Instant Pot tamales come down to two cooks in one pot. The filling goes in first. Once it’s shredded and the pot is rinsed, the wrapped tamales stand on a trivet and steam at high pressure, then get a natural release and a short rest so the masa can set.
The pot suits a family-sized batch. For holiday-scale runs, a stovetop steamer pot still wins.
Water under the trivet is where recipes and documentation disagree. Instant Pot’s cooking time tables list a minimum of 1 1/2 cups of liquid for a 6-quart pot and 2 cups for an 8-quart pot (as of November 2026).
Plenty of published tamale recipes, Instant Pot’s own included, specify only 1 cup.
How to make Instant Pot tamales from start to finish
The filling cooks first, and the husks soak and the masa gets mixed while it does. After assembly the tamales steam upright on a trivet at high pressure, release naturally, and rest before anyone unwraps one.
- Soak the corn husks in hot water and weigh them down. Start this while the filling cooks.
- Sear and pressure cook the filling, shred it, then rinse the inner pot.
- Mix the masa harina with baking powder, salt, fat and warm broth until it spreads like thick hummus.
- Spread masa on each husk, add a spoonful of filling, fold, and tie any flap that will not stay shut.
- Pour 1 1/2 cups of water into a 6-quart pot (2 cups for an 8-quart), set the trivet, and lay a few husks over it.
- Stand the tamales open end up and lean them against the pot wall.
- Seal the lid and cook at high pressure for 18 to 45 minutes, depending on the recipe.
- Let the pressure release naturally for 10 to 15 minutes, then rest the tamales for 15 to 30 minutes.
Instant Pot’s own recipe, developed by the Williams Sonoma Test Kitchen, makes 12 to 16 tamales with 40 minutes at high pressure, a 10-minute natural release and a 15 to 30 minute stand. Published home recipes run from 18 minutes (Bake Me Some Sugar) to 45 (Isabel Eats, 2021).
The pot shortens the cooking, not the assembly. Folding and tying each tamale takes the same effort it takes for any steamed tamale, so a good guide to wrapping tamales pays off before the first batch goes in.
How many tamales fit in a 6-quart or 8-quart Instant Pot?
Published tests put a 6-quart Instant Pot at 10 to 16 tamales. Plan on 12 to 16 if you’re using standard husks with 2 to 3 tablespoons of masa each.
| Source | 6-quart pot | 8-quart pot |
|---|---|---|
| Bake Me Some Sugar | 10 | 15 |
| Berly’s Kitchen | About 15 | Not reported |
| Muy Bueno | 16 | Not reported |
| Mama Maggie’s Kitchen | Not reported | 16 large |
Counts are not directly comparable, since every recipe puts a different amount of masa on each husk. The largest count in these sources, 24 from Isabel Eats, came from a tightly packed pot whose size the recipe doesn’t state. Her author recommends an 8-quart for her 26-tamale batch.
Stacking tamales on the trivet
Stand them open end up and lean them against the pot wall so they don’t tip.
Lay 3 or 4 soaked husks over the trivet first, because small tamales will slip between the rungs otherwise. Berly’s Kitchen lines the trivet with foil for the same reason.
Height matters too. Keep the tops below the liner rim. Cooking with Curls warns that tamales sticking up over the edge keep the lid from sealing, and then the pot never builds pressure.
How much water goes under the trivet
Instant Pot’s cooking time tables list a minimum of 1 1/2 cups of liquid for a 6-quart pot and 2 cups for an 8-quart pot (as of November 2026). A footnote in the Duo manual lets a recipe specify a different amount.
Tamale recipes do. The Instant Pot tamale recipe, Muy Bueno and Berly’s Kitchen use 1 cup, Isabel Eats and Hilda’s Kitchen use 1 1/2 cups, and Cooking with Curls uses 2.
I’d follow the manual for your pot size. The steam builds the pressure and cooks the masa, so the minimum is a floor. Just keep the water line below the rack and the tamales.
Preparing the corn husks and masa
Soak the husks in hot water while the filling cooks, then mix masa harina, baking powder, salt, fat and warm broth until the dough spreads like thick hummus. Both jobs fit easily inside the filling’s pressure-cook window.
Soaking the husks
Soak times differ by a factor of six between recipes. Bake Me Some Sugar soaks husks for 30 minutes, Isabel Eats and Muy Bueno for 1 hour, and Hello Glow (adapted from Rick Bayless) for 2 to 3 hours.
- Use very hot water, but not boiling
- Weigh the husks down with a plate or a heavy pot so every one stays under
- Drain until damp, not dripping, since extra water thins the masa
- Leave the rest in the water while you assemble and pull a handful at a time
A pliable husk folds without splitting. If you want the details on how long and how hot to soak the husks, a separate guide covers the bend test and the quick methods.
Masa ratio and fat choice
Scaled to 4 cups of masa harina, the liquid in three Instant Pot recipes lands within a quarter cup of each other, at 3 to 3 1/4 cups (Instant Pot, Isabel Eats, Maricruz Avalos). The fat is where they stop agreeing.
