Easy Instant Pot Beef Stew

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Stews are the perfect way to keep the cost of dinner down as well as warm you up in the colder months. Beef stew is a classic dish with the only downside of taking a long time to cook. This instant pot beef stew recipe cuts the time to cook way down. Everything from prep to cooking takes about an hour total. This is perfect for when you don’t have a plan for dinner or you are just simply pressed for time. The only thing you need to make sure of is that you have some thawed beef stew meat on hand. Although, it should only take an hour or so to defrost some meat if it’s still frozen. I use anything from beef stew meat to bison stew meat for this recipe so it is very versatile. I’ve even use beef soup bones as the protein in this recipe and it still turned out great! Now, let’s get to cooking!

How to Select the Right Type of Meat for Your Stew

When making a stew, you want to select a type of meat that is fairly lean yet contains some fat marbling to keep the meat tender while slow cooking. The best cuts for stew are the following:

Beef chuck
Beef round
Sirloin
Short ribs

There are certainly other cuts you can use, but whether a cut can be used needs to be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Equipment

Knife and cutting board (paid link)
Measuring cups (paid link)
Instant Pot (paid link)

Ingredients

1.5 – 2 lbs beef stew meat, cubed
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp avocado oil
1 yellow onion, diced
5 large carrots, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup flour
4-5 cups beef stock/bone broth

Instructions

Dice up the beef stew meat into cubes and dice onion. Slice up the carrots and mince the garlic.
Pat the beef stew meat dry and season with salt and pepper.
Next, set your instant pot to sauté and add 1 tbsp avocado oil.
Then, sauté beef stew meat on each side for 2-3 minutes or until lightly browned.
Next, remove beef stew meat from instant pot and set to the side.
Then, add 1 tbsp of avocado oil to the instant pot and add onions and carrots. Sauté for 6-7 minutes or until onions start to get tender.
Next, add the garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant.
Add the beef stew meat back to the pot along with the juices from the meat.
Then, stir in the balsamic vinegar, tomato paste and flour.
Stir it around and cook for 1-2 minutes or until there are no more visible dry bits of flour.
Turn the sauté function off.
Add in the beef stock/bone broth. You want to ensure the meat and veggies are just covered with liquid – Add more stock as needed.
Place the lid on the instant pot and set to seal.
Then, set the instant pot to cook on high pressure for 40 minutes.
Once the 40 minutes is up, let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes and then carefully perform a manual release. Watch out for the steam!
Enjoy your tender beef stew!

Notes

If you find that your stew is not quite thick enough for your liking, you can use a measuring cup or coffee mug for the thickening process. Just add some of the stew liquid (about 1/3 cup) to your measuring cup or mug and then whisk in 2 tbsp flour. This will form a paste. Scoop this paste into the stew and whisk it around until dissolved. This will thicken your stew without leaving lumps of flour. Do this as many times as you need to achieve the thickness you want but wait at least 5-10 minutes before each try to give the stew a chance to set and thicken up.