Using A Liner In An Instant Pot – What You Need To Know

The answer to this short question is Yes, you certainly can!

Cooking with instant pots is excellent. It makes life easy and convenient all in one Pot. With features like a pressure cooker, rice cooker, steamer, sterilizer, yoghurt maker, soup maker, saute pan, and slow cooker!

Instant Pots make cooking a breeze and safe! However, they can be pretty difficult to clean, especially at the bottom of the Pot. Using liners will save you the time and added stress of scrubbing your pots.

Can You Use A Liner In An Instant Pot?

Trust me; you don’t want to make dinner and think of soaking and washing your instant pots right after. It can be a buzzkill.

You can use slow cooker liners and silicone liners for cooking in your Instant Pot. Instant pot liners are cheap. You can get about 30 liners for $15 or less on Amazon. Additionally, you can set your Instant Pot to a slow cooker setting.

First, line the inner Pot of the Instant Pot with a nylon liner. Make sure to roll the edges of the liner around the Pot so it is better secured. Pour in your ingredients, then select the slow cooker function in a medium or high setting.

The nylon liner allows you to cook whatever you like in the instant Pot without melting or spilling! However, after putting the food in the liner, you may want to replace the heavy lid of the instant Pot with a glass or silicone lid when closing your Pot.

So the heavy top of the Instant Pot does not crease or affect the edges of the liner. Also, a silicone liner works fine in preserving the quality and texture of your meals while preventing that bottom stain in the Instant Pot that we all dread.

Basically, if the liner is good enough to roast chicken, beef, and fish in the oven, it is sure to work for an Instant pot. Cooking food with a liner works just like cooking without a liner.

But this way, your food doesn’t burn, and it retains all the healthy nutrients in your meals. It is also easy to serve food from the instant pot liner. Simply dish out the quantity you want to serve and cover the Pot back with a glass or silicone lid.

Using cooking liners also aids in easy food storage after cooking. When the food has cooled down, you can carry the nylon liner filled with food out of the Instant Pot, pour it into a storage container, and keep it in the fridge. However, if the food is still hot and you want to store it away immediately after cooking.

It is best to dish it out directly into the storage container because carrying the liner straight out of the Instant Pot while the food is steaming hot can bust open the liner and hurt you badly in the process. So to avoid this terrible accident and unwanted mess, it is best to follow this safety procedure.

Is It Safe To Use A Liner In An Instant Pot?

Instant pot liners are not only convenient, but they are also very safe to use. Most slow cooker liners fit into any instant pot, so there is no need to worry about sizes for different pots. They come in circular or oval shapes in different brands.

The best Nylon or Silicone liner to buy is one that says BPA-free on its packaging. Always buy BPA- free products because BPA is associated with many health issues when ingested. 

Using the pressure cooker setting on an instant pot cooks your food very fast. This function also conserves a lot of heat. Nylon food liners can withstand heat up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, which is great.

However, some instant pot liners are thicker and stronger than others, so be sure you buy from a trusted brand. Again, please apply caution when lifting liners filled with hot food from instant pots.

Can you line your instant Pot with plastic nylons? No, please do not do this! Lining your instant Pot with plastic nylon will not only melt the nylon but will also release a lot of toxic chemicals from the nylon into your food. This is very dangerous.

What Type Of Liner Can I Use In An Instant Pot?

The Instant Pot is functional and versatile, which is why a lot of women use it in the kitchen. It also supports additional accessories like silicone lids, glass lids, and more.

You can use several liners for your Instant Pot, including nylon liners, silicone liners, parchment paper, or ceramic inner Pot. Lastly, you can always try the good old-fashioned greasing the pan. However, in this case, your inner Pot.

Nylon liners are your usual Cooking liners or oven bags that you can get from your local store or amazon.

It allows you to cook food in the liner bag without staining your Instant Pot. Nylon liners can withstand heat for up to 4oo degrees Fahrenheit. It is the perfect cook and quick clean-up method.

