Welcome to my latest Instant Pot recipe and today is all about how to cook beef shin in the Instant Pot. If you want to eat beef but can’t afford beef fillet then electric pressure cooked beef shin can be the perfect compromise.
I often watch TV shows when they are talking about being frugal and eating cheap but eating well. That just because you want to eat frugally doesn’t mean that you must eat rations. In this modern world two times of war time food has become popular again – beef shin and beef cheeks.
Both of them are very tough pieces of meat (hence why they are as cheap as chips) and most people are afraid of them because they think if they cook them just the slightest bit too long that they will end up with very tough cuts of meat.
However, the plan B and the excellent Plan B is the Instant Pot. It is associated most with people making cheese cakes, homemade yoghurt and boiling the perfect egg. But for me what first attracted me to it (minus how quick it cooks things) was that you can place cheap cuts of meats into the Instant Pot and it will cook them as good as a premium cut of meat.
Imagine that if you were feeling rich you might put into it a topside of beef and then either oven cook it or slow cook it and it would be the most amazing Sunday lunch. But in a frugal world instead you place a couple of beef shins (which cost about 25% of the cost) into your Instant Pot and then an hour later you have the most tender meat you have ever tried.
Now that is what I call electric pressure cooking. Then serve it with homemade dumplings and you have a modern take on the old fashioned war food. But war food that is well worth coming back for seconds.
So while I was in the office working on some other content for the blog. Dominic set to work on the beef shins in the Instant Pot and this is his recipe below.
More Beef Recipes In The Instant Pot
- Instant Pot Irish Beef Stew
- Instant Pot Beef Stew Scraps
- Instant Pot Easy Meatloaf
- Instant Pot Philly Steak Sandwich
- Instant Pot Sloppy Joes
- Instant Pot Beef Green Bean Stir Fry
- How To Cook Beef Brisket In The Instant Pot
[clickToTweet tweet=”How To #Cook Beef Shin The The #InstantPot #Recipe via recipe_this” quote=”How To #Cook Beef Shin The The #InstantPot #Recipe via recipe_this”]
- Instant Pot Duo
- 1 Beef Shin
- 3 Large Carrots
- 3 Large Potatoes
- 3 Celery Sticks
- 1 Large Onion
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 Beef OXO Cubes
- 250 ml Red Wine
- 1 Tbsp Mixed Herbs
- 2 Tbsp Thyme
- Salt & Pepper
- Trim the fat off the beef and chop into cubes so that it becomes shaped like stew.
- Peel the carrots, potatoes and onions and chop into cubes.
- Clean and slice your celery into chunky pieces.
- Place the onions into the Instant Pot on the saute setting and saute with some olive oil.
- Once the onions have gone soft add the beef and allow it to seal the juices thanks to the olive oil and onion flavour.
- Add the carrots, potatoes, celery, seasoning and red wine and mix well. Place the lid on your Instant Pot and move the valve to sealing.
- Once sealed place on the stew setting for 1 hour.
- When it beeps when it is done (you’ll hear about 6 beeps) allow to rest for 15 minutes.
- Once rested move the valve, allow the steam to escape and remove the lid.
- Serve with dumplings.
I love using beef OXO cubes and then mixing them with 250ml of boiling water. Alternatively if you have it you could use 250ml of beef stock instead.
I ended up using baby shallot onions in this recipe which you could use instead but a large onion is just as good.
It doesn’t matter the potato type. I used small new potatoes in the end but you could chop up big jacket potatoes instead.
If you prefer your stew to be chunky then we recommend adding a little gravy or flour at the end to thicken it up.
For the best beef stock in your recipes I would recommend Kettle & Fire. Unfortunately they are not available in the UK so if you are UK based I would use OXO cubes.
Where To Source Your Beef Stock From To make Beef Shin In The Instant Pot:
Instant Pot Recipes – The Outtakes
Sam: That smells like my mothers steak and kidney pie
Dom: Why because it has wine in it?
Sam: No, because of all that delicious beef
Dom: How is it?
Sam: OMG it’s the tenderest beef I have ever tried. Are you sure it wasn’t topside?
Dom: No its cheap shin cooked by me!
Dominic was originally a British carvery chef specialising in beef, pork, lamb and chicken. He then worked at a factory specialising in beef cuts just after we were married so he certainly knows his stuff!
Veronika says
I was wondering if potatoes and carrots won’t overcook if you cook them on high pressure for 1 hour?
Samantha and Dominic says
Hi Veronika
The potatoes and carrots will become soft but we chopped them into large chunks so they do not turn to mush.
Hope this helps.
Kind Regards
Dom