Oatmeal for breakfast is quick and easy, but Instant Pot oatmeal is even FASTER! Serve with seasonal fruit or the best scrambled eggs and breakfast is done!
I made oatmeal on the stove-top for years, because that’s the only way I knew how to make it (other than in the microwave using DIY instant oatmeal packets).
Now that I know how to cook Instant Pot oatmeal though, I don’t really want to make it any other way!
Don’t get me wrong – cooking oats on the stove-top isn’t hard… But being able to dump the ingredients into the Instant Pot, turn it on and walk away? Game changer!
Not only is Instant Pot oatmeal a HUGE time saver, it’s also:
- Completely Customizable
- Super Frugal
- Perfect to make ahead in big batches
- Cleaner than using the stove-top
Here’s What You Need
You really only need to have two ingredients: rolled oats and water. But since adding a bit of butter and salt really amps up the flavor, we always add both.
- Old fashioned rolled oats
- Water
- Butter (optional)
- Salt (optional)
Notes on Ingredients
- My buy-price for rolled oats is 50¢ per pound and I usually buy this package from Costco (although Costco’s price is better than Amazon’s).
- If you need certified gluten-free oats, these are a good deals online. (Vitacost, Amazon, Thrive Market, Check those places, as well as Azure Standard.)
Step By Step Instructions
Step 1. Combine all of the ingredients in the Instant Pot.
Step 2. Close the lid, turn the pressure valve to “sealing.” Manually select High pressure and adjust the timer to 4 minutes.
Step 3. When the oatmeal is finished and the timer beeps, use the Quick Release method. This means turning the pressure valve to “release.” Steam will come out of the valve, so be careful!
Step 4. Stir, and serve the cooked oats and top as desired!
Recipe Tips
- Make a Big Batch. You can make as much as you want and the cook time doesn’t change! Do be careful to not fill past the max-fill-line and if you make any more than a double batch (i.e. 4 cups of oats or more), use Natural Pressure Release (i.e. do nothing) instead of Quick Pressure Release.
- Use leftovers! I intentionally make leftovers so I can make oatmeal pancakes or oatmeal bread or chocolate oatmeal cake. My kids LOVE all of them!
- Don’t Add Milk… at least not to the Instant Pot. Cooking with milk is one of the big no-no’s that can lead to the burn notice. If you want to add milk (or heavy cream or coconut milk), stir it in at the very end, after the oatmeal is done cooking.
- Topping Info: Drizzle some homemade nut butter and my tutorial on how to dehydrate fruit.
FAQS
First, you’ll want to make sure that your Instant Pot is sealing properly and the sealing ring is secured in place and clean. Also, be sure that the sealing valve is clear.
Be sure to add the full amount of water the recipe calls for. Any optional sweetener (like maple syrup or honey) should be added to your FINISHED oatmeal, not into the Instant Pot while it cooks. Also, add milk to the finished oatmeal as well. Adding sweeteners or milk to the Instant Pot before the oatmeal cooks can cause a burn notice.
2:5 – That means for every 2 cups of oats, you need 5 cups of water. Yes, this is different from the traditional stove-top ratio, but you need the extra water in order for the Instant Pot to work properly.
Some Instant Pot oatmeal recipes call for using steel-cut oatmeal. I haven’t tried using steel-cut oats because my perfect steel-cut oatmeal recipe is just that – perfect. I don’t want to mess up a good thing!
To Serve
The beauty of the recipe – it’s entirely customizable!
- Add raw fruit and spices with the oatmeal and they’ll cook at the same time… just like stove-top oatmeal. Instant Pot oatmeal with apples is so good!
- Some people like to make oatmeal with brown sugar, but if I wanted to make it sweet, I’d prefer to add a little natural sweetener like maple syrup or honey.
- Or you can make it plain as written and add your toppings separately – it’s completely up to you.
More Easy Breakfast Recipes
- Instant Pot Breakfast Casserole
- Oven-Roasted Hash Browns
- Breakfast Sweet Potato Apple Bake
- How To Make The Best Scrambled Eggs
- Homemade Mini Bagels Recipe (2 ingredients)
Hands-Free Cooking
Learn the secrets to getting dinner done faster by hacking your kitchen appliances, plus 30+ recipes to fuel your family! Watch How to Make Instant Pot Oatmeal:
Instant Pot Oatmeal
Make Instant Pot oatmeal using rolled oats instead of steel-cut for super easy breakfasts. Top with bananas, stir-in pumpkin, or even apples and cinnamon!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 minutes
- Total Time: 9 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 5 cups water
- 1 Tbsp butter (optional)
- 1/2 tsp salt (optional)
Instructions
- Combine ingredients in the Instant Pot.
- Close the lid and make sure the sealing valve is turned to the sealing position.
- Press the “manual” button and make sure the Instant Pot is on HIGH pressure.
- Adjust the time to 4 minutes.
- When the oatmeal is finished, use the Quick Pressure Release method by carefully turning the sealing valve from the sealing position to the venting position. Make sure your face and hands are not over the valve when you do this.
- When the pressure has released, serve and top as desired!
