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.
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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
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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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I’m concerned that the potatoes and carrots will be mushy with cooking that long. I made a pot roast in my Instant Pot recently and added the potatoes and carrots for the last 10 minutes and that was too much time. 8 minutes probably would have been perfect.
Best beef stew recipe I’ve found. I substituted sweet potatoes and it was just amazing. Love the instant pot. Thanks for the recipe!
I made this tonight exactly as directions said. AMAZING. My husband, a huge beef stew lover, couldn’t quit Raving about it. Thanks!
I used your recipe for the Instapot version of Julia Child’s Boeufe BourguignonSo 3 cups of red wine (an entire bottle!) was perfect . I loved your explanations as this was my first time cooking with the pot. my husband bought it after seeing the NYT article last week.
Thanks for the tips
This was awesome – the entire family loved it! My grocery store didn’t have frozen pearl onions (boo), so I used 1 diced white onion instead. Next time (because yes, there WILL be a next time!), I’ll probably add a little red wine – probably just enough to give me 2 cups of liquid, since a can of broth isn’t quite enough. I’m still a novice Instant Pot user, so I was a little anxious about letting the pressure release naturally – I just left it on keep warm, and it took about 35 minutes. Thank you for this recipe!
4 or 6 quart Instant Pot,? The recipe looks, and by the ingredients, should taste great. Thankyou for sharing.
I used a 6 quart. :)
Is your Instant Pot a 4 quart or 6 ? Looks like a great recipe. I have a 4quart cooker, and I just wanted to know if I have to decrease the amount. Thanks
6 quart. :)
I made this tonight with a few tweaks due to not having all the ingredients. I didn’t have any Worcestershire sauce so I dumped in some Trader Joe’s umami. I used chicken broth instead of beef. To keep it gluten free i used a mix of cornstarch and tapioca starch to coat the beef cubes before sauteeing. I also added a 1/4tsp of walker’s wood mild jerk seasoning (because I am Jamaican). Earlier in the day I had slow cooked some mirepoix (carrots onions and celery) so I dumped cup of that in. I added in a bay leaf and used lots of fresh thyme. I totally forgot to add in the rosemary. Lastly, instead of sugar, I used a couple tablespoons of Trader Joe’s onion and garlic jam. It all turned out well. It’s a delicious hearty stew. I thank you for the recipe and the inspiration.
I am laughing so hard at your painted on 5- I tried to take a photo of my display screen once and had the same issue! The random things you encounter when you try to blog a food post involving an instant pot! haha! Thanks for the recipe, can’t wait to make dinner tonight!
Hahaha glad you got a kick out of that! :D
THANK you for this recipe! Husband and everyone loves it! Here’s a hint for a twist. Use grated carrots and saute the fresh mushrooms before you add. Also I used Worsch sauce and red cooking wine. Lot of spices and GO!
I grew up on stew my mom made in old pressure cooker, so that’s how I made mine until my pressure cooker died. I never thought crock pot stew was as good, so I was happy to get the Instant Pot. My husband made this recipe, I don’t think he tweeked it much except for using onion wedges instead of pearl onions. It turned out very yummy, comparable to moms :).
The meat and stew overall needed more salt, but that could just me. YUM
OMG! My husband flipped for this easy-peasy stew.
I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand and because of that, I almost did not make it.
I had to substitute the two cans of beef broth with a can of beef vegetable soup. Once tests and 1 can of chicken broth. Subbed the tomato paste with 4 oz of tomato sauce. Subbed the frozen pearl onions with a jar of cocktail pearl onions. I had no mushrooms.
It just goes to show you that a good basic recipe can be tweaked if necessary. Next time I’m making it as you advise. Thanks for a great stew!
Is there a rule of thumb for perhaps downsizing the ingredient list? I just bought the new 3 QT mini duo (best for me as a single) so don’t think it will hold the current recipe. Great site, thanks so much!
You should be able to just divide everything in half for this one. :)
Do you know how many calories in 1 serving?
I made it as Is and it was fantastic. I baked bread to go with it. I’ve used many of your recipes and none have disappointed. Our family loves your website, thank you so much.