When it comes to hearty meals that are easy to make, taste delicious, can feed a large gathering (did someone say “Super Bowl”?), and will make a convenient meal for a busy family for a few days, it’s hard to beat beef stew.
And let’s not forget how beef stew hits the spot on cold winter days, makes a convenient and inexpensive lunch any day of the week, and is just pretty much perfect whenever and wherever you want it.
Now, you can run out to the grocery store and buy some canned, pre-made beef stew. It’s not that expensive, and all you have to do is heat it up, but let’s face it: it might be okay, or even good, but it isn’t great. On the other hand, you can go out to your favorite local restaurant, bar, or pub and get some awesome beef stew, but you’ll pay more than you probably want to and there’s the added inconvenience of driving, waiting, etc.
If only there were an easy way to make delicious homemade beef stew…
Well, there is, and there’s a way to do it without cooking it for hours and hours! With InstantPot, you can have spectacular Instant Pot beef stew in under an hour!
Classic Ingredients of Beef Stew
The first rule of beef stew is that there are no rules about beef stew (except beef, of course).
So let’s start with the cut of meat you should pick. Really, you can make beef stew with any cut of meat, but since you’re cooking the meat thoroughly, you shouldn’t use expensive, highly flavorful cuts like ribeye, New York strip, filet mignon, and sirloin. Instead, go with something that’s tasty but relatively inexpensive like a chuck roast.
At the grocery store, you can usually find packaged beef that’s already been cut into stew-sized pieces. That’s convenient, but you also pay more for that convenience. If you want to save some money, buy a roast or large steak from the store or a butcher and cut it up yourself into mouth sized chunks.
The other main ingredients are potatoes and veggies. Russet potatoes are good because they hold up well under cooking, meaning they don’t get too mushy. Another good option is small whole white potatoes.
For veggies, sliced carrots are a staple, but so are onion bulbs, sliced onions, and celery. Don’t let that limit you, though; you can make your stew whatever you want it to be!
What Is Instant Pot?
You might be asking that, so we’ll answer! Instant Pot is a brand of multi-cookers that incorporate both slow cooking and pressure cooking. Although you can look up more about them on your own, for our purposes here, we’ll just say that the Instant Pot produces slow-cooked results much faster than slow cooking does, without any loss of quality of taste.
Instant Pot makes serving up your own homemade beef stew easier than ever before!
Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipes
You can go to Moeder’s Meats and buy a stew packet with complete instructions, and you can alsp google recipes, which reinforces the point that there is no one best way to make beef stew, so we’re just going to share one recipe we really like.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
- Boneless chuck roast or other relatively cheap cut of beef. Cut it into fork-friendly pieces (remember they will shrink while cooking).
- Onion, garlic, carrots, peas, and russet potatoes. Cut the potatoes into same-sized portions so that they cook evenly. Also add a bay leaf and some dried thyme.
- As many dashes of worcestershire sauce as you like
- Beef broth
- Tomato sauce
- Water and cornstarch or flour. Add water to create the liquidity you like, and add cornstarch or flour to thicken as needed.
Cooking directions:
- First, brown the beef in the cooker.
- In a separate pan, saute the onions and garlic in beef broth
- Put everything into the Instant Pot and let it all cook for 35 minutes. Let the pressure release on its own.
Other tips for storage and enjoyment:
- Red wine pairs well with beef stew. You can also add some inexpensive red wine during cooking for extra flavor.
- In an airtight container, the stew will keep in the refrigerator for at least 4 days.
- Too much to finish in that time? Freeze it in an airtight container for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to eat the stew again, let it thaw in the fridge overnight and then reheat it at a low temperature so it doesn’t dry out.
