Pressure cooking an Instant Pot Pot Roast is a great way to create a hearty comfort food meal that would normally take several hours in about an hour total (including natural release of pressure). All you need to is a beef roast, potatoes, carrots, onions, broth, and seasonings to make your pot roast in the instant pot! With this recipe, you can enjoy this Sunday dinner staple any night.
Instant Pot Pot Roast
Prior to the widespread availability of the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker, you really couldn't purchase a roast on the way home from work and serve it to your family that evening. It was a meal you had to plan ahead. Now you can make fork tender beef pot roast in a pressure cooker with carrots potatoes in a matter of about 60 minutes. It works just as well as a crock pot, but the cooking time is so much less.
Choosing a Roast for the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
Just as with making any pot roast tougher cheap cuts of beef are the best choices for making pot roast in the Instant Pot. Pressure cooking breaks down the tough membranes just as long slow cooking does. Chuck roast is of course a favorite cut for this. Rump roast and bottom round are also great in an electric pressure cooker and even a brisket will work nicely.
Making Instant Pot Pot Roast
Making an Instant Pot Roast is so quick and easy! Time to prep the roast is about 5 mins to cut potatoes and onion. Then just a couple minutes put it all into the electric pressure cooker. 30 mins cook time and 20 minutes for natural pressure release (which also doubles as resting time). All that remains then is whipping up the simple gravy.
Here is a visual walk through of making the Instant Pot Pot Roast. Full printable recipe below.
Ingredients for Pot Roast in the Instant Pot
Here are all the ingredients you need to make a pressure cooker pot roast dinner (pictured above).
- chuck, bottom round or rump roast
- beef broth
- onion, baby carrots and potatoes
- seasonings
First simply place the beef roast on the bottom of the instant pot.
Then pour beef broth and water over the roast.
Toss the chopped potatoes, baby carrots and chopped onion on top of the beef roast in the Instant Pot. There is no need to be fussy about this, just dump them in.
Add the seasonings. Simply sprinkle them over the top. The flavor will infuse into everything while pressure cooking. Then close the instant pot and pressure release valve. The instant pot should be set to manual, high pressure for a cook time of 30 minutes.
Allow the pressure to naturally release for 20 minutes. This time will also double as a resting time for the meat. Then release the pressure that remains and open the Instant pot.
Remove the roast and and vegetables. Make the pot roast gravy right in the pressure cooker using the saute function, by whisking in cornstarch and seasoning with salt and pepper.
Dinner is ready!
More Instant Pot Recipes!
- Instant Pot Clam Chowder
- Keto Pulled Pork - Instant Pot Balsamic Pulled Pork Recipe
- Keto BBQ Chicken Instant Pot Recipe
- Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
- Instant Pot Bone Broth
- Instant Pot Carnitas
- Tuscan Chicken Instant Pot
Instant Pot Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 2 ½ lbs beef chuck roast rump roast or bottom round are also good choices
- 4 potatoes peeled and cut into 1" pieces
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 cup baby carrots , or coarsely chopped and peeled large carrots
- 2 cups beef broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
For Gravy:
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in ¼ cup cold water
Instructions
- Place roast in the bottom of the instant pot. Pour broth and water on top of meat. Add potatoes, carrots and onion on top of meat. Sprinkle spices on top of vegetables.
- Close instant pot and pressure release valve. Set instant pot to manual, high pressure for 30 minutes. Let pressure naturally release for 20 minutes. Release remaining pressure and open pot. Remove roast and potatoes.
- To make gravy: turn pot to saute and stir in cornstarch and water mixture. Mix well until boiling and sauce begins to thicken and turn into gravy. Turn off instant pot. Season gravy with salt and pepper. This makes a lot of gravy so additional cornstarch may be necessary depending on the thickness of gravy you like.
Nutrition
Michele says
I cant believe with just a few ingredients in my brand spanking new pressure cooker(yes, this was my first time trying it out) yielded such a delicious meal that was on the table in such a small amount of time! The meat and vegetables were perfectly cooked and I was only disappointed in the fact we ate it all and had not one bite of leftovers the next day. I will be making this recipe over and over in the future!
Diana says
The Instant Pot is the BEST way to make a pot roast. LOVE it!