Instant Pot Pot Roast by The Pioneer Woman

(First, can we just reflect on the phrase “Pot Pot” in the title of this post? There’s just no way to avoid it! I tried. Pot Pot!)

Instant Pots are everywhere! They’re a cooking appliance known as a “Multi Cooker” which means it has several different functions, its most notable (and useful, in my experience) being a pressure cooker. I have to say, I was a bit of a latecomer to the Instant Pot world. I am generally resistant to new electronic cooking appliances, because I’m old school and love a dutch oven and an iron skillet. But then my BFF Hyacinth, who is an Instant Pot evangelist, gave me one for my birthday last January. I’ve slowly but surely come to LOVE it, and noticed that I wasn’t ever putting it away in the pantry. So naturally…

I thought it would be amazing to work with Instant Pot to bring PW patterns and colors into the mix! I’m so excited, and I’ll be sharing many Instant Pot adventures in the weeks to come. (Pssst. I’m giving some away over on PW Giveaways—go enter!)

The first Instant Pot recipe I want to share is my Perfect Pot Roast, a Drummond family favorite, which cooks in half the time (sometimes even less!)

Here’s how to make it!

 
 

 
 

 
 
I want to sear the roast before I cook it, so I hit the “saute” button. This heats the bottom of the insert.

 
 
While it heats up, season a chuck roast with nuttin’ but salt and pepper.

 
 
When the Instant Pot is ready to saute, it will say “Hot!”

 
 
So pour in a little olive oil…

 
 
And throw in the roast!

 
 
It’ll start to suh-MOKE and stu-EAM. It gets hot in there! Not quite as hot as a heated cast iron dutch oven…

 
 
But definitely hot enough to brown the surface of the meat.

 
 
When it’s browned on both sides, remove it to a plate.

 
 
Then throw some large chunks of onion right in. These are going to cook down to almost nothingness, so the bigger the pieces, the better.

 
 
Move the onions around for a couple of minutes and let them start to brown.

Note: I would normally add carrots to my pot roast! But guess what? Some turkey in my house ate all my carrots. So imagine there are large carrot chunks in this beautiful Instant Pot, kay?

 
 
Now’s the time to add in some red wine. A little…or not a little. (Translation: About 1/2 cup.)

 
 
Stir the onions, scraping up the bits from the bottom as much as you can. Let the wine cook for a minute or so…

 
 
Then pour in beef broth.

 
 
I love rosemary and thyme in my pot roast!

 
 
Chuck it right in, no need to chop.

 
 
Finally, the meat—as well as all the juices on the plate.

 
 
Now it’s time to pressure cook! Put the lid on. It locks closed, and you’ll know it’s locked when it emits a lovely little chime.

 
 
This is the pressure valve. You want to make sure it’s in the “Sealing” position.

 
 
Push the “Manual” button.

 
 
Hit the plus sign until it gets to 60 minutes (hard to read in this photo, but it says “60”), then give it a few seconds…and it will start the pressure cooking process! And here’s what happens: After a little time, you will see some steam releasing from the valve in a steady stream. This is normal! The Instant Pot is releasing excess steam as it comes up to temperature. This can take several minutes.

 
 
When this little button pops up, as pictured here, that means the unit is sealed and the pressure cooking has begun. From there, it will cook for 60 minutes.

 
 
Once the 60 minutes is done, the unit will automatically change to “Keep Warm.” During this time, the Instant Pot will remain locked and will begin naturally releasing pressure on its own. It is best not to disturb the process during this time.

 
 
Rather than counting down from 60 as it did when it was pressure cooking, the Instant Pot will now count up the minutes it is taking to release the pressure naturally.

 
 
You have the option to use a spoon handle to manually push the valve to “Venting” to manually release the pressure. However, when I have the time, I try to let the Instant Pot release as much pressure naturally as possible before I release the rest of the pressure manually. I think the food is the better for it.

After about 15 minutes of natural release, I’ll often go ahead and release the rest manually so I can get this show on the road!

 
 
When the steam is no longer coming out…

 
 
The button will pop down, indicating the pressure has been released and it’s safe to open the lid.

 
 
And look at that! It looks like a roast that’s been simmering away for 3-4 hours.

 
 
The first thing I do is skim off as much fat as I can from the top before disturbing everything and mixing the fat in.

 
 
Um…look at this meat! It is absolutely falling apart. It’s a miracle.

 
 
Serve big shreds of the pot roast with a side of mashed potatoes and the cooking liquid spooned over the roast. (Imagine this with big chunks of carrots!)

 
 
I love my dutch oven. But I’m really loving my Instant Pot, too. It’s been fun to dive in and experiment. I”ll be sharing more recipes in the coming weeks!