This post may contain affiliate links. See full disclosure here.
I can’t tell you how long it has been since I have made a simple pot roast. And lately, the price of meat is so high! But, I needed to know how to make pot roast in the InstantPot!
Since it is just me and my hubby, we decided to buy a small Round Roast and go for it. Of course, we also had to grab potatoes, carrots, and an onion while we were at the store. And I had some beef broth, french onion soup, and condensed beef broth soup in my pantry (thanks to Campbell’s). I always try to keep some on hand – because, yep…. it does come in “handy” quite often. Anyhow, I wasn’t quite sure what or how to go about making it in the Instant Pot, there are different steps to take than throwing everything in the slow cooker.
An InstantPot is a Must in Our House
Luckily, with the invention of the “user-friendly” version of the Pressure Cooker – aka The InstantPot, we can now skip the long-term planning of the slow cooker and get a pot roast done in the InstantPot in about 1 1/2- 2 hours. This still may seem like a long time, but the InstantPot keeps the food warm when it is done cooking. Another wonderful thing I love about this marvel!
In order to find a recipe that would work for me, I googled it! And this is the site I landed on and decided to follow: Dishesdelish. It made the most sense to me, and I had most of the ingredients. Of course, I tweaked it a little.
And, I added some hot rolls and gravy to my dish. You gotta do the whole thing when you are looking for a hearty comfort food dish. Especially since it has been a little bit chilly down here in Texas lately.
We bought a two-pound round roast. It was $12.34 – a little pricey. But it was plenty of meat for four people or two meals for us! Especially with the potatoes, gravy, carrots, and hot rolls!
Let’s Get Started!
Take the meat out of the wrapper and rinse it with cold water. Dry off the meat by patting it with a paper towel (you will need a few). Then, use Kosher Salt and fresh ground pepper to season both sides of the meat. Get the InstantPot ready by turning it on to Saute. Once it heats up add the oil, (You can test this by dipping a wooden spoon in the oil – if it bubbles, it’s ready!) carefully place the roast in the InstantPot using a long fork. Be careful not to let the oil splash you.
Let it sear the meat a couple of minutes, and flip the meat over. I like to sear all the sides of the roast to help seal in the moisture. Once the roast is fully seared, remove it from the InstantPot and place it on a plate.
DeGlaze the Pan with Red Wine or Beef Broth
Deglazing the pan is an important step for two reasons; one is so that you can get all that brown crusty goodness off of the bottom of the pan; the other is to keep the InstantPot from turning off due to the “BURN” effect. Simply pour in the Red wine or beef broth and take a wooden spoon or wooden spatula and carefully scrape up all of the browned bits from the bottom.
This is where I changed up the recipe, I had one onion in the house. This recipe called for one whole onion, sliced to go in with the roast. I know this is all for flavoring, but sometimes the onion disappears. So, I used the can of french onion soup and added 3 cups of beef broth, half of the onion sliced, and two teaspoons of Italian Seasoning. (I didn’t have any sage on hand, and the Italian seasoning had sage in it!). Sometimes you have to get creative in the kitchen!
I closed up the InstantPot and set it for 45 minutes. The recommended time is 20-25 minutes per pound, so I just added them together since I had two pounds. And, it worked out perfectly. Once the meat is done, let the InstantPot naturally release for 30 minutes.
Get Ready to Make the Gravy and Rolls
One thing you will need is some of the broth from the InstantPot to help flavor the gravy. I used a ladle to spoon some of the broth into a small saucepan. Then, got out a can of Campbell’s Condensed Beef Broth and a little more of the regular beef broth I had added earlier.
Add in the Veggies
It still blows my mind that you can cook potatoes and carrots to perfection in only 10 minutes in the InstantPot. That is nuts! Add the potatoes, carrots, and more onion – I cut them up into bite-sized pieces – and reseal the InstantPot. Set the timer for 10 minutes.