Notes
Topping Info: Drizzle some homemade nut butter and my tutorial on how to dehydrate fruit.
Nutrition
- Calories: 181
Keywords: instant pot oatmeal
Hi there,
Haas anyone used this recipe and soaked their oatmeal overnight, rinsed them and figured out the ratio of water that needs to be adjusted for the next morning?
Thank you much for your reply,
Hi Selma, Oatmeal that has been soaked overnight absorbs a lot of water but you’ll still want to use the 2:5 ratio. You never want to go below 1 cup of water because the IP needs at least that to come to pressure. The cook time really depends on your preferences. If you prefer soupier oatmeal, experiment with 3 minutes. If you like it firmer, try 2 minutes. We haven’t tested it though so please be sure to report back and let us know how it goes!
I don’t cook much any longer after a lifetime of cooking. I just don’t want to. What I wanted, no…what I needed tonight was a comforting bowl of simple and perfect oatmeal. I craved it. I didn’t want to make the effort of cooking it on the stove in my high altitude state of CO. I found your recipe and after I have tried others in the past that were more complicated. Your oatmeal recipe here is fast and perfect. It is EXACTLY the consistency that I craved. I almost cried. At the end of a very busy month and having just started my menses, I needed this simple comfort. Oatmeal for dinner. Because I can.
Thank you.
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You are most welcome Chriseda!
I’m a new instant pot owner. Just tried this recipe and it worked perfectly. But can someone tell me the porridge setting is for if you just use the manual setting? I pressed the porridge setting and it defaults to 20 mins. If I’d left it on that long it definitely would’ve burnt 🤔
Hi Sally, The Instant Pot comes with presets but you can hit the up or down arrows to adjust it for your recipe (and some models will store whatever number you used last time.) So you can use the – button to reduce the number of minutes at pressure for what works best for you! 🙂
Completely forget that any of those preset buttons are on there. They are useless. Just use whatever time the recipe calls for.
This worked marvelously! I have the 8qt instant pot and used the high pressure setting on “normal”. I did a 5 minute natural release before quick releasing the rest and it didn’t froth out or bubble over at all that way.
You could absolutely triple or maybe quadruple this recipe in the 8qt.
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Yay Allison! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
5 cups of water was too much. I had to put the lid back on and add 3 more minutes or I would have been eating soup instead. Maybe just 4 cups of water. Or maybe it was because I soaked the oatmeal overnight.
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Yes Melissa, soaking anything can change how much water is needed! You figured it out yourself! 🙂
Has anyone tried this recipe with a 3 qt IP? If so, what changes did you make? Thanks
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Do you think it’s ok to throw in some cinnamon sticks while it cooks?
I haven’t done this, but you could!
Quick, easy and perfect.
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Second time I’ve used my insta pot I tried this out.
2 cups oatmeal
2cups applesauce
3 cups milk
1 Tbs cinnamon
2 Tbs maple syrup
5 min on porridge setting medium and released pressure immediately after finished. LOVED it. Turned out perfect and the family wants more. I added raisins when I sit down to eat. This is a thicker oatmeal. No excess moisture.
So upon further consideration even though the burn notice showed up on my instant pot, the oatmeal tasted wonderful! So I no longer have a concern about it being burned.
Really good! Thanks for sharing.
Hi I’m about to use this recipe, those who have a 6quart and saying there is no ‘medium’ pressure, if you click pressure and then go to the ‘normal’ setting this is classed as medium. I will try it and post here my results. Also to stop splatter you MUST leave it to natural release for minute or two, or you can alternate between, quick release, and if you see foam, quickly turn it back.
Another idea would be to make sure the Keep Warm function is off, then quick release after 2 mins, that way the heat will have reduced and the splatter will be minimial (hopefully) Just like you would leave a stew or soup for 10 min before quick releasing! You can always put the saute mode on if you want to reheat it,or just keep the lid on until your ready, once you’ve cancelled the cooking, and put the valve back to sealing, it keeps it warm for a good while.
I really hope this helps. Thanks for the recipe I can’t wait to try!
What am I doing wrong when I make oatmeal in the Instant Pot? Twice I made oatmeal and each time (once using your recipe here, and another IP recipe. But both times I had it foam up and go all over the place when I did moved the pressure release knob from steam to vent. Oatmeal went everywhere and clogged all the vents and was down the sides. (What a mess! But the oatmeal was done perfectly!) I have IP DUO SV (from Costco) I pressed the “Pressure Cook” button and then toggled to the “low” pressure using the “Pressure Level” button. But below that Low and High there is a strip of lights that read:: “Less” “Medium” and “More” It defaults to “Medium”. I don’t know how I can toggle it to “low” on that row of lights. I thought that row of lights were just for when you use it for a “Slow Cooker”. What can I do to prevent the huge mess when I make oatmeal in my IP? Would letting the pot ‘manually’ release pressure help?
