The best way to make Instant Pot pot roast that’s so tender, it melts in your mouth. This straightforward recipe makes ultra-flavorful beef assured to fulfill the whole household. Use an Instant Pot or one other stress cooker for this recipe. Bounce to the Simple Instant Pot Pot Roast Recipe

Table of Contents
What’s Pot Roast?
Pot roast is extra of a way than a particular reduce of meat. To make it, sear a big reduce of beef till browned on all sides, after which cook dinner it with aromatics like herbs, onions, carrots, and broth till it’s melt-in-your-mouth tender. You may make this in a Dutch oven on the stove-top, within the oven, in a sluggish cooker, and a stress cooker. On this recipe, we’re utilizing a stress cooker (particularly, our Instant Pot) to make the pot roast. A stress cooker takes the cooking time down dramatically.
Reading: Instant pot roast beef recipe

What Are the Finest Cuts of Meat to Use?
The very best cuts of beef for pot roast are harder cuts of meat like chuck, brisket, and spherical.
Historically, the beef cooks at a low temperature for a very long time. It’s due to this that harder cuts of beef work so effectively. After I say harder cuts of meat, I’m speaking concerning the leaner cuts with plenty of connective tissue.
How Lengthy Does it Take to Cook dinner Pot Roast in a Stress Cooker (Instant Pot)?
The time it takes to cook dinner pot roast in an Instant Pot will range relying on how massive your piece of meat is.
As a basic rule, when cooking beef roasts in a stress cooker, assume 20 minutes of cook dinner time for each pound of meat.
You will need to perceive that the time proven above is the precise cooking time, not the whole time the recipe will take. For the whole time wanted, think about the time really useful to deliver the beef to room temperature (extra on that under), searing time, and the instances required to launch stress constructed up contained in the stress cooker.
For a 3-pound piece of beef, the whole time required shall be about 2 hours and half-hour. This contains the time to deliver the beef to room temperature (extra on that under), searing time, and the cook dinner time required contained in the stress cooker.
I do know 2 hours and half-hour would possibly seem to be a very long time, however for ultra-tender and juicy beef, we’d like all of it.
The nice information is {that a} stress cooker makes a lot faster work of pot roast in comparison with a sluggish cooker, oven, or when it’s cooked on the stove-top.
Now, I discussed there was additional time for bringing the beef to room temperature. After testing this pot roast recipe in our kitchen, we discovered that when you begin with beef straight out of the fridge, the roast doesn’t turn into as tender as whenever you give the beef a while out of the fridge in order that it comes as much as room temperature earlier than cooking it.
For a three-pound roast, we discovered that leaving it on the counter for 1 hour was excellent. This additional time has one other profit, it provides us an opportunity to season the meat.
Proper after taking the beef out of the fridge, we season it liberally with salt, which implies that because the beef sits, the salt has an opportunity to seep into the meat, making it additional tasty when cooked.
Can I Use Frozen Beef?
You may be questioning if you should use frozen beef for pot roast. Technically, the reply is sure, the cook dinner time will simply be longer (20 to half-hour longer).
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That stated, for the most effective outcomes, we extremely suggest following our technique which requires thawed beef that’s seasoned with salt and been left on the counter lengthy sufficient to take the nippiness off.
This additional time creates probably the most flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth pot roast. Utilizing thawed beef additionally permits us to brown the skin of the meat earlier than braising it, which provides a whole lot of additional taste to dish.

