How to Make Roast Beef in a Pressure Cooker

Q: What is Umami?

The umami taste is often described as a meaty, broth-like, or savoury taste, and is independent of the four traditional basic tastes — sweet, sour, salty and