Decadent Instant Pot Chocolate Oatmeal

This Instant Pot chocolate oatmeal is perfect for special mornings, yet quick and simple to make and deeply satisfying no matter when you enjoy it.

I love to make Sunday mornings special – even though we're often in a hurry to get everyone up and out the door for church.

I also love deep, dark, decadent chocolate.

Bitter 92% cacao is my favorite, but my kids and husband definitely prefer the much sweeter milk chocolate, so no worries – this recipe has a gorgeous balance of bitter and sweet.

And on any given morning, making breakfast needs to be quick, so I often make oatmeal simply by cooking it in the Instant Pot, which both makes the job super-easy and does a very decent job of breaking down the grains for better digestibility compared to cooking them on the stovetop.

Needless to say, we eat a lot of Instant Pot oatmeal.

But on special days, like Sundays, birthdays, or tomorrow's Valentine's Day, I don't want to simply make what I make every day. I want to make something… special.

Thankfully, chocolate oatmeal isn't ANY harder to make than regular oatmeal, but it tastes a thousand more times decadent, particularly if you top it with berries and drizzle it with a bit of cream. (Our favorites are the raspberries we froze during last summer's harvest specifically so we could be enjoying them through the winter. Mmmm…… yum!)

Seriously, chocolate oatmeal takes about two minutes of hands-on time and is about 20-25 minutes from start to finish, including prep, pressurizing, cooking, AND depressurizing.

Best of all, with the Instant Pot, the chocolate oatmeal can be cooking while you're doing everything else, like finding your preschooler's shoes and making coffee.

It's the perfect special-yet-simple quick breakfast.

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Decadent Instant Pot Chocolate Oatmeal

Perfect for special mornings yet quick and simple to make, this chocolate oatmeal is deeply satisfying no matter when you enjoy it.

Prep Time2 minutes

Cook Time3 minutes

Pressurizing and Depressurizing20 minutes

Total Time25 minutes

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
• 3 ½ cups old-fashioned oats, sometimes called "large flake"
• 1 cup evaporated cane sugar or other granulated sugar*, see note below
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ½ cup chocolate chips, preferably stevia-sweetened chocolate chips, but any chocolate chips will work just fine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon chocolate extract, optional
• fresh or frozen berries or other fruit, optional

Instructions

• Add ingredients to pressure cooker. Add the water to the insert of a 6- or 8-quart electric pressure cooker, then add all remaining ingredients.
• Seal the lid. Place on the lid, making sure the sealing vent is closed.
• Cook the chocolate oatmeal. Press the "Porridge" button if your machine has one, or use the Manual setting to set the cook time for 3 minutes on HIGH pressure.
• Depressurize naturally. When the cook time has ended, let the pressure cooker depressurize naturally, 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your pressure cooker and where you live in relation to sea level.
• Serve. Open the lid carefully, stir well, then ladle into bowls. The chocolate oatmeal will thicken as it cools. (Note: It's typically MOLTENLY hot when it's first served, so serve with care.)
• Top with berries, if desired. Top with blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, bananas, or other fruit, as desired. Use FROZEN berries, if possible, to help the chocolate oatmeal cool more quickly.

Notes

Note about the included sugar: You may choose to skip the sugar and simply see if the chocolate chips provide enough sweetness for your taste, then sweeten each bowl individually to taste as necessary with your favorite natural sweeteners, such as maple syrup or coconut sugar. It is recommended to reduce the oats by 1/2 cup if you remove the sugar from the recipe.