Favorite Instant Pot Short Ribs Recipe. Boneless short ribs are cooked with daikon and carrots in a savory sauce until moist and tender. A beautiful dinner gets done in 30 mins! {Gluten Free adaptable}
Lately, I’ve been longing for some warm comfort food, so I turned to my family’s favorite Instant Pot Short Ribs. In this recipe, the marbled boneless short ribs, daikon, and carrots are cooked in a savory Japanese sauce. It is hearty, satisfying yet so easy to prepare.
Cooking with an Instant Pot has been a real timesaver. It’s hard to believe that I can cook up a luxurious meal for the family on a busy weeknight! If you’re looking for more comfort foods that you can cook with an Instant Pot, I also have Instant Pot Pork Belly, Slow Cooker Chicken Wings and Instant Pot Stick Asian Ribs recipes, just to name a few.
How To Make Instant Pot Short Ribs
Melt in your mouth pressure cooker short rib is simply amazing, marbled boneless short rib cooked with daikon and carrots in a savory sauce.
Main Ingredients You Need
The short ribs are so tender, and literally melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I used boneless ribs for my recipe, but you can use the bone-in short ribs and cook a little longer time.
Daikon radish absorbs all the juices and makes the sauce sweet. I don’t recommend skipping daikon and carrots because they give so much flavor to the entire dish. When you cut them, don’t cut them into smaller pieces. As we cook the meat and vegetables all together in the pressure cooker, you want slightly bigger chunks of vegetables so that they don’t get too mushy.
Easy Pressure Cooking
With an Instant Pot or a pressure cooker, all I need to prep is to chop up vegetables. Give the meat some nice sear in the pressure cooker over high heat so that the surface of the meat becomes caramelized. This enhances the savory meaty taste and adds complex layers of nutty and bitter flavors (this is called Maillard Reaction). I think it’s worth spending extra time here for the great taste.
After all the ingredients go in, I hit the start button of the Instant Pot, and off we go!
Why Cooking in a Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot)?
Instant Pot has both slow cooker and pressure cooker functions. At first, I only used the slow cooker function but these days I’m only using it as a pressure cooker. Why? Because it fits my needs as a busy mom to get dinner ready at the last minute without too much cooking time.
Since I work from home, I try to get as much work as possible while my children are at school. By the evening, after children’s homework is done, I usually have about 30 minutes to prep dinner before we head out to their after school activities.
By the time we get home, the food is all cooked and ready to be enjoyed in the Instant Pot. I always have my steamed rice cooked in my rice cooker, so we would have rice at the table.
While kids wash their hands, change their clothes, and help me set up the table, I quickly prepare additional dishes like miso soup, salad, or stir fry veggies. Despite everyone’s busy schedule, my family gets to sit down together for home cook meals. The best part? I only spent about 30 minutes even though these short ribs taste like I spent hours in the kitchen!
Excellent Wine to Enjoy with Instant Pot Short Ribs
For this delicate dish, we paired it with 2012 Dolin Estate Pinot Noir – Santa Rita Hills. We wanted a lighter red to match with tender short ribs and flavorful daikon, and not overpower the dish. The grapes for this wine come from Santa Rita Hills, just a bit north of Santa Barbara. The area’s cool weather is great for growing Pinot Noir. After harvest and fermentation, these grapes were aged for 20 months in French oak barrels.
How did we like the wine? We loved it! The pairing worked really well. As you raise the glass close to your nose, you can already smell the familiar scent of pinot noir. I would describe the smell as fresh berries and reminds me of the beautiful spring season. The initial taste is refreshing, light, and full of intense fruit and berry flavors. The body is silky smooth and the wine feels really young and sweet. The finish is very clean, and you can taste a bit of spice.
We hope you enjoyed this flavorful Instant Pot Short Ribs and the wine too!
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Instant Pot Short Ribs (Pressure Cooker)
Video
Ingredients
- 1 knob ginger (1", 2.5 cm)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 onion (8 oz, 227 g)
- 10.5 oz daikon radish (3", 7.5 cm)
- 1 carrot (5 oz, 140 g; if your carrot is thin, use two)
- 1 green onion/scallion
- 1 ¾ lb boneless beef short ribs (beef brisket or chuck roast also works)
- kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt)
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
To Prepare Ingreidnets
- Thinly slice the ginger and crush garlic cloves in a garlic press (or simply mince them).
- Cut the onion in half and cut the halves into 5 wedges.
- Peel the daikon and cut in half lengthwise, and cut into ½ inch (1.3 cm) slices. Tip: If you do not like your vegetables mushy, you can cut into slightly bigger size.
- Peel the carrot and cut into bite sizes. I use a Japanese cutting technique called “Rangiri". Cut the carrot diagonally while rotating it a quarter between cuts. This not only makes an attractive shape that is good for stews and simmered dishes but also gives the pieces bigger surface space to absorb seasonings faster. Tip: If you do not like your vegetables mushy, you can cut into a slightly bigger size.
- Cut the scallion/green onion into thin rounds and save them for garnish.
- Cut the short ribs into 1 inch (2.5 cm) pieces.
- Pat all sides of the short ribs dry with paper towels so the steak will sear easily.
- Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
To Cook
- Press the “Sauté” button on your Instant Pot and heat 1 Tbsp. sesame oil. When the pot is hot, add the short ribs. If you have more than specified amount of short ribs for the recipe, you might need to do this step in 2 batches to avoid "steaming" instead of "searing".
- Don't touch the meat when searing. The meat will release naturally when a beautiful sear has formed. Sear all sides of the meat. When you're done, transfer to a plate.
- Add the onion and sauté until they are tender. You don’t need to caramelize onions, but this extra step adds more flavors.
- Add the garlic, ginger, and short ribs.
- Add 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 2 Tbsp sake, 4 Tbsp mirin, and 4 Tbsp soy sauce.
- Mix the seasonings and add daikon and carrot. Mix all together.
- Cover and lock the lid. Make sure the steam release handle points at “sealing” and not “venting”. Press the “Keep Warm/Cancel” button on the Instant Pot to stop cooking. Press the “Meat/Stew” or "Manual" button to switch to the pressure cooking mode. Cook under High Pressure for 35 minutes.
- If you’re using a stove-top pressure cooker, you won’t have the buttons to press. Just cook on high heat until high pressure is reached. Then reduce the heat to low but maintain high pressure for about 30 minutes.
- When it is finished cooking, the Instant Pot will switch automatically to a “Keep Warm” mode. Let the pressure release naturally (takes about 15-20 mins). Unlock the lid and transfer to a serving dish. Garnish with scallion/green onion.
To Store
- You can store the leftover in the airtight container and keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or 2 weeks in the freezer.
Nutrition
More Amazing Instant Pot Recipes You’ll Love:
- Instant Pot Asian Pulled Pork
- Instant Pot Honey Spare Ribs
- Instant Pot Takikomi Gohan (Japanese Mixed Rice)
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on December 3, 2015. The content has been updated in March 2020.
