Spicy and salty, cajun boiled peanuts are the perfect summertime snack. Making them in the Instant Pot is MUCH faster than traditional methods, and they turn out perfectly tender each time.
There is ONE small thing to deal with before you make this recipe though --
Where can I buy green peanuts?
If you live in the South, and you're between the months of June and September, you can likely find them in a huge bin, loose, in the local grocery store.
If you are not so #blessed, then try finding raw peanuts.
What's the difference between raw peanuts and green peanuts?
Green peanuts are those super fresh, just-pulled-from-the-ground peanuts that still have a very high moisture content ( and makes them oh-so-wonderful for boiling.)
Raw peanuts have been air-dried and have lost much of their moisture. This helps them last longer on the shelf, but they have NOT been roasted. You can absolutely use raw peanuts in this recipe, but be sure to increase the pressurized cooking time by about 15 minutes to account for the loss in moisture.
How do you eat boiled peanuts?
Okay first things first, do NOT eat the shell.
- Put the entire boiled peanut into your mouth, and use your teeth to crack the shell open
- Slurp up all the delicious salty brine inside
- Remove the shell and peanuts from your mouth, use your fingers to open the shell the rest of the way, take out the peanuts with your fingers, and pop them into your mouth
- Discard the shell
If you love this Instant Pot Boiled Peanuts recipe, you might also like these other recipes:
And don't forget to check out ALL of the Instant Pot recipes I've got on my site! Click here and bookmark this page for later -> Instant Pot Recipes
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Cajun Boiled Peanuts
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ lb green peanuts
- ⅓ cup table salt
- 6 cups water
- ¼ cup Cajun seasoning or Creole seasoning Cajun will be spicier!
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Thoroughly rinse off the green peanuts with water and throw out any peanuts that are mushy. Place all ingredients in the insert of the Instant Pot. Close the lid, and set the steam release valve to sealing/sealed.
- Cook on high pressure for 1 hour.
- After the hour is up, let the peanuts sit in the pot as the pressure releases naturally for 25-30 minutes. Do not open the sealing valve during this time. Once the pressure indicator drops, open the lid.
- You can eat the peanuts hot ( my preference! ) or you can chill them in the fridge and eat them cold.
- Serve and store them in the liquid they cooked in. They will keep for up to a week in a covered container.
AJ says
Flavor and seasoning seems pretty good! I used 1.3 lbs of green (fresh) peanuts and followed the cook time but they came out a little mushy. The shells are nice and hard still, but I think next time I’ll try just 1 hour high pressure and vent immediately instead of waiting an extra 30 minutes to see if that helps make them less mushy. I used Slap Ya Mama and iodized salt with the measurements provided and it worked great! Also added a bag of Zatarain’s crab boil spice bag (no extra salt just the spices). I used an Instant Pot Pro as well so not sure if that impacted the cooking time but will definitely try this recipe again just slightly less cooking time 🙂 thank you!
Katie says
These look fantastic. I didn't have a boiled peanut until I moved to Charleston! I can't imagine my life without them now!!