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A Good Appetite

To Transform Your Weeknight Cooking, Turn On the Instant Pot

A multicooker like the Instant Pot, which combines an electric pressure cooker and slow cooker with other functions in one machine, can produce succulent tamarind baby back ribs with astonishing speed.Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times

(Need more instruction on using your multicooker? Our “How to Use an Instant Pot” guide can help you master the device.)

The hardest ingredient to find for any weeknight recipe is time. Tuesdays after work just don’t have a lot of it, and it’s not as if you can order it online.

A slow cooker can help by doing the cooking while you’re at the office. Just load it up in the morning and come home after work to a fragrant, hearty meal.

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Several manufacturers make multicookers. From left, machines by Breville, Fagor and Instant Pot.Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times

The big thing missing here is spontaneity. If you’re not the kind of cook who can commit to and then start prepping your dinner before you’re fully caffeinated — or if you just can’t get yourself organized to start cooking in advance at all — a slow cooker won’t do you much good.

But a multicooker like the Instant Pot just might.

A multicooker is dinnertime convenience in stainless steel form, an appliance that combines an electric pressure cooker with a slow cooker, electric steamer and rice cooker. Several manufacturers make multicookers, including Breville and Fagor, but Instant Pot has become the best known in the United States. (Note that while most multicookers include a pressure-cooking function, there are some models that only slow cook, so check before you buy.)

There’s no other single gadget that can make weeknight cooking easier. It can cook food either quickly or slowly, and it does both consistently, evenly and automatically. Get one, and you can get rid of your slow cooker.

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Baby back ribs are prepared for the multicooker, where they will become tender in less than 40 minutes.Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times

I bought a multicooker almost a year ago to report on for this newspaper. I figured that after publishing my article, I’d stick the machine in the basement with all the other once-in-a-while appliances (like that electric deep fryer). Then I’d dig it out for braising the occasional large hunk of meat to tender perfection, which, as I immediately discovered, it does better than any other piece of equipment — Dutch ovens and slow cookers included.

Over time, though, the multicooker became so embedded in the rhythm of my everyday cooking that I never unplugged it. I ended up writing my new cookbook for it, “Dinner in an Instant” (Clarkson Potter), as well as an in-depth guide at NYT Cooking. It was the slow cooker that went into storage, where it will remain until my next stoop sale.

What I especially love about the multicooker is its inherent flexibility, pleasing cooks of all temperaments.

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The ribs are first cooked using the pressure-cooker function, then glazed and broiled in the oven to finish.Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times

If you’re an organized, plan-ahead type of person, you can use your multicooker exactly like a slow cooker. Just use the slow-cook setting with any of your old favorite slow-cooker recipes without even having to adjust them.

Culinary procrastinators, on the other hand, can take full advantage of the pressure setting, which cooks food in minutes instead of hours.

I’m in the latter camp, and so this is my routine: On the way home from work, I stop at the store for some beans or grains or a package of chicken thighs. I throw them into the pot with a mix of interesting seasonings. Then I make a salad while the pot does its thing.

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Coconut curry chicken can be made beginning to end in an hour.Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times

That’s it. A satisfying dish that would normally take an hour or more is on the table in 20 to 30 minutes.

Now earthy soups, supple stews and luscious braises are within reach for winter weeknights, instead of being relegated to weekends when I have hours to let them simmer. In the summer I can quickly cook beans and grains for salads without heating up the kitchen, or steam artichokes without having to stare at a pot on the stove. I don’t even have to be home.

No matter the season, my basic strategy for using my multicooker on weeknights remains constant: I estimate how many minutes I have before I want dinner to be on the table, and work backward from there.

Often, getting my meal done in the shortest amount of time is simply a matter of how you cut up the ingredients — the smaller the pieces, the faster they will cook. So while a whole brisket or boneless pork shoulder might take 90 minutes to braise under pressure, beef stew meat cut into 1½-inch pieces, or pork ribs cut into two or three rib sections, will be tender in 20 to 25 minutes. Save the large, impressive, company-worthy pieces of meat for when you have more time.

You can apply the same method for dense root vegetables like beets and potatoes. While whole roots usually need about 20 to 30 minutes to cook, slices or cubes take 5 to 10 minutes.

Because I rarely plan ahead, one of my favorite multicooker tricks is to cook dried beans on a weeknight without soaking them first. Of course, you can’t cut them up to make them cook more quickly, but you can select smaller beans. When time is tight, buy lentils, split peas or adzuki beans, which cook from their dried, unsoaked state in under 20 minutes. Save the chickpeas, kidney beans and cannellinis for when you’ve got close to an hour.

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The finished chicken served over rice, garnished with cilantro.Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times

As for those chicken thighs, my go-to method is to buy them boneless, cut them into pieces and then throw them in the pot with pretty much any combination of spices, aromatics and condiments, to cook in under 10 minutes. Add barbecue sauce and you’ll get barbecued chicken.

Coconut milk, a can of tomatoes and garam masala result in a creamy, currylike dish. A squirt each of sriracha, lime juice, soy sauce and honey, along with a grated garlic clove, gives you something far tastier than it should for the amount of work you put in. If you use breasts instead of thighs, they’ll cook even more quickly, though be careful not to overdo it because they’ll dry out.

After using the machine consistently for nearly a year, I can say that if you stick to what it does best — stewing, braising, simmering, steaming — you’ll be amply rewarded. Just don’t attempt to cook anything crunchy or golden, because it probably won’t end well. No matter how many multicooker roast chicken recipes you may stumble across on the internet, don’t believe them. I’ve tried it several times: The skin ends up soft and flabby instead of crisp and salty, and the meat turns stringy.

If you play to the multicooker’s many strengths and remain aware of its weaknesses, you won’t be disappointed. You’ll also eat better — even at the last minute.

Recipes: Pressure Cooker Sticky Tamarind Baby Back Ribs | Pressure Cooker Coconut Curry Chicken | How to Use an Instant Pot

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A version of this article appears in print on  , Section D, Page 2 of the New York edition with the headline: Savory Meals in a Flash. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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