Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What cut of meat should I use for beef stroganoff? ›

Traditionally, tenderloin is the meat of choice for Stroganoff, and after testing out a few alternatives—strip steak and ribeye along with more inexpensive cuts like flap meat, hanger, flank, and skirt—I decided to stick with tradition (flap meat and hanger came in a close second).

Steam penetrates food easily under pressure. So connective tissues in cubes of beef for soups or stews soften in 15 minutes or less, and a pot roast will be medium-rare in 30 minutes.

Add in trivet and place frozen or fresh ground meat directly on trivet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper as desired. Put the lid on the Pressure Cooker and turn valve to seal. Set to High Pressure for 20 minutes if frozen, 6 minutes if fresh.

If you find that it's still tough after cooking, you'll need to cook it for another 10 to 20 minutes at high pressure – it just needs a bit longer to continue to brine and break down the connective tissue.

Add a little flour, and whisk it in to make a roux—the base of your creamy beef stroganoff sauce. Add all of the things that give this easy beef stroganoff recipe its big, bold flavors—beef broth, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, spicy Dijon mustard, and sour cream.

What is stroganoff sauce made of? Stroganoff sauce is a sour cream gravy made with beef broth that's thickened with flour. It's flavoured with mustard and has mushrooms in it. I love the pale brown creamy colour against the deep golden brown seared beef!

It's tough, less flavorful, and dry. How to tell if your meat is way overcooked in the pressure cooker? It's tenderized, but dry and flavorless (without the sauce). Some people call this the distinct “pressure cooker taste”.

Brown it

Pressure cooked food doesn't brown so it's worth doing this at the start of cooking before adding liquid and putting the lid on. Meat looks and tastes more appetising with a little browning. Onions, garlic and spices also benefit in the flavour stakes from pre-cooking.

Why is My Stew Meat Tough In Instant Pot? The cut of meat you select for stew plays a big role in its tenderness once cooked. Beef chuck roast, I find, is the best cut of meat for beef stew recipes. Be sure to also let your pressure release naturally.

In fact, there are a handful of foods that just shouldn't be pressure-cooked. Among them are dairy and fried foods, as well as burgers and steaks.

What is the best meat to cook in an Instant Pot? ›

You can do no wrong with pork ribs in the pressure cooker or any other kind of meat that is marbled with fat, that's got a bone in it. All those are going to do well in the pressure cooker. I don't recommend pressure cooking lean pork cutlets at all.

While you may cover meat almost completely for a conventional braise, use just enough liquid for the cooker to reach pressure – during pressure cooking the meat will release it's own juice and braise in that flavorful liquid, instead. DO use fresh herbs.

Chuck roast, brisket and short ribs are the best cut because they contain a lot of connective tissue. During both slow & pressure cooking, that connective tissue breaks down and turns into gelatin giving the beef a rich, meaty flavour and a tender, juicy texture.

However, if the recipe calls for a natural release and you do a quick release, then yes your meat could come out tough.

If your roast is tough in the Instant Pot, it likely needs to be cooked longer. Chuck roast will become more tender the longer it cooks, so extra time may be needed. However, you can overcook beef in the Instant Pot, so keep an eye on it if you add extra time.

A perfectly cooked beef joint makes a wonderful centrepiece for a Sunday roast or Christmas dinner. To cook it until it's so tender it falls apart, you'll need to choose a joint like chuck and blade or beef brisket and either braise, slow roast or slow cook it for at least a couple of hours.

In my opinion, the best choice is beef chuck, which comes from the shoulder area. It's quite flavorful, and it's rich in collagen which breaks down over slow cooking at a gentle simmer, keeping the meat nice and tender. Many people use round, or rump cuts.

These cuts—ribeye, New York strip loin, and filet mignon—can certainly be dubbed the best, and few will disagree. “Filet is the most tender cut, but has the least amount of flavor. Ribeye is the most flavorful, but the least tender of the three, and New York is in the middle.” Flannery explains.

And for this, we recommend reaching for cuts with higher fat content, like ribeyes, porterhouses, and well-marbled New York strip steaks, because these hold up the best when cooked at length at high temperatures.