How To Make Beef Stew In An Instant Pot
The step-by-step photo tutorial is below but be sure to watch the short instructional video at the end of this post.
Lets get cooking!
Set your Instant Pot to SAUTÉ and when the indicator reads HOT add a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil. Add half of the beef cubes and season with 2 teaspoons of the seasoning mix. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the beef is nicely browned.
Use a slotted spoon to transfer the beef to a dish and repeat this process with the remaining beef and an additional 2 teaspoons of seasoning mix. There will be a little seasoning left and you want to reserve that for later.
Add a little more vegetable oil to the empty pot, if necessary, and add some diced onions, chopped celery, and minced garlic. Cook, stirring, until softened.
Add a few tablespoons of tomato paste and stir it well to combine. Tomato paste adds some oomph to the sauce.
Pour in some low-sodium beef broth, a little red wine , some Worcestershire sauce, the remaining seasoning mix, and a bay leaf.
Time to add the browned beef back to the liquid in the pot and give it a stir. Scatter the potatoes and carrots over the top and do NOT stir the mixture at this point. They should rest on top of the meat and liquid so that they will cook to fork-tender perfection. I use this same method in my Instant Pot Pot Roast and it works like a charm.
Secure the lid and set your Instant Pot to cook at HIGH pressure for 30 minutes.
Just slice the bread and pour the wine and dinner is served.
How To Cook The Best Beef Stew In The Instant Pot
Cooking great beef stew in the Instant Pot is a two step process.
- First pressure cook the meat.
- Second, add the vegetables and pressure cook a few more minutes.
The vegetables cook more quickly than the beef, so this two step process means that the meat is perfectly cooked without the veggies getting mushy.
Keep in mind that after pressure cooking the meat, you can leave the Instant Pot on the Keep Warm setting for up to 10 hours and continue with the recipe when youre ready. The beef will become more tender the longer it sits.
Instant Pot Review: 10 Things You Must Know About The Instant Pot
What is old is new again. Thats my take on the resurgence of pressure cookers. My parents always had one growing up. But it was on the stove top it was loud, and it only did one thing pressure cook food. It also wasnt the safest of kitchen appliances.
These new electric pressure cookers, like the Instant Pot are fantastic. While conducting my Instant Pot review, I tried a whole bunch of different types of recipes and cooking methods. If youre considering buying one, or if youve bought one already, heres what you must know:
Recommended Reading: How To Make Bread In Instant Pot
How To Saut In An Instant Pot
The basic steps to using Instant Pot sauté to brown meat, vegetables, etc. are:
A Note On Liquids: Broth Vinegar And Wine
Different beef broths will have varying flavor notes and amounts of salt. I recommend starting with 1 ½ teaspoons of salt in the recipe. Add more after pressure cooking if it lacks a certain depth and flavor. I also recommend adding beef flavored Better than Bouillon to bolster the flavor if you find that its still lacking.
If youre a big balsamic vinegar fan, feel free to use it here! Itll supply a flavor thats quite different than if youd used red wine vinegar the best way to describe it is to say that its just deeper.
You can substitute one cup of red wine for one cup of beef broth.
Recommended Reading: How To Cook Beets In Instant Pot
You’re Underestimating The Time A Recipe Takes
Yes, the Instant Pot is fast, but you might be a little disappointed when the mac and cheese recipe that promises to cook in five minutes takes longer than five minutes. This is because the time needed for the machine to come to pressure isn’t taken into account but there is a way to shave a few minutes off the process. Just turn on your Instant Pot right as you begin your recipe, even if you’re not ready to close the lid yet. Make sure you have whatever cooking liquid in so you’re not heating an empty pot, then finish the remaining prep. The pot will start to heat up while you’re working, and won’t have to start from cold once you do close the lid. Now you’re that much closer to cheesy pasta goodness.
Instant Pot Frozen Ground Beef Can Be Thawed And Cooked In No Time At All If Youre Forgetful Like Me Thawing Frozen Ground Beef Has Never Been Easier
If youre like me and need to know how to make Instant Pot frozen ground beef so its defrosted in under 25 minutes, Im going to show you how. Added to our list of 101+ easy Instant Pot recipes and pressure cooker tips its something I use on a semi weekly basis and now am sharing it with all of you.
