I made a few more batches and shared them with the fam-jam over the July 4th weekend, and everyone talked about how good they were!
Since we’re doing these in the Instant Pot, we’ve got a few things working for us here…
First off, in full disclosure, I don’t own an Instant Pot. Gasp! I have a Cuisinart electric pressure cooker that I’ve had since way before Instant Pot was a thing. It is nearly identical to my Mom’s Instant Pot and works the exact same way. No shade to the ol’ IP, I just wanted you to know that other pressure cookers work just as well with this. But since most folks currently know the electric pressure cooker by the name “Instant Pot” I’m using that name. It’s kinda like calling a slow cooker a “Crock Pot.” Anyway, moving on…
The Instant Pot (pressure cooker) is just dang ideal for this. It cuts an excruciatingly long process into less than 2 hours. Seriously.
Not only that, the pressure cook method is ideal because the pressure forces the salt and flavor into the peanuts – they don’t just float around in it.
They come out tender and full of that briney flavor you expect from boiled peanuts.
In all honesty, I’m not sure I’ll ever make boiled peanuts any other way. Sure, I love my slow cooker method, but I have to admit, I love how flavorful and easy these are to make.
Green Versus Raw Peanuts
Now, when it comes to buying peanuts, you might find both raw and green peanuts. My recipe calls for green peanuts. These are raw, freshly harvested peanuts that are still green and moist. They might not look super green, but they are noticeably heavier. While many grocery stores in the South do carry green peanuts when they’re in season (Summer), I usually have better luck finding them at roadside fruits stands and farmers markets. Several readers have reported having great luck finding green peanuts in their local Asian markets as well.
Raw peanuts are peanuts that have been dried. They have a longer shelf life and chances are it will be much easier to find raw peanuts over green ones. You can use raw peanuts, but green peanuts make far superior boiled peanuts in my opinion. If raw is all you can get your hands on, you’ll want to soak them overnight and add about 25 minutes to the cook time.
Vinegar
I’ve had a few questions about the addition of the vinegar in this recipe, so I thought I’d mention it here. A while back, someone shared the tip with me of adding vinegar in the peanuts and I’ve added it ever since. It adds some amazing flavor without tasting like vinegar at all. When testing this recipe, folks could certainly tell the difference between the batch with the vinegar and the batch without it, but no one could put their finger on it. They all preferred the vinegar version. They won’t taste like vinegar. I promise.
Recipe Card
Instant Pot Boiled Peanuts
Ingredients
- 2 pounds green peanuts
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Rinse the peanuts in cool water. Place them in the Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker.
- Add the salt and vinegar. Add enough water to just cover the peanuts. For me, that was about 10 cups. Be cautious to not exceed the max fill line on your appliance.
- Place the lid on and seal. Cook on high pressure for 60 minutes than turn the appliance off and allow the pressure to release naturally. Carefully remove the lid and enjoy!
Notes
Please note:
If nutritional values are provided, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands used. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, I recommend grabbing your favorite brands and plugging those ingredients into an online nutritional calculator.
Can this recipe be cut in half? We have only one pound. Do I just cut the other ingredients in half and cook the same amount of time or should the time be adjusted?
Yep! You’ll just cut all the ingredient in half, but the cook time will stay the same. Enjoy!
I can remember going to my great grandfather’s house in Florida when I was 4 or 5 and we went in his garden and pulled peanuts to boil. I have loved them ever since. Glad I found your recipe. I have never used the insta pot for peanuts and I’m gonna give it a try. I was amazed when looking on-line that most sites just said use raw peanuts and not mention green peanuts at all. I think using green peanuts are so much better and I only use raw when the green peanuts are out of season.
I agree! Green peanuts make for the best boiled peanuts!
Perfection! Having grown up in Beaufort, SC, boiled peanuts have long been a favorite. Finding green peanuts here in the eastern panhandle of WV isn’t easy.
Our daughter found green peanuts on a recent trip to NC and gifted us with 2 pounds.
I love the ease of this recipe/method. The flavor is definitely spot on! And for this Beaufort girl, the texture is perfect!
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed them!!
Been boiling my green peanuts in my instant pot for 2 years now. Being a born and raised AL girl, I love boiled peanuts and buy and boil them very often during green peanut seasoning.
It’s such an easy and flavorful way to make them!
How much salt do you use per lb of peanuts. The last batch I made were way to salty after sitting a day…
I typically use about 1/4 cup per pound.
