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Thanks for posting this…my absolute favourite recipe that I use all the time now. It’s so easy and always tastes great.
Margaret Cockerill
Why I Love This Beef Stew
Introducing my newest comfort food love: BEEF STEW. That can be made in an Instant Pot. As in Instant Pot Beef Stew. The meal that will change your life.
To answer your questions: YES, I’ve become a new person since this stew was introduced into my life. I am a non-beef-loving-part-time-vegetarian who now adores beef stew. I attribute my newfound love of beef stew to two things – 1) how easy it is to make, and 2) how truly, awesomely, gravy-loving delicious beef stew actually is. I guess I was just being judgy about it for a minute there.
I grew up in a small town in Minnesota (hello, Cambridge!), along with my husband Bjork. When we both sat down to eat this and took our first bites of this beef stew as delivered by our friends Tyler and Heidi, we literally said, almost at the same time, “This tastes like Cambridge.” For both of us, beef stew tastes like dinner with grandma and grandpa on Sundays. It tastes like love. It tastes like home.
Which is why it’s perfect for our Feeding a Broken Heart series. Food, love, home. 100% on brand.
How To Make This Instant Pot Beef Stew
1
Cube beef and add to the Instant Pot.
Cut up a chuck roast into chunks, trim the fat, and add to the Instant Pot.
2
Add sliced onion.
My favorite way to slice the onions for this is really thinly using a mandoline. Just the perfect texture!
3
Add the vegetables.
Carrots and celery joining the party! I like to cut these nice and thick so that they’re a similar size to the meat.
4
Add salt, sugar, and tapioca.
You heard that right – tapioca! This is what will get the stew to just the right thickness. Salt and sugar are bringing the flavor and sweetness.
5
Pour in tomato juice and cook.
Add a little bit of tomato juice, set the Instant Pot to cook, and then just walk away! Everything will cook together for about 35 minutes.
6
Finish in the oven for coziness.
This step isn’t necessary but I highly recommend it! Transfer the cooked stew to a homey casserole dish and pop it in the oven for a few minutes before serving, uncovered.
How To Make This Recipe (Video)
Life Changing Instant Pot Beef Stew
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 5–6 servings 1x
Description
Beef Stew made in an Instant Pot! 6 ingredients, 45 minutes, SO EASY. The perfect, comforting meal for all those chilly fall and winter days.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. beef, chuck roast, fat trimmed, cut into 1-2-inch chunks
- 1 medium onion, sliced thinly
- 2 stalks celery, sliced diagonally in thick pieces
- 6 carrots, sliced diagonally in thick pieces
- 2 tablespoons small tapioca (affiliate link)- see notes
- 1/2 cup tomato juice
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Instructions
- Add Beef and Vegetables: Place beef, onion, celery, and carrots in the Instant Pot.
- Add Other Ingredients: Sprinkle in tapioca, salt, and sugar over top, then pour in the tomato juice.
- Cook in the Instant Pot: Secure the lid and select the stew/meat setting and cook for 35 minutes on high pressure.
- Finish: After it’s done, let everything mellow out for about 10 minutes before releasing the steam (this is called a natural release). Technically at this point, it’s done. But I recommend finishing with a quick browning session in the oven (see notes below!).
No Instant Pot? Oven and slow cooker instructions included in the notes below!
Equipment
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Finishing in the Oven: Whether you make this in the oven or in the Instant Pot, I recommend finishing by giving it about 10-20 minutes in a hot oven (400-ish degrees), uncovered, before serving. It gets the meat nice and caramelized on top and helps the gravy thicken up.
Traditional Oven Instructions: Preheat oven to 320 degrees. Place all ingredients in a baking dish – it can be glass or ceramic (we use a round casserole dish – something between 8×8 and 9×13). Cover with foil and bake for 3-4 hours. If the gravy dries out, you can add a little water to the gravy to loosen it up before serving. See notes below for additional modifications/instructions.
Slow Cooker Instructions: Place everything in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4 hours until tender and cooked through. Technically at this point, it’s done. But I recommend finishing with a quick browning session in the oven (see notes below).
Alternatives to Tapioca Pearls for thickening:
- Just leave em out. Your gravy may be a little less thick, but it will still be delicious.
- Toss the beef in 1/3 cup flour, shake off excess and add to the Instant Pot as normal. If you do this and you have a newer Instant Pot, you will likely need additional liquid (I’ll often do a second can of tomato juice) to avoid the burn warning on the Instant Pot.
