Instant Pot Beef And Broccoli Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How much liquid do you need for Instant Pot beef? ›

Don't Skip the Extra Liquid.

I recommend adding 1/2 cup of liquid (water or low-sodium beef broth) to the Instant Pot for a roast. Typically you need at least 1 cup of liquid in the Instant Pot; the remaining 1/2 cup comes from the juices released by the chuck roast and the tomato sauce.

But if your beef ends up tough, dry, and unappealing, now that's not something to look forward to. To prevent a chewy beef steak, you need to avoid using too much high-pressure heat.

Normally, the only way to achieve a melt-in-your-mouth texture with tougher cuts of beef (like the beef used for beef stew) is hours of low and slow cooking. The Instant Pot speeds the process along. Because no moisture escapes, it locks tenderness into every bite of the beef.

To thicken beef and broccoli, you can mix 1-2 tablespoons of cornstarch with a small amount of water to create a slurry. Add the slurry to the simmering sauce and stir until it thickens.

Pressure cookers cook with steam. No liquid = no steam. You can't and shouldn't use your pressure cooker unless you've added sufficient liquid. Instructions will let you know the minimum amount and some even tell you how much to use for different items.

Cooking time: When cooking a pot roast in an Instant Pot, allow 20 minutes for every pound of meat.

DO brown or broil it. Either give your meat a quick all-around sauté before starting a braise or tumble pressure steamed or boiled meat on a heat-proof platter and slide it under the broiler for a few minutes to add a beautiful I-'ve-been-cooking-in-a-blasting-hot-oven-for-hours finish. DON'T drown it.

Pressure cooking, like slow cooking, will tenderize tough cuts of meat like beef brisket, beef chuck, pork shoulder and lots of other cheaper, tougher cuts. Pressure cooking (or slow cooking) is not the best approach for cooking expensive, tender steaks or rib roasts.

You can still pressure cook leaner pieces – like eye of round and top sirloin – but these work best if they've been stuffed, shredded or rolled (with other ingredients). Best cuts of beef to use: Chuck steak, Round Roast, Shoulder, Pot roast, Ribs, Brisket, Oxtail.

Is it better to slow cook or pressure cook a roast? ›

When pressure cooked for the right amount of time the meat comes out just as fall-apart tender as if slow cooked, but in a fraction of the time. I usually cut the uncooked roast into equal size pieces no bigger than my hand, do a dry rub, sear each side 2-3 min, and then pressure cook on high.

Place your trivet or steaming basket into the inner pot. Add 1 cup of water. Place your ground meat on the trivet/in the steamer basket. Cook for 6 minutes at high pressure.

Mix together the sauce ingredients and put to one side. The sauce is a combination of beef stock, light and dark soy sauce, Chinese rice wine (you can swap for sherry if you haven't got rice wine), sesame oil, sugar, white pepper and black pepper.

Flank steak is the classic choice for beef and broccoli. It's marbled with fat, full of beefy flavor, and easy to cut into super-thin, tender slices. But flank isn't the only option. Skirt steak will give you a very similar result, and if you're watching your wallet, sirloin is another great choice.

Each restaurant has its secrets but I make a fair amount of Chinese food and recipes for broccoli beef sauce are basically oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar and perhaps a splash of rice wine. Since this is a deep flavored savory dish I think perhaps a bit of mushroom soy sauce is used.

Follow this tip: While at least 1/2 to 1 cup of liquid is essential to well-cooked food in the pressure cooker, too much liquid will pull the flavor out of foods.

Beef. It takes approximately 1,847 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef — that's enough water to fill 39 bathtubs all the way to the top.

How much liquid do I add? Water or liquid is necessary to create steam. When cooking meat or poultry, the water or liquid level should cover the ingredients to ensure effective heat transfer throughout the crock. Some manufacturers of slow cookers recommend adding liquid to fill the stoneware 1/2 to 3/4 full.

If your slow cooker is 3/4 full, no extra liquid is required. However, if you're cooking a smaller amount of food, add 1-2cm of liquid in the bottom of the slow cooker bowl to ensure there's enough liquid for cooking. Don't add too much liquid, because as the food cooks, it produces its own liquid.