This Instant Pot Mongolian Beef is the easiest beef recipe on Corrie Cooks!
Just toss all the ingredients into the Instant Pot and wait for the magic to happen.
This recipe is perfect for beginners since there is no need for countless steps or complex cooking methods.
Table of Contents
Why This Recipe Works
As you can see, this recipe is designed for those of you who are trying your first recipe in the Instant Pot or are in a hurry. Once you have the correctly sliced beef, you just toss everything in the Instant Pot, select the right settings, and continue your work until the meal is ready.
Recipe Video
The easy way
If it's your first time, or if you are in a hurry, I would suggest you go with the simple version and just dump and go.
If you are going simple, just:
- Dump all the ingredients to the Instant Pot and stir.
- Cook at high pressure for 10 minutes.
- wait for a natural pressure release.
- Serve and enjoy.
The fancy way
If you have time and want to get a slightly better taste, go this way:
Gather all the necessary ingredients.
Press saute and add olive oil. Add minced garlic and chopped onions into the Instant Pot and saute for 3 minutes.
Add beef slices and saute for 3 more minutes.
Next, add soy sauce.
Add Hoisin sauce (the secret sauce of our recipe!)
Add brown sugar, ginger and water and stir well.
Close the lid and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes.
When the cooking cycle ends, wait for a natural pressure release (or at least for 20 minutes).
Open the lid.
Next, add green onions and stir for 1 minute.
Take out the beef.
Add fresh Cilantro on top and serve.
How to serve
The best way of enjoying the Instant Pot Mongolian Beef is on top of jasmine rice or brown rice.
There are other options you can consider. For instance, it works extremely well with fried or steamed veggies such as broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, green beans, and more.
It also works with stir fry noodles or even fried rice.
Need more ideas? Check out What to Serve With Mongolian Beef for 21 delicious side dishes.
FAQ
What Cut of Beef to Use?
For this recipe, you have the freedom of choosing any type of beef you enjoy the most. I like to go with flank steak or top round beef, but you can use the one you have at the ready. Other options that work just as well are sirloin, skirt steak, chuck roast, or New York strip.
Feel free to diversify and try different options until you find your favorite.
How to cut the beef?
The cuts of beef above should be easy to cut in thin strips.
If you feel you can’t get the right slices, put the steak in the freezer for about 30 minutes to 1h. This will bring the meat together and will make it easier to slice.
Remember, always slice against the grain.
What does it Taste Like?
The best description I can provide is that it tastes like Chinese takeout, but better.
To give you more details, you should know that the result is sweet and flavorful, but not spicy (which some of us may expect from Asian foods). The garlic, soy sauce, ginger, and brown sugar create an exotic combination that can be off-putting for someone who is not into sweet beef, so make sure to check with your guests before serving it.
If you do like sweet dishes, check out this Instant Pot Beef And Broccoli (The most popular recipe on the blog!)
Anyway, I advise caution - this dish can be quite addictive! When you add some steamed rice to the mix, you may never want to give it up...
Can I replace the brown sugar?
I strongly recommend using dark brown sugar instead of any other kind of sugar.
Dark brown sugar has a higher concentration of molasses and this improves the overall flavor profile of this dish.
Can I Replace the Meat?
While it is called Mongolian Beef, you can make it into Mongolian chicken or pork if you’re not a fan of beef.
Still, it’s best to select meats that can be thinly sliced. The beauty and deliciousness of this dish stand in the way the meat is cooked and infused with the flavors in the sauce.
For step-by-step images and video guide, check out the Instant Pot Mongolian Chicken recipe.
What to do with the leftovers?
If there are any leftovers (which may never happen), store them in an airtight container, in the refrigerator.
It is safe to keep the leftovers for 3 days and you can reheat them in the microwave or a skillet.
Can I freeze the leftovers?
Sure. Feel free to keep it in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Can I make it spicy?
If you want to make the recipe spicy, add half a teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes to the mixture. If you don’t have this, sriracha sauce also does the trick, just make sure to taste it.
Beef Recipes
For more ideas, check out these Instant Pot Beef Recipes.
Instant Pot Mongolian Beef
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoon olive oil
- ½ onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 ½ lb top round beef sliced into thin strips
- ½ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon fresh ginger chopped
- ½ cup Hoisin sauce
- ½ cup green onion chopped
- cilantro for serving
Instructions
- Press "saute" and add olive oil.
- Add onion and garlic and saute the pot for 3 minutes.
- Add beef and saute for 3 more minutes.
- Add soy sauce, Hoisin sauce, brown sugar, ginger and water and stir well.
- Close the lid and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes.
- When cooking time is complete, wait for a natural release (Or for at least 20 minutes).
- Add green onion and stir for 1 minute.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve.
Nutrition
Video
Notes
Bold and Beautiful Instant Pot Mongolian Beef
Sorry - I almost forgot to ask. I have an 8 qt Ultra and the instructions say the minimum amount of liquid is 2 cups, but this recipe only has 1.5 cups. Would this be why when I started cooking, I got a "burn" warning? Perhaps I need to do a double batch..
Thanks for the great recipes. While the final product tasted great, I think I may have done something wrong. I used the non-simple recipe and 1.5 lbs of meat thinly sliced gave me so many batches causing the onion, garlic and ginger to cook so long that it became stuck to the bottom of the inner pot. It didn't say to remove it before searing the meat - should I have done that? I also added more oil for each batch of meat that I seared - is that right? Everyone liked the outcome, but I think I'll try the dump and go version next time. Thanks again!
I buy and freeze chuck roast. But my family is sick of roasts and I would like to use the meet I already have for this. Would 10 minutes cooking still be enough?
10 minutes will be long enough, as long as you first fully defrost the chuck roast and slice it thinly.
So glad you like my recipes Traci!! Thank you for the comment :]
As many Times as I have made Mongolian Beef I always used dump and go. This time I used Step by Step. Thank you Corrie. a big 5 stars on this one.
Is the hoisin sauce meant to go on the beef after cooking?
In the end I took the leftover liquid and boiled it down to a sauce on the stove. That was like what I was expecting from the pictures.
No, you add the hoisin sauce before cooking the beef. That's a great idea to reduce the liquid after if you want a thicker sauce. You could also do that in the Instant Pot using the saute function, to save dishes!
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks so much!
Hello I plan on making this tonight! So I can literally just toss everything in and put 10 minutes to cook?
I made this last night and it was excellent. I used a top round roast I had, sliced very thin. Coated the meat with cornstarch and actually deep-fried it in a pan with about an inch of oil because it was much quicker than sauteing that much beef. Threw it all in the instant pot for 10 minutes and did natural release. Sauce was nice and thick and beef was extremely tender. My wife took a second helping and she is very picky. Served with rice and steamed broccoli. I will add red pepper flakes next time as I think that would make it even better.
So glad you like the recipe!! Thanks 🙂
I can't wait to try this. I love how you go into detail on your process, yet the recipe says dump and cook.
Thanks!! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
This was great, super tasty! I did expect it to be more thickened, like a syrup or glaze. Was very liquidy. I suppose a slurry of cornstarch after it finished would work to thicken it up
Great suggestions