Silicone liners usually come in small muffin cups of silicone material, which you can use in Instant Pots. You place your food in the cups and arrange them on the trivet in your Instant Pot.

Basically, a pot in a pot method! It works very well and is perfect for making mini quiches, mini frittatas, and egg casserole bites. Silicone liners offer effortless food release—no greasing or cooking spray needed. It is also safe to use in a freezer, microwave, and oven (up to 428 degrees F.)

Lastly, it is dishwasher-safe for quick clean-up. You can also use a silicone steam basket as a liner. The legs of the basket prevent food from going into the water and touching the bottom of the Pot.

They also make food to have a richer texture. It would be best if you tried steaming veggies using a steamer basket in your Instant Pot.

Parchment paper is a great liner for your instant Pot. If you have plans of using your Pot as an oven, this will be great for you.

Simply measure the width of your inner Pot and cut your parchment paper to fit according to your Pot. Then cut a long piece of tin-foil and wrap the parchment paper snugly inside the tin foil.

The ceramic inner pot is a great instant pot accessory. The regular inner pot of the Instant Pot is stainless steel, which, when used to cook, makes food stick and brown at the bottom. However, the ceramic inner Pot is non-stick! You can get it on Amazon or other local stores for only $16.99.

To use the ceramic inner Pot, simply replace your Instant Pot’s stainless steel inner pot with the ceramic one. After this, you are free to cook as you desire in any function or setting of your IP. The ceramic pot functions exactly like the stainless steel pot to make your sauce, rice, roast beef, etc.

The best part is you don’t have to worry about soaking and scrubbing after use. Just wash your Pot as you normally would!

Grease your Instant Pot: You can also try this method by greasing your stainless steel inner pot with cooking spray before you use it.

This should help prevent your food from clinging to the bottom of the Instant Pot. Also, it will make clean-up much more manageable.

What Would I Need To Use A Liner For In An Instant Pot?

The truth is that most of us use our instant pots for almost everything we want to cook. Sometimes we use it more than three times a week. And right after cooking one meal, we are immediately ready to prepare another. Using liners will save us time on soaking and scrubbing our instant pots right after cooking. 

When making thick sauces in the stainless steel inner pot of an instant pot, scorching is possible at the bottom. So to avoid this, the most common method of food preparation is using a liner or Pot in a pot method.

Some of the foods you can use the Pot in a Pot method for include: cheesecake, cake, pudding, custard, bread, rice, quiche, poached eggs, meatloaf, lasagna, casseroles, leftovers.

Some liners are specific to some food preparation methods. For example, using a silicone muffin liner is ideal for making mini quiches, mini frittatas, and egg casserole bites. The easy release grip allows for easy clean up!

Also, silicone steam baskets make a great makeshift pull up lever for your inner instant pot. In whatever capacity you choose to use your liners, they will come in very handy. They are a necessary accessory for you to fully enjoy the experience of using your instant pot. 

Can You Use Slow Cooker Liners In An Instant Pot?

You can use slow cooker liners within an instant pot as long as they are not plastic. Plastic liners are not suitable for instant pots as the temperature is much higher in an instant pot compared to a slow cooker.

However you can use the plastic slow cooker liners in an instant pot when using the slow cooker function. This is great if you are looking to create a tasty meal without causing too much mess. The liners are not suitable for using more than once due to the plastic being thin and can break or disintergrate.

Can You Re-use A Liner In An Instant Pot?

Liners can be cleaned and reused but this soley depends on the material of the liner. Liners that are made to be single use such as the slow cooker liners are not suitable for washing and re-using.

Alternatively liners that are made from silicone or nylon liners are suitables for cleaning and re-using. You may also find parchment paper liners are suitable for using more than once but there is a limit to how many times they can be used.

To re-use a liner simply wipe away leftover food and residue then wash with hot soapy water.