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.
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.
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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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Notes
Nutrition
Love Instant Pot Recipes? Check out my Pressure Cooker Chicken and Rice!
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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This is SO GOOD!!!!
I did add half a cup of dark dark beer and had way more beef then the recipe called for.
Yay for Instant Pot recipes! Please keep them coming! Can’t wait to try this!
I would like to use about 4 pounds of meat. Should I increase ingredients for the recipe but keep the cooking time the same or adjust that as well. I’m a new Insta Pot user. Thank you.
As long as it doesn’t exceed the maximum fill line on the pot, it should be fine to just increase the ingredients. It will likely take longer to come up to pressure, but once it’s there it should take the same amount of time.
Uh, I completely forgot to add the onions, but the broth is so flavorful, I don’t miss them.
This is more soup broth-like than the stew I’m used to, so I don’t know if that was cook error or it’s supposed to be like that. Doesn’t matter, really, because this is really tasty stew.
Thanks so much for the step-by-step instructions with pictures. I was intimidated to use this pressure cooker for the first time, but the stew turned out perfect. Everyone, including the 7 mo old loved it! Glad we made extra and have plenty of leftovers. Everything I try from your blog turns out delicious. THANKS!!
this beef stew looks amazing! can i make it in a regular saucepan?
You’ll need to simmer it on low for quite a while to equal the amount of cooking that happens in that pressure cooker. :)
Thanks soooo much for your detailed instructions. What a life saver. It’s cooking now and can’t wait. I used frozen peas and carrots because I was out of fresh. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Me again, I have to say oh my goodness! I made this doubled the recipe and it was good. The down side is that I should’ve added the frozen peas and carrots at the very end. I preferred whole fresh carrots and celery but I was out This is definitely a winner in my house. Also I didn’t rate it because it wouldn’t allow me to rate 5 stars.
What happened to the print button on your blog – so you can print without all the photos?
It’s right below the thumbnail image on the recipe card, next to the heart icon and save button. There is a little printer icon and it says “Print”. It will open up a separate page with just the recipe card and no other text or photos.
Hi Beth! I’m planning to make this stew tonight. Would there be any issue with me adding dijon mustard and then substituting red wine for half of the beef broth? I love both of your other beef stew recipes that include these ingredients. :)
I think that would work beautifully! :)
It was AMAZING! I made it for my new boyfriend and was a little worried it wouldn’t be as good as the slow cooker version. It was even better! I did end up subbing half the beef broth for red wine and squirting in a tablespoon or so of dijon mustard. I also threw in some celery with the vegetables and added frozen peas at the end. It was basically a big combination of all 3 of your beef stew recipes.
Outstanding recipe! My whole family loved it. Even the kiddos. Thank you!!!
Oh! I also just posted your recipe on the instant pot Facebook group 😀 Hopefully you pick up a few more followers that way and maybe that’ll inspire you to create more IP recipes 😬. I love your recipes!
Thank you!! :)
I skipped the brown sugar and the tarragon (accidental), and used fresh rosemary… and it is delicious! Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
Recently purchased your Budget Bytes cookbook for myself and my in-college daughter and I must tell you the recipes are soo delicious and simple (not to mention totally thrifty)! We love your cookbook, your ideas and suggestions! Thank you for putting it all together so nicely!
Made this for dinner tonight. Wow! This makes a wonderful stew. Thank you for another soon-to-be family favorite. –Peter
Question for you: how do I get my Instant Pot to naturally release pressure? I can leave it for 30 minutes or over and the metal indicator will still be up so I eventually give up and open the pressure release. Is there a trick to it?
Hmm, no, it should just naturally cool off enough to the point where the pressure drops. I’ve heard that laying a cool wet towel over the pot can help, but I’ve never tried that. If you’re leaving it for 30 minutes and then do a quick release, that should still give you the same results, though.
I made this last night and I was having trouble with it releasing. I used a cold wet towel on top and it didn’t seem to do much. I looked at the Instant Pot website and it said that the metal float can stick and to press it with something. I did that after about 20 minutes and it let out a little pressure and then about 10 minutes later it was completely down. Maybe the float was stuck for you?
It was completely down and then I vented and opened it.
I was so curious to know what instant pot is, abd about a third of the way into your post, I realized it wasn’t what I thought it was. But man, this stew looks fantastic!