This Instant Pot beef & broccoli will be the easiest at-home takeout you’ve ever made! With tender beef, flavorful sauce, and perfectly steamed broccoli, your entire family will love this dish!
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Over the years, we’ve made lots of classic takeout recipes, like our Baked Crispy Orange Chicken and our all-time favorite Mongolian Beef. When developing this recipe, though, we wanted to give you a meal that was easy enough to make on a weeknight. I’ll admit, I’m a bit picky about my Chinese food and I wasn’t totally Sold that the Instant Pot could truly replicate one of my favorite dishes: beef & broccoli. Luckily, I was hooked on this recipe from the first bite. The beef gets super tender in the Instant Pot, and the classic garlicky, savory brown sauce is spot-on. This is the perfect meal to make on busy weeknights, and is sure to please the entire family!
How to Make Beef and Broccoli in the Instant Pot
Here’s how you’ll make this beef and broccoli:
- Brown the onions. To start, you’ll simply add the diced onions to your Instant Pot on sauté mode and cook them for a few minutes until they begin to brown.
- Brown the beef. Browning the beef before cooking adds an extra layer of flavor to the dish, but you can skip it if you’re short on time! You’ll season your beef with salt and pepper, then add it to the pot and cook for two to 3 minutes per side.
- Add the sauce ingredients. Ginger, garlic, coconut aminos, chicken broth, coconut sugar, sesame oil, and rice wine vinegar are what you’ll need to make the sauce. Simply pour these ingredients over the beef.
- Cook for 15 minutes. Seal the Instant Pot and set to cook for 15 minutes on high pressure. Once the timer goes off, manually release the pressure and remove the lid from the pot.
- Steam the broccoli. You can choose to steam your broccoli on the stovetop or in the microwave, but the quickest method is to buy frozen steam-in-bag broccoli!
- Thicken the sauce. Turn the pot back to sauté mode, then stir the cornstarch with water to make a slurry and pour it into the sauce. Let the sauce come to a simmer and thicken.
- Stir in the broccoli and serve. Finally, you’ll stir the broccoli into the beef mixture, then serve over rice, cauliflower rice, or quinoa.
Variations
- Chicken for Beef – If you don’t have beef on hand, or simply prefer chicken, you can make this dish with an equal amount of chicken instead. Just reduce the pressure cook time to 12 minutes.
- Soy Sauce for Coconut Aminos – Substitute 1/4 cup of tamari for the coconut aminos along with an additional 1/4 cup of broth or water, and omit the salt.
- Dried Spices – you can substitute the fresh garlic, onion, and ginger for 1 teaspoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, and ginger.
- Other Veggies for Broccoli – If you don’t have broccoli on hand, or just prefer different veggies, cauliflower, snow peas, and bell peppers would all be great additions to this dish!
- Cornstarch for Arrowroot Starch – Did you know that most starches are interchangeable? You can swap in arrowroot, tapioca, or potato starch here.
Can you make this in a slow cooker?
Yes! You can make beef and broccoli in the slow cooker by following the same recipe, except you will brown the beef, onions, garlic, and ginger on your stovetop, then transfer to the slow cooker to cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. Once the time is up, transfer the sauce from the beef to a saucepan over medium heat and stir in the cornstarch, then cook until the mixture thickens.
Can this be made into a freezer meal?
If you’d like to make a freezer meal that you can prep, freeze, and then dump into the Instant Pot or slow cooker, you can find the recipe in our slow cooker freezer meals post!
Video
How to Store
The beef and broccoli leftovers will keep for 4-5 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator, or for up to 3 months in the freezer. To reheat from frozen, simply microwave for 5-6 minutes, stirring halfway through, or place in a saucepan with matching lid and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes, or until warmed through.
More Favorite Instant Pot Recipes
Instant Pot Beef & Broccoli
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil or ghee
- 1 onion diced
- 1 ½ pounds beef stew meat
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated (or 1 teaspoon ground ginger)
- ½ cup coconut aminos
- ½ cup chicken broth or water
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
- ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 heads of broccoli chopped into florets, or one pound frozen, steam-in-bag broccoli
- White or brown rice for serving
- Sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot to ‘saute’ and add the avocado oil to the pot. Once hot, add the diced onion and cook for 3-4 minutes, until translucent.
- Add the beef stew meat to the pot and cook for 2-3 minutes, until browned, then flip and cook an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Add the garlic and ginger and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Pour the coconut aminos, chicken broth, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, coconut sugar, and salt into the pot.
- Seal the pot and set to cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. Once the timer goes off, immediately release the pressure from the pot, then remove the lid and set it back to ‘saute’ mode.
