Easy Pressure Cooker Beef and Broccoli Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you soften beef for beef and broccoli? ›

Place the beef in a bowl and sprinkle over the bicarbonate of soda. Rub the bicarbonate of soda into the beef so it's thoroughly coated. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Thoroughly rinse the beef in cold water, drain, then pat dry with kitchen towels.

Pour in at least two cups of water; use 1 to 2 cups more if the beef is a tough cut or to reach the minimum amount recommended by the pressure cooker's manufacturer. Seal the lid and bring the cooker up to full pressure over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, maintaining full pressure, and cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

While you'll set your cooking time to “0”, the steaming time is actually just the time it takes for the instant pot to come to full pressure (about 5-10 minutes). After that, you'll just use your quick release to release the pressure and remove the broccoli.

While you may cover meat almost completely for a conventional braise, use just enough liquid for the cooker to reach pressure – during pressure cooking the meat will release it's own juice and braise in that flavorful liquid, instead.

The cooking time depends on how much beef you have. I like to assume 20 minutes for every pound of meat. So, for my 3-pound beef chuck, I will need to cook at high pressure for 1 hour. After the hour, I release the pressure and shred the tender beef.

While there are several ways to velvet, a pound of meat needs about two teaspoons of cornstarch and two teaspoons of oil, says Leung. You may also include two to three tablespoons of water. For beef, add a 1/4-teaspoon of baking soda for tenderizing. Additional seasonings are optional and vary from recipe to recipe.

At most American Chinese restaurants, the dish is made with flank steak that has been tenderized with a baking soda solution and marinated, but when I make beef and broccoli at home, I prefer to use flat iron steak.

In fact, there are a handful of foods that just shouldn't be pressure-cooked. Among them are dairy and fried foods, as well as burgers and steaks.

Brown it

Pressure cooked food doesn't brown so it's worth doing this at the start of cooking before adding liquid and putting the lid on. Meat looks and tastes more appetising with a little browning. Onions, garlic and spices also benefit in the flavour stakes from pre-cooking.

Do you cut broccoli before or after steaming? ›

While you're waiting for your water to boil, use a knife to cut the head of broccoli into florets. Add your steamer basket to the pot and place the broccoli florets on the steamer. Reduce the heat to medium, add lid and steam for 5-6 minutes, for tender crisp broccoli.

Place 3/4 to 1 inch of water in a saucepan with a steamer and bring to a boil. (Note that if you don't have a steamer, you can simply put the broccoli directly into an inch of boiling water.) Add broccoli, steam 5 to 6 min: Add the broccoli to the steamer and cover; reduce heat to medium and let cook for 5-6 minutes.

Because under pressure, the heat builds faster and maintains temperature better, so cooking time is reduced. ... The increased pressure inside the cooker increases the boiling point of water above 1000C so more cooking is done before the water actually starts to boil.

Brown it

Pressure cooked food doesn't brown so it's worth doing this at the start of cooking before adding liquid and putting the lid on. Meat looks and tastes more appetising with a little browning. Onions, garlic and spices also benefit in the flavour stakes from pre-cooking.

This completely depends on the type of meat you are planning on cooking. Because slow cookers take longer to cook, they are better suited to breaking down fat in meat while adding moisture. So if you are planning on cooking a whole rump beef, then a slow cooker is a better choice.

You can use the instant pot (pressure cooker) for canning meat. Pressure cook at high pressure for 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts. The instant pot reaches up to 244°F at high pressure which is equivalent to a pressure canner temperature of 10 pounds (240°F.)

Both slow cookers and pressure cookers do a good job of tenderizing tough meat, but each makes meat more edible in a different way.