Instant pot fish (frozen Cod)
Instant pot cod fish cooked from frozen in an electric pressure cooker in 2 minutes. No more waiting around to thaw your fish for dinner, with this recipe, you can have this quick and healthy dinner from the kitchen to your table under 10 minutes.
With pressure cooker fish, it doesn’t matter if it is frozen or fresh fillets, you are guaranteed delicious, tender and flaky result always. Serve with boiled baby potatoes, parsley sauce, and steamed veggies.
Why this instant pot frozen fish is good
- You only need a few ingredients to make this Instant pot pressure cooker fish.
- This recipe is easy and quick, you can add any spices and herbs of choice, although I have kept this simple as I served it some homemade parsley sauce.
- This recipe is healthy as fish is a good source of protein, it is low carb and gluten-free
- Fish like cod is great for meal prep and depending on what you are planning to pair it with, you can prep a week’s meal under 30 minutes
- instant pot cod can be served with any other side dish like this instant pot coconut rice, brown rice or Mexican rice. It is perfect with roasted potatoes, boiled baby potatoes, sauteed peas, sauteed broccolini or this creamy garlic mashed potato
Ingredients
Frozen fish fillet: I used cod, but you can other types of frozen fish of choice, haddock, halibut, mackerel, tilapia, or salmon
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
How to cook frozen (cod) fish in an instant pot pressure cooker
Rinse the fish under cold water briefly to deglaze, this step is optional
Place the trivet in the instant pot and add 1 cup of water.
Add the frozen codfish and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cover the lid of your instant pot securely then turn the valve to the sealing position. Select manual or pressure cook and cook on high pressure for 2 minutes then carefully do a quick release.
NOTE: If the thickness of your frozen cod fillet is more than ½ an inch, you can increase the cooking time to 3 or 4 minutes. 2 minutes has always worked for me, Alternatively, let the instant pot come to natural pressure for another 5 minutes after 2 minutes on high pressure
Serve with a lemon wedge, melted butter, and chopped dill or parsley sauce
Related posts: Baked cod with tomatoes and air fryer cod.
Tips for cooking fresh fish in an instant pot
- If in doubt, cook on low pressure instead of high pressure. Depending on the thickness of the fish, 2 minutes on low pressure is great for fish like mackerel and tilapia fillets provided they are not stacked on each other. This 100g frozen codfish cooked perfectly in 2 minutes in high pressure.
- You can also double this recipe at the same cooking time.
- Fish or seafood generally doesn’t take long to cook. Let that be your little reminder when steaming/cooking fish in a pressure cooker or on the stovetop.
- Worried if your fish is not cooked through, use a thermometer, the internal temperature of well-cooked fish should read 140F/70C
How long to pressure cook fish
Depending on the type of fish or seafood you are cooking. Use the below as a guideline
- Whole fresh fish like seabass, trout pressure cook between 4 to 6 minutes
- Mackerel steaks or whole mackerel 5 to 6 minutes
- Frozen fish fillet like tilapia, cod, halibut, haddock 2 minutes
- Fresh or frozen salmon 3 to 4 minutes because of its thickness
- Fresh or frozen mackerel fillet 1 minute on high pressure or 2 minutes on low pressure
You can apply the cooking guidelines above to any other electric pressure cooker like pressure king pro or ninja foodi.
How to thaw frozen fish fillets
To the best way of doing it is leaving it to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Fish fillets don’t take long to thaw but a whole fish would take longer.
If I am in a hurry then I put the fillets in the freezer bag and run it under cold water. Do not run it under hot or warm water as it might cook the fish and toughen it and affect the texture before cooking.
The best, fast and effective way is to use a pressure cooker. I thaw frozen fish instant pot for zero minutes and then use it in soup, stew, sauces, tacos or curry. I don’t use this method if I intend to fry the fish.
Can I cook it with vegetables?
Most instant pot steamed vegetable cooks under 2 minutes. Like this broccoli only need zero minutes and if cooked longer than that can go mushy. Vegetables like carrots if chopped into larger chunks can be cooked on a trivet along with the fish for 2 minutes.
How to store
This recipe would store for up to 5 days in the fridge in an airtight container.
More instant pot recipes on the blog
Pressure cooker shredded chicken
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Instant Pot Fish (Frozen Cod)
Equipment
- Electric pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 200 g Frozen fish fillet cod (2 pieces) haddock, mackerel, tilapia or salmon
- ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Rinse the fish under cold water to deglaze, this step is optional. If using more than 1 frozen fish, make sure the fish are separated and not clumped together.
- Place the trivet in the instant pot and add 1 cup of water. I used 6qt IP DUO, If you are using 8qt instant pot, use the minimum water required which is 2 cups.
- Add the frozen cod fish and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Cover the lid of your instant pot securely then turn the valve to the sealing position. Select manual or pressure cook and cook on high pressure for 2 minutes then carefully do a quick release.NOTE: If the thickness of your frozen cod fillet is more than ½ an inch, you can increase the cooking time to 3 or 4 minutes. 2 minutes has always worked for me, Alternatively, let the instant pot come to natural pressure for another 5 minutes after 2 minutes on high pressure
- Serve with lemon wedge, melted butter and chopped dill or parsley sauce
Notes
- You can also double this recipe at the same cooking time.
- Fish or seafood generally doesn’t take long to cook. Let that be your little reminder when steaming/cooking fish in a pressure cooker or on the stovetop.
- Worried if your fish is not cooked through, use a thermometer, the internal temperature of well-cooked fish should read 140F/70C
Nutrition
Nutritional data: Please note that the nutrition label provided is an estimate based on an online nutrition calculator. It will vary based on the specific ingredients and brands you use. Under no circumstances will thedinnerbite.com be responsible for any loss or damage resulting for your reliance on nutritional information.
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? PLEASE RATE IT AND LEAVE ME A COMMENT. USE #THEDINNERBITE OR TAG @THEDINNERBITE ON INSTAGRAM SO I CAN SEE YOUR PHOTOS, I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOUR CREATIONS. THANK YOU!
I cooked my Black Cod filet for the 2 minutes. Turned to cancel and added the lid while I plated steamed green beans and Basmati rice with toasted almonds.
It was flakey and just perfect.
Are you supposed to let it come to full pressure before counting time i.e., 2 min on the timer?
Yes, Marilena. 2 minutes on the timer. Kindly let me know how turns out. Thanks