You've probably heard about the life-changing magic of the Instant Pot. The trendy multi-cooker has a serious cult following thanks to its many super powers. It was America's best-selling item on Amazon Prime Day and more than 40,000 home chefs are part of the Instant Pot community on Facebook. Search #InstantPot on Instagram, and you'll find an endless supply of raves:

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This woman even created an entire Instagram account for her beloved Instant Pot:

But wait, we know what you're wondering: "Multi-cooker? What the heck is that?" Well, it's similar to the pressure cooker that was popular back in the day. And while you probably remember that rattling top on the pot of grandma's stove and worry about things exploding, don't fret. Electric pressure cookers have been around (and totally safe!) for a while, and the Instant Pot phenom is a sort of a pressure cooker comeback. Folks love these newer pressure cookers and multi-cookers because they are mostly hands off — similar to the same way a slow cooker works. You put your ingredients in there, set it up and let it do its thing. The one added bonus a multi-cooker offers over a pressure cooker is that it doesn't just do fast cooking, you can also brown your meat in the pot first, make rice, slow cook and steam in the pot.

But back to the beloved Instant Pot. We have some big news: It's not the best multi-cooker out there. (PLOT TWIST!) We actually tested many of the new multi-cookers on the market in the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Technology Lab and discovered a better pick: Fagor Lux. In our lab tests, Fagor came up to pressure a whopping 15 minutes faster than the Instant Pot, which means you'd get dinner on the table that much sooner.

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Courtesy of Fagor

If you already own an Instant Pot, don't worry, you're not out $100. The Instant Pot received high marks in nearly every other one of our tests, particularly pressure cooking and slow cooking beef stew, and the controls were intuitive and easy to use.

But if you've been following the multi-cooker trend and haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet, we say go with the Fagor Lux. Either way, your investment will be worth it when you try one of these recipes.

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Betty Gold

Betty Gold is an experienced food writer and editor who worked at Good Housekeeping from 2013 to 2019. As the former Senior Editor & Product Analyst in the Kitchen Appliances Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute, she tested and wrote about pretty much every type of cooking tool and food-related item on the market.