Instant Pot Mussels

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How to cook garlic mussels. Introducing you to delicious instant pot mussels. Cooked with either garlic or white wine or both, they are one of the most delicious pressure cooker recipes of all time.

Even better, you will LOVE the garlic and white wine mussels stock that you can freeze and use in other instant pot fish and seafood recipes.

This is an updated post. We originally shared with you all about making garlic butter mussels in the instant pot back in 2016.

Garlic Butter Mussels

I am very lucky to have travelled to a lot of European countries. Childhood holidays in a motorhome would include Spain, Portugal, France and often Andorra. We would also sneak in a few trips to Belgium and Germany too. There would also be holidays to the Greek Isles as well as the Balearics and the Canaries.

Then we lived in Portugal for 13 years, briefly lived in Spain and have also visited Luxemburg.

But the one country that has always had me the most excited about food in Europe is France.

Childhood memories of buying a croissant from the patisserie or buying a ham hock from the market.

To returning to France as an adult and eating way too many French sticks.

But if there is a food that I MUST EAT whilst on holiday in France it is always mussels or as the French call them Moules Marinieres.  

Usually, you would have Moules Marinieres with some French bread and the highlight of the meal was when the mussels were almost done and you could dunk your bread in the delicious mussel sauce below.

Or if you were me and my dad, then you were likely to order some frites (French for chips) on the side too.  

Today though, I wanted to show you how you can take your French holiday favourite to the instant pot and make garlic butter mussels aka Moules Marinieres in the instant pot pressure cooker.

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Can You Cook Mussels In A Pressure Cooker?

Yes, you can cook your mussels in a pressure cooker. We have the instant pot pressure cooker in our kitchen and used it to make the best instant pot mussels.

You can also make mussels in the Ninja Foodi, Pressure King Pro, or another brand of electric pressure cooker.

Is It Better To Boil Or Steam Mussels?

It is much better to steam your mussels rather than boiling them. This is because steamed mussels keep their flavour, they also keep all the nutrients in them.

I grew up on boiled mussels and have to say the steamed mussels really have the wow factor.

What Is The Best Method Of Cooking Mussels?

The best method for cooking mussels is to do so in an electric pressure cooker such as the instant pot or the ninja foodi.

It’s a very simple concept for pressure cooker mussels.

Mussels have stock added first and then the mussels are loaded in before a pressure cook.

Then whilst the mussels are steaming in the pressure cooker you can work on your sides such as some French bread and some frites.

Do You Cook Mussels In Water?

No, I don’t recommend cooking mussels in water. The reason why mussels are so delicious is because they are cooked in a garlic butter and white wine stock. If you just cooked them in water, they would be plain and boring.

Easy Mussels Method

I have a method that makes mussels even easier, and that is using the supermarket cheat version.

Whether I am in England, France, Portugal, or another European country there is often boxes of mussels already cooked and prepped ready for a reheat, just like the ones below I have just bought from Morrisons:

They are already prepped and all you are doing is using your electric pressure cooker i.e. instant pot, to add more stock and flavour and to warm them through.

My mum and aunts would buy these packs all the time and it made for a delicious mussel evening just without the cleaning of the mussels and making a stock from scratch.

BUT the problem I have is that they either come in as a white wine box or garlic butter. My solution? Buy one of each of the boxes and then mix them together in the instant pot and you then have garlic butter and white wine stock in your instant pot.

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Mussels Instant Pot Ingredients

Mussels – You will need 1-2 boxes of the already cooked and sold in stock mussels. I used one pack of the garlic butter and one pack of the white wine mussels.

Onion – We start the cooking process by sauteing an onion in the instant pot. It adds flavour to the instant pot, and I usually do this whilst I prep other ingredients.

Garlic – I recommend thinly slicing some fresh garlic. Because you are using the garlic for the stock you don’t need it to be minced.

White Wine – The white wine becomes the stock and is also used to deglaze the instant pot with.  

Butter – Because this is French mussels in garlic butter, butter is essential and using extra virgin olive oil is just not the same.

Parsley – I don’t often serve food with fresh parsley, but instant pot steamed mussels is perfect for serving with it. It adds colour and it adds great flavour to the garlic, butter, and white wine.

Extras – Mussels marniere is not the same without the bread to dunk into the juices. In France you would be served your mussels in a large pan with a spare plate for your shells. Then you would dip your crusty bread into the garlic butter sauce. I recommend one French bread stick to feed 2 people.

Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this instant pot mussels marniere it has just been our Instant Pot. We have this one and it’s my favourite and great for a lot of foods that can make from scratch.

Plus, we recommend you head over to our instant pot recipes category as we have many electric pressure cooker recipes and have been using instant pots for 5 years.

How To Cook Mussels?

• Prepare. Start by sauteing your onion with butter and then adding in chopped garlic and deglazing with some white wine.
• Load. Then load up your instant pot mussels and mix well. You will now have the stock from the box as well as the white wine that you already added.
• Cook. Place the lid on the instant pot, set the valve to sealing and cook for 1 minute.
• Finish. Then serve with lemon wedges and French bread.

And I am sure you can see now how simple and easy it is to make steamed mussels in garlic sauce in the instant pot.

How Long To Cook Mussels In Instant Pot?

Mussels cooking time in the instant pot is JUST 1 minute. That means you take the instant pot to pressure and cook the garlic mussels for 1 minute and then do a quick pressure release.

Plus, you also have 2-3 minutes for sauteing your onion to flavour the cooking pot.

Cooked Mussels Stock

I know many people that don’t really care for mussels. My hubby Dominic is one of those people. But what he does LOVE and can not get enough of, is the stock that comes with cooking the mussels.

It’s a mixture of flavours from the mussels, the garlic butter, the white wine and the parsley and OMG tastes amazing.

As soon as I have eaten some of the mussels and you can see the liquid in the bottom of the pot, he will be there with his bread.

Then when we are done eating and all the bread has gone, we are always left with plenty of mussels stock leftover.

We will then load this into a Pyrex container and then we have stock for the freezer to make another seafood dish in the instant pot. You can then use that for our instant pot paella or even as your stock for a seafood pasta dish.

Steamed Mussels Tips & Tricks

• The best part of pressure cooker mussels is the leftover stock. Please don’t throw it away. Instead get it ready for the freezer and use it in another instant pot recipe.

• Buy a French bread stick on the day. They go stale very quickly compared to other breads.

• Have a spare dish for your mussel shells so that they are not taking over the bowl as you are eating.

• Discard unopened mussels these have not cooked properly and are likely to lead to food poisoning.

• Do the full French experience and serve the mussels directly in the instant pot. This also saves on washing up!

More Instant Pot Fish & Seafood Recipes

• Instant Pot Paella Soup
• Instant Pot Frozen Salmon
• Instant Pot Salmon & Broccoli
• Instant Pot Garlic Shrimp

Your mussels in instant pot recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.

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