If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to satisfy your taste buds, look no further than this Instant Pot Mongolian Beef recipe. This mouthwatering dish combines tender slices of beef, a savory and slightly sweet sauce, and a touch of heat for a perfect balance of flavors. Thanks to the magic of the Instant Pot, you can have this restaurant-quality meal on your table in no time. Say goodbye to takeout and hello to homemade goodness with this delectable Chinese takeout style Mongolian Beef right in your own kitchen. Get ready to savor the flavors of this Asian-inspired dish with this super easy recipe.
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 spend less time in the kitchen. It took me a while to start using my Instant Pot only because of a pressure cooker incident I remember from childhood; let’s just say there was hot potato all over our kitchen walls. The flank steak in this recipe when pressure cooked turns it into very tender beef. It’s not chewy or tough, it almost melts in your mouth. Your family will be so happy with this savory and sweet tender meat. 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 make this delicious Asian inspired recipe today. Try it with our Jasmine white rice recipe or some brown rice.
How to Make Instant Pot Mongolian Beef
First, start by cooking the steak in batches on sauté mode. Once all browned, remove from the pot and set aside. Then add the onions & carrots and sauté. Add the broth, soy sauce and brown sugar to pot and return the beef to pot. Cook it on high pressure for 9 mins and then quick release once the cooking is complete. Make the corn starch slurry and bring the liquid back up to a simmer and add your ginger to the pot. Once it’s simmering, add your slurry and while stirring allow the sauce to thicken. Lastly, add some sesame seeds and get ready to serve.
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! My recommendation for extra flavorful Mongolian beef 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
The cut of beef I use for this recipe is flank steak. It turns out extremely tender in the pressure cooker, no chewiness and just the right texture for the best Mongolian beef in my opinion. You can also use skirt steak. Any other cut of meat could turn out too chewy or fall 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 more affordable cut to use for this easy weeknight meal.
What to serve with Mongolian Beef
You can serve this flavorful, saucy tender meat with your favorite fresh vegetables. Mongolian beef goes great with broccoli or fresh green beans. It’s great on rice just like your favorite Chinese restaurants, but you can also enjoy it on cauliflower rice is you’re needing a low carb option. Add some green onions as well on top.
Instant Pot Mongolian Beef Ingredients
- Beef– Flank Steak cooks best for this dish and is tenderized perfectly in the Instant Pot
- Onion- just a standard yellow onion
- Carrots- shredded for a little extra sweetness
- Soy Sauce– I use low-sodium soy sauce without additives. You could also use coconut aminos if need be.
- Brown Sugar– you can use light or dark brown sugar.
- Sesame Seed Oil– I like Pure sesame seed oil without a bunch of extra additives
- Garlic– I use fresh garlic for this recipe, but in a pinch you could use
- 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)
- Water– Good old fashioned tap water.
- Corn starch- You can also use arrowroot powder
- Red pepper flakes- this is optional, but all you need is a little to give you a little extra flavor.
- Green Onion– For garnish and flavor.
Instant Pot Mongolian Beef
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb flank steak sliced against the grain into 1/4″ thin strips
- 1/3 cup yellow onion diced
- 1/2 cup carrots shredded (optional)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp sesame oil divided
- 3-5 clove garlic minced (your call on amount)
- 3/4 cup low sodium vegetable broth beef broth is great too
- 1 Tbsp ginger grated and save for after Instant pot quick release
- 1/8-1/4 tsp 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 flower
- 3 Tbsp water
Garnish
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
- 4 whole green onions chopped
Instructions
- Set Instant Pot to Sauté mode.
- Add 1 Tbsp 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 Tbsp 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!
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!
Thanks for the comment, Heather! So glad to hear you both enjoyed it! My husband loves it as well!