Welcome to Paint the Kitchen Red! I’m Neena Panicker and I create recipes from around the world. I live in Salt Lake City and love the beauty of the West!
I have over 25 years of experience cooking in my home kitchen and use different cooking methods, including the Instant Pot, air fryer, stovetop, oven, and grill.
I’m a very detail-oriented person who’s also a perfectionist. Sometimes, this can be a great combination, but sometimes, not so much. Just ask my family!
My personality definitely shows through in my recipes and how-to guides. What this means for you is that you get very detailed instructions with step-by-step photographs.
Every recipe is tested many times and will only make it onto the blog if my ever-patient family gives it two emphatic thumbs up. I won’t compromise on flavor. If my family deems a recipe to be “okay” or “not bad,” it won’t make it on the blog!
About the Instant Pot Recipes
I’ve been using a pressure cooker my entire adult life, and I grew up with the sound of a pressure cooker whistling away in the kitchen. Pressure cookers have come a long way from those days. No more whistling and loud shrieky sounds!
Today’s electric pressure cookers are quiet, convenient, and safe to use. And best of all, you don’t need to babysit them. You can leave them to do the work while you go about getting other stuff done!
I have learned everything there is to know about the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. I own five six a lot of them because I buy them to test them out and give you detailed step-by-step instruction manuals for them!
I got my first Instant Pot over seven years ago and I’ve made it a goal to take every recipe that my family loves and try to convert it to an Instant Pot recipe. Some make the cut, and others don’t. If you’re looking for tried and tested, flavorful, crowd-pleasing Instant Pot recipes, you’ve come to the right place.
- Only the best recipes end up on the blog.
- Every Instant Pot recipe has detailed step-by-step instructions with accompanying photographs, followed by a more concise (printable) recipe card. I hope this allows both beginner and advanced Instant Pot cooks to be able to make the recipe.
- If you don’t wish to read the step-by-step photo instructions, I provide a table of contents that allows you to go directly to the recipe card
- Make sure you read the Tips section that’s on every recipe.
- Please note that I follow the recipe writing convention where the preparation time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredients. i.e., if the ingredients list “1 cup onions, finely chopped”, the prep time will not account for chopping the onions. Please keep this in mind as you plan for making a recipe.
- Unless otherwise stated, pressure cooking is at high pressure.
- Whenever I refer to the Saute function, it will be on the mid-level setting i.e. Medium or Normal (depending on your Instant Pot model).
- All recipes have been tested in either a 6-quart DUO, ULTRA, or PRO. If you have a different model, you may need to make minor adjustments based on your experience. The 8-quart, in particular, may require some more liquid.
- I do my best to provide directions for recipes where all steps can be accomplished in the Instant Pot. I have readers who may not have access to an oven or stove (e.g., dorms, hotels, camping). Feel free to do any of the steps (especially the ‘Saute’ mode) on a stovetop or in an oven if you feel that the flavor would be better.
- If you’re using the Saute function of the Instant Pot, please make sure you do a good job of deglazing the pot before you start pressure cooking. I try to mention this in each of my recipes, but I’m saying it here for emphasis.
About the Air Fryer Recipes
Recently, I’ve fallen in love with my air fryer. I love that the air fryer complements the Instant Pot because it does the one thing the pressure cooker can’t do: crisp up foods!
- Every air fryer recipe has detailed step-by-step instructions with accompanying photographs, followed by a more concise (printable) recipe card. I hope this allows both beginner and advanced Instant Pot cooks to be able to make the recipe.
- Make sure you read the Tips and FAQ sections on each recipe.
- Please note that I follow the recipe writing convention where the preparation time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredients. i.e., if the ingredients list “1 cup onions, finely chopped”, the prep time will not account for chopping the onions. Please keep this in mind as you plan for making a recipe.
- The recipes have been tested with the Instant Pot Duo Crisp and the Cosori air fryer. Your air fryer model may need minor adjustments to the cooking time and/or temperature. The best way is to check on the food a couple of minutes before the air frying time is up.
Popular Recipes
Readers have been visiting my blog for over seven years, and over time, I’ve noticed that they return to some recipes repeatedly! Here are the most-visited recipes:
- Instant Pot Thai Red Curry
- Instant Pot Chili with Dry Beans
- Instant Pot Thai Green Curry
- Instant Pot Khow Suey
- Instant Pot Arroz Con Pollo
And here are the most-visited resources:
- Instant Pot Not Sealing
- Instant Pot Sizes
- Instant Pot Troubleshooting
- How to Use Instant Pot Air Fryer
- What is Natural Release on Instant Pot?
Where to Begin
If you’re new to the Instant Pot world, I suggest you check out the various tips and guides I’ve written. Visit my Recipes page and narrow down the recipes by Cooking Method, Cuisine, or Course to find a recipe to suit your needs. You can also look at all Instant Pot recipes, air fryer recipes, and stovetop, oven, and grill recipes.
My story
This blog started out as a personal project. My blog story began when I left my corporate information technology job to become a full-time stay-at-home mom.
Twenty years and three kids later, I was at a crucial stage where I didn’t know what I was going to do once all my children left the house. What was I qualified for? Technology has changed so much in the intervening years. The internet wasn’t even a thing back when I worked full-time!
I finally decided that I would learn how to create blogs for other people. In order to learn the technology, I would need to create my own blog and so I needed a practical topic.
After many years of cooking for my family (with many failures along the way), I had binders full of family-favorite recipes. My kids were going to be cooking for themselves very soon and my husband suggested that sharing my recipes would be a great project to practice with.
But something funny happened along the way. Much to my amazement and delight, my Instant Pot recipes and how-to guides resonated with people other than my family!
I’ve been featured in articles on websites such as HuffPost, Brides, MSN, NBCNews, CNBC, Buzzfeed, and PopSugar. I never did end up creating another blog, but instead took this one from its infancy to where it is today.
I’ve truly found my passion. I love what I do, and hearing from my readers keeps me going every single day! Now, I not only share Instant Pot recipes but recipes that use all different cooking methods.
I hope you enjoy the recipes I share and are inspired to try them out. Let me know how they turn out – I’d love to hear from you! Tag @paintthekitchenred on Instagram to share photographs of recipes you’ve tried. You can watch videos of recipes and tips on my Youtube channel. You can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok too. And, of course, you can always email me through my Contact page.
Content and Photo Use
Please visit my Contact page for information about my policy on sharing content from Paint the Kitchen Red.