Make Your Meatballs In An Instant Pot For A Truly Low-Maintenance Dinner

Meatballs are a popular, people-pleasing dish, and they're versatile enough to satisfy even the pickiest of eaters. Whether you toss them in hoisin or coat them in marinara, there are countless ways to eat them — and seemingly just as many ways to cook them. For an especially low-mess, low-maintenance weeknight dinner, avoid the skillet and the oven and try popping them into your Instant Pot. Your meatballs will taste just like you let them simmer in sauce all day, but they'll be fit for the table in 30 minutes or less.

Though there are other ways to get meatballs on the table in a similarly short amount of time, the Instant Pot removes the need to fry or bake your meatballs and then braise them in sauce, reducing the number of pots and pans that will need cleaning. In the Instant Pot, the meatballs get cooked start-to-finish directly in the pot, whether they're immediately braised in the sauce from raw or first seared using the pot's saute function. Then all you need to do is clean the Instant Pot, which you can do quickly and painlessly in the dishwasher.

Meatballs made in the Instant Pot are sure to be tender and juicy, despite the relatively short cook time and straightforward process. This is because of how pressure cooking works — it's a wet method of cooking that helps food stay moist and soft. When a pressure cooker heats up, it traps steam inside of it, pressurizing the inside chamber and causing boiling water to reach temperatures far beyond what it could reach in a regular pot before evaporating.

The heat cooks the food quickly and the pressure from the steam causes moisture to enter the meat (and any other ingredients in the pot), tenderizing it and sealing it in juice. This ultimately works the same whether you're cooking a roast or a pot full of meatballs. The end result will be moist, tender, and cooked through — and all you have to do is push a button.

Though using the Instant Pot is an exceptionally easy and stress-free way to get meatballs on the table, there are still a few mishaps that can occur if you're not careful. One issue that can arise is not using enough liquid in your recipe. Instant Pots need liquid to operate properly, so if the pot is too dry, it may not seal properly. At a minimum, you'll need to add one cup of liquid or sauce to ensure the cooker can create enough steam to come up to pressure.

Another meatball mistake that can lead to issues is not binding your meatballs properly. Whether you decide to use eggs, cheese like ricotta, or a mixture, that binder is essential to making sure your meatballs don't disintegrate in the pressure cooker while they cook. Keeping a balance between the amount of meat and the amount of binder is key — one egg for every pound of meat should do the trick. With a well-bound meatball and enough liquid in your pot, you're well on your way to a stress-free, mess-free dinner.