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Deeply flavorful, thick, and cozy, our Instant Pot Beef Stew with red wine gravy recipe in a red wine gravy is so quick and easy! It's a hearty bowl of amazingly flavorful comfort food that uses simple ingredients and is ready to eat in 20 minutes.
Easy Beef Stew Recipe
I love Instant Pot beef recipes, so I'm constantly looking for ways to make our favorite dishes using our pressure cooker. Tender beef stew is the sort of recipe that's perfect for cooking in the Instant Pot.
The first time I tried making this recipe, faces lit up around the table and everyone's bowls were quickly emptied. It was certainly a keeper for a busy weeknight meal.
What makes this dish such a great choice for dinner is that it's really so easy to make, on top of being irresistibly tasty. This is a tender beef stew, made with chuck roast, veggies, and a thick broth flavored with red wine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Actually, our number one choice for making beef stew in the Instant Pot is chuck roast beef. Chuck roast is our favorite pot roast beef, and it's also the perfect choice for stew. Cooking it in the pressure cooker makes it fall-apart tender while soaking up all of the flavors from the broth.
If you want to save time, simply use cubed beef stew meat. You don't even have to cut your beef, it is done for you!
We cook our beef on high pressure for 15 minutes. This is after browning the beef on each side for about 3 minutes on each side to give it a sear for extra flavor.
Pressure cooking beef is a perfect choice for when you need a quick and easy meal that's still tender, juicy, and as deeply flavorful as if you slow-cooked it all day long. Dinner is on the table in no time at all!
Unfortunately, it is easy to overcook beef in the instant pot, resulting in tough dry meat. It is extremely important to only cook your beef stew for 15 minutes after browning your meat.
How to Make Gluten-Free Beef Stew
Follow the step-by-step instructions but do not add the cornstarch slurry at the end. This recipe is still absolutely delicious without it! The gravy isn't as thick but it is still very tasty.
Variations on Instant Pot Beef Stew
- Spicy Tomato: Add a little kick by adding fire-roasted tomatoes. This is such a fun twist that adds great flavor.
- Spices: You can experiment with the taste by adding different spices. Almost any combination of flavors that you love will work well in this stew. I like trying oregano, basil, rosemary, dried parsley, paprika, cayenne pepper, celery seed and onion powder to make a beef stew seasoning mix.
- Vegetables: For some extra veggies, I like to add in potatoes, stalks celery, mushrooms, green beans, and frozen corn.
Recipe Tips
- When searing, if the meat soaks up the vegetable oil too quickly, you can add a little more. Start with about 2 tablespoons, adding more if necessary.
- Don't skip searing - it makes a world of difference. It takes just about 3 minutes per side until the beef is browned on all sides.
- Make sure not to overcrowd the pot when searing or your beef won't properly brown. Brown in batches if you need to.
- Naturally release the pressure - don't use quick release. Natural release gives you the most tender beef.
- If the pressure hasn't released after 20 minutes, let it continue to naturally release if you have the time. If you're in a hurry, quick release any remaining pressure.
If you want to thicken your stew a bit more, use more cornstarch mixture. Make sure to mix it in while it's freshly hot in the Instant Pot.
Substitutions
- You can use chuck roast, bottom round roast or stew meat already cut for you.
- We prefer sea salt for seasoning beef for its coarser texture. If you don't have sea salt or would prefer, you can use regular salt.
- Instead of red wine, you can use more beef broth or red wine vinegar.
Best Instant Pot Beef Recipes
Chuck Roast Recipes
Try more of our roast beef recipes using chuck beef:
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📋 Recipe
Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil if beef absorbs oil too quickly, add 1 Tbsp. more
- 3 lbs. chuck roast or bottom round roast, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 tsp. fine sea salt plus ½ tsp. more for cooking with
- ½ cup red wine or use equal amount more beef broth
- 1 cup beef broth or water
- 1 lb. carrots peeled and cut into 1½-inch lengths
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced, or 2 tsp. garlic paste
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 15 oz. canned tomato sauce
- ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
Cornstarch slurry
- ¼ cup water
- 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
Instructions
- Prepare your ingredients: slice 3 lbs. chuck roast beef into cubes, chop 1 large onion, peel and cut 1 lb. carrots, and mince 2 cloves garlic.
