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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If I can’t find the frozen onions, but I already have some onions on hand….what would a good substitute be? Thank you!
I would probably just dice up one onion and use that. It’s less volume than the whole onions I used here, but the flavor will be more potent because they are chopped and yellow onions are stronger than pearl onions.
Hi there! I have a question. I made this today and while the flavor was yummy, the carrots and potatoes were very mushy.
Before I made it, I thought the time might be a bit too much, so I set mine for 30 minutes on high and natural pressure release. When it was done cooking, the pressure released naturally, but after 25 minutes it still wasn’t done releasing so I released the remaining.
In order to avoid the mushy veggies next time, would you suggest I lower the cook time? Or should I release the pressure right after the cooking is done maybe? I’m new to cooking with a pressure cooker, so I’d love some feedback. Thank you.
The vegetables will still probably be pretty soft if you do a quick release (I like my veggies soft and the way they break down and thicken the stew), but there is another option. You can cook the stew first for 20 minutes without the vegetables, do a quick release, add the vegetables, and then cook again on high pressure for 15 minutes. You definitely want a full 35 minutes to make sure the beef gets nice and tender. :)
I love the recipe. It was the first thing I made as a single guy enjoying the kind of meals I find online from people like yourself and finding a whole new wholesome world of cooking with the Instant Pot instead of chucking a frozen pizza into the oven. I am making it again today, a month later, but I note when I pressed the stew button, the time came up as 45 mins and not 35. I have adjusted it down to 35mins. Not sure if I manually set it to 35mins the first time or not. Also, I have the ‘more’ button pressed as opposed to your pic here that shows ‘normal’, hopefully it won’t overcook the veggies, and again not sure if I manually did that the first time either. Great recipe, though, I have passed it onto my single friends. Thanks!
Have you doubled the recipe? If so is 35min enough or should I go longer. Thanks!
Unfortunately I haven’t tried doubling the recipe, so I’m not sure. Just make sure you don’t overfill the pressure cooker, as that can be quite dangerous.
I hardly ever comment on recipes that I have made that I found online but I had to comment on this one. This was a life changing beef stew. It has so much umami to it and is so incredibly delicious. I accidentally added too much sugar to it but sorry not sorry. This is a perfect quick and easy winter’s meal. I will definitely be making this again. So delicious.
Thank you for giving the recipe w/o having to go to various places. Will do it this week.
Hey thanks it’s cooking now. Are we supposed to leave the pot on while chopping the potatoes and carrots etc? This would take a couple minutes and I set mine on warm so that the broth didn’t boil away. Excited to taste soon!
Can I make this with frozen stew beef by adding a bit more time?
That seems like it would work in theory, but I’ve never tried that so I can’t say for sure.
When I set it on Meat/Stew for 35 minutes, after five minutes or so it says “burn.” I’m not sure what’s causing that. Anyone have any thoughts?
Apparently the “burn” warning is a new feature that they didn’t have on the IP back when I got mine. :( Definitely make sure ALL of the flour is dissolved off the bottom of the pot after you add the broth. If there is anything stuck to the bottom it will probably cause it to flash that warning.
Just made this tonight and it is AMAZING!! Thank you for sharing!
We love this stew, and so many other recipes of yours that are staples in our house! I’d like to make this for a dairy-free friend. Can I replace the butter with an equal amount of olive oil?
Also wanted to add for anyone interested – we prefer it a bit thicker so I add a cornstarch slurry at the end.
Yes, you can substitute olive oil here. Butter is better, IMHO, but oil will still work. ;)
Thank you for this, it was delicious!! How long would you say it keeps for in the fridge? And the freezer?
Thanks!
In the fridge I’d stick to about 4-5 days, in the freezer I usually limit things to about 3 months. There is no hard line, unfortunately, because so many factors can influence how long food lasts, and usually it’s a slow decline in quality rather than simply going from “good” to “bad”. :)
I followed your recipe but the stew burned in the Instant Pot. I’m finishing it up on the stove. I’m not sure what went wrong.
Re: Stirring – Never mind! :D The reference isn’t under the picture, but it is clearly stated in the recipe we print. Thanks! Going to make it now!
Thanks for pointing that out! I’ll fix it in the step by step photos. :)
Not to be silly, but do you stir all the ingredients that you layer in on that last step before cooking, or do you only stir those after the cooking is finished. All the other steps specifically mention stirring, but this step does not, and the picture shows it unstirred. Thanks!