We cook a lot of frozen meat in Instant Potbecause I tend to be forgetful.
If you need easy Ninja Foodi recipes, you can use that pot instead.
Lets start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
For reference, this is the pressure cooker I have and use for all recipe creations.
I love thawing frozen ground beef in my pressure cooker because its keeps its juiciness, drains out all the fat.
- Since I am forgetful I no longer have to worry if Ive forgotten to take it out of the freezer the day before!
Read Also: Instant Pot Yogurt No Button
Why We Started This Blog:
One of the reasons why we started this blog is to bring a bit of happiness to this world through good food.
Amy and I would love to remove some of the unknowns in cooking with a pressure cooker. We want YOU to feel confident and excited every time you open the pressure cookers lid. We want YOU to feel the joy of creating and tasting a yummy dish.
Life is too short for boring food!Lets learn cooking with a pressure cooker together! Well continue to research and develop more yummy recipes for all of us !
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THANK YOU for believing in our recipes and giving them a thumbs up. We get SOooooOo excited and do a happy dance every single time we hear from our beloved readers! Here are what some of them have told us:
How To Thaw Ground Beef In The Pressure Cooker:
In order to defrost your ground beef in the Instant Pot, you will have to actually cook it. There is no function to thaw or defrost it without cooking it!
To do so, add water to the pot , position the trivet or rack, and then place your frozen ground beef on top of the trivet. Pierce the frozen ground beef with a knife as far it can go to help vent so the inside meat cooks better.
If the frozen ground beef has a flat form, it will take around 20 minutes. But it has a tube or cylinder form like mine, it will take about 25 minutes to reach a safe cooking temp which is 165 degrees F .
After that, you may season and saute your ground beef to add flavor and use it in whatever dish you want to.
Of course, you can make a ground turkey in the Instant Pot instead! In fact, you can cook any type of ground meat such as ground chicken, pork, etc. not only beef.
How long to cook ground beef in the Instant Pot?
It depends on whether the meat is fresh or frozen and also its form/shape.
If the meat is fresh, it takes around 6 minutes to 8 minutes to cook in the Instant Pot.
But if the beef is frozen, the cooking time will be longer about 20 to 25 minutes .
In any case, always check the cooked ground beef internal temperature to safely consume it. The meat thermometer must register 165 F .
For more Instant Pot recipes and their cooking times, get the charts and see how to use a pressure cooker.
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What Should I Serve With Pork Roast
Instant Pot Gravy is a great idea! You use the liquid that is left in the Instant Pot after you take out the roast. And you cook the gravy using the sauté function of the Instant Pot after the roast is finished cooking. That way, you dont dirty an extra pot!
What else to serve with the roast pork? If your oven is free, go ahead and make a batch of these amazing roasted potatoes too. Such a perfect dinner!
- Yield:46 servings 1x
About Christine
Hi! Im Christine. My passion is creating recipes that take less time in the kitchen, so that we can all spend more time enjoying life! Im a busy single mom of two, so I totally get how tough it can be. Thats why Ive been figuring things out for my own family, and thats why I want to share this knowledge with others. I now help over 2 million people a month get delicious meals onto their tables. Come along with me and see how much easier it can be!
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How To Pressure Cook Frozen Ground Beef
- Pour cold tap water into the bottom of the inner pot. Use 1 cup for a 3 or 6 quart instant pot and 1.5 cups for an 8-quart model. Then place in a metal trivet or rack inside the inner pot.
- Place the frozen ground beef on your trivet, and seal the instant pot closed with vent closed. Be sure all plastic, styrofoam, or any other packaging is completely removed from the frozen meat. If not, run undercold water until you can remove the packaging.
- Place the lid on the inner pot and seal. Set to high pressure and cook for 20 minutes for a 1-inch thick slab of frozen meat.
- Once the cooking time has elapsed, let the pressure release naturally for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Check the temperature with a meat thermometer–it should be at least 160 degrees. If it is not, seal again and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. *See my notes at end of the post to troubleshoot why your meat would need longer to cook.
