While checking the sale flyers for my grocery stores last week I noticed that Whole Foods had beef stew meat on sale for $3.99/lb. and I was ALL OVER that. I was finally able to swing by yesterday, the last day of the sale, and pick up some of the beef, along with all the other ingredients to make this amazing Instant Pot Beef Stew.
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Why Use an Instant Pot?
My Slow Cooker Rosemary Garlic Beef Stew is pretty hard to beat, but I wanted to try making a stew in my Instant Pot because A) it’s a lot faster and B) I can do all the steps, including browning the beef, in one pot which means a lot less dishes to clean. YAY!
Do I HAVE to Use an Instant Pot for this Beef Stew?
Ever since the Instant Pot took the cooking world by storm there have been several other multi-cookers to hit the market. You don’t have to use an Instant Pot for this. You can use any other cooker that has both a sauté and a pressure cooking feature, or just use a plain old pressure cooker and do the browning through deglazing steps in a skillet before transferring everything to the pressure cooker.
OR if you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can use a slow cooker just as I did for my Slow Cooker Rosemary Garlic Beef Stew.
Flavor Profile
This recipe starts similarly to the Rosemary Garlic Beef Stew, but I played around with the vegetable mix, using less potatoes and adding in mushrooms and pearl onions. I also skipped the Dijon and added just a little tomato paste for a more traditional beef stew flavor. This Instant Pot Beef Stew turned out so tender and amazing that my boyfriend said, “Is this healthy? Because I could this every day.” Noted! :)
Instant Pot Beef Stew
Servings 6 (10 cups total)Ingredients
- 1 lb beef stew meat (cubed) ($3.99)
- Salt and pepper ($0.05)
- 2 Tbsp flour ($0.02)
- 2 Tbsp butter ($0.22)
- 2 cups beef broth* ($0.26)
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce ($0.06)
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.10)
- 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.02)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste ($0.13)
- 1 tsp dried rosemary ($0.10)
- 1 tsp dried thyme ($0.10)
- 14 oz bag frozen pearl onions ($2.97)
- 8 oz mushrooms ($1.90)
- 1 lb carrots ($0.99)
- 0.75 lb potatoes ($0.84)
Instructions
- Place the stew meat in a bowl and season lightly with salt and pepper. Add the flour and stir to coat.
- Place the butter in the Instant Pot and turn on the sauté function. Heat the butter until it is melted and sizzling, then add the stew meat. Brown the meat on all sides. Don’t stir too often as this will prevent the meat from achieving a nice brown, crispy exterior. The flour may coat the bottom of the pot and that is okay, just don’t let it burn.
- Pour the beef broth into the pot and stir to dissolve the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Once dissolved, add the Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, minced garlic, tomato paste, rosemary, and thyme.
- Wash and quarter the mushrooms. Peel and slice the carrots into one-inch sections. Wash the potatoes well, peel if desired, then chop into one-inch cubes. Add the pearl onions (no need to thaw), mushrooms, carrots, and potatoes to the Instant Pot. Give all the ingredients in the pot a good stir.
- Close the lid on the Instant Pot and close the steam valve. Press the “meat/stew” button, or set the cooker to 35 minutes of high pressure. After 35 minutes of high pressure, allow the cooker to naturally cool and release pressure.
- Once the pressure has released, open the steam valve then carefully open the lid. Give the stew a good stir, taste, and adjust the salt if needed. Serve hot with crusty bread.
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Equipment
- Instant Pot
- Chef’s Knife
- White Cutting Boards
- Liquid Measuring Cup
Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Beef Stew in an Instant Pot – Step by Step Photos
Place one pound of stew meat in a bowl and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Add 2 Tbsp flour and stir until the meat is coated in the flour.
Add 2 Tbsp butter to the Instant Pot and turn on the sauté function. Heat the butter until it is melted and sizzling, then add the stew meat (and any leftover flour from the bowl). Brown the meat on all sides. Be sure not to stir the meat too often because this can prevent it from forming a nice brown crust. You do not need to cook the beef pieces completely through at this point. Just get a nice brown color on the outside.
Add 2 cups beef broth and stir to dissolve all of the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Once everything is dissolved off the bottom, add 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 cloves of minced garlic, 2 Tbsp tomato paste, 1 tsp dried rosemary, and 1 tsp dried thyme.
Wash and quarter the mushrooms. Peel and slice the carrots into one-inch sections. Wash the potatoes well, then cut into one-inch cubes. Add the frozen pearl onions, mushrooms, carrots, and potatoes to the pot. I totally forgot to get a photo of the pearl onions for anyone who is unfamiliar, but here is a link to the pearl onions that I bought. They are small, sweet onions about the size of large grapes. Give everything a brief stir to combine.
