17 Healthy Instant Pot Thanksgiving Recipes (That Save Precious Oven Space!)

~ These Instant Pot Thanksgiving Recipes are your ticket to holiday sanity! Since oven (and even stovetop) space is always at a premium for the big feast, this year, get a little creative and use that electric pressure cooker to save room in your jam-crammed oven. Total lifesaver! ~

Stress-free Thanksgiving Tip: You just really can’t cook the entire meal in your oven. Not gonna happen.

So save yourself a whole heapin’ lotta stress, and plan your Thanksgiving menu with plenty of recipes that aren’t all vying for oven time right when your hungry guests are arriving.

Trust me on this. #LearnedTheHardWay

I’ve got a double oven in my kitchen, and planning for that precious oven real estate is still one of my toughest challenges in mapping out an entire Thanksgiving feast.

I mean, think of all the traditional Thanksgiving recipes that claim oven space: pies (of course!), and that mammoth turkey (did you really need one quite so big … and how will it ever fit?!?!), plus green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, the turkey dressing, oven-roasted autumn veggies, warm-from-the-oven rolls and breads … the list goes on …

And really, the stovetop usually isn’t all that much better, with various pots and pans burbling away as you try to perfectly coordinate the timing on everything to finish cooking at the very same moment.

Sure, some of it you can make ahead (like my beloved Easy Cranberry Sauce) or even make in the slow cooker or the microwave (like my Spaghetti Squash with Sage-Browned Butter). Yeah, that can all help a bit.

But wait …

Thanks to everybody’s new-favorite appliance (the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker!) now there’s another strategy for Thanksgiving success. Brilliant! (As in, maybe you need two Instant Pots … or hey … maybe three! At least to get you through the Thanksgiving feast. Methinks a Thanksgiving Instant Pot rental business could be the next Kickstarter venture. But I digress …)

Update: Buying an Instant Pot

(Update 11/20/17): After I posted this, I had some discussions with readers and friends about Instant Pots, and the fact that the recipes in this post are specifically tailored to Instant Pot cooking (we have whole separate lists of Thanksgiving side dish recipes and also Thanksgiving vegetarian main dishes that ARE NOT for the Instant Pot, if you’re interested). And, if you don’t yet own an Instant Pot but are looking to get in on the game, I wanted to help you a bit with some more info and options.

First, it’s important to note that “Instant Pot” is actually a brand name – there are other brands of electric pressure cookers, too. But, sort of like what happened with the brand name “Crock-Pot,” the name “Instant Pot” has already become a genericized way to refer to any electric pressure cooker.

So, which Instant Pot should you buy? Well, similar to slow cookers, electric pressure cookers come in a variety of sizes, so it really depends on the size of the group you’re planning to feed.

After doing a bunch of research, based on the size of my own family (4 people), I ended up purchasing this 6 quart Instant Pot DUO60. But, through all my research, I realized that different models are right for different people, so I also wrote a detailed buyer’s guide post on Which Instant Pot to Buy – I hope you’ll find it helpful in choosing the one that’s right for you!

Now let’s get cookin’ …

Can You Cook a Turkey in the Instant Pot?

Well yes … it turns out that yes, in fact, you can! Huh!

So if you really want to free up some oven space, just take that space-hoggin’ turkey right out of the oven real estate equation altogether!

This is also a great plan if you’re hosting such a big Thanksgiving dinner that you actually need to cook two turkeys (and my goodness, if this applies to you, then I sure do send you hugs of good luck in your epic endeavor!).

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Instant Pot Thanksgiving Sides Are a Snap!

So you know if you can manage to adapt an entire turkey for Instant Pot cooking, then all those side dishes should be a breeze to adapt, right?!? Game on!

I found lots of terrific, healthier Instant Pot ideas … from autumn-inspired soups to traditional Thanksgiving sides like sweet potatoes and green beans, plus some really fun, creative twists that’ll shake things up a little at your holiday feast.

First off, I had to share this soup – an absolute family-favorite recipe that almost always shows up for our Thanksgiving celebrations (and lots of other celebrations, too)!

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The Magic Continues … Instant Pot Thanksgiving Leftovers!

I have to admit, when I first started lining up recipes for this post, it hadn’t really occurred to me to include recipes for the leftover turkey. But aren’t leftovers one of the really very best parts of the whole Thanksgiving food extravaganza? So when I saw the two recipes below, I just had to toss them into the mix, too!

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More Thanksgiving and Instant Pot Recipe Ideas

And while we’re talking Thanksgiving and Instant Pot recipes here, let me just float a few more ideas your way.

Since you obviously don’t have enough Instant Pots to cook every part of the big Thanksgiving meal in a pressure cooker, we’ve got plenty of other (more traditionally prepared) recipe ideas for you, too!

Oh – and for all the other days of the year that don’t happen to be Thanksgiving … don’t shove that Instant Pot on a dark and dusty back shelf. No way! Scroll through our Instant Pot Recipes board on Pinterest for inspiration all year long!

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! This year, may your oven space be as abundant as the food on your table and the friends circled ’round it!