Instant Pot Beef Pot Roast

The Instant Pot takes everyone’s favorite fall-apart pot roast that usually needs hours to bake to perfection and delivers it with more flavor in less time.

Remember the days when you could only enjoy a beef pot roast on the weekend because that’s when there was enough time to prep all the ingredients and cook it low and slow all day? It’s one of those dishes we crave but never have enough time to make. No more! the Instant Pot speeds up the process so you can enjoy a pot roast anytime in less time.

How long do you need to cook an Instant Pot Beef Roast?

The Instant Pot uses high pressure to cook, which significantly cuts down on the time needed to cook, while still giving you that same tender meat and perfectly cooked veggies. Your cook time will be 20 minutes per pound so you can adjust this depending on the size of your roast. In order to cook your veggies to perfection, you will want to cook the roast by itself for 20 minutes less time than it needs to cook. As an example, it’d be just 40 minutes for a 3-pound chuck roast.

This shorter time allows you to add in the veggies at a later time to avoid having them be too mushy. Once you add the potatoes, carrots and onion, you’ll cook them together for an additional 20 minutes to ensure the meat is completely done and the veggies are just cooked through.

You can make the gravy right in the Instant Pot while the pot roast rests!

The best part is being able to make a gravy out of the broth that remains. You’ll remove all the meat and vegetables from the Instant Pot and skim off any fat that is remaining. OXO makes a great Fat Separator to help with this!

Once that is done, add in a mixture of flour and water. Use about 2 tablespoons of flour per cup of broth you are using to help thicken the mixture. Heat it up over the Sauté setting to ensure that it dissolves and thickens. Be sure to do this at the end so the gravy doesn’t separate. If you’d like to make a gluten-free gravy you can use this Instant Pot Gravy recipe from our sister site, Cook the Story.

Even though it sounds like a lot of steps, this is a one-pot dish that comes together pretty quickly and without much active cooking time, which makes it great for weeknights.

Instant Pot Beef Pot Roast

Contributor: Sam Ellis

The Instant Pot takes everyone’s favorite fall-apart pot roast that usually needs hours to bake to perfection and delivers it with more flavor in less time.

• Author: Sam Ellis
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 90 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x

Print Recipe

Ingredients

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• 3 lb. chuck roast
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 3 cups beef broth or homemade Instant Pot Beef Bone Broth
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 lb. red potatoes, quartered
• 1 lb. baby carrots
• 1 large onion, chopped
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup chopped parsley, to garnish

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Instructions

1. Season chuck roast with salt, garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper. Set Instant Pot to Sauté.
2. Drizzle vegetable oil into the Instant Pot and sear chuck roast until brown on all sides, 3-4 minutes per side.
3. Add beef broth and Worcestershire sauce to Instant Pot.
4. Put the lid on and seal, turning the knob to closed. Use Pressure Cook and cook your pot roast on Manual for 20 minutes less than total time needed.*
5. Allow pressure to release naturally for 15 minutes, using the quick release for remaining pressure, then add red potatoes, carrots and onions to the Instant Pot.
6. Seal the Instant Pot and cook on high for an additional 20 minutes.
7. Allow pressure to release for at least 15 minutes naturally. Use the quick release for any remaining pressure, then remove everything but the broth from the Instant Pot. Skim off fat, if desired. We recommend using the OXO Fat Separator!
8. Mix water and flour together in a jar, shake, then add it to the liquid that is remaining in the Instant Pot. Stir. Set it to Sauté again and cook until simmering and thickened.
9. Slice or shred meat and serve alongside potatoes and carrots with the liquid as a gravy. Garnish with parsley.

Notes

To figure out how much time the roast needs to cook through, figure 20 minutes per pound. A 3-pound chuck roast would need 40 minutes on high pressure then an additional 20 minutes with the potatoes, carrots and onion added.