That Instant Pot or air fryer on your counter is only as good as the recipes you put in it and the manual does not count. These six cookbooks unlock your appliances, from a photographed-every-step Instant Pot guide for total beginners to the test kitchen's tested-until-perfect air fryer and slow cooker books. They turn a box of settings into genuinely good weeknight dinners with minimal effort and minimal cleanup. If a countertop appliance has been gathering dust, one of these will bring it to life.
We describe and compare these books, we never reprint their recipes. Match the book to your machine and get cooking.
Quick picks:
- Best for beginners: The Step-by-Step Instant Pot Cookbook by Jeffrey Eisner. View on Amazon
- Best air fryer: Air Fryer Perfection by America's Test Kitchen. View on Amazon
- Best slow cooker: Slow Cooker Revolution by America's Test Kitchen. View on Amazon
Instant Pot and pressure cooking
The Step-by-Step Instant Pot Cookbook by Jeffrey Eisner
Jeffrey Eisner is a wildly popular Instant Pot recipe developer. Every recipe photographed step by step, the most beginner-proof Instant Pot book there is.
Best for: Visual Instant Pot beginners.
→ View on AmazonDinner in an Instant by Melissa Clark
Melissa Clark is a longtime New York Times food writer. Elevated pressure-cooker cooking that goes well beyond the basics, weeknight-smart and reliably good.
Best for: Elevated Instant Pot.
→ View on AmazonIndian Instant Pot Cookbook by Urvashi Pitre
Urvashi Pitre is a bestselling recipe developer. One of the most popular Indian Instant Pot books for a reason: tested, reliable recipes that make weeknight Indian genuinely fast.
Best for: Fast Instant Pot Indian.
→ View on AmazonAir fryer, slow cooker and sheet pan
Air Fryer Perfection by America's Test Kitchen
America's Test Kitchen is the rigorously tested test-kitchen team. Tested-until-perfect air fryer recipes with the brand's signature reliability, the one air fryer book to own.
Best for: Tested air fryer.
→ View on AmazonSlow Cooker Revolution by America's Test Kitchen
America's Test Kitchen is the rigorously tested test-kitchen team. Slow cooker recipes engineered to actually taste good, not mushy, hundreds of foolproof set-and-forget dinners.
Best for: Reliable slow cooker.
→ View on AmazonSheet Pan Suppers by Molly Gilbert
Molly Gilbert is a one-pan cooking specialist. Complete dinners on a single sheet pan, minimal cleanup, maximum weeknight relief.
Best for: One-pan dinners.
→ View on AmazonHow we chose these
We looked past the marketing to the people behind the books: working chefs, award winners, food scientists, culture-bearers and the recipe developers whose food people actually cook again and again. Where an author is a food writer or blogger rather than a trained chef, that is a feature, not a knock: many of the most reliable, most-loved cookbooks come from obsessive home cooks. We describe and compare these books; we never republish their recipes.