The Instant Pot recipe uses 2/3 cup of shortening. Isabel Eats goes with 7/8 cup of canola, Maricruz Avalos with about 1 cup of olive oil, and Bake Me Some Sugar with about 1 1/3 cups of butter. Muy Bueno prefers lard and treats shortening as the vegetarian swap.
So fix the liquid near 3 cups and let texture settle the rest. Add broth by the spoonful until the dough looks like thick hummus (Isabel Eats and Muy Bueno agree on that description).
Muy Bueno’s float test drops 1/2 teaspoon of masa into a cup of cold water. If it sinks, beat for 5 more minutes and test again.
That test fits whipped lard or shortening. Liquid oil can’t be whipped, so Isabel Eats judges oil masa by texture alone.
Treat all of these ratios as starting points. A detailed look at mixing masa for tamales covers whipping the fat and fixing dough that comes out too wet.
Cooking the filling in the Instant Pot first
Sear the meat on Sauté, add the sauce, and pressure cook until it shreds with two forks. Then rinse the inner pot so it can steam the tamales. By that point the steaming only has to set the masa.
- Red chile pork takes 40 minutes at high pressure plus a 15-minute natural release, for 1 1/2 pounds of shoulder in 4-inch chunks (Isabel Eats).
- The Instant Pot recipe from the Williams Sonoma Test Kitchen cooks pork green chile for 1 hour at high pressure, with a 10-minute natural release.
- Chicken in salsa verde needs only 10 minutes at high pressure (The Chopping Block).
The Chopping Block tested the logic directly. With fully cooked filling, only the masa needed to finish, and its steaming time came down.
Sauce matters more than most people expect. You can blend your own red chili sauce from dried guajillo and ancho chiles, which Isabel Eats soaks in hot water for 15 minutes first.
Pork shoulder, also sold as Boston butt, is the usual cut because its marbling turns fall-apart tender under pressure (Muy Bueno). If you’re weighing other options, this rundown of which meats suit tamales best compares them.
Moisture is the other variable. The Instant Pot recipe lifts the pork out with a slotted spoon and leaves most of the liquid behind, while Isabel Eats shreds the pork right in its sauce for a wetter filling.
The filling also keeps well overnight. Hilda’s Kitchen suggests cooking it, the broth and the chile sauce the day before you assemble, and Cooking with Curls made its red chile pork one day and the tamales the next.
How long do tamales cook in an Instant Pot?
Start at 30 minutes at high pressure with a timed natural release, and add time only if a test tamale still clings to the husk. That’s the lowest time two separate kitchens confirmed with 28 tamales in the pot.
- The Chopping Block (2023) steamed 28 tamales for 30 minutes at high pressure, then gave them a 15-minute natural release.
- Urben Life did about 28 at 30 minutes too, with a 10-minute natural release and then a quick release.
- Muy Bueno cooked about a dozen for 38 minutes at high pressure, followed by a 10-minute natural release.
- Hilda’s Kitchen goes 45 minutes for 20 to 25 tamales and lets the pressure drop naturally until the pin falls.
- A 4-tamale test batch at 10 minutes came out nowhere near done (The Chopping Block).
Time doesn’t follow batch size. 28 tamales finished in 30 minutes twice, while a dozen needed 38 and 20 to 25 needed 45.
Hilda’s Kitchen isn’t even consistent with itself, listing about 30 minutes in its FAQ and 45 on its recipe card.
Packing is the one variable a source ties to time. Hilda’s Kitchen warns that tightly packed tamales cook longer and unevenly, though The Chopping Block packed 28 in a tight fit and still finished at 30 minutes. Treat crowding as a risk, not a rule.
Natural release or quick release
A full natural release is hands-off and gives the masa the most resting time inside the sealed pot. Hilda’s Kitchen waits for the pin to drop.
The other three recipes above use a timed natural release, then vent. The masa keeps setting, and you aren’t waiting on a full pot to cool.
No recipe in the list relies on quick release alone. Venting the steam in seconds skips the settling time soft masa needs.
Use a timed natural release, then open the valve when the timer ends.
How to tell when tamales are done, and how to fix mushy or dry ones
A tamale is done when the masa pulls away from the husk in one clean piece and holds its shape after a short rest. Straight out of the pot every tamale is soft, so judge only after one cools.
The doneness test
- Lift one tamale out with tongs and set it aside.
- Wait about 10 minutes, the interval Hilda’s Kitchen uses.
- Unwrap it. Masa that slides off the husk and feels set but tender is done (Urben Life).
- If it sticks or slumps, the batch needs more time.
Fixing mushy tamales
Sometimes they just haven’t rested. Isabel Eats says tamales come out squishy and firm up after 10 to 15 minutes of cooling.
If they’re truly undercooked, Urben Life adds 1/2 cup of water to the pot and cooks the batch 10 more minutes at high pressure.
Wet masa is the third culprit. Too much liquid in the dough keeps the center soft, according to Hola Jalapeno, so stiffen the next batch with masa harina a spoonful at a time.
Fixing dry tamales
Dry tamales come from overcooking or too little fat in the masa, per Hola Jalapeno.
