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Instead of ordering Chinese takeout, make this quick and easy Instant Pot Mongolian Beef & 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.
Instant Pot Mongolian Beef & Broccoli Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds flank steak - sliced thinly against the grain
- 1½ tablespoons sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- ⅔ cup gluten free soy sauce
- ½ cup filtered water
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons filtered water
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 pound broccoli - chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 2 Green onions - chopped or cut however you desire
- 5 cups cooked white rice
Equipment
- Knife
- Cutting Board
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Small mixing bowl
- Whisk
- Instant Pot
- Plate
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot onto the Saute setting. Add the Sesame Oil to the Instant Pot and let the oil heat up. *See tip below
- Add enough of the steak to cover the bottom of the Instant Pot, brown the meat, transfer the browned meat to a plate and set aside. Repeat until all meat has been browned. *See tip below
- Add the minced garlic and ginger to your Instant Pot and sauté it for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the soy sauce, water and brown sugar to the ginger and garlic and stir until well combined. Use your spatula to deglaze the pot, making sure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pot so you don't risk a Burn notice.
- Transfer the browned beef back to the Instant Pot, close the lid and make sure the valve is in the sealing position. Use the Meat or Manual setting to cook the meat mixture on high pressure for 8 minutes.
- When it's finished, use the Quick Pressure Release method. Remove the lid once the pressure is completely released. Add the chopped broccoli to the meat mixture, put the lid back on the pot and use the Low Pressure setting to cook everything for 0 minutes.
- When it's finished, use the Quick Pressure Release method. Remove the lid once the pressure is completely released. The broccoli will be soft… if you want crisper broccoli, see notes below.
- Turn Instant Pot onto the Saute function. Make a cornstarch slurry by whisking together the corn starch and 3 tablespoons water until it's smooth. Add the cornstarch mixture to the Instant Pot. Stir it constantly until the sauce starts to thicken (this should only take a couple of minutes).
- Turn the Instant Pot Off. Add the green onions to the Instant Pot and stir for another 2-4 minutes while stirring it constantly until your onions are cooked to your desired tenderness. This will also help thicken the sauce up.
- Serve your Mongolian Beef and Broccoli over cooked white rice. Drizzle with Sriracha, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition Information Per Serving
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 broccoli, 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.
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. Better than Chinese takeout meal idea
If you want to make a full Chinese meal for your family, here are more great recipes to add to the menu:
- Egg Drop Soup
- Chinese Chicken Salad
- Oven Roasted Baby Bok Choy
- Instant Pot Chicken Fried Rice
- Gluten Free Wontons
9. 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.
10. How to reheat Mongolian Beef?
This Instant Pot Mongolian Beef & 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.
Here’s our referral link that will take your to ButcherBox’s Current Specials.
If you want to see all of the places we’ve ordered meat from, check out our post on ordering meat delivery.
If you’d like to see where we order produce online, here’s our list of the best produce delivery services for you to check out.
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Instruction #6 says to add broccoli and cook on low pressure for 0 minutes. Zero minutes???
That’s correct. You can set your Instant Pot for 0 minutes for some things like broccoli (and other veggies) that you don’t want to overcook. The food cooks while the IP is coming to pressure and it’s done when you open the lid.