot LUX-50, I never had burn issues in the 7 years of using it! The older Instant Pot probably didn’t have this safety feature; however, food never ended up scorched and stuck to the bottom of the pot either. I think the burns happen more often with the newer Instant Pot because it runs hotter than the older version. But there are ways to avoid Instant Pot Burns!
First things first, can I salvage the food when the burn message shows up on the Instant Pot?
Possibly! I planned on cooking chicken thighs and rice at high pressure for 7 minutes. As soon as the Instant Pot got to pressure (about 15 minutes) and before the timer for 7 minutes even started, the burn message appeared. I immediately turned off and quick released the pressure from the Instant Pot. I took out the chicken and measured the temperature. Most of the chicken reached a temperature of 165-170F – safe to eat! I popped these thighs into the air fryer for 5 minutes to get crispy skin. Meanwhile, I took out the unburned rice which was mostly cooked through. It did not have the consistency that I normally would want but good enough. So a meal was saved!
Your meal may require a longer cooking time so food may not be done cooking by the time you are able to depressurize the Instant Pot. Another way to save your meal is to have another inner pot. Then you can transfer all the food from the burned inner pot to the other, add the proper amount of liquid, and restart the Instant Pot.
If you don’t have another inner pot, you can quickly clean your existing inner pot (see next section on cleaning). Make sure to remove all the burned on food before putting the food back in, adding the proper amount of liquid, and restarting the Instant Pot. If you’re unable to clean the inner pot quickly, you may be out of luck in getting a quick meal prepared. The food doesn’t have to go in the trash – try finishing it up on the stove or in the oven!
How do you clean off burned food in the Instant Pot?
Burned on food is no fun to clean. The easiest way that I’ve found is to add two tablespoons of baking soda to the inner pot, along with 4 cups of water. Set the Instant Pot to high pressure for 5 minutes and let the baking soda do its thing. Once the cooking is complete, natural release and clean off the Instant Pot in the sink with soap and warm water. At this point, most of the burnt on debris should be easily wiped off.
Another way to quickly get off the burned on food is to deglaze the pot. Remove all the unburned food. Put the inner pot in the Instant Pot and set to “SAUTE.” After a minute or two, pour 1/4-1/2C of water into the inner pot and use a wooden spatula to scrape off the burned food. Depending on the extent of the burns, this deglazing method may or may not work.
How can you avoid Instant Pot burns?
Here are some tips that I’ve discovered.
- If using thick liquid, like tomato sauce / spaghetti sauce, add it to the inner pot last, after all the other ingredients have gone in. And remember, don’t stir it in. If you stir, the sauce will settle at the bottom of the Instant Pot and burn.
- Milk / dairy liquid and thickeners (like cornstarch and flour) should be added at the end, after cooking is complete in the Instant Pot.
- Make sure you have enough liquids in the Instant Pot. For the 6qt, the minimum amount of liquid is 1C for braising and 1/2C for steaming.
Hope these mistakes that I’ve made in the past can help you achieve Instant Pot success!