The test tamale handles the first cause, so check one at the low end of the time range. The second is a masa problem, and no steaming time repairs it. Push the fat toward the upper end of the range for the next batch.
When the Instant Pot is the wrong tool for tamales
Use a stovetop steamer pot for batches beyond two or three dozen tamales, or when steaming speed matters more than saved effort. The Instant Pot suits a family-sized batch best.
Large batches
Isabel Eats grew up making at least 100 tamales at a time on the stove, and presents the Instant Pot version as a small batch for a family of 2 to 6 (2021).
A run of 100 would take several rounds, and each round waits for the pot to come up to pressure.
At that scale, steaming tamales in a large stovetop pot holds more per round and skips the pressure ramp.
The time saving is smaller than it looks
Across the whole process, Isabel Eats cuts a tamale day from 7 or so hours to about 4 with the pressure cooker (2021).
Steaming alone is a different story. In a side-by-side test at Berly’s Kitchen, a stovetop steamer started at the same time finished 15 to 20 minutes sooner, because the water boiled faster than the Instant Pot reached pressure.
The two results fit together if the pot earns its time on the filling, not on the steaming.
Storing, freezing and reheating Instant Pot tamales
Refrigerate cooked tamales within 2 hours, eat them within 4 days, and freeze what’s left. USDA FSIS sets those limits, plus a 165 F internal temperature for reheating (as checked in November 2026).
Refrigerator and freezer limits
Recipe sites disagree with each other, and with USDA, on the fridge window. Berly’s Kitchen says 3 days and USDA FSIS says 4. Cooking with Curls and The Urben Life both say 5, while Isabel Eats and Muy Bueno stretch it to a week.
Follow USDA FSIS. Its limit is the only one here that comes from a food safety agency, and on day 4 you eat the tamales or freeze them.
Freezing is where most sources agree. Isabel Eats, Muy Bueno and The Urben Life all say up to 6 months, which matches USDA’s best-quality window, and USDA adds that tamales frozen within those 4 days stay safe indefinitely.
Label bags raw or cooked, as Muy Bueno advises. A separate guide to storing tamales goes further on containers and portions.
Reheating cooked tamales
Steam, oven and microwave all work as long as the center reaches 165 F (USDA FSIS).
| Method | Setting | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Instant Pot | Frozen tamales on the rack, 1 cup of water, 5 minutes at high pressure | Muy Bueno |
| Oven | 10 minutes at 350 F | Isabel Eats |
| Microwave | 1 to 2 minutes, wrapped in a damp paper towel | Muy Bueno |
The pot suits a big batch, and the microwave handles one or two. A full guide to reheating frozen tamales covers the other methods.
Cooking raw frozen tamales
Sources split on tamales frozen before steaming. Muy Bueno gives the same 5-minute figure for unsteamed frozen tamales, with no thaw, while Hilda’s Kitchen says to defrost first or add cooking time.
Neither recipe reports a center temperature. Check one tamale with a thermometer for 165 F before you serve a batch that went in raw.
Instant Pot Tamales FAQ
Can you make Instant Pot tamales without corn husks?
Yes. Parchment paper is the usual substitute. It needs no soaking, but the tamales lose the husk’s flavor and come out smooth instead of ridged (Tasting Table).
Fold and tie it as you would a husk so the masa stays put.
Do you need to preheat the Instant Pot before steaming tamales?
No. With the Pressure Cook function, the pot heats with the lid on and builds pressure by itself, so the tamales go in cold.
Berly’s Kitchen notes that the lid locks while the pot builds pressure.
How do you make Instant Pot tamales vegetarian or gluten-free?
For vegetarian, use vegetable broth, shortening instead of lard (Muy Bueno; oil also works, as in Isabel Eats’ masa), and a meatless filling such as cheese and rajas or zucchini and corn (Muy Bueno).
Masa harina is corn-based, so a gluten-free batch comes down to checking the masa, broth and cheese labels (Berly’s Kitchen).
Does altitude change Instant Pot tamale cook time?
Yes, above 2,000 feet. Presto’s pressure cooker manual and Utah State University Extension both add 5% for every 1,000 feet over 2,000, so a 30-minute batch at 5,000 feet runs about 35 minutes.
Check a test tamale as usual.
Which setting works for tamales, Pressure Cook or Steam?
Pressure Cook at high pressure. Every recipe quoted in this article uses it, while sources disagree on how much pressure the Steam preset builds.
Hilda’s Kitchen lists either setting at about 30 minutes in its FAQ, yet its recipe card uses Pressure Cook.
Splitting Instant Pot Tamales Across Two Days
Pressure cook the filling, mix the masa and chill both on day one. Soak the husks, assemble and steam on day two.
Husks go last because drained husks dry out again if they sit, according to Mexican Made Meatless.
Assembly sessions past 2 hours add a food safety limit. USDA FSIS wants cooked filling held at 140 F or above and masa made with lard or broth kept at 40 F or below, brought out in small amounts (as checked in November 2026).
The trade-off is a reheat. Filling chilled on day one has to come back up to 140 F before the assembly line starts.
For the next batch, a rundown of the best fillings for tamales gives the pot something new to cook.
