Are you wondering if that Instant Pot you bought can produce food that tastes just as good as the slow cooker you’ve been using all your life? Well I have. After Happy Healthy Wife wanted a pressure cooker so that she could make foods quickly, I wondered if the pressurized cooking could beat the length of a slow cook in terms of tenderness and flavor. I mean, haven’t we’ve been taught that cooking foods low and slow will allow the flavors to infuse with the foods and produce better flavors as well as break down the tough cuts of meat to make them delectably tender? So we put it to the test with beef stew, a standard food that gets more tender the longer you cook it, right?
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs chuck steak, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 4 cups beef flavored broth
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 large carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 large stalks celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 3 medium potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 14oz can diced tomatoes
Full Video Tutorial
Preparation:
Crock Pot
- Add all the ingredients to the crock pot and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
Instant Pot
- Add in the beef, garlic, salt, pepper, wine, beef stock into the instant pot. Seal the lid and pressure cook for 30 minutes
- Quick release the pressure
- Add in the rest of the ingredients and set the pressure cooker to pressure cook for 4 additional minutes.
- Quick release when done.
Results
You may not believe it, but in a close call 2 out of the 3 of us preferred the beef stew from the Instant Pot. Don’t get me wrong, both beef stews tasted very similar. Though the carrots were not as tender in the pressure cooked version, that could be easily changed if you put all the ingredients in and pressure cook the entire dish for 30 minutes instead of adding them separately. Flavor wise, they were both very similar in flavor with one taster noticing a distinct more wine taste to the beef in the slow cooker. So if you don’t have an entire day to cook your beef stew, it can be just as tender and delicious if you want to put it in a instant pot for 1 hour.
Kitchen Items used in this recipe
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| COSORI Electric Pressure Cooker | Hamilton Beach Crock Pot | Meat Cleaver | SENZER Gravity Electric Salt and Pepper Grinder Set |