- Carefully remove the meat from the instant pot and place in a large mixing bowl.
- Discard the cooking liquid and fat that drained off beef.
- Use a spatula to break up the ground meat and use just as you would for any recipe calling for browned or cooked ground beef.
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Using Saute Function After Cooking
The Sauté function is also useful for finishing the dish after pressure cooking is done. Once the pressure has been completely released, open the lid and then press Sauté button again. Press the button again to cycle through Less or More for lower or higher temperature.
Use it for:
- Simmering the sauce or broth in the dish that needs to evaporate and reduce or thicken.
- Adding more fragile or no-cooking-required ingredients like baby spinach, fresh tomatoes, fruit, cheese, milk or cream.
- Thickening sauce with butter, cream or flour.
Does The Instant Pot Saut As Well As A Pan On The Stove
In my experience, the Instant Pot does not sauté quite as well as a pan on the stove. But I still use the sauté function almost every time that I use my Instant Pot. Why? It works well enough, and it is extremely convenient.
You can expect that it will take a little longer to brown meats or stir fry vegetables in your Instant Pot, compared to cooking on the stove. Not having to wash a second pot and transfer food between pots makes this small inconvenience well worth it for me.
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How To Make Pot Roast In A Pressure Cooker
In our photos, we are using a 6-quart Instant Pot, which is an electric pressure cooker. Other brands make electric pressure cookers, too. If you own one of them, you should be able to use this recipe without any problems .
Step 1, Season the beef and bring to room temperature. Ive already touched on this above, but Ill quickly do it again, here. After testing, we found that when we left the beef out on the counter to come closer to room temperature before cooking it, the pot roast was much more tender at the end of the cook time. I also love that the beef gets a chance to sit with the salt for about an hour before cooking. In this time, the salt seeps into the meat and helps to season and tenderize it.
Step 2, Brown the beef on all sides. By browning the beef on all sides before cooking at high pressure, we add color to the meat and add lots of flavor to the pot. For a one pot meal, brown the beef right in the pressure cooker using the Saute function. If your pressure cooker does not have this function, simply brown the beef in a heavy pan on the stove. After browning, I remove the beef so I can move onto the veggies.
Step 5, Pressure cook until the beef is tender. As I mentioned above, the time you need to cook will vary depending on how large the piece of beef is that you are cooking. We have found that a 3-pound roast takes 60 minutes at high pressure before it is tender.
Instant Pot Saute Settings
Instant Pots have all kinds of features and settings. After experimenting with all the different functions, Ive settled on the fact that 97% of your Instant Pot cooking needs can be solved with just two settings – 1. : “Manual pressure cooking and 2. Saute
The saute setting is whats used for browning meat and sautéing vegetables before cooking. Most newer Instant Pots come with advanced settings which include 3 levels of temperature:
- Normal for regular browning
- More for darker browning
- Less for light browning
More often than not normal mode is sufficient. However, for skin-on chicken I find that the more setting works best. There is some variability depending on temperature of the meat prior to cooking as well as amount of surface moisture. If after browning a while with no releasing you can reduce temperature by switching to the Less settings
During sautéing keep the lid open at all time to avoid pressure building up.
To use the Sauté settings follow the below steps:
- Press the Sauté function key and heat the IP first before adding anything to it
- Select the desired temperature with the Adjust key for Normal, More or Less
- Add oil once the Instant Pot reaches the desired temperature. This will be obvious as it will display Hot indicating you can start browning the meat.
- A full Sauté session will run for 30 minutes. You can cancel it at any time by pressing the Cancel/Keep Warm setting
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Why Do Most Recipes Use Manual Settings Instead Of Smart Program Buttons
One size does not fit all in most scenarios. This is true of the smart one-touch buttons on the Instant Pot too. While some may come in handy down the line, you should learn more about specific recipes before you begin relying on them. Using Manual/Pressure Cook button and adjusting time and pressure level by yourself gives you more control. Having said that, you can also adjust time and pressure level once youve selected once of the Smart Program function.
Tips For Making The Best Beef Stew
Also Check: How To Cook Beets In Instant Pot
