Can You Fry In A Pressure Cooker?

Last updated on September 1st, 2022 at 09:31 pm

Pressure cookers are amazing kitchen appliances thats are very handy and convenient. By using pressure, they can cook food more quickly than usual. It’s important to use pressure cookers in the way they are designed to be used. But, if you aren’t sure if you can cook in a certain way in one then it’s always good to find out beforehand. 

Let’s say you are craving some fried food with its crispy and crunchy exterior and juicy interior. You wonder if you can use your pressure cooker. Can you fry in a pressure cooker?

Unfortunately, you cannot fry in a pressure cooker, but you can shallow fry or saute in one. A pressure cooker cannot reach the high temperatures that are required to fry food.  But as long as you’re using only a little bit of oil or butter then this is okay.

Not only can a pressure cooker not reach the high temperatures that are needed to fry foods, it can be dangerous to try to fry in one of these kitchen appliances. Pressure cookers do cook things faster and some even have the ability to air fry food as well. But, air frying requires little or no oil in order to cook the food. 

When you’re wanting to fry up some chicken or other crispy meals, you need a lot of oil. But, you can’t just dump this oil into a pressure cooker and fry it. 

Pressure cookers can’t reach temperatures of 350 to 375 F which are needed for frying food. They are built to cook food under pressure and  if you try to turn them all the way up to this high temperature, you can see why it is dangerous to try to fry or deep fry in a pressure cooker. 

It would be like boiling oil under high pressure which could possibly explode. Not a good idea at all! 

Stick to only sauteing or shallow frying in a pressure cooker because remember you can’t use a lot of oil. So, no, you can’t fry food in a pressure cooker.

However, they do sell small deep fryers that can easily be used to fry things without hardly any hassle or time needed.

Can You Fry With Oil In A Pressure Cooker?

Oil is used in frying foods. A large amount is poured into a pan and heated so you can cook food in it. But, can you fry with oil in a pressure cooker?

No, you cannot fry with oil in a pressure cooker. You can only use a small amount of oil in one of these handy kitchen appliances and so can only shallow fry or saute in one. Pressure cookers are not made for frying foods in.

Pressure cookers aren’t made for frying foods in. They are designed for pressure cooking food instead. Frying food involves heating up a large amount of oil and placing the food in it to fry and become crispy. Pressure cooking involves producing a lot of steam and traps it inside of the cooker with its airtight locking lid. 

The water (or other liquid) then boisl and more steam is produced inside thus cooking the food under a lot of pressure. So, instead of using oil for cooking the food, you use water but you don’t have to use a lot. 

In frying you need to use a lot of oil to fry the food and this won’t work in a pressure cooker. You can however shallow fry or saute in one but as far as frying food with oil in a pressure cooker, this cannot be done.

Can You Broast In A Pressure Cooker?

Broasting is a process that uses both broiling and roasting to cook food. It’s a method that basically combines pressure cooking with deep frying to cook marinated and/or breaded foods. We know that you cannot fry in a pressure cooker, but can you broast in one?

If you are wanting fried food but don’t want to heat up oil in a pan, you can use your pressure cooker to broast it instead. This involves cooking food pieces without a lot of oil and a process that involves both broiling and roasting.

So, even though you can’t fry in a pressure cooker, you can broast in one. In order to do this, cut the chicken (or whatever you are broasting) into smaller pieces and season and bread as usual before frying. 

Add a small amount of oil to the pressure cooker and add in the breaded food. 

Pressure cook on high for about 3 minutes and then keep on warm for about 2 ½ hours or longer until it is roasted how you like it. Now, you can remove and serve the broasted meal.

What Is The Difference Between A Pressure Cooker And A Pressure Fryer?

You may have heard of a pressure fryer (which is used to fry foods) and wondered if it was the same as a pressure cooker. However, a pressure cooker and a pressure fryer are two different things. So what is the difference between the two?

The difference between a pressure cooker and a pressure fryer is in the way each one of them works and cooks food. You can fry with oil in a pressure fryer while you cannot fry with oil in a pressure cooker.

As you can see there is a difference between a pressure fryer and a pressure cooker and it’s in the way they both work as well as the way they both cook food. Let’s look at the differences between a pressure cooker and a pressure fryer:

Pressure cooker-

• Generally used in household kitchens.
• Small enough to fit on a kitchen countertop.
• Uses a lot of steam which is pressurized to cook the food inside.
• Multi-purposeful.
• You cannot fry or deep fry in a pressure cooker. This could lead to an explosion. You can only bake, broil, roast, broist, shallow fry, saute, etc. in a pressure cooker.

Pressure fryer-

• Generally only used by commercial businesses like restaurants and food manufacturers.
• Very large and would be difficult to fit in a normal kitchen.
• Works by increasing the atmospheric pressure inside causing the boiling point of the oil and water in the food to rise. Basically, it seals in the moisture of the food cooking.
• Limited in what it can do.
• Can only fry food.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, you cannot fry in a pressure cooker. It’s not designed to fry food but to cook it using pressurized steam by baking, broiling, roasting, broasting, etc. 

The only kind of frying a pressure cooker can do is shallow frying or sauteing.