- Set Instant Pot to saute mode. Heat 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil. While the pot heats, season cubed chuck roast beef with 1 tsp. sea salt.
- Add ⅓ of the beef to the Instant Pot in a single layer and sear until browned on one side, about 3 minutes. Then flip to the opposite side and brown. Repeat in batches until all beef is browned.
- Remove beef from the pot and set aside. Add onion and garlic to the pot and sprinkle with 1 tsp. dried thyme and ½ tsp. sea salt.
- Stir in 15 oz. canned tomato sauce. Saute until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen up any browned bits and stir them in.
- Pour in ½ cup red wine and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 1 minute. Then, add the beef back to the mixture along with any juices in the bowl. Stir well.
- Add 1 cup beef broth and your carrots. Stir, then add the lid back to the pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes.
- Once 15 minutes is up, allow the pressure to naturally release for 20 minutes.
- Carefully remove the lid. Tilt it away from you to avoid hot steam. Whisk ¼ cup water and 1 Tbsp. cornstarch together to create a slurry, then stir the slurry into the stew to thicken it.
- Finally, add ½ tsp. black pepper and salt to taste. Serve, and enjoy!
Notes
- When searing, if the meat soaks up the vegetable oil too quickly, you can add a little more. Start with about 2 tablespoons, adding more if necessary.
- Don't skip searing - it makes a world of difference. It takes just about 3 minutes per side until the beef is browned on all sides.
- Make sure not to overcrowd the pot when searing or your beef won't properly brown. Brown in batches if you need to.
- Naturally release the pressure - don't use quick release. Natural release gives you the most tender beef.
- If the pressure hasn't released after 20 minutes, let it continue to naturally release if you have the time. If you're in a hurry, quick release any remaining pressure.
- If you want to thicken your stew a bit more, use more cornstarch mixture. Make sure to mix it in while it's freshly hot in the Instant Pot.
Pauline says
I have the mini Instant Pot. How do I modify the ingredient amounts for this recipe?
Em Beitel says
Hi Pauline! We use a 6qt Instant Pot in this recipe. If you're using a mini pot at 3qts, I would suggest cutting the ingredients by half or down to 2/3rds of the recipe size. If you click on the '6' serving size number in the recipe card, you can adjust it down to either '3' for half or 4 for about 2/3rds. Please let us know if you need any more help and if you do, feel free to contact us via email as well.
Angie says
I have the largest size insta pot. Can I use it to cook this recipe? The one in picture looks smaller.
Em Beitel says
Hi Angie! Absolutely, you can use a larger pot. We use a 6qt but using a large pot will be just fine. We hope you enjoy!
Michelle says
Can you include instructions to add potatoes?
Em Beitel says
Hi Michelle! You can add potatoes during the pressure cooking stage when you add the carrots. We like peeled, halved or quartered gold potatoes with this recipe. Thank you for your question!
Larry says
Are use the larger Insta pot and I cut my carrots and longer sticks and use three onions with the other can of diced tomatoes and tomato sauce and have really good luck with it like that
Em Beitel says
That's awesome! Thank you so much for your comment!
Barbara says
Question: This stew looks great, but I like potatoes in my stew. How would you include them in this recipe? Thanks a lot!
Em Beitel says
Hi Barbara! You can add potatoes during the pressure cooking stage when you add the carrots. We like peeled, halved or quartered gold potatoes with this recipe. Thank you for your question!
Bonnie Hurd says
What a terrific recipe.
First of all, I love my Instant Pot. Second, I added potatoes at the same time as the carrots and am grateful that the question was asked and answered. Third, I used London Broil cut up into very small pieces.
The stew came out perfect. Thank you so much for posting it.
Isabel Laessig says
Bonnie, this makes me so happy! I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe. Cheers to you!