Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef [Instant Pot]

Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef is slightly sweet and a tad bit salty, juicy and flavorful Asian inspired dish. Basically a dump and push start recipe.

Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef

Here is another one of my “Take-Out” Chinese Food recipes that is super easy to make using your Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker. The flavors are intensified from the infused highly flavorful sauce.

Mongolian Beef is really a Chinese American dish. The name comes from Mongolian Barbecue and is not Mongolian cuisine. It’s only slightly sweet with a bit of a salty undertone. With my recipe, you can use various cuts of meat depending on your budget, preference and grocery store sale!

Mongolian beef is sort of similar to Instant Pot Beef and Broccoli I supposed. The flavor profile is different, but if I have to make a comparison, that would be it.

Cast of Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef

Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef

• Sweet/Black Soy Sauce 
• Hoisin Sauce
• Fresh Garlic and Fresh Ginger Root
• Dark Soy Sauce
• Dried Chili Peppers
• Shaoxing Wine

Sweet/Black Soy Sauce  is a thick sweet syrup, much like molasses with a bit of a salty taste. It is used in Asian cooking. I use it in many recipes and I strongly suggest you grab a bottle and keep it in your fridge. It is even good to use as a condiment over rice, Beef and Vegetable Fried Rice, Instant Pot Cabbage and Sausage, my Instant Pot Egg Roll Bowls and more.

If you don’t have dark soy sauce, which is twice as salty as regular soy sauce, go a head and salt and pepper your meat. Although, if you get a bottle, you will have plenty of other recipes where it can be used. Check out my Pressure Cooker Chinese Take-Out General Tso’s Chicken recipe!

Is there a Substitute for Sweet/Black Soy Sauce?

• Well, yes, I suppose, but the flavor won’t be near as great as the real thing.
• Try mixing molasses or brown sugar and a teaspoon of soy sauce together to form a thickly pouring liquid.
• It will be more cloying, but in a pinch, you can make do.

Pro Tip:  Invest in a bottle Sweet/Black Soy Sauce. It adds a nice depth of flavor and just the right amount of saltiness, without going overboard.

Coat Lightly with Potato Starch

Why Dredge with Potato Starch

Potato starch is a wonderful way to ensure that your meat says nice and juicy during pressure cooking.

When using the pressure cooker, more liquid than normal is needed, so the sauce often times needs to be thickened. With my method, the starch on the meat adheres to the meat nicely and allows the pot to come up to pressure with the little amount of liquid in the pot. As the release of the potato starch is slow, you will not get a burn notice.

As the meat cooks and releases liquid, it also releases the starch and therefore thickens the sauce without gumming up. 

Potato Starch is used in Asian cooking and is gluten free. I prefer to either an Asian Potato Starch or Bob Mills, rather than flour, as I love the flavor it gives when coating meat and shrimp. If you don’t have any, go a head and use cornstarch.

Best of all, with the nice and thickened sauce, you don’t have to worry about making a starch slurry after pressure cooking.

Pro Tip: Coating beef, pork of chicken with potato starch before cooking under pressure, ensures extra juicy meat. It also saves you the step of having to make a slurry to thicken the liquid in the pot.

Whisk up the marinade

For whisking up the luscious sauce, I like to use a measuring cup. As you will need to measure ingredients, this is perfect for mixing up marinades and sauces. My favorite whisk to use is this Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk. It is something that every kitchen.shouldn’t be without.

The flavors of the hoisin sauce, black soy, ginger and garlic make such a nice and flavorful sauce. The sweet with the salty is wonderful on the tongue.

Chinese Shaoxing Wine is another ingredient which you should have as a staple in your refrigerator. It is wonderful to use for deglazing the pot in so many recipes. The flavor it adds is amazing. For recipes calling for a good drinking sherry to deglaze or just cook with, the Shaoxing can be used in place. They both do the same thing and the flavor is almost the same, but Shoxing is considerable less expensive.

I use Shaoxing in at least 100 of my recipes. It is why my Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff (Pressure Cooker) was voted best in class. Just kidding, but it is a very popular recipe, which people seem to choose over overs. Shaoxing is used in myPressure Cooker Salisbury Steak which is another incredible recipe. So you see, it is not just for Asian recipes!

Freezer Meal Mongolian Beef

Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef is perfect for freezer and make a head meals. While you won’t be able to use the potato starch method, all you will need to do is dump everything into the pot and cook. You’ll make a slurry after cooking.

What I like to do is buy flank steak, chuck roast, sirloin, whichever meat I see on sale and then slice it up thin. For some recipes like my Pressure Cooker Balsamic Ginger Chicken, I will use my my FoodSaver Vacuum System and package it up with the marinade. For other recipes like this Mongolia beef, I will pack some up with just slices of the beef and others with the marinade already included.

Stir in the Pork with the Sweet Sauce

While I prefer to use the potato starch method, there are times when I come home and just want to toss the frozen recipe ingredients right into the pressure cooker and go change and do stuff around the house.

All I have to do is pop it out of the freezer and cook it frozen. No worries!

Place Pan on Top of Trivet

You will just need these two accessories. A our long legged stainless steel trivet and one pan from this Ekovana Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker Stackable Pans Set.

Perfectly Cooked Rice

Perfectly cooked pot in pot rice, cooked at the same time as your main course.

Cut Scallions on the Diagonal

Scallions from our garden. They should be cut in one inch long slices, on the diagonal.

Remove the red peppers, if desired. I only use a couple as I can’t take the heat any more. Others will add extra.

Why Add Sesame Oil After Cooking?

• Sesame oil is not a high index oil. It can taste spoiled, rancid and odd after cooking.
• Plus, even with a short cook time, the flavor of the sesame oil will be lost so better to use it after you have finished cooking.

Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef

Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef with Rice will satisfy all your “Take-Out” needs. 🙂

Pressure Cooker Ghee Rice is really delicious too! Broccoli would be nice in this recipe as well.

If you don’t want to cook your rice with the Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef, you can make it in a separate pot, using this recipe, Pressure Cooker White Rice. Alternatively, if you are cooking for a crowd and need a larger portion of rice, using the “Pot In Pot” method, try my Pressure Cooker Perfectly Cooked Pot In Pot Rice.

More Asian Instant Pot Recipes to Make:

• One Pot Pressure Cooker Chinese Orange Pepper Chicken & Rice
• Pressure Cooker Chinese Take-Out Spicy Orange Beef
• Pressure Cooker Asian Style Chinese Boiled Peanuts
• Instant Pot Chinese Spareribs with Black Bean Sauce + Video

Kitchen Equipment and Essentials

• Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker
• J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
• Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
• Culina Stackable (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
• Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
• Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk– a MUST have, probably my most used utensil
• Cilio Olivewood Spatula
• Rachael Ray Stoneware EVOO Oil Dispensing Bottle
• Alpha Armour Salt Box with Spoon
• My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
• Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker stainless steel flat bottomed insert pans
• Stainless Steel Tall/Short Trivet & Egg Cooker Set

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Here is your handy printable recipe:

Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef with Rice

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: Asian

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 3 minutes

Pressure Releast: 10 minutes

Total Time: 23 minutes

Servings: 8 servings

Calories: 308kcal

Author: Jill Selkowitz

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon Peanut Oil or Olive or Vegetable
• 2 pounds Chuck Roast sirloin, round steak or flank, cut into thin strips*
• 2 Tablespoons Potato Starch
• 1/4 cup Shaoxing Wine (or water)

Sauce

• 2 Tablespoons Sweet/Black Soy Sauce (Sweet Soy Sauce)
• 1/4 cup Dark Soy Sauce
• 1/4 cup Fresh Water
• 2 Dried Red Chili Peppers or to taste
• 4 cloves Fresh Garlic minced
• 1/2 cup Hoisin Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Fresh Ginger Root minced

Garnish

• 1 teaspoon Pure Sesame Oil
• 4 Scallions cut in one inch slices, on the diagonal

Rice

• 2 "rice" cups Jasmine Rice rinsed well
• 2 cups Fresh Water

Recommended Products

Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker

J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef's Knife

Liquid Measuring Cup Set

Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk

High Heat Resistant Spatula

Ekovana Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker Stackable Pans Set

Instructions

• In a measuring cup or bowl, whisk together sauce ingredients and set aside.  
• Select Sauté (adjust to More/Higher if available) or Browning on Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker and allow to fully heat
• While the pot is heating, slice the meat into 1/4 inch thick slices and place into a bowl.
• Sprinkle potato starch over meat and thoroughly massage into meat.
• Add oil to hot pressure cooker.
• Place meat into pressure cooker and don't touch for 10 seconds.
• Flip over or stir meat and sear the other side. The meat should easily release from the bottom.
• Add Shaoxing Wine and deglaze the bottom of the cooking pot. This means to use a high heat resistant spatula and scrape up anything that might have been stuck on the bottom of the pot.
• Turn off Instant Pot/pressure cooker.
• Pour in sauce and mix through with the meat.
• If making the rice at the same time, place stainless steel trivet into pot and place rice pan of rinsed rise on to the trivet.
• Pour two cups of fresh water in with the rice and cover (if you have the lid with the steam holes, otherwise, don't worry about covering).
• Lock on lid and close pressure valve.  Cook at high pressure (most machines default to high pressure) for 3 minutes.  
• When Beep is heard, wait 10 minutes and then release the rest of the pressure.
• Remove lid and remove bowl of rice and trivet.  Set rice aside to finish steaming.
• Turn off heat and drizzle sesame oil in pot, stir.  There should be almost no liquid, as the sauce should cling to the meat.
• Serve over rice and garnish with chopped scallions.

Notes

Type of Beef and Slicing the Beef

• If using chuck roast, slice meat into very thin strips, about 1/8 of an inch.
• If using sirloin, flap meat, flank steak or skirt steak, slice meat into 1/4 inch strips.

For a less spicy version, add the red peppers when you add the broccoli.
Red peppers are very hot and just for flavoring. Most people push them aside.

Sesame Oil

• Sesame oil is not a high index oil. It can taste spoiled, rancid and odd after cooking.
• Therefore, even with a short cook time, make sure to add it to the dish after pressure cooking and then mix through. This way, the flavor of sesame will be present.
• Another nice condiment for the Mongolian beef is to have a bottle of Toasted Sesame Oil on the table for individual persons to use.

Add in Suggestions

• Thinly sliced carrots
• Mushrooms
• Water Chestnuts
• Broccoli - if adding in broccoli, add it in after pressure release and at the before adding the oil. The residual heat will cook the broccoli, so stir it in until desired tenderness is achieved. Then stir in the sesame oil.

Tips and Tricks for Instant Pot Mongolian Beef

1. Wait until Instant Pot fully heats before adding in the oil.
2. Slice meat against the grain.
3. Grab meat on sale and slice up and package for another day.

Originally published January 31, 2016. Republished February 19, 2020 to update recipe directions.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef with Rice

Amount Per Serving

Calories 308 Calories from Fat 144

% Daily Value*

Fat 16g25%

Saturated Fat 6g38%

Cholesterol 79mg26%

Sodium 862mg37%

Potassium 462mg13%

Carbohydrates 16g5%

Fiber 1g4%

Sugar 8g9%

Protein 24g48%

Vitamin A 75IU2%

Vitamin C 2mg2%

Calcium 36mg4%

Iron 3mg17%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef [Instant Pot]