Close the lid on the Instant Pot, close the steam valve, then press the “meat/stew” button. This will set the cooker to 35 minutes of high pressure. It takes about 10-15 minutes to get up to pressure, then natural pressure release will take another 15 minutes or so. (Yes, I did paint that “5” on this photo because apparently the numbers on the display flicker at a speed faster than our eyes can see, but slower than my camera shutter. :P )
After the pressure naturally releases, open the steam valve then carefully open the lid. This is what you’ll see. Give it a good stir.
And then it will look more like beef stew! It may seem a bit watery at first, but as the temperature comes down from “molten” to just “really hot” it will thicken a bit. It’s always a good idea to give the stew a final taste and adjust the salt if needed.
And that’s how easy it is to make Instant Pot Beef Stew (or any other multi-cooker beef stew). I highly recommend a good crusty bread to go along with it. I added a touch of parsley for color, but the flavor of the stew is just fine on its own.
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Made this tonight as my first time using the IP! At 20 minutes got the burn notice! Used quick release and stew was done & it was delicious. Lastly, I used 3 cups of broth using bullion cubes! Will make again but cooking time must be adjusted! Thanks for the recipe!
I cooked the recipe as is but added a few more spices and peas. No issues. Did the high pressure for 35 minutes came out delicious. This is the second time making it. My family loves it.
I have a hard time believing the author of this recipe cooked it following their own instructions using an Instant Pot, unless it was broken. 35 minutes pressure cooking on high in my IP will reduce the stew meat and carrots to mush, and disintegrate the potatoes. I brown the meat in a skillet for 10 minutes, add the meat and the rest of the ingredients to the IP, then pressure cooker on high for 12 minutes. Huge difference.
I cannot agree with you more. I’m so happy that I took out time to read your comment because I cooked it to exact perfection in 12 minutes. I can imagine not only pulverizing everything but completely torching the inside of that pot with burning if you go that long.
Hi,
I followed the instructions to a tee…and mine came out perfectly!
I did cut my beef into cubes about 2 inches square and same with the potatoes.
Perhaps if the veg and meat is cut small it would overcook.
The potatoes were not mushy and then eat was done to perfection.
I followed the recipe and my stew was way over cooked. Mushy veggies and dry meat. Next time I will try only 20 minutes.
I followed the recipe except no mushrooms and I deglazed the pot with 1/4 cup white wine. It was delicious. It was a hit for everyone.
This is my new go to Beef Stew recipe! First time I made it, it was a hit. So tasty! This one is a keeper, just the way it is!
I tried this tonight and was a little disappointed. I followed the recipe accurately, but it burned on the bottom and there was not enough liquid to qualify it as a stew. I would increase the broth quite a bit.
Fail! I followed the recipe and the instant pot reached pressure and then read “burn”, not once but 3 times. After the first time, i dumped everything out into a pot and scrubbed all the “burnt” bits off the bottom. This has been a 2 hour ordeal and I’m ready to order take out Chinese!
For future reference, if you decide to try this recipe again, once the beef is browned and the stock has been poured in, get in there with a rubberized spatula and really stir/scrape at the bottom (that’s why the rubberized, both because it’s better at getting everything up and won’t scratch the inner vessel) until you don’t feel anymore ‘bumpiness.’ Sometimes it takes a fairly significant amount of pressure, and it’s quite ‘sloshy,’ (luckily, the inner vessel is pretty deep!) but it does eventually come up into the broth. It’s a step that you really can’t skip or do just halfway, otherwise the IP won’t come up to pressure properly and the heat will scorch the flour bits into place instead if it thickening up the stew.
Hope you can make it work for you one of these days. This has turned into one of our favorite recipes at my house.
So delicious! I added onions and used turnips instead of potatoes and fresh herbs (2 tsp ea) instead of dried. Thanks for the incredibly tasty recipe!
Very delicious! perfect for the cold winter weather we have been having. My husband who doesn’t really like stews actually loves this. However, it didn’t come out very pretty. Carrots were so soft that they fell apart very easily. Same with my potatoes but I had to use what the DoD commissary had…. Which were Japanese potatoes (smaller and very starchy… Yes I live overseas). We also had NO pearl onions at the commissary so I used a little less than 1 tbls of onion powder. This substitution worked out fine! Also had to use less mushrooms… They are $8.99 per lb. But that came out fine too. Next time I may do what someone else mentioned which was set aside at least some carrots and potatoes so they don’t get too soft.
Tried it tonight for supper. Turned out great! Only thing I would do different next time, is to add less liquid. Maybe try cutting it down to 1 cup or maybe one and half? When i think of stew, It should be a lot thicker! Other than that, the flavor was awesome!
Looking forward to making this recipe and getting future recipes :-)
I did it exactly as the recipe says…it tasted great…but burned on the bottom..not sure why…first time I used the pot…
Delicious! Thank you for the recipe! It’s a keeper.
I followed the instruction to the letter and the stew came out perfect.
I made it following the recipe, except for two things. No mushrooms and put carrots aside. Set the timer at 37, did a quick release, added the carrots, then set it for 5 more minutes. It was perfection.