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Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe – Quick and Easy

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Looking for a quick and easy weeknight meal? Try this Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe.

Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe

Weeknight cooking is always difficult in our house. Everyone has a different schedule.

For me, it’s really hard being both the chauffeur and the cook. Perhaps if I had an RV I could drive my kitchen around town 😉 but I think the better solution is finding hearty meals that I can make really fast.

The Instant Pot is an amazing kitchen appliance that has come to my rescue many times. Ironically, you can use it both as a fast cooker (electric pressure cooker) or as a slow cooker (although Cooking Light doesn’t recommend it for slow cooking).

For this Instant Pot beef stew recipe I use the pressure cook function on my Instant Pot but I also have a slow cooker beef stew recipe that I use if I actually have time early in the day to prepare dinner.

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What You Need to Make Instant Pot Beef Stew

  • to state the obvious – an Instant Pot – I use the IP-DUO60 (see my Instant Pot review here)
  • between 2 and 3 pounds of cubed beef for stew (I get this pre-cubed at the grocery store)
  • all purpose flour
  • canola oil
  • Emeril’s Original Essence
  • black pepper
  • beef broth or boullion (I use Better Than Boullion Beef Base)
  • McCormick Beef Stew Seasoning packet
  • tomato paste
  • 2 bay leaves
  • chopped onions, garlic, celery, carrots, and a small bell pepper if you like the flavor that it adds
  • 1 large potato cubed
  • 3 cups water
  • 1/4 cup dry red wine

Prep Your Ingredients

The first thing to do is mix the all purpose flour, the black pepper, and the Emeril’s Original Essence together in a gallon sized Ziploc bag.

Zip up the bag and shake it all up to mix.

Then open the bag and in the beef cubes. I find the easiest and least messy method of handling the beef cubes is with these long tongs.

Zip the bag again and shake it all up so that each individual beef cube is sufficiently coated with the flour mixture.

Set this aside and chop up the veggies.

Typically I will chop the carrots, celery, and potato by hand but I will throw the onions and garlic into my Ninja food processor bowl and pulse them up.

Set these aside.

In a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup (or other large-ish bowl) mix  two and three-quarter cups cold water, the McCormick Beef Stew Seasoning packet, beef boullion, tomato paste, and dry red wine (a merlot or cabernet sauvignon works well).

Stir until the ingredients are well blended and set aside.

Time to Get Cooking

Pour a tablespoon of canola oil into your Instant Pot and press the Sauté button (normal setting).

After about a minute, when the oil is hot, add the beef cubes and let them brown on all sides. Turn them often so all sides can brown.

When the beef has browned somewhat and the cubes start to stick too much to the bottom on the Instant Pot, turn it off.

Loosen all the cubes from the bottom as best as you can with a silicone “spoonula” or spatula.

Now pour the water, wine, and seasoning mixture over the cubes in the Instant Pot. Stir it all up.

Add the chopped vegetables on the top and stir again.

Set the Instant Pot on the Meat/Stew setting for 35 minutes with the valve in the sealing (closed) position.

Let the pressure drop naturally when the cooking time is done.

How To Serve

You can serve this Instant Pot beef stew recipe as is or you can ladle it over a bed of wide, flat egg noodles.

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Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe

Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe - Quick and Easy

Yield: 6 servings
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Additional Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2.5 pounds of cubed beef for stew
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1 tsp Emeril's Original Essence
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 2 cups beef broth, cold
  • 1 McCormick Beef Stew Seasoning packet
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped,
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 1 large potato, cubed
  • 3/4 cup cold water
  • 1/4 cup dry red wine (optional, but if you omit the wine then increase the water to one cup total)

Instructions

  1. Mix the all purpose flour, the black pepper, and the Emeril's Original Essence together in a gallon sized Ziploc bag.
  2. Zip up the bag and shake it all up to mix.
  3. Then open the bag and in the beef cubes.
  4. Zip the bag again and shake it all up so that each individual beef cube is sufficiently coated with the flour mixture.
  5. Set this aside and chop up the veggies.
  6. Set these aside.
  7. In a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup (or other large-ish bowl) mix the McCormick Beef Stew Seasoning packet, cold beef broth, tomato paste, water, and dry red wine (a merlot or cabernet sauvignon works well).
  8. Stir until the ingredients are well blended and set aside.
  9. Pour a tablespoon of canola oil into your Instant Pot and press the Sauté button (normal setting).
  10. After about a minute, when the oil is hot, add the beef cubes and let them brown on all sides. Turn them often so all sides can brown.
  11. When the beef has browned somewhat and the cubes start to stick too much to the bottom on the Instant Pot, turn it off.
  12. Loosen all the cubes from the bottom as best as you can with a silicone "spoonula" or spatula.
  13. Now pour the water, wine, and seasoning mixture over the cubes in the Instant Pot. Stir it all up.
  14. Add the chopped vegetables and the bay leaves on the top and stir again.
  15. Set the Instant Pot on the Meat/Stew setting for 35 minutes with the valve in the sealing (closed) position.
  16. Let the pressure drop naturally when the cooking time is done.
  17. Serve hot over a bed of wide, flat, egg noodles.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 830Total Fat: 45gSaturated Fat: 17gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 22gCholesterol: 222mgSodium: 619mgCarbohydrates: 30gFiber: 4gSugar: 6gProtein: 72g

Occasionally, you will find nutrition information provided with recipes on AlmostPractical.com - this information is created from online calculators and is an ESTIMATE only. I am not a nutritionist or registered dietician. Nutritional information can vary depending on the brands and the actual ingredients that you use. By using this site and it's contents, you agree to hold harmless AlmostPractical.com and its owners for any loss or damage you incur that results from your use of the nutritional information provided by this site.

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Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe

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4 Comments

  1. This recipe has errors in it which may have lead to a very watery and bland product. I think that the instructions should read mix “3/4 water” not “two and 3/4 water” to the beef broth mix and that you are supposed to include boullion even though the amount is not stated in the recipe. Pretty disappointing – I won’t be using this site anymore recipes.

    1. Hi Lilly,

      I believe that you have misread the recipe. You use a total of 3 cups of liquid. If you are using bouillon you use 2 cups of water to which you add the bouillon – usually it is one teaspoon of bouillon or 1 cube of bouillon per cup of water, but check the instructions on the package of the brand you are using. Then add 3/4 cups of water later in the recipe plus 1/4 cup of red wine.

      If you are using actual beef broth – then use 2 cups of the broth (no need to add bouillon) and 3/4 cups of water later in the recipe plus 1/4 cup red wine.

      I hope that makes it more clear.

      Thank you so much for your feedback – and I will go back and update the recipe to make it more clear as well.

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