Pressure Cooker Love
The pressure cooker is one of the greatest gifts to us home cooks. We like to cook delicious meals for our family, but we want to save time in the kitchen. It took me a while to start using my Instant Pot as an adult only because of a pressure cooker incident I remember from childhood; let's just say there was hot potato all over our kitchen walls. Today, I rely a lot on my Instant Pot for easy meals, like this Mongolian Beef recipe. You'll think twice about ordering take-out if you can make this delicious Asian inspired recipe right at home. Try it with our Jasmine Rice recipe.
Instant Pot Beef
Dinner is much simpler with the Instant Pot! One of my favorite Asian take-out dishes is Mongolian Beef. The beef flank steak in this recipe turns out so tender. It's not chewy or tough, it almost melts in your mouth. Your family will be so happy with this savory, flavorful dinner.
If you need to reheat the Mongolian beef the next day, the microwave will work fine, but if you have a little extra time and are reheating it at home, just toss it into a skillet and reheat it on low, stirring occasionally till it's all heated through.
Less Sugar More Flavor
I love the sweet and savory umami type flavors just as much as anyone. I don't want to just serve food laden with sugar. Many other Mongolian beef recipes call for a bit more brown sugar. I've adjusted the brown sugar here as low as I could without losing that great little hint of sweetness. I'd rather add more ginger and garlic to give a deeper richer flavor.
Gingery Beef
I've always added ginger to this Mongolian Beef recipe, but while shooting video and photos for this recipe I made a mistake. I forgot to add my ginger to the Instant Pot. After attempting to shoot my very 1st food recipe video I realized during "quick release" that I hadn't added the ginger to the pot during the cooking process. I scratched the video anyway as I didn't have the proper equipment and set up. My mistake turned into a recipe tweak that's a keeper!
Making Instant Pot Mongolian Beef
My recommendation for this recipe is, Do not add the ginger to the Instant Pot before sealing the pot. Add the ginger after the "pressure cook", while your sauce is simmering, your ginger flavor will stand out more. The pressure cook won't cook the majority of that great ginger flavor out of your dish and your Mongolian Beef and sauce will stand-out! Mistakes like this prove not all mistakes are worth dwelling over, we do learn from them all and some are quite beneficial.
The Best Beef For Mongolian Beef
Flank Steak turns out extremely tender in the pressure cooker, no chewiness and just the right texture for the best Mongolian beef in my opinion. Any other cut of meat could turn out too chewy or falling apart too much. The great thing is also that flank steak is a little less expensive than other cuts of meat so it's a great inexpensive cut to use for this easy weeknight meal.
Instant Pot Mongolian Beef Ingredients
For the main ingredients of this recipe I have my preferences:
- Beef- Flank Steak cooks best for this dish and is tenderized perfectly in the Instant Pot
- Soy Sauce- Low/Reduced Sodium without additives
- Sesame Seed Oil- I like Pure sesame seed oil without a bunch of extra additives
- Broth- I prefer vegetable broth to beef broth in a recipe like this for a more complex flavor
- Ginger- I always prefer freshly grated
- Carrots- They are not the norm for most Mongolian dish recipes, but I think it adds color and they're just good for you
Instant Pot Mongolian Beef
Instant Pot Mongolian Beef is a favorite Asian take-out meal, ready in 30 minutes at home! This instant pot recipe is easy and delicious; a meal the whole family will enjoy.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 17 minutes
- Total Time: 27 minutes
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients
- About 1.5 lb flank steak, sliced against the grain into ¼" thin strips
- ½ medium yellow onion, diced
- ½ heaping cup carrots, shredded (optional)
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp sesame oil (divided)
- 3-5 garlic cloves, minced (your call on amount)
- ¾ cup vegetable broth (beef broth is great too)
- 1 Tbsp grated ginger (save for after Instant pot quick release)
- ⅛-¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional-I like this dish spicy, but my kids are a different story, so I don't add it if cooking for them)
Sauce Thickener
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder
- 3 Tbsp water
Garnish
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
- 4 green onions, chopped
Instructions
- Set Instant Pot to Sauté mode.
- Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to Instant pot once hot. Add steak in batches and brown, stirring occasionally. I do it in 3 batches. Once browned, remove from pot and set aside.
- Add remaining tablespoon of oil, onions & carrots. Sauté about 2 mins.
- Add garlic (& red pepper flakes if adding) to pot, stirring about 1 minute or fragrant.
- Add broth, soy sauce and brown sugar to pot. Stir to combine, scraping all bits off the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon.
- Return beef to pot. Give it a quick stir.
- Close Instant Pot and set to High pressure for 9 mins.
- Quick release once cooking is complete.
- Set the Instant Pot back to Sauté and once sauce is simmering add your ginger to the pot. Stir to combine.
- While sauce is simmering, stir together cornstarch and water together in a small bowl/ramekin and quickly add to pot.
- Wisk the cornstarch thickener into the sauce, consistently stirring until sauce thickens, doesn't take more than a minute.
- Stir in the sesame seeds.
- Turn off and unplug your Instant Pot. Top plates with green onions and enjoy!
Notes
Serve over your favorite rice or noodles. I prefer to serve the Mongolian Beef over Jasmine rice with Green Onions. Add some red pepper flakes over individual dishes for those who prefer more heat.
Keywords: Asian, Instant Pot Mongolian Beef, Instant Pot, Asian Beef, Flank Steak
Heather says
So delicious and fun to cook! This is just what I was hungry for tonight. It's savory with rich flavors and not overly sweet! Definitely on frequent rotation. My picky husband even gobbled it up!
Katia says
Thanks for the comment, Heather! So glad to hear you both enjoyed it! My husband loves it as well!