- Steam the broccoli using your preferred method.
- Microwave Method: Place the broccoli florets into a large glass bowl with about ¼ cup water. Affix with either a microwave-safe lid or seal with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 5 minutes, until the florets are bright green and easily pierced with a fork. Drain the water from the broccoli and set aside.
- Stovetop Method: Place the broccoli florets into a medium sized pot with ¼ cup water. Place the lid on and let simmer for 10 minutes, until the florets are bright green and easily pierced with a fork. Drain the water from the broccoli and set aside.
- Whisk together the cornstarch and water and stir it into the pot. Let the mixture come to a low boil. Once the sauce is thickened, turn the Instant Pot off and serve!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
This is a winner! My whole family loved! Used low sodium soy sauce instead of the aminos because it’s what I had.
Do you have nutrition info for this one?
Hi Lauren! We are so glad that you whole family enjoyed. We are slowly working through all of the articles to add back nutrition information after the migration to our new site (our top 200 articles and any new articles should have the info). In the meantime, Nutrifox has a free trial if you are looking for specifics in a certain recipe we haven’t gotten to yet. Sorry for any inconvenience! We appreciate you taking the time to share with us. -Team F&F
I followed the recipe exactly and used my instant pot. It turned out absolutely amazing, every member of my picky family cleaned their plates
We are so glad to hear that, Kelsey! Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. -Team F&F
This was so easy and so incredibly delicious. My entire family loved it, which is rare. This one is going into the rotation! Thanks!!!
That’s awesome, Andrea — we’re so glad it was a hit! Thank you for sharing this with us!
So yummy! This will definitely be a staple in our house!
Wahoo!! Thanks for sharing this with us, Sarah!
This is the best thing ever and super quick!
Wahoo!! Thanks for sharing this with us, Michelle!
Super yummy! Even my picky eater ate this one up. I threw in 2lb of meat (1lb sliced chicken breast and 1lb stew meat) and 1.5x the sauce. Plenty of sauce so I wouldn’t 1.5x in the future. Dinner for four and lunch for two. Thanks fed and fit team for another great recipe! ❤️
Awesome, Brandi! So glad this one was a hit!
Will be making this again. I had not planned ahead, but had a 3lb beef roast in the freezer that I used. Put it in the pressure cooker on a trivet with all the sauce components (doubled) and cooked on high for 40 min. Thanks Fed + Fit!
So glad you enjoyed this one!! Thanks so much for sharing!
This is very tasty. It is also the first time I’ve used stew meat in a recipe and the meat was not tough.
My only complaint (minor complaint) is that typically in recipes, the ingredients are listed in the order they are used. Not doing that makes following the instructions a little more difficult.
Thank you for the suggestion, Cindi! We’re glad you enjoyed this recipe!
If I double the recipe would I need to adjust the cooking time for the instant pot?
Nope, keep the time the same! Enjoy!!
So so so good! And so easy, Perfect weeknight meal.
So yummy!! Thanks for sharing this with us!
My picky daughter loved this and asked to have it every night! So good, will definitely be making again.
That’s awesome! We’re so glad!!
That’s awesome! We’re so glad!!
If I’m using already cooked beef, how would I adjust the time? Thanks.
I’d just cook the sauce on the stove and then stir in your cooked beef, Rebecca! Bring your sauce to a simmer and then add in the cornstarch/water mixture…it’ll be ready once it has thickened up a bit! I hope this helps!
So, the broth or water in the recipe is for the cornstarch not the sauce for when the insta pot is cooking?
No, the 1/2 cup of broth goes into the Instant Pot with the coconut aminos (step 4). You will need to whisk the 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with a small amount of water (3-4 tablespoons) to add into the pot after it’s cooked, but that water isn’t listed in the ingredients.
Where does the coconut sugar get added to the recipe? I can’t wait to try this. It looks amazing!
It goes in with the coconut aminos- just updated the recipe!
Hi, I’m making this tonight and very excited!! Can you please clarify on the last step?
Whisk together the cornstarch and water and stir it into the pot. Let the mixture come to a low boil. Once the timer goes off, manually release the pressure again then open the pot and serve!
Sure!! You’ll want to make a ‘flurry’ in a small bowl or cup with the cornstarch and an equal amount of water (just combine the two and stir, stir, stir). Then, you’ll pour that into the pot and give it all a good stir. Once the beef and broccoli comes to a low boil and the sauce is thickened, turn the Instant Pot off and serve! Hopefully that helps, Melissa!
SO delicious! Super easy and everyone loved it!!
We’re so glad, Melissa!! Thanks for sharing!