This is another Instant Pot recipe that is absolutely fabulous, takes very little time to assemble, and makes an appearance at our dinner table about once a month (by request, mind you!). Like all good weeknight hack recipes, it’s based on a recipe that’s based on a recipe that’s based on a recipe … you can read them below, but this is the version that has worked best for me. The quantities and seasonings have been tweaked, and I’ve managed to cut some extra corners (I don’t brown the beef, for example, because it makes absolutely no difference in this particular recipe, texture- or taste-wise). As it is an IP recipe, and no cornstarch can be used in Pressure Cooker mode because of uneven heating, the cornstarch is still added at the very end of the pressure cooking, in Sauté mode.

A really GREAT hack, though, is one I’ve started using for several of my Instant Pot recipes: I purchased an extra Instant Pot insert (the silver pot that you cook in), so I can switch out one potful of food for another without hassle and continue right on cooking. For this dish, while I’m prepping the beef, I throw in my rice. By the time it’s pressurized, cooked, and depressurized (we use the natural release for this one), my main ingredients are ready to go, and I can just pull the first pot, put in the second, and tent a piece of tin foil over the rice to keep it warm until my beef is ready to go. No emptying food into yet another vessel, and washing the pot to cook another dish, cooling the food that I moved from one pot into another, or giving me more to do when I’m trying to just get dinner on the table. It’s an easy hack, but an effective one.

 

[yumprint-recipe id=’38’] 
 

Because You Still Need to Eat