
Instant Pot Mongolian Beef
As many of you know one of my daughter’s gave me an Instant Pot for Christmas last year. It took a few weeks of staring at the box before I actually opened it; all those buttons were a bit intimidating! But once I made my first recipe, Instant Pot Beef Stew, it was instant love! Now I don’t know what I’d do without it! So I’ve been exploring possibilities and one of my new favorites in this Instant Pot Mongolian Beef.
Mongolian Beef is a family favorite and we always order it when we dine at Chinese Restaurants, we love the tender morsels of beef in its delicious sauce. I’ve tried to make it at home, after all it’s just a basic sitr fry, but I could never get the meat to be so tender. I’d tried all sorts of cuts except filet mignon, I mean seriously who’d use filet in a stir fry? Whatever I did I could never get it as tender as the restaurants do; that is until now! It never occurred to me that the secret was in the cooking method. I mean all the recipes said fry the meat in a wok or a pan, I’m guessing you’d get very tender meat if you stir fired filet mignon, but at over $15 a pound that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon!
Well it seems to me the secret to tender beef is to pressure cook it! Enter the new love of my life, the Instant Pot! When I adapted my Mongolian Beef stir fry recipe to the Instant Pot the whole dish changed! It transformed from a pretty good stir fry to a tender delicious restaurant worthy dish! This Instant Pot Mongolian Beef is seriously delicious!
But it’s not only yummy, Instant Pot Mongolian Beef is easier than stir fry! What? Easier than stir fry? How is that possible? First of all my original recipe has me marinating the meat for at least an hour; no need to marinate Instant Pot Mongolian Beef so that cuts kitchen time down a bit. And stir fry requires you to, um, well, stir what you’re frying; with the Instant Pot Mongolian Beef stirring is kept to just a few minutes to brown the meat. And best of all from start to finish you could get Instant Pot Mongolian Beef on the table in about 30 minutes!
I serve it over steamed white rice which I make in my Zojirushi Rice Cooker. You can even make bowls and bentos with this recipe!
So here’s the recipe for Instant Pot Mongolian Beef!
Ingredients:
2 Lbs. Flank or Sirloin Steak cut into small thin slices
1 Tbs. Sesame Oil or vegetable oil will work if you’re allergic to sesame seeds or don’t have sesame oil on hand
2 Tbs. Minced Garlic
1/2 Cup Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Water
2 Tbs. Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 Cup Coconut Sugar
1 Tbs. Molasses (or you can skip the coconut sugar and Molasses and use 2/3 cup dark brown sugar instead)
1 Tsp fresh minced ginger
3 Tbs. Cornstarch dissolved in 1/3 cup water
3-4 stalks green onions cut to small pieces
1 Tsp Sesame seeds (optional)
Directions:
Turn Instant Pot to Sauté and place oil inside inner pot
Heat oil about 1 minute
Place small amounts of beef in pot and brown both sides – about 2 minutes
Remove browned meat from pot and brown remaining meat in small batches until all meat is browned
Add garlic to pot and cook about 1 minute
Add soy sauce, water, worcestershire sauce, sugar, molasses, and ginger into the pot and mix well
Turn pot to manual and adjust time to 12 Minutes
Return meat and any juices that seeped out to the pot
Place lid on making sure the valve is set to Sealing
When timer goes off move valve to venting to quick release the pressure
Remove lid and stir in cornstarch mixture until the sauce is thickened
Sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds before serving.
- 2 Lbs. Flank or Sirloin Steak cut into small thin slices
- 1 Tbs sesame oil Vegetable works too
- 2 Tbs minced garlic
- 1/2 Cup soy sauce
- 1/2 Cup Water
- 2 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce
- 1/2 Cup Coconut Sugar
- 1 Tsp Minced Fresh Ginger
- 3 Tbs cornstarch dissolved in 1/3 Cup Water
- 3-4 Stalks green onions Chopped into small pieces
- 1 Tsp Sesame Seeds Optional
- Turn Instant Pot to Sauté and place oil inside inner pot
- Heat oil about 1 minute
- Place small amounts of beef in pot and brown both sides - about 2 minutes
- Remove browned meat from pot and brown remaining meat in small batches until all meat is browned
- Add garlic to pot and cook about 1 minute
- Add soy sauce, water, worcestershire sauce, sugar, molasses, and ginger into the pot and mix well
- Turn pot to manual and adjust time to 12 Minutes
- Return meat and any juices that seeped out to the pot
- Place lid on making sure the valve is set to Sealing
- When timer goes off move valve to venting to quick release the pressure
- Remove lid and stir in cornstarch mixture until the sauce is thickened
- Sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds before serving.