Question I do boiled peanuts with crab boil concentrate and Old Bay do you think it would work always just did water and slow cook
Absolutely! I know lots of folks that boil peanuts with crab boil. Just be cautious about how much you add.
For Green Peanuts, you should NEVER cook for longer than 40 minutes in an instant pot – they will be total mush.
Actually, I’ve sometimes found that they need a longer cook time to get them to my liking. But, with that being said, I did question myself after seeing your comment. A quick Google search showed that MANY recipes using the Instant Pot call for at least 60 minute – many called or longer. So, I still feel confident in this cook time.
Got some green peanuts at the NC state farmers market and tried this. Tasted great but too mushy for my taste. Had the consistency of mashed potatoes. So I tried again with some raw peanuts I ordered on Amazon Amish Eco Farms. I soaked them in brine the night before, dumped the water, and followed this recipe again. But I put in them in pot for just 50 minutes at 350 and then did a quick release. They came out perfect!
Oh so glad you tried it again and got it perfect!
Saw you share this recipe on Simply Southern, and having a new 3 quart Instant Pot, I gave I a try. I had some green peanuts as well as some dry raw ones, picked up at Durbin Farms market in Clanton. First batch of green peanuts, but a little too mushy for me— I like a LITTLE crunch. Next batch at 50 minutes, with a heaping 1/3 cup of salt. Perfect to my taste! Oh, and the vinegar definitely adds a little edge to the flavor. I tried the raw peanuts, and after some experimenting, (and too lazy to soak overnight), I now do 3 hours on high pressure. Just right. With the mini size IP, I use 4 cups of peanuts, 5 cups of water, 1/3 to 1/2 cup salt, 1/4 cup vinegar. Thanks!
Phil I am so glad you kept trying until you got them perfect!
I wish I had seen this recipe a while ago. I use raw dry peanuts. My recipe uses 24 ounces of shell on raw dry peanuts, less than a half cup of salt, a half cup of red pepper flakes, a very big load of fresh finely ground pepper, several generous dashes of lowery’s seasoning salt, a few good shakes of cayenne pepper, a Zaterans bag of crab and seafood boil and 12 jalapeños cut in half. Using high pressure, I set the timer for four hours and let the pressure release naturally. I wish I knew about the vinegar. If you try my recipe, let me know how it turns out. Enjoy.
I forgot to add cover with water.
Will do! Those sound like some peanuts with some heat! 🙂
I have to tell you in my honest opinion these were something I would never try again – I followed the instructions to a “T” and actually threw them out after testing at least 10 examples – personal taste varies –
I use Ole Bay crab seasoning in my boiled peanuts. Yummy!
Great idea!!
Hey Stacy. I enjoy your recipes. These are really delicious and I’m sure I will never cook them any other way. I used 1/3 cup each salt and vinegar. I used to have the Cuisinart CPC 600. I replaced it with 8 quart Insignia. Small family but upsized mainly to accommodate the collards:-). Hope you have a good summer.
Thanks, Deborah! Glad to hear you enjoyed these!
Sorry, this recipe fell short. I’ve been making boiled peanuts for decades, I love them. I was looking for a recipe to use my IP. I have green peanuts and thought I’d give this recipe a shot with the vinegar. I followed the recipe exactly. The vinegar I can most definitely taste. And it is not a good flavor. I love vinegar too. I’ll power through my boiled peanuts but I will never put vinegar in my peanuts again. Sorry to the poster.
Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy these. I’ve made them numerous times and never felt they were vinegary at all. Of course, the recipe will work just fine without it.
I’ve made these repeatedly since first discovering your recipe and they are wonderful every time! I’ve even shared the recipe with friends and co-workers, and they love it too. I told them to get your cookbook asap!
Thanks Laura! We made them this weekend too!
I love your website with all the great Southern recipes. I grew up in Tennessee and have eaten so many of the ingredients you speak of. To me Southern food is the best and all ways will be. Thank you for all your recipes and the taste that brings to me some great memories.
Thanks so much, Gale!
Stacey! Hope Ritchey Kelley here (PHS 2000). I just googled instant pot boiled peanuts and your website was the first thing to pop up! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Hey, Hope! So glad to hear Google sent you my way! Hope you’ll enjoy these!
It’s been a long while since we had boiled peanuts and are looking forward to enjoying them again. We could only find raw peanuts, no green. I have a question regarding cooking them. After soaking the raw peanuts overnight do you cook them in the soaking water? Or would you drain them and cook them like the green peanuts?
Either way should work just fine. Hope you enjoy them!
I love these!! Thank you for the recipe!!
