The Instant Pot is a perfect appliance for cooking ingredients that require a long cooking time, such as beans and meat. For dishes such as braised beef, it reduces hours of cooking into one hour (or less, depending on the cut you use) and creates a great result. Today I want to introduce this Chinese braised beef that you can make in the Instant Pot.
Why this recipe
- It’s easy to prepare and only requires 15 minutes of active cooking time.
- There’s no browning required! It will make the cooking much easier and less messy.
- I’ll introduce a secret sauce to make your braised beef immediately even tastier.
- The finished dish is very well balanced and rich with buttery tender meat.
Which cut of beef to use
The rule of thumb when braising beef is to use a well-marbled and fatty cut. The more fat it contains, the more tender the meat will become.
- My personal favorite cut is shin bones. Shin bones contain a lot of collagen between the lean meat. It will become super tender after cooking and taste heavenly.
- Fatty brisket is great, too, and it’s usually less expensive. The layer of fat will protect the lean meat, so the meat will be super tender after braising.
- Beef neck bones are another good option. The meat and broth will be extra flavorful, but will yield less meat since it’s mostly bone.
- Chuck is another good option and requires less cooking time, even though it’s on the leaner side compared to the other cuts.
NOTE: Avoid stew meat when possible. It’s usually very lean and cut unevenly, so it isn’t suitable for braising.
In this recipe I used a VERY fatty cut of brisket, due to the availability at my local market.
How to cut beef for braising
DO NOT trim off the fat. That’s the one thing that matters most. The fat will protect the lean meat from drying out during cooking, producing an extra tender result.
You will see that the cut of brisket I used is super fatty.
- I split the meat down the middle of the fat layer, so the lean meat would have some fat attached.
- Then I cut the meat into 2” (5 cm) chunks, as evenly as I could.
A lot of the fat will melt away during the cooking. But don’t worry. You can easily skim the oil off the liquid once you’re done cooking. If you do not like the fat attached to the lean meat, simply trim it off of the cooked beef.
Ingredients
- 2.5 to 3 lbs (1 to 1.2 kg) brisket , cut into 2” (5 cm) chunks (neck bone, shin bone, or chuck)
Blanching
- 2 ” (5 cm) ginger , sliced
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 star anise pods
Braising
-
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil
- 2 ” (5 cm) ginger , cut to think strips
- 2 cloves garlic , smashed
- 2 star anise pods
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy soy
- 1 tablespoon Chee Hou sauce (or oyster sauce)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3/4 cup reserved blanching broth
Instructions
-
- Add the beef and 6 cups of water into a medium-sized pot. Add all the ingredients listed under “Blanching” above. Heat over medium-high heat until boiling. Turn to medium heat. Skim away any brown foam that rises to the top, until the broth runs clear, 10 minutes or so. (*Footnote 1)
- Transfer the blanched beef to a colander and reserve the braising liquid (*Footnote 2). Run tap water over the beef and shake the beef, to rinse off any residue.
- Turn on the Instant Pot’s “Saute” function. Let it heat up until it shows “HOT”.
- Add the oil, ginger, garlic, star anise, and cinnamon stick. Saute until the ginger and garlic begin to brown, 2 minutes or so.
- Add the Shaoxing wine. Scrape off any brown bits from the bottom of the pot using a wooden spatula.
- Add all the “Braising” ingredients above and stir to mix well.
- Add the blanched beef and stir. Arrange the beef into an even layer.
- Seal the Instant Pot and make sure the valve lock is on. Set to “Manual” at “High Pressure”. Set the timer for 60 minutes if using brisket, 50 minutes for neck bones and shin bones, and 40 minutes for chuck.
- Once the Instant Pot is done cooking, let it release the pressure naturally.
- Open the Instant Pot and stir the beef with the broth. (*Footnote 3)
-
- The beef is ready to serve now. For a better result, let the beef sit in the braising liquid the fridge overnight, so the seasonings will round out more and the beef will be more flavorful.
- Serve the beef hot over steamed rice as a main course.
Notes
- You can do this step directly in the Instant Pot, as well. However, I prefer to blanch the beef on the stove top because it’s easier to control the heat.
- You only need 3/4 of a cup blanching liquid in this recipe. You can also reserve the rest of the liquid to use as beef stock in the future. I recommend using the liquid to make braised daikon radish with minced pork (use it in place of the chicken broth).
- If you’re using a fatty cut of beef, you might want to skim the floating oil from the top of the broth. You can do this with a ladle once you’re done cooking. For a better result, you can chill the beef in the fridge so the fat will congeal into a solid layer on top. Then you can easily remove the fat.