- Make a slurry of 2 tablespoons corn starch and 1/4 cup water. Add the slurry to everything in the Instant Pot after it’s cooked.
As written, this is more like a traditional saucy beef stew. If you want it to be more like a soup, just add a second can of tomato juice and an extra pinch of salt and sugar. The biggest challenge people have when baking this in the oven is that the sauce/gravy dries out. I would suggest adding a little bit of water (1/4 cup or so) before baking, and then periodically throughout baking as needed. The browned gravy will be really delicious, and a little water mixed in will easily bring it back to life. Another comment we often get is that the tapioca can sometimes still be visible in very small specks, which is okay. It’s so small and it should be extremely soft after cooking in the Instant Pot, so it’s never interfered with my love of this beef stew. It just looks like part of the gravy. But if that bothers you, just try one of our other tapioca-less methods listed above.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: instant pot beef stew, beef stew recipe, easy beef stew
Instant Pot Beef Stew FAQs
Preheat oven to 320 degrees. Place all ingredients in a baking dish – it can be glass or ceramic (we use a round casserole dish – something between 8×8 and 9×13). Cover with foil and bake for 3-4 hours. If the gravy dries out, you can add a little water to the gravy to loosen it up before serving.
Place everything in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4 hours until tender and cooked through. Technically at this point, it’s done. But I recommend finishing with a quick browning session in the oven.
In total, about 50 minutes. Thankfully, the majority of that time is all hands off! You’ll add all your ingredients to the Instant Pot and then set it to cook – it will take about 10 minutes or so to pressurize, 35 minutes to cook, and then 10 mins to de-pressurize. And voila!
In this recipe, you’ll cook tapioca pearls right in the stew which will thicken the gravy. However, if you don’t have those on hand, there are other options as well for thickening the stew.
You could toss the beef in 1/3 cup flour, shake off excess, and add to the Instant Pot as normal. If you do this and you have a newer Instant Pot, you will likely need additional liquid (I’ll often do a second can of tomato juice) to avoid the burn warning on the Instant Pot. Or lastly, you could make a slurry of 2 tablespoons cornstarch and 1/4 cup water and add that slurry to everything in the Instant Pot after it’s cooked to thicken things up.
Absolutely! Just throw some cubed potatoes in with everything else and you should be good to go. This is also delicious ladled on top of some creamy, buttery mashed potatoes.
You could freeze this stew before or after it cooks. If you’ve cooked the recipe and want to freeze leftovers, just store it in a freezer-safe container or sealed bad with as little air as possible. It should keep for up to 6 months!
Alternatively, if you want to freeze this before cooking to pop into the Instant Pot sometime in the future, you can follow the instructions in the recipe card below for how to make this a freezer meal.
This stew is all you need on its own (meat, potatoes, veggies, done!), but there are some extras you could have to make it really sing. Most importantly, please serve this with lots of hot, crusty, buttery bread to mop up that gravy. Then on the side, a simple green salad to feel like total domestic royalty. To finish, a glass of delicious, rich red wine that pairs just too perfectly with it all.
How To Make This a Freezer Meal
Freeze Together:
- 2 lbs. beef chuck, fat trimmed, cut in small-ish pieces
- 1 medium onion, sliced thinly
- 6 stalks celery, sliced diagonally
- 6 carrots, sliced diagonally
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 cans tomato juice (about 1 cup)
After Cooking:
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch in 2 tablespoons water
This recipe takes up quite a bit of space, so it works best when divided between two 7-cup glass containers, or stored in a plastic bag.
To Cook:
INSTANT POT: From frozen, 30 minutes on high pressure + 10 minutes natural release.
SLOW COOKER: From thawed, 5-6 hours on high.
FINAL STEP: After cooking in Instant Pot, turn on saute function. Add cornstarch slurry. Cook for a few minutes until slightly thickened. (If using a slow cooker, add cornstarch when it’s done and let thicken for 30 minutes.)
View more healthy freezer meals here!
Just made this today. I didn’t have onions so I used Lipton’s Beefy Onion soup instead. Also used 8oz tomato sauce and 8 oz no salt added beef broth and thickened with cornstarch as suggested.
Wonderful rich taste!!! Thank you for the inspiration!
