Instant Pot Mussels Mariniere- a fancy, yet incredibly easy and delicious way to pressure cook mussels! Make your family think you're a seasoned chef with this 20-minute elegant steamed mussels recipe.
Jump to:
These Instant Pot Mussels are a quick and easy, yet so-very elegant, way of steaming mussels. Mussels are pressure cooked in a healthy, beautiful and aromatic onion and white wine sauce known as mariniere. Garlic, shallots, and tomatoes are sauteed in butter, then mixed with dry white wine and broth to create a fantastically flavorful mariniere sauce.
Mussels may sound sophisticated and you may be thinking they are hard to cook, but they are not. This is an easy recipe that will impress anyone- the outcome will make it look like you're one of the best cooks around!
They are great for holiday dinners, dinner parties with friends, or simple family dinner. Brunch, lunch, or dinner, mussels fit the bill.
And as you're enjoying this easy and fancy delicious dinner, you'll also be munching on one of the world's greatest power foods! Mussels are full of iron, potassium, zinc, manganese, and selenium. They have one of the highest concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids and contain more iron and vitamin b12 than beef. They are packed with protein, at a whopping 18 grams per serving! Mussels are naturally gluten-free, so they are great for a variety of diets too. We should all be eating more of these little nutrient-packed gems!
Another great fact about mussels is that they are usually less expensive than other seafoods. So this Instant Pot mussels recipe is healthy, easy, and inexpensive! These are my favorite kinds of recipes.
MORE INSTANT POT SEAFOOD RECIPES
- Instant Pot Manhattan Clam Chowder
- Instant Pot Clam Chowder (Creamy New England Style)
- Instant Pot Cajun Pasta
- Instant Pot Salmon and Rice
Ingredients
- Butter: salted or unsalted are both fine.
- Shallot: choose a shallot on the larger size to get about ½ cup of diced shallot.
- Garlic: fresh cloves or a jar of minced.
- Tomato: plum tomatoes are great here, but use what you have!
- Dry white wine: avoid cooking wine as it won't provide much flavor. Use a real dry white wine instead, such as Chardonnay
- Mussels: you can use fresh or frozen but make sure to prepare them correctly (see below).
- Vegetable broth: chicken broth works also.
- Lemon: freshly squeezed lemon is preferred but ¼ cup of lemon juice can replace the lemon.
- Crushed red pepper
- Parsley: use fresh parsley for a garnish when serving.
How To Prepare Mussels Before Cooking
How you prepare mussels prior to cooking depends on whether you are using fresh or frozen mussels.
Fresh: Soak fresh mussels in a large bowl of cold water for 20 minutes. This cold water soak releases sand and grit from inside the shell. If any shells are open, tap them and wait 30 seconds for the shell to close. If the shell doesn't close, discard it (this means your live mussel is dead). Once they have been soaked, debeard mussels and scrub the outside of the shells. Rinse under cold water until it runs clean. Your mussels are now ready to cook!
Frozen: Frozen, prepackaged mussels (like you would buy from the freezer section of the grocery store) need no preparation before dumping into the Instant Pot. You do not need to throw away open or broken shells.
Instructions
Before continuing with these steps, make sure you've prepared your mussels according to my instructions above.
STEP 1: Set the Instant Pot to saute on high for 3 minutes. Add the butter and melt completely. Add diced shallots and tomato and saute for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add minced garlic and cook 1 minute more.
STEP 2: Turn off saute and pour in the dry white wine. Deglaze the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to ensure no bits of onion, garlic and tomato are stuck.
STEP 3: Add the mussels to the Instant Pot. They can be stacked, but make sure to gently put them into the pot so the shells don't crack. Juice the lemon and combine with the vegetable broth in a mixing glass. Pour it over the mussels. Sprinkle with the crushed red pepper.
STEP 4: Close the lid and seal. Set to pressure cook (manual) on high for 5 minutes for frozen mussels and 3 minutes for fresh mussels. When done steaming, complete a controlled quick release of the pressure.
STEP 5: Open the lid and transfer the mussels to a serving bowl using tongs. Discard any mussels with closed shells. Pour the rest of the wine sauce that's in the pot over the mussels and season lightly with freshly ground salt if desired. Top with fresh torn parsley and serve warm.
How To Serve Mussels
Instant Pot mussels mariniere are delicious served as is as an appetizer for a fancy dinner or the main "meat" for an elegant dinner. They are wonderful served over linguini or other long pastas with the wine sauce poured over top. Mussels pair excentally with crusty bread, like French bread or garlic bread, a fresh green salad and crisp vegetables. Make it a very seafood meal by serving with maple glazed bacon-wrapped scallops or make it a surf and turf night and serve along with juicy air fried steak.
These recipes are just a few of the many ideas for pairings:
How To Store and Reheat Mussels
Mussels have a short shelf-life so they are best served immediately after cooking. They can be kept in the fridge in a covered dish for up to 2 days. Reheat quickly in the microwave or put into your air fryer and use the reheat setting on 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes. It's not recommended to freeze cooked mussels, especially if they were frozen previously.
