Discover how to cook FISH in the Instant Pot - Salmon, white fish, any fish...
This method is super easy and it even works for frozen fish.
COOK FOR ONE OR FOR 5-6-7-8...
Just scale the recipe it up adding more fillets, a salmon side etc.
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📖 Recipe
How to pressure cook fish in the Instant Pot - salmon, white fish, any fish
Equipment
- 1 Pressure Cooker stove-top or electric like an Instant Pot or Ninja Foodi
Ingredients
- 2 fillets fish (salmon, sea bass, haddock, cod, etc)
- 250 ml water
Instructions
- Dampen the parchment paper under the tap. Scrunch it up to get rid of excess moisture. Stretch it out again.
- Place the fish inside with any other ingredients you want to add. I love using at the very least a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and a couple of twists of the black pepper mill. Lemon is good too. Play with the flavours. How about some harissa paste or aioli?
- 250 ml water from the cold tap in the inner pot. Trivet in place. Parcels on the trivet.
- Make sure the sealing ring is in place properly, press it down following the circumference to make sure. Lock lid in. Steam release handle Sealed.
- steam release handle pointing to Sealing,
- Pressure cook 3 minutes, high pressure. Do a quick pressure release at the end (it's okay to leave it 1-2 minutes. Got an electric cooker that can steam under pressure? Use the Steam button.
Video
Notes
How to pressure cook Fish
The best way I have found to pressure cook fish is "en papillote", i.e. in parcels.
I wrap the fish in greaseproof / parchment paper, you can keep flavours in that way and the heat gets in faster than with foil.
Parchment paper, baking parchment, baking paper, greaseproof paper... different names for the same thing. Chances are you already have some at home.
I always wet the parchment paper to help the heat get through, then wring it out by scrunching it up and stretch it out again.
Then place the fish fillets on it.
Use the same parcel for all the fish or different parcels for different flavours.
I often pressure cook some fish in the Instant Pot just to have in the fridge for salads, pasta dishes, etc.
It's super easy and it's just as easy and convenient as eggs to have in the fridge for snacks, salads, etc.
Flavour ideas for your fish parcels
I add the flavours I fancy that day.
Usually lemon and sea salt.
Sometimes I add olives, sometimes tomatoes, whatever I fancy.
Lime juice and capers etc.
Play with the flavours: my daughter loves when I do parcels of hake with soy sauce and lime juice for her.
Someone suggested sweet chilli sauce recently too which I really want to try.
What fish does it work with?
You can do this for all kinds of fish.
Steaming under pressure
With this method, we're essentially steaming the haggis in the pressure cooker, faster and without releasing steam into the kitchen.
Discover how to steam in an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker and open a whole world of possibilities, from Corn on the Cob to Fish. From Haggis to Ribs.
More pressure cooker recipes with fish
For a dish that uses fish a different way, check out my Instant Pot Prawn, Trout and Pea Risotto.
Also Fish with Risotto and Fish and Potatoes in Tomato Sauce with Olives.
Have you joined my Pressure Cooking UK with Feisty Tapas Facebook group?
Step-by-step photos
Step 1
Dampen the parchment paper under the tap. Scrunch it up to get rid of excess moisture. Stretch it out again.
Step 2
Place the fish inside with any other ingredients you want to add. I love using at the very least a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and a couple of twists of the black pepper mill. Lemon is good too. Play with the flavours. How about some harissa paste or aioli?
Step 3
250 ml water from the cold tap in the inner pot. Trivet in place. Parcels on the trivet.
Step 4
Make sure the sealing ring is in place properly, press it down following the circumference to make sure. Lock lid in. Steam release handle pointing to Sealing.
Step 5
3 minutes on Steam, steam release handle pointing to Sealing, with quick release (the quick release I tend to do 1-2 minutes later because I forget, I'm busy doing other things...).
Note: Timings for fish are always going to depend a bit on the thickness of the fillet. If your fish is really thick, you could add a bit of time
[kofi]
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Yasmin says
This is brilliant! Thank you!
Barbara says
I need to get some rose harissa to go with some salmon.
Maria says
Great idea Barbara! Let me know how you get on when you do
Laura Ingram says
My favorite way to fix salmon (I’m trying it with cod tonight) is to slice it part way through, add soy sauce and tuck the cuts with pink ginger (sushi ginger) (though any ginger will do if you don’t care for the sweetness of sushi ginger) SO YUMMY! The important thing to know, is that I HATE fish. This fixes it! I usually cook it in the oven for 15 minutes at 350f. I’ll try the cod tonight in the IP and let you know how it goes.
Richard Harman says
Followed your recipe exactly, two smoked haddock fillets in damp parchment paper wrappers. A perfect cook 😃
Maria Bravo says
Yay! Thank you so much for your feedback, Maria
Barry Hill says
Are the timings longer for frozen fish? Or is it better to defrost?
Maria says
Same, it will just take longer to reach pressure
David Keely says
Tried today-used Himalayan salt,ground black pepper,lemon herb spice,so yummy, CAUTION if cooking from frozen when lifting parcel out there will be water in the parcel, from defrosting so take care( I split everywhere)
Thank you Maria
Kay says
This worked perfectly. I only cooked it for 2 minutes because it was small fillets of Perch. Came out cooked to perfection with no oven. Super quick too. Thank you!
Cathy Mc says
You have just reminded me I have some frozen salmon in the freezer, will pop it in the instant pot now and have this for lunch.
Great easy recipe.
Viv oconnor says
Thank you, loads of fish in the freezer I keep meaning to cook and then stumped for what to do with it.
Miranda says
I just used this method as a baseline for two lightly smoked mackerel fillets from the chilled sections Sainsbury's. I followed your method but I gave it an Asian flavour, I spread a thin layer of Sainsbury’s garlic-ginger paste on the flesh side, a drizzle of soy sauce and I sprinkled over it a single, chopped spring onion. It worked PERFECTLY. Thank you! I’ve been wanting to make fish in my instant pot mini for ages and couldn’t find a good baseline method until now. Have you tried steaming fish fillets for two minutes? Would it work?
Maria says
I'm so glad it worked well. You could try steaming for less time but it will always depend on the thickness, at least you can add time, you can never take it away. Let us know how you get on, Maria