Instant Pot Beef Stew
Instant Pot Beef Stew
This recipe is a modified version of Claire Lower's Ketchup Beef Stew. It halves the ketchup and beef stock and adds some Guinness, replaces fish sauce with worcestershire sauce because it's what we had in the house, and oils and more heavily seasons the beef before the sear step.
It made the best beef stew we've ever had.
You could do this in a slow cooker instead of an instant pot, but it would take longer. You would want to chop the veggies more finely in that version.
Ingredients
- 2 onions
- Vegetable and olive oil
- 2 pounds cubed stew meat
- Beef seasoning: seasoned salt, pepper, garlic, the butcher's rub of your choice (we used Spice House's Back of the Yards, which is basically garlic pepper with dried bell pepper, shallots and parsley)
- 3/4 cup red wine
- 2 russet potatoes, 2 red potatoes
- 1 pound baby carrots
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon worcestershire saurce
- 1/2 cup Guinness
- 1/2 cup beef stock
- Dried thyme
- 1 cup frozen peas (optional)
Instructions
Prepare your chuck by painting it in olive oil and seasoning it thoroughly.
Prepare one of the onions by cutting them in half vertically, then slicing each half into thin semi-circles with a sharp knife or mandoline. Set one onion aside for later. Season the sliced onion with one teaspoon of salt, tossing to coat. Heat one tablespoon of vegetable oil over high heat in a large stainless steel pan and, once it starts to shimmer, add the salted onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until each piece of onion is completely burnt on the edges. Transfer the onions to a cup with high walls, a bowl, or a blender.
The pan will most likely have a nice layer of fond on it. Leave it. Take your chuck and sear each side in the hot pan until it is well browned. Transfer the browned meat to the insert of your Instant Pot, along with the other onion (cut into larger chunks), potato (big chunks), and carrots (big chunks). A moment to discuss big chunks: after pressure cooking small bits of vegetables will be borderline goo, so the bigger the chunks the more texture they'll retain. It's fine for these chunks to be a little more than bite-size, you can always slice them with the side of a fork on their way to your mouth later.
(Why not sear the meat in the Instant Pot itself? I have found that the Instant Pot simply doesn’t get hot enough for a quick sear. Between that and the small amount of searing area in the insert, it’s much faster to just do it in a regular pan, extra dirty dish be damned.)
Deglaze the pan with 3/4 cup of red wine, and scrape up the browned bits with a wooden spoon or spatula. Pour the wine into the cup or bowl with the onions, then add the ketchup, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce. Using an immersion blender or countertop blender, blend everything together until smooth, then pour it over the meat and vegetables, along with the half cup of Guinness and half cup of beef stock, and a bunch of dried thyme. Give everything a stir, then seal the Instant Pot and cook for 35 minutes under high pressure.
Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, the vent the remaining pressure by switching the valve to “vent.” Open the pot, optionally add the frozen peas, and stir for a minute or two until they are hot. Serve immediately, but get excited for leftovers, I’ve found stew is always better the second day.
Serve with hunks of good crusty bread. Garlic bread is also great for this, you can pop it in the oven during the natural pressure release.
Back to The Kitchen Sink.