So glad to hear you enjoyed them!! The Instant Pot makes it so easy, right?
I don’t understand the need for the vinegar. What is it for?
It adds some great flavor without tasting like vinegar. It’s a trick that was shared with me a while back. I never make them without it now.
We discovered boiled peanuts while on vacation years ago to Alabama, and we LOVE them! We like the cajun the best, however. Do you have a spice suggestion to add in order to enjoy them “Cajun Style”?
Thank you for this post, I hope to be able to try them sometime!! 🙂
You can swap some of the salt out for a great Creole seasoning and add a few dashes of red pepper flakes.
Oh Stacey!! I am so jealous looking at those fresh boiled peanuts! I was raised on them in Montgomery and also in south Ga where I graduated in Cairo, Ga. I never ever realized how much of a custom such as boiled peanuts were until I left Ga and joined the Air Force. Another world existed!! Married a yankee from Ohio that I met in the Air Force. He was an AirBorne FireFighter. We ended up in Ohio in 1973, and the ‘culture’ here is way different than what I was used to. Boiled peanuts were a part of my up-raising. Each year, as I traveled to Montg. to see my paternal family members, I would buy huge 20# bags of raw peanuts. I want to say that one place was a farmer’s stand near Slap Out, but also a place outside of Clanton just off I.S.65, also times at the Big Peach market north of Prattville and elsewhere. I brought them home and put them in the freezer until I was ready to ‘boil’ them up. I found years ago that the old pressure cooker did such a great job and a fast one with fantastic results. My question to you, since I never heard of it, was the use of vinegar in your boiling water. I recall my grandma in Ga used the great big iron kettle outside over an open fire and would boil pounds of fresh peanuts in season. It was a ‘natural’ treat for us. In the day, you never saw stands set up by the roadside to buy boiled peanuts and that was because we all had access to peanuts and watermelons which I love so much. I also want to tell you that I spent my High School years in Cairo, Ga. I worked at the Roddenberry Pickle Plant in my summer months and would go home smelling like garlic and pickle brine! At the same plant, they processed peanut butter sold under different brands and also canned boiled peanuts. I think the label was “Peanut Patch” still made today but at other plants in other states. I have a few cans in the cupboard now. In the day, 60’s and 70’s, I could buy a whole case of 24 for about $3 total. They were rejected cans, some labels missing, a few dents, etc. I would take home about 6-8 cases back to Ohio. They were not as good as fresh but better than nothing. My husband and our two sons ‘finally’ grew to love the peanuts as well. Now I can find the cans at certain stores in Ohio. I hope I am not boring you. One more incident I would like to share. Some people who have never ate boiled peanuts would actually put the whole peanut with the shell into their mouth and chew.. It never occurred to me to warn them not to do that because I had never seen anyone try to eat the shell with peanuts inside. Of course, they spit it out. But they also would learn how to shell the peanut, pop those kernels into their mouth and spit it out with disgust. Their take on a ‘peanut’ was a roasted or parched peanut with a salty crunchy taste was what they were use to. Boiled peanuts are a completely different taste. To them, the boiled peanut tastes like a green bean of some sort. You either learn to love them or hate time. Oh, don’t forget to let me know about the vinegar if you have time. I love your website and love getting your emails with all the mouth watering recipes. You are my kind of chef! Thank you for all the interesting stories about how you come to use a recipe and never fearing what a person has to say. It is your family heritage and that is a great thing to pass on. God’s blessings on you and your family. Stay ‘cool’ in the hot weather. We are having the same here in West Central Ohio north of Dayton.
Yep, you either love ’em or hate ’em …. I LOVE them, so thanks for the recipe. I, too, was wondering about the vinegar.
I’ve never heard of that being used but I’m willing to give it a try. I travel up and down I-65 from north Ala, to south Ala
quite often so I’ll be looking for some “green” peanuts.
Try stopping at Kendrick farm at exit 181. They have alot of different alabama grown produce and they have a little Cafe that is so good. Check their hours before going, they have a Facebook, as they are experiencing labor shortages and have to keep adjusting their hours.
Love my friends at Kendrick Farms!
Try seasoning the peanuts with Old Bay seasoning. It makes them taste good with a little heat.
It does add some great flavor, right? The options are really endless with these!
Thanks for sharing .
Hope you’ll enjoy them!!
Has anyone tried this method using Cajun flavors or hot flavors? I love spicy boiled peanuts!!
Swapping some of the salt out for some creole seasoning or simply adding in some red pepper flakes should work perfectly!