Hawaiian Style Instant Pot Recipes (2024)

Above: Kalua pig, beef stew and macaroni salad made in a pressure cooker.

The Instant Pot has been creating a buzz lately, and many have found ways to simplify their favorite stove top recipes with this popular pressure cooking device. We asked our Hawaiian Airlines `ohana (family) to share their favorite recipes in a contest earlier this year. We hope you enjoy these award-winning Hawaiian-style Instant Pot recipes.

Above: The Instant Pot electric pressure cooker has been around since 2010 but began to gain popularity a few years ago, with the bulk of sales coming from Amazon.com.

`Onolicious* Beef Stew

*`Ono means “delicious” in Hawaiian

`Onolicious Beef Stew

Ingredients:

2lbs of beef stew meat (cut into 1.5” cubes)
2 medium onions (peeled and quartered)
4 small/medium yukon gold potatoes (quartered)

“I make this quite often, as it’s very easy tomake and convenient to pack in containersand take with me on my layovers. Iespecially love the slight spice that theHawaiian chili peppers give it! I try to use asmany local and/or organic ingredients aspossible, but they’re not always easy to find.Served with rice and a side of poi, this recipeis nothing short of `onolicious! I hope youenjoy it!”

Local-Style Macaroni Salad

Ingredients:

1 pound large elbow macaroni
½ cup rice vinegar
2-1/2 cups water (approximately)
1 tablespoon oil

“I was surprised to find out how easy it is tomake pasta dishes in my Instant Pot. Herein Hawaii, you’ll always find macaroni saladalong with a scoop of rice in local-style platelunches. This recipe is so easy to makesince all you’re really doing is cooking themacaroni in the pressure cooker and mixingit together with the other ingredients. Ittastes great and I really like the hint ofvinegar which gives it a bit of a kick. It’s aconvenient dish to bring to potlucks, too.”

Kalua Pig

Ingredients:

4 pounds pork shoulder or pork butt
1 cup cold water
1 tablespoon Hawaiian salt
1 tablespoon liquid smoke

“I’m amazed how easy this dish is to make. Itonly takes three ingredients—and water—tomake this tender and juicy kalua pig. I usedto make it over the stove and it took hours.With my pressure cooker, I have a deliciousmeal on the table in half the amount of timeand my kids love it!”

Beef Curry Stew

Ingredients:

2 lbs chuck steak (1.5 inch thickness)
6 medium garlic cloves, chopped
1 box japanese curry roux cubes
1 tablespoon shoyu

“I came up with this beef curry stew recipeafter coming across a beef curry recipeonline that used this caramelized onionpuree. I love savory food, so it soundeddelicious and I decided to try it. When Ifirst tried out the recipe, I didn’t follow theingredients exactly and it came out supersalty. We decided to try to tweak the recipeand add vegetables and more water andcurry flavoring. Not only did this end upstretching the meal out to cover way moremeals, but it ended up tasting so yummy. I love that I can make this and my kids will actually eat the vegetables we cook in the beef curry stew.”

Local-Style Beef Stew

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
3 pounds beef (chuck roast), cut into 1-inch cubes
4 cups or 2 (14.5 ounce) cans beef broth

“This recipe is adapted from a recipe I foundin a Honolulu Star-Advertiser cookbook. Iprobably make this at least once a monthas it is the perfect comfort food for ourfamily. It makes a good yield and we enjoyit for days after. I first started cooking thiswith a stove top pressure cooker but theInstant Pot has simplified it even more withits built in timers and handy alarms. Thisalso makes for a fairly quick potluck dish,too. I hope you enjoy it as much as myfamily and I do!”

Oxtail Stew

Ingredients:

Meat

2.5-3 Lbs Oxtail + Beef Shank (~50%/50%) with shank cut into large 2" chunks

Seasoning Bag

2 Tbsp ground black pepper

“The thing I love about the Instant Pot is thatit can make a delicious meal that wouldnormally take too long to cook by the timeI get home from work in the evening.This oxtail stew recipe is a "comfort food"dish that we eat quite often (at least once amonth if not more). You can just use stewmeat for this recipe and make beef stew,but my wife and son somehow love to fightthe bone! I hope you enjoy this dish asmuch as our family does!”

Chocolate Haupia Cheesecake with Macadamia Nut Crust

Ingredients:

Crust

1½ cups crushed graham crackers
¾ cups medium chopped macadamia nuts
7 tbs melted salted butter

“This cheesecake recipe has a few differentparts to it. The haupia layer is a family recipeand the cheesecake filling was createdwhile I was searching for a traditional tartand dense New York-style cheesecake. Ittook a few tries to find it and was originallymeant to be baked in an oven. What I lovemost about this cheesecake, is the layeredflavors. The salty, buttery crust with thechocolate ganache and haupia are a classicsweet combination and the tartness fromthe cheesecake filling creates a wonderfulmedley. I usually make this dessert for special occasions or upon request.”