The best way to Make Pot Roast in a Stress Cooker (Instant Pot)
In our pictures, we’re utilizing a 6-quart Instant Pot, which is an electrical stress cooker.
Different manufacturers make electrical stress cookers, too. Should you personal one among them, you must be capable of use this recipe with none issues (simply ensure you learn the person handbook first).
Step 1, Season the beef and produce it to room temperature. I’ve already touched on this above, however I’ll rapidly do it once more, right here.
After testing, we discovered that once we left the beef out on the counter to return nearer to room temperature earlier than cooking it, the pot roast was way more tender on the finish of the cooking time.
I additionally love that the beef will get an opportunity to sit down with the salt for about an hour earlier than cooking. On this time, the salt seeps into the meat and helps to season and tenderize it.
Step 2, Brown the beef on all sides. By browning the beef on all sides earlier than cooking at excessive stress, we add colour to the meat and add plenty of taste to the pot.
For a one-pot meal, brown the beef proper within the stress cooker utilizing the “Saute” perform. In case your stress cooker doesn’t have this perform, merely brown the beef in a heavy pan on the range.
After browning, I take away the beef so I can transfer on to the veggies.
Step 3, Calmly brown greens. For additional taste, we add onions, carrots, and celery to our pot roast, however I prefer to cook dinner them within the backside of the pot a bit first.
This step builds much more taste into the dish, which makes the braising liquid style unbelievable. Once they begin to odor candy and get gentle brown in locations, I take them out and transfer on to creating the braising liquid.
Step 4, Deglaze the pot and place the beef and greens again in. By deglaze, I imply so as to add liquid and scrape the underside of the pot till it’s clear.
The steps the place we brown the beef and greens depart bits caught to the underside. By deglazing, we elevate all that taste caught to the underside of the pan.
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When the underside of the pot is clear, I place the beef, greens, and extra aromatics into the stress cooker.
Step 5, Stress cook dinner till the beef is tender. As I discussed above, the cooking time will range relying on the scale of beef you might be cooking.
Usually, you will want twenty minutes of cooking time at stress for each pound of meat. So, a 3-pound roast takes 60 minutes at excessive stress earlier than it’s tender.
You possibly can see from our pictures that we added child potatoes to the pot, too. These get very mushy and could be served entire or mashed into flavorful mashed potatoes.
Alternatively, you may depart them out and roast potatoes within the oven for a extra crisp outcome. That is my most popular technique. The beef and carrots are so tender that including a crisp, roasted potato subsequent to them is a pleasant change in texture.
Step 6, Naturally launch the stress cooker for 10 minutes and serve. By naturally launch, I imply that when the cooking time is up, I depart the stress cooker alone and permit it to slowly launch a few of the stress constructed up contained in the pot.
After about 10 minutes, I take advantage of the quick-release button to launch the remaining stress earlier than opening the lid. If you’re new to the Instant Pot or electrical stress cooking, I like to recommend studying the person’s handbook earlier than following our recipe.
After cooking, the beef shall be tender, the onions soften into the gravy, and the carrots flip silky mushy. The celery turns into tender, too, however I normally don’t serve them with the beef since by the tip of the cooking time they’ve normally given up all their taste to the gravy.

Should you added potatoes, you may serve them alongside the beef or mash them.
As an elective step, you can also make a gravy with the liquid left within the pot. I’ve supplied a way within the recipe under. You may also simply spoon the liquid within the pot over the beef when serving. It’s utterly as much as you.
The best way to Inform When it’s Performed
Pot roast is finished when it’s tender and simply pulled aside with a fork.
The beef ought to disintegrate on you, which implies that the stress cooker has finished its job in breaking down all of the connective tissue within the beef. You possibly can see what this seems to be like within the picture and video above.
What if my pot roast is hard?
If after cooking the pot roast, it’s nonetheless robust, all it is advisable do is cook dinner it longer. If the beef continues to be robust, it simply wants extra time for the braise to do it’s magic and break down the connective tissues within the beef.
Since we’re utilizing a stress cooker, if after our steered cook dinner time, the beef will not be as tender as you’d like, you will want to put the lid again onto the pot, seal it, after which cook dinner at excessive stress for extra time (an extra 10 to twenty minutes is my suggestion).

Extra Instant Pot (Stress Cooker) Recipes
- Our Favourite Bone Broth is made in a stress cooker. Consider bone broth as a extra intense, velvety broth. It may be utilized in recipes calling for inventory or broth, but in addition doubles as a scrumptious and comforting soup to take pleasure in by itself.
- Simple Instant Pot Salsa Verde Rooster is ideal for serving with rice, cooked grains or in tortillas.
- Our Final Pulled Pork is superb when made in a stress cooker. See our suggestions in addition to easy methods to make it in a sluggish cooker.
- These Instant Pot Eggs couldn’t be less complicated! If you’re in search of a 100% foolproof technique for easy methods to cook dinner onerous or mushy boiled eggs, that is it.
- I like making Home made Applesauce in my stress cooker! Really easy.
For extra beef recipes, check out our traditional chili recipe made with floor beef and beans or these shredded beef tacos.
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