Cooking Tips
You should not thaw frozen mussels before cooking, unless the package indicates doing so. Most packaged mussels must be prepared from frozen.
Fresh mussels are pressure cooked at high for 3 minutes. Frozen mussels should be pressured cooked for 5 minutes. It's important not to overcook mussels, as they will become chewy.
You sure can!
PEI mussels are the best mussels to use, in my opinion. But if you can't find PEI mussels, any other fresh or frozen mussels will work great. I often use a package of frozen mussels because then I don't need to soak, clean, and debeard them. It's so much easier!
You should soak fresh mussels prior to cooking so that any sand and grit is released from inside the shell. No one wants to eat sand!
Using a dry white wine is essential to making a delicious mariniere sauce, so I don't recommend using something else. If you must, use a cooking wine or use extra vegetable or chicken broth.
Some other things to remember when cooking mussels in your Instant Pot are:
- Mussels do not smell fishy. If yours do, they are likely bad and shouldn't be used.
- Place the mussels in the pressure cooker gently, as you don't want to break the delicate shells.
- With prep time and cook time, this recipe takes about 40 minutes when using fresh mussels and 20 minutes when using frozen. This includes pressure building and releasing time.
- Always perform a quick release to avoid overcooking.
- Discard any mussels that have not opened once cooked.
- You can increase the amount of mussels and sauce used, but make sure not to go over the fill line.
- Save the extra sauce for using in pasta dishes later one. Freeze in freezer-safe bags for up to 6 months.
Enjoy!
If you enjoyed this recipe, make sure to give it a star rating and let me know what you thought in the comments! And follow me on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for more delicious recipes!
Recipe
Instant Pot Mussels
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 1 large shallot diced
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 1 plum tomato diced
- ½ cup dry white wine such as Chardonnay
- 2 lbs mussels fresh or frozen (see notes for preparation guidance)
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 large lemon
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 4 tablespoon fresh parsley
Instructions
- Before getting started prepare your fresh mussels according to the notes section below. Frozen mussels can be used as is.
- Set the Instant Pot to saute on high for 3 minutes. Add the butter and melt completely. Add diced shallots and tomato and saute for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add minced garlic and cook 1 minute more.
- Turn off saute and pour in the dry white wine. Deglaze the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to ensure no bits of onion, garlic and tomato are stuck.
- Add the mussels to the Instant Pot. They can be stacked, but make sure to gently put them into the pot so the shells don't crack. Combine the vegetable broth and juice from the lemon in a mixing glass and pour it over the mussels. Sprinkle with the crushed red pepper.
- Close the lid and seal. Set to pressure cook (manual) on high for 5 minutes for frozen mussels and 3 minutes for fresh mussels. When done steaming, complete a controlled quick release of the pressure.
- Open the lid and transfer the mussels to a serving bowl using tongs. Discard any mussels with closed shells. Pour the rest of the wine sauce that's in the pot over the mussels and season lightly with freshly ground salt if desired. Top with fresh torn parsley and serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
RELATED RECIPES
Noel
Cook them this way 2-3 times a week! After a while this recipe becomes second nature. Instant pot is pretty much a foolproof way to cook PEI mussels. IDK how many times i've made them this way(40-50??) but haven't gotten sick even once!! (knock-on-wood).
Alison
I can’t wait to try this. Quick question. My grocery store only sells frozen cooked mussels. Would that work and would I just adjust the cook time, or add them in at the end?
Kristina
Hi Alison! I hope you enjoy it! Certainly use the frozen cooked mussels. Most frozen mussels are fully, or partially, cooked so there is no need to change the cook time. Thanks for bringing this question up- I will be more specific in the recipe.
-Kristina
Aja
Mussels are one of my absolutely favoured foods to eat. This is an amazing recipe! I just added cream after pressure cooking for richer texture and taste. Turned out perfect. Thank you!
Kristina
I am so glad you enjoyed them!
Ellen Petersen
We are close friends with the owners of a marina and seasonal restaurant, and when they closed this year they sold extra inventory, and I picked up 10 lbs of frozen mussels. I made this recipe for our friend, who declared it better than theirs! There was five of us, we all loved them, and drank some of the extra broth like soup (which I will have to freeze next time, as I just read that suggestion when coming here to leave a rave review).
Kristina
Thanks Ellen! I am so glad you and your friends enjoyed the recipe!
Toni
We just trued it and it turned out really good!! Thanks for sharing the recipe!!
Mairead
I love mussels but have never made them in the instant pot before. Thanks for such a detailed tutorial. I'll have to give this recipe a try.
Beth
I'm a HUGE fan of anything that makes me look like I did so much more than I did. This looks so good.
Dannii
My husband loves mussels. I never would have thought to do them in the instant pot. Such a great idea!
Aimee Mars
Brilliant, just brilliant! We love mussels in my house and I've never thought to make them in the Instant Pot. I can't wait to try this recipe.