Instant Pot Mongolian Beef and Broccoli

Instead of ordering Chinese takeout, make this quick and easy Instant Pot Mongolian Beef and Broccoli recipe.

Served over rice, it makes a delicious meal that rivals even the best Chinese restaurants. The beef is tender and has so much flavor!

After making this recipe for the first time, it will become one of your favorite Instant Pot dinner recipes. I hope your whole family loves it as much as mine.

By the Numbers: How to Make Mongolian Beef and Broccoli in the Instant Pot

Step 1: Heat Sesame Oil.

The first thing you want to do is to push the Saute button on your Instant Pot, then add 1½ tablespoons of sesame oil to warm.

Step 2: Brown Beef in Batches.

Once the oil is hot, add just enough meat to cover the bottom of the Instant Pot inner pan. Cook until steak is browned, then remove with tongs to plate and set aside.

Repeat until all 2 pounds of your steak is browned. Don’t turn off Instant Pot.

Step 3: Saute Garlic and Ginger.

After you’re done browning the steak and it’s resting on a plate, it’s time to saute 1 tablespoon of minced ginger and 1 tablespoon of minced garlic in the Instant Pot inner pan. Saute until it’s softened and fragrant (about a minute).

Step 4: Deglaze the Pot.

Cooking the meat, garlic and ginger is going to leave a residue on the bottom of your Instant Pot inner liner. It’s important to deglaze it so you don’t get a burn notice.

To deglaze the pot, add ⅔ cup gluten free soy sauce, ½ cup filtered water and ½ cup brown sugar. Stir to combine, using your spatula or spoon to “deglaze” the pot, which basically means making sure everything that’s stuck to the bottom of the pot is removed so it’s clean. Do not skip this step.

Step 4: Cook Mongolian Beef.

After the pot is deglazed, you can transfer your browned steak back into your Instant Pot to finish cooking. Place the lid on the pot, check that the valve is in set in the sealing position and then cook on High Pressure for 8 minutes. You can use the Pressure Cook, Manual or Meat button, depending on the model you have.

Step 5: Cook Broccoli on Low Pressure.

As soon as the cook time is up, you want to use the Quick Pressure Release method by moving the valve from the sealing position to the venting position. Once the pressure is completely released, you can remove the lid.

Add 1 pound of chopped broccoli to the cooked Mongolian Beef mixture, put the lid back on the pot and cook on Low Pressure for 0 minutes (anything longer than this and the broccoli will be mushy).

As soon as it beeps that the time is up (it’ll beep as soon as it comes to pressure), Quick Release all pressure, then remove the lid.

Step 6: Thicken Mongolian Beef Sauce.

Whisk together 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 3 tablespoons of filtered water to make a cornstarch slurry.

Push the Saute button on your Instant Pot, then add the slurry to Mongolian Beef and Broccoli to thicken the sauce. You’ll want to stir it constantly with a wooden spoon until it begins to thicken (it shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes for this to happen).

Step 7: Cook Green Onions.

As soon as it’s thickening, turn off your Instant Pot and add the green onions. Keep stirring constantly for 2-4 more minutes and the onions are tender. This will also continue to thicken your sauce.

Step 8: Serve Mongolian Beef and Broccoli.

Once your green onions are cooked and the sauce is thickened, you can serve your Mongolian Beef and Broccoli over cooked white rice. We like to garnish ours with green onions and/or sesame seeds, then drizzle with Sriracha (if you like spicy, give it a try).

Tips for Making Instant Pot Mongolian Beef

1. What other type of steak can I use?

The type of beef you use will influence the texture and tenderness of the Mongolian Beef. If you don’t have flank steak, skirt steak is a nice substitution.

You can use London broil or top round beef, but it won’t be as quite as tender as other cuts, even in thin slices.

I wouldn’t use something like a chuck roast or other roast you’d use as stew meat. Otherwise, you’ll end up with shredded beef, which is not what you’re looking for with this Instant Pot Mongolian Beef recipe.

2. Does this recipe work with regular soy sauce?

Yes, you can absolutely use regular soy sauce or even low sodium soy sauce in this recipe if you’re not gluten free and get the same amazing result.

3. Can I substitute coconut aminos?

Yes, I have made this recipe with coconut aminos. You may need to add a little sea salt after cooking to balance the flavors since soy sauce is much saltier than coconut aminos.

3. Aren’t you supposed to natural release meat?

Typically, yes. However, the beef is sliced thinly and it’s in a sauce, so there’s no need to use natural release to get tender flank steak. Quick release works perfectly in this recipe.

4. Can I substitute something else for cornstarch?

Yes, you can use most types of cornstarch substitutes like arrowroot powder or tapioca starch.

5. How to make crunchier broccoli?

The broccoli in this recipe is on the softer side. If you prefer crunchy vegetables in your Chinese food, do not pressure cook it.

Simply add it to the pressure cooked Mongolian beef mixture at the same time you add the green onions in Step 9 and keep stirring until it’s cooked to your liking. I recommend using smaller pieces of broccoli if you use this method.

5. How to tell if the sesame oil is hot?

One of the safest ways is to take a wooden spoon and touch it to the oil. If small bubbles start to form around the spoon, you’re ready to start browning the meat. If big bubbles form, it’s too hot.

By the way, if you don’t like the taste of sesame oil (it really makes the flavor of this recipe), you can substitute olive oil.

6. Best way to brown the beef?

Brown the beef in smaller batches until all of the meat is browned. If you try to add all of the beef to your electric pressure cooker at once, it won’t typically brown evenly. For the 2 pounds of meat above, it takes about 3 small batches to cook all of it.

7. What type of rice is best?

I personally prefer to serve Mongolian Beef and Broccoli over Jasmine Rice, although it’s great with Basmati Rice and cauliflower rice too!

8. Best way to make it spicy?

We typically use Sriacha to spice up our Chinese food. If you want just a hint of heat, you can also add a teaspoon of red pepper flakes during the step when you pressure cook the beef.

9. Better than Chinese takeout meal idea.

If you don’t want to serve your Mongolian Beef and Broccoli with white rice, it also tastes amazing over rice noodles.

To make a full Chinese meal for your family, here are more great recipes to add to the menu:

1. Egg Drop Soup
2. Chinese Chicken Salad
3. Oven Roasted Baby Bok Choy
4. Instant Pot Chicken Fried Rice
5. Gluten Free Wontons

10. How to store leftovers?

Store the leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container and use within 3-4 days. If you have a silicone lid for your Instant Pot, you can also store it that way.

11. How to reheat Mongolian Beef?

This Instant Pot Mongolian Beef and Broccoli is just the first night as it is the next day. To reheat, simply place the leftovers into a small saucepan and heat over low.

If you stored in the leftovers in the fridge directly in the Instant Pot inner pan, just put it back into the Instant Pot and reheat using the Saute or Slow Cooker function.

11. Our favorite beef to buy online.

We buy a lot of our meat from ButcherBox. It’s grass-fed, grass-finished, free pasture grazing and humanely raised. The quality is amazing and it tastes better than most other beef I’ve tried.

Here’s my referral link that will take your to ButcherBox’s Current Specials. They usually have some great specials for new customers.

If you want to see more places we’ve ordered meat from, check out our post on ordering meat delivery.

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