Sort Through The Beans. Go through the beans and pick out any dried up beans, debris, or small pebbles.
Rinse The Beans. Using a strainer, give the dried pinto beans a good rinse under cold water before pressure cooking.
Pressure Cook The Beans. Pressure cook the pinto beans in 8 cups of water or broth first for 25 minutes before adding the other ingredients. If ingredients for the sauce were added now, they would be overcooked, and could potentially burn on the bottom of the pot. So baked beans in an Instant Pot require a 2-step process for the best results. Pressure cook beans first and then add the ingredients for the sauce and finish cooking the beans with the sauce.
Natural Release. Let the pressure in the Instant Pot release naturally, which means you do nothing for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, then move the PRESSURE RELEASE VALVE to VENTING to release the pressure. (This may take a couple of minutes.) After the pressure is completely released and the pin has dropped, carefully remove the lid.
Drain The Beans. Drain the beans, emptying all liquid from the inner liner pot of the Instant Pot.
Prepare The Baked Beans
Cook the bacon or ham, onions, bell peppers or jalapeños. If you are using bacon, cook the small pieces of bacon in the Instant Pot using the SAUTE feature. After the bacon is cooked for a few minutes, add the onion, bell pepper and/or jalapeños. After cooking for about 3 minutes, stir in the minced garlic for about 3 minutes. NOTE: if you are using ham instead of bacon, you will need about 1 tablespoon of oil before cooking the ham, onions, and bell peppers.
Add the Remaining Ingredients. Add back the cooked beans, Ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, molasses, seasonings, and 1 cup water or broth.
Pressure cook the beans on high pressure for 10 minutes.
Quick Release. After 10 minutes of pressure cooking, do a quick release by moving the pressure release valve to the VENTING position to quickly release the pressure. Press CANCEL and carefully remove the lid and serve.
Notes
Notes:
If using diced ham, first add about 1 tablespoon of oil to the bottom of the Instant Pot. Then add the onion, bell peppers (and/or jalapeños) and cook for about 3 minutes or until onion is soft.