Instant Pot Beef Stew

 Why This Recipe Works

From easy to tasty, this Instant Pot Beef Stew recipe checks all the boxes!

Instant Pot — You can’t have an Instant Pot without the “Instant” part right? And, although it will take about 45 minutes of your time (but only about 10 of that is hands-on), it’s a whole lot faster than cooking this stew for hours and hours like a typical recipe would require. 

Potatoes — There’s no stew of any sort without potatoes in my book. The baby gold potatoes cook up just perfectly, soft, fork-tender, and are a great vehicle for soaking up all that yummy beef stew juice. 

Worcestershire Sauce — Another one of my secret ingredients, I put this sauce on lots of recipes featuring beef because it has a lovely saltiness and tang (just a hint!) that offsets the garlic and Italian seasonings just perfectly. 

Vegetables — Whether you like a lot or a little, the veggies are also the stars in this stew. Speed up prep time even more by substituting frozen veggies if you prefer them to fresh in this dish. 

Here’s How You Make It

You won’t believe how easy it is to fix this incredibly tasty beef stew right in your Instant Pot. Here’s how you do it:

1. Set the pressure cooker to “saute” and add butter. Melt the butter, then add in the garlic and onions and stir for 1-2 minutes, or until fragrant. Take the onions and garlic out and put in a dish for later. (photo 1)
2. Add the oil to the pot, then add the beef on top of the oil and season with salt and pepper. Sear the pieces of beef on all sides for about 3-4 minutes, til browned. (photo 2)
3. In a small dish, whisk together 1 cup of the broth, the tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and herbs. (photo 3)
4. Pour broth mixture into the pot on top of the beef. (photo 4)
5. Add the potatoes and carrots to the pot as well as the onions and garlic you had set aside earlier. (photo 5)
6. Add the lid, turn the vent to the “sealed” position and set to “pressure cook” or “manual” for 25 minutes. (photo 6)
7. Let the Instant Pot natural release (which means do nothing) for 10 minutes, then turn the vent valve carefully to release the rest of the pressure/steam. Once the float valve has dropped, remove the lid. (photo 7)
8. Change the setting to “soup.” Whisk together the rest of the broth and the cornstarch. Stir this into the soup along with the frozen peas. Stir as the liquid thickens and the peas thaw. Taste, add seasonings as you see fit, then serve, garnishing with fresh herbs if you like. (photo 8)

Ideas For Customizing This Recipe

It’s easy to customize this savory beef stew to your liking!

• Skip the potatoes. Don’t like potatoes or don’t have any? No problem. Just skip them, and add more veggies instead!  
• Mix up the spices. If you don’t have Italian seasoning, you can use a teaspoon each of oregano, basil, rosemary, and parsley. Add a little spice with paprika or cayenne pepper.  
• Serve over rice. Or noodles too for that matter. All that sauce would be just lovely over the top of egg noodles or white rice. 
• Use chicken. Swap beef for chicken breast and beef broth for chicken broth. Easy, simple, still delicious.