Instant Pot Beef And Broccoli

Instant Pot Beef and Broccoli is a flavorful Chinese meal made in minutes by pressure cooking. For this recipe slices of beef chuck are marinated in a sesame, soy, ginger, and garlic mixture. The beef is cooked until tender in a soy and oyster sauce base. Broccoli florets are steamed in the Instant Pot until crisp-tender. The dish can be served with rice and garnished with sesame seeds.

Hi there! It’s Jessica Gavin, Certified Culinary Scientist and I’m excited to share this classic beef and broccoli recipe with you. The key to success when using a pressure cooker to prepare this dish is selecting the right cut of beef. Using pieces of chuck roast stays tender when cooked in elevated temperatures. The beef cooks in a combination of soy sauce and oyster sauce, which provides a burst of umami flavors with each bite. I often utilize these two ingredients in my Asian cooking, such as in this easy stir-fry sauce where it pairs well with any combination of proteins or vegetables. An advantage of using the Instant Pot is that you can quickly steam the broccoli all-in-one place for a tasty one-pot meal! So skip the takeout and make healthier balanced meal option any day of the week.

Choosing the right beef for pressure cooking

Typically when I make my traditional beef and broccoli recipe, I use a simple stir-fry technique and fast cooking beef like short ribs or flank steak. However, using an electric pressure cooker changes the rate at which the beef is cooked. Enclosed vessels create superheated steam at about 10 to 12 psi (pounds per square inch), which elevates the temperature above boiling (around 239 to 248ºF), cooking the foods at a faster pace. You check out my Instant Pot guide to learn more about how this multi-cooker works.

If the right cut of beef is not selected, then it can become dry very quickly. Lean cuts don’t work as well, but cheaper pieces like chuck roast or chuck eye roll (my first choice) from the shoulder is plentiful in connective tissue and benefit the most from moist heat cooking.

How to Cook Beef and Broccoli in an Instant Pot

Cut the pieces of meat into even sized pieces for even cooking. Use a steak marinade to quickly infuse flavor inside and out of the beef. Lightly stir-fry the beef before pressure cooking to develop layers of flavors. Pressure cook for a brief time period and use the “quick release” method to rapidly release the pressure. Use a cornstarch slurry as a thickening agent for the sauce towards the end of cooking. Use the saute function and close the lid to quickly steam the broccoli.

After about 10 minutes of cook time, the pot is filled with juicy beef coated in a savory sauce that’s going to make you salivate. It’s a nice bonus to be able to prepare the broccoli florets alongside the beef. I like to serve this dish with fluffy white rice, but a great low carb option is sauteed cauliflower rice. This recipe makes the perfect amount for a family of four, or delicious leftovers the next day. It’s a crowd-pleasing dish that’s extremely easy to prepare, even on busy weeknights.

All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.