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Hi Sara! Letting the IP vent naturally will help with the mess when releasing pressure. You didn’t mention the size of your IP, but anytime you make “a lot” of certain things (like oatmeal or beans, and “a lot” being a high ratio of how much you’re making to the size of the IP), then you can make a mess when you release pressure. I’ve done it myself when making three pounds of black beans in my 8 quart IP!! First, make sure you’re not over-filling the IP. Then, let the pressure release naturally for about 5-10 min. You might have to play with this, and personally, I’d go longer than shorter at first. For future batches, know that the food is still cooking as the pressure is releasing, so if this cook time + 10 min natural release creates an “overdone” oatmeal (if that’s possible, LOL), then cut back on the cook time.
Wow this really didn’t work for me. I followed the instructions, let the pressure release naturally for a few minutes, and I still ended up with foamy porridge spitting out during the quick pressure release and making a mess everywhere. The worst part of it was the final result was watery and inedible. Honestly this is no easier than cooking it on a stove and the end result is worse.
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Hi Tim,
Letting the IP vent naturally will help with the mess when releasing pressure. You didn’t mention the size of your IP, but anytime you make “a lot” of certain things (like oatmeal or beans, and “a lot” being a high ratio of how much you’re making to the size of the IP), then you can make a mess when you release pressure. First, make sure you’re not over-filling the IP. Then, let the pressure release naturally for about 5-10 min. You might have to play with this, and personally, I’d go longer than shorter at first. For future batches, know that the food is still cooking as the pressure is releasing, so if this cook time + 10 min natural release creates an “overdone” oatmeal (if that’s possible, LOL), then cut back on the cook time. Good luck!
I used low pressure just to be safe and it burned.
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Hi Eric – the recipe calls for medium pressure. I’d suggest giving it another shot!
I feel like I am the only one on the planet ending up with gluey, starchy oatmeal. I use a 1:3 ratio of rolled oats to water, 3 minutes, low pressuer. I put the ingredients in before bed and use the timer so that my sons can have hot oatmeal at 5am, but sometimes it is just so gluey/over creamy that it’s gross. (The same thing happens even when I don’t delay the start, on the week-ends) And I LOVE oatmeal in general….I have been making it for 7 days a week for 15 years. I just don’t get tired of it. I really don’t want to have to go back to stovetop…
It could possibly be from the oats soaking all night.
Excellent!!! Delicious!!! Has come out perfect each time!!! This recipe is now my favorite!!! I can’t wait to try some of your other recipes! Thank you!!!
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You’re so very welcome Audrey!
I need to make a large batch of oatmeal. Like enough for 20 people. I would like to use my 8qt IP
Can you suggest an oat (rolled Old Fashion) to liquid ratio? It seems that on the package if you double the oats you don’t double the liquid…. Have you tried a batch this size?
I am thinking low pressure for 4 min?
I want to do the same thing in the morning but don’t see a reply to your question. Did you try it for 20? How did it turn out? Would love the ratio. Tia!
Yum! This turned out really good. I used 3 cups of water and the remaining 2 cups of Almond Breeze’s almond/coconut milk which gave it a lovely flavor. I was also careful to use the low setting since others reported burning.
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I’m so glad you liked this Xina!
I made this, followed the instructions to the letter as it’s only the 2nd time I’ve fired up this machine and I’m completely new to pressure cookers. Everything exploded out of the pressure valve the second I released it – clearly I did something wrong somewhere 😂
I’ll try it again but will let it vent naturally and hopefully won’t have a huge gloopy mess to clean up. On the bright side, the oats that managed to stay in the IP came out tender, creamy and perfectly cooked. Thanks!
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Hello Mads!
I’m sorry this happened to you! This has happened to me as well. Like you suggested, try the natural release venting process. We’d love to hear back after you try again. 🙂
I have the standard 6-qt Instant Pot, and this recipe worked beautifully. I substituted a cup of oat milk for one of the cups of water (4 cups water, 1 oat milk) and added a chopped apple and 1/2 mashed banana, along with a sprinkle of cinnamon. It came out great – perfect for a cold winter morning. When you first open the IP, it seems watery, but it only takes a few stirs to thicken up. Will definitely make this recipe again – thanks!
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You’re very welcome Sonya! Your additions sound DELICIOUS!
Mine turned out great! 5qt IP, manual low pressure setting @ 5 minutes.
I use left over oatmeal in my pancakes. It tastes great if your pancakes are made from scratch or you use a mix.
I followed the recipe exactly, omitting both the butter and salt. It came to pressure, cooked for 4 minutes and I used the quick release, as instructed. I got hot liquid spewing from the vent. I shut the IP off and it came down to natural re,ease on its own. The oatmeal was very soupy but after a few minutes the liquid absorbed and the oatmeal was delish.
Thoughts?
We are planning on making a big batch of oatmeal for a gropu of people. I know not to go anove the fill line. Ehtvis the largwst amount you have made and whatvwere the water/ oatmeal amounts. Thank you.
The largest amount of oatmeal I’ve made is for this recipe, but remember that oatmeal will foam up as you cook it, so you shouldn’t fill completely to the fill line. In the case of oatmeal, it’s the halfway line of the pot. With that said, I haven’t made that much oatmeal personally!