Six months ago, my slow cooker died mid-chili. Instead of replacing it with another single-purpose appliance, I grabbed the Instant Pot Duo Plus off Amazon during a lightning deal for $72. That was 180-something dinners ago. The Duo Plus has since cooked everything from weeknight chicken breasts (done in 12 minutes flat) to Sunday beef short ribs that fall apart with a fork. It has also made yogurt at 2 AM, steamed tamales for a party of twelve, and once served as an emergency bottle sterilizer when my sister visited with her newborn.
I am not going to pretend every one of its nine functions is a home run. Some are genuinely life-changing; others collect dust. After half a year of near-daily use, here is exactly what works, what disappoints, and whether the Duo Plus is worth choosing over the cheaper Duo or the pricier Pro.
Pressure Cooking: The Main Event
This is why most people buy an Instant Pot, and the Duo Plus absolutely delivers. Pressure cooking is where this appliance earns its keep, and six months of data backs that up.
Here is what I have actually timed, start to finish, including the pressurization phase that most reviewers conveniently ignore:
| Dish | Cook Time | Total Time (incl. pressurize + release) | Stovetop Equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken breast (2 lbs, frozen) | 12 min | ~28 min | 45+ min (thaw + cook) |
| Beef chili (3 lbs ground beef) | 25 min | ~45 min | 2-3 hours |
| Korean short ribs (galbi-jjim) | 35 min | ~55 min | 2.5 hours |
| White rice (3 cups) | 4 min | ~18 min | 20-25 min |
| Whole chicken (4.5 lbs) | 25 min | ~50 min | 90 min (oven) |
| Hard-boiled eggs (12) | 5 min | ~20 min | 15 min |
| Bone broth (beef bones) | 120 min | ~150 min | 12-24 hours |
| Dried black beans (no soak) | 30 min | ~50 min | 3+ hours (with overnight soak) |
The biggest time savings come with dishes that traditionally require hours of low-and-slow cooking. Bone broth in 2.5 hours instead of an entire day is genuinely transformative for home cooking. And cooking frozen chicken directly without thawing has saved me countless times when I forgot to defrost dinner.
The dual pressure settings (high and low) matter more than you might think. High pressure works for most things, but low pressure is the move for eggs, delicate fish, and vegetables where you want them cooked through but not turned into mush. The Duo (non-Plus) also has dual pressure, but some budget competitors only offer high, which limits your range.
One thing pressure cooking cannot do well: anything crispy. You will not get a sear or a crust. I use the sauté function to brown meat before pressure cooking, which partially solves this, but the results are never quite as good as a proper cast iron skillet. This is a universal pressure cooker limitation, not a Duo Plus problem.
The Other 8 Functions: Which Ones Actually Matter
The Duo Plus markets itself as 9-in-1, but not all nine functions are created equal. After six months, here is my honest tier list:
Tier 1 — Use weekly, genuinely replaces a separate appliance:
Sauté: Essential. Being able to brown onions, sear meat, and deglaze the pot before switching to pressure mode means one-pot meals are truly one pot. The heating element gets hot enough for a decent sear (not screaming hot like cast iron, but good enough). I use this function almost every time I pressure cook.
Rice Cooker: Surprisingly excellent. Three cups of jasmine rice with a 1:1 water ratio comes out perfectly fluffy every time. The 4-minute cook time is faster than my old dedicated rice cooker, though the total time (including pressurization) is about the same at 18 minutes. If you already own a great rice cooker, this will not convince you to switch. If you do not, it is one less appliance on the counter.
Steamer: Works great with the included stainless steel rack. Vegetables, fish, dumplings, tamales — all come out properly steamed. The sealed environment actually produces better results than a stovetop steamer basket because the steam cannot escape.
Tier 2 — Use monthly, nice to have:
Slow Cooker: It works, but with a caveat. The Instant Pot slow cooker mode runs slightly hotter than a dedicated slow cooker like a Crock-Pot. My grandmother’s pot roast recipe that calls for 8 hours on low was done in about 6.5 hours. You will need to adjust recipes downward by roughly 20%. For someone who already owns a slow cooker, this is not a strong enough reason to switch. For someone who does not, it is adequate.
Yogurt Maker: I was shocked by how well this works. Homemade yogurt costs about $0.80 per quart compared to $4-6 at the grocery store. The process takes 8-12 hours but is almost entirely hands-off. Heat the milk, add starter, press Yogurt, and walk away. I make a batch every two weeks now. The Duo Plus yogurt mode maintains a more consistent temperature than the basic Duo, which is one of the genuine upgrades.
Warmer: Keeps food at serving temperature after cooking. Not exciting, but genuinely useful when dinner finishes before everyone is home. It holds temperature for up to 10 hours without overcooking.
Tier 3 — Rarely use, checkbox features:
Sterilizer: I used this exactly once when my sister needed to sterilize baby bottles. It works fine — high-temperature steam kills bacteria effectively — but how often does the average person need to sterilize things? If you have an infant, this is a nice bonus. Otherwise, it will sit unused.
Sous Vide: This is the weakest function on the Duo Plus. True sous vide requires precise temperature control within 0.5 degrees, and the Instant Pot can only hold temperature within about 2-3 degrees. For basic tasks like cooking a steak to medium-rare, it kind of works. For anything requiring real precision, you need a dedicated immersion circulator like an Anova. I tried it four times and went back to my standalone sous vide stick every time. This function feels like it was added to inflate the “9-in-1” number.
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