Instant Pot Ground Beef Stew Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is beef stew tough Instant Pot? ›

Additionally stew meat tends to have more tough gristle, which will never get tender. Using a large piece of boneless chuck allows you to easily trim off all the unwanted parts first, then cut the beef into uniform 1 1/2-inch pieces that will cook more evenly in the pressure cooker.

When it comes to deciding where to cook your beef stew (in an Instant pot versus a slow cooker), the winner really comes down to time. If you are a person who often forgets to thaw out meat, or who gets nervous about the idea of leaving on a slow cooker all day while you're at work, an Instant pot is the way to go.

Generally stew meat and ground beef are not interchangeable. The chunks of stew meat will hold together in the dish and ground beef will not. Conversely, making beef stew with ground beef will make beef stew into chili. Not really the same to me.

Instant Pot Instructions: Place everything in the Instant Pot. Select the stew/meat setting (about 35 minutes, high pressure). After it's done, let everything mellow out for about 10 minutes before releasing the steam. Technically at this point, it's done.

Unfortunately, once you overcook a piece of meat in the pressure cooker, there's no going back. You'll be left with a pile of dry, crunchy, tasteless fibers and no amount of additional pressure cooking is going to put that moisture back into the meat.

Not cooking the stew long enough.

Chuck meat is your best bet for beef stew, but it's also a pretty tough cut so it needs time to break down and become tender. Rush the cooking process and the beef will be tough and chewy. Follow this tip: For really tender meat, cook the stew low and slow, for approximately two hours.

Texture: Cubed beef emerged from the pressure cooker moist and tender while the slow cooker meat tasted dried out and overcooked. Veggies were a different story however. Carrots from the pressure cooker came out soft and mushy while those from the slow cooker maintained their shape, even bordering on being too crisp.

As the ingredients cook under pressure, their flavors are concentrated, resulting in a richer taste. Tenderization: Pressure cooking breaks down tough fibers in meats and other ingredients, making them more tender and juicy.

Go for the chuck

The most common beef used for stew is chuck steak, also known as gravy beef or braising steak. Beef chuck comes from the forequarter of the animal consisting of parts of the neck, shoulder blade and upper arm. It is easy to find and it's affordable, making it a great choice for your stew.

There is no real wrong answer for your beef stew potatoes — russets or red potatoes will work fine — but Yukon Gold potatoes have the best balance of texture and flavor to complement a meaty stew.

Why do you flour beef before stewing? ›

As for why it's such a prevalent method at all, the two main reasons people will supply are that it helps create a more flavorful sear on the meat and that it thickens up the sauce or broth of the final product.

The secret to tender beef stew is to keep the pot at a gentle simmer the entire time so the connective tissues in the beef have a chance to break down and soften.

What to Do If the Meat Isn't Tender Enough? The meat in Pressure Cooker Beef Stew should be cooked tender by the time the first 10-minute cook time ends. If you like a fork-tender beef, you may want to add a few extra minutes to the cook time. I recommend tasting the beef to ensure it's cooked as tender as you like it.

The Instant Pot's burn message simply means that your Instant Pot has detected that its inner pot has gotten too hot. There may be a slight amount of burned food at the bottom of your pot, but not enough to ruin whatever you're cooking.

Whisk a teaspoon of flour in a little cold water to make a slurry, then stir into the stew as it's cooking. Don't add dry flour directly to the stew as it may clump. After adding the slurry, bring the stew to boil. This will cook out the flour taste and allow the starch to swell.

The moist heat in a pressure cooker tends to turn connective tissue into gelatin. You need to let the meat cool down for a few minutes after cooking, to give time for moisture to be reabsorbed, before releasing the pressure. Otherwise, the meat will likely be tough.

Simmer, don't boil. It starts out tough but long slow cooking will melt the connective tissue. If you cook past the time when the connective tissue is melted, you boil out all the water in the meat and it becomes tough again, like a well-done steak. So check your stew/braise and when the meat is tender, it's done.

Cook it slow and steady.

This gives collagens in the tough muscle tissue time to melt and make the meat tender. Try tasting a bite after an hour, two hours, and three hours — you'll see how the meat goes from chewy to pretty good to fall-apart tender.