“Make the Rolls”
What I really mean is get the rolls ready to heat in the toaster oven, if you have one, if not you will need to use your regular oven. Luckily, I had some Hawaiian Sweet Rolls on hand, so I put them in a small baking pan and set them in my Toaster oven. Set it to 375 degrees. It won’t take long for the rolls to get nice and toasty, (about 1-2 mins) and when they look ready, pull them out of the oven and brush them with butter. Then, very quickly, sprinkle Coarse Sea Salt on top – this is the best thing ever! The salt adds just that little bit of crunchy saltiness and goes wonderfully with the meal!
Get the Gravy Ready
This is really cheating to make the gravy this way, but someone had mentioned it to me so I thought I would try it. And, I have to say, it was delicious! I took the can of condensed beef broth and added it to the saucepan with the broth from the InstantPot. Then, I added a little pepper and some more broth.
Once it started boiling, I added two teaspoons of corn starch to a small dish and stirred in some water. Getting the corn starch fully dissolved is very important but before adding it to hot liquids. A little of the hot liquid needs to be added to the corn starch mixture or else it will cause a lot of lumpy yuckiness in the gravy. Let it cook for a few minutes to let it thicken. If it isn’t thick enough, add some more corn starch using the same method.
Get Ready to Plate!
Take the pot roast out of the InstantPot and slice it, shred it or serve it however you like! We sliced ours, added the veggies to our plates, and spooned gravy over everything. The rolls were added at the very end so they wouldn’t get soggy. The end result was absolutely delicious! Now you know how to make pot roast in the InstantPot!
I hope you enjoy this meal as much as we did!
Enjoy,
InstantPot Pot Roast
Equipment
- 1 Instant Pot
- 1 Oven or Toaster Oven
Ingredients
- 1 2 lb Round Roast
- Kosher Salt to taste
- Fresh Ground Pepper to taste
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil extra virgin
- 1/2 cup Red Wine or Beef Broth
- 1 can French Onion Condensed Soup Campbell's
- 4 cups Beef Broth - divided
- 2 tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1 Onion, sliced - divided
- 4 Carrots, peeled and chopped in bite sized pieces
- 10 Yukon Gold Potatoes, small cut in half
- 1 can Condensed Beef Broth Soup Campbell's
- 2 tbsp Corn Starch
- 8 Hawaiian Rolls
- 1 Tbsp Butter, Unsalted
- Coarse Sea Salt to sprinkle on roll
Instructions
- Take the meat out of the wrapper and rinse it with cold water. Dry off the meat by patting it with a few paper towels. Season both sides of the meat with Kosher Salt and fresh ground pepper
- Turn the InstantPot to Saute. Once it heats up, add the oil.Carefully place the roast in the InstantPot using a long fork. Sear all the sides of the roast to help seal in the moisture then remove it from the InstantPot and place it on a plate.
- Deglaze the pan with Red wine or beef broth and carefully scrape up all of the browned bits from the bottom.
- Add a can of french onion soup and 3 cups of beef broth, half of the sliced onion, and the Italian Seasoning.
- Close the InstantPot and set it for 45 minutes. Or, About 20-25 minutes per pound. Once the meat is done, let the InstantPot naturally release for 30 minutes.
- Use a ladle to spoon some of the broth from the InstantPot into a saucepan - for making the gravy. Set this aside.
- Add all the veggies to the InstantPot, setting the timer for 10 minutes.
- Set the oven to 375 degrees, unless you have a toaster oven.
- Add the Campbell's Condensed Beef Broth, 1/2 cup of the beef broth, and freshly ground pepper to the saucepan with the broth.Bring this mixture to a boil.
- Use 2 tablespoons of Cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken the gravy by adding some of the boiling broth to the cornstarch mixture to warm it up. The gravy will thicken as it cooks. If it needs to be thicker, add more cornstarch using the same process.
- Place the rolls in the oven on a greased cookie sheet or use parchment paper. Bake them for about 1-2 minutes - until they are golden brown and slightly toasted. Remove them from the oven and brush them with unsalted butter. Then, sprinkle them with Course Sea Salt.
- Take the roast out of the Instant pot and slice it or shred it. Serve it with the veggies, gravy and rolls.