I have made this as a freezer meal before and it is *so* good! I want to make it again and I currently have all the ingredients but I have frozen beef. Can I make this dish with fresh ingredients in the instant pot and use frozen beef? Or does it need to be thawed?
Thanks!
Hi Lindsay! I’ve been making this stew for years and love it. To make a smaller batch (I only have 1 pound of meat), would you cook it less time in the instant pot? Thinking maybe 5 minutes less or so but wondered if you had a suggestion!
I’ve been making this recipe for years now and it has become my go-to beef (or lamb) stew recipe! I love the volume of carrots in it — I find that original compared to other stew recipes. When I’m out of tapioca I substitute 1-2 potatoes, diced small. They thicken the stew nicely and fill up the spoon!
So much more celery and more tomato juice as well for the freezer version. Is this correct?
What is the green you put on top at the end?
parsley!
I’m just freezing this recipe as a meal prep, and it seems like very little liquid (1 cup tomato juice)… do you not get a burn warning in the instant pot with this recipe? It makes me nervous because burn warnings are so annoying! Haha. Thanks 🙂
Hi! The vegetables give off liquid when they are cooked as well, so you’re good. We haven’t received a burn warning.
I love all your recipes and this one was super delicious and indeed life changing when I tried in slow cook! However, when I tried the freezer meal prep version in instant pot pressure cooker mode, the meat came out pretty dry and not tender. The same thing happened when I tried the freezer version for beef ragu. I’m not sure if this is happening because it goes straight from frozen to pressure cooker, but I’d very much like to get it right. Any tips?
Hi Mari! Did you use the 1 cup of tomato juice for the freezer meal instructions?
I added 1 cup of low sodium beef bone broth and used low sodium v-8 juice . It tasted great. I liked that it didn’t have potatoes in it and I didn’t have to sear the meat. It was tender without searing. I left out the sugar. I might put more tapioca in it next time.
This recipe is on regular rotation for me, and I’ve made it dozens of times with the following tweaks:
Instead of 1/2 cup tomato juice, I use a 6-ounce can of Zing Zang.
And I also add the following:
8 ounces of mushrooms
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
Minced garlic
I never leave recipe comments bc I figure it’s 2025 and no one reads them. 😬 But I simply wanted to say thanks bc this recipe was truly a nostalgic throwback that was even more delish than I expected. I may make it again this weekend! Shared some with my boyfriend who is a trained chef and he loved it too (his food is always perfection so it’s intimidating to feed him). The flavors were perfectly balanced, & I appreciated it being just real simple ingredients – all just melts in your mouth. I added potatoes and then some green peas at the end. So satisfying. Thanks again!
Can you use a rump roast instead of chuck?
A rump roast should work too!
I have sirloin tips on hand- would this work?? I know nothing about cooking meat!
Yes, I think that would work just fine!
What a wonderful tasty recipe. I also appreciate the variety of preparation methods that are included as well as the freezer meal option.
I would love for you to include a space for personal notes when saving recipes. I added potatoes to mine and would love to be able to add that in notes.
I really wanted to love this stew., especially considering how easy it was to make but it found it to be a bit bland 🙁
Made this last night and it was so great. Came together ridiculously fast, and served it over mashed potatoes in each bowl. Going in the rotation all fall and winter!
Easy and flavorful! Definitely a new favorite.
I made this for my family tonight and it was so easy and straightforward… I don’t have an instant pot so I made it in the oven and because of that I did add a big splash of leftover chicken broth and maybe an extra half of a cup of tomato juice And it was PERFECTION approved by husbands 3 and 5 year olds
This recipe was a headache in the IP. Got the burn notice, stirred the pot, was fine. But meat was still tough. Had to restart for another 20 minutes, burn notice, and stir all over again. I had to add a couple cups of broth the second time. Not as hands off as I had hoped. Final result tastes good, might try in crock pot next time.
Made this in my crock pot on high, 4.5 hrs. Didn’t have tomato juice so I put in 1/4 cup water a few squirts of ketchup. Ordered the mini tapioca via amazon. Absolutely wonderful. Love the thicker gravy oh my!
Seriously my favourite meal. SOO good!
Delicious. Big hit. Thanks.
Love this! A favorite and one of my go to’s. I usually add a whole small can of the tomato juice and more veggies. Thanks so much for sharing this!
Nice. Amazing Combo of beef with veggies
I added 1 cup liquid and still got the burn notice on my instapot. I had to transfer the whole thing to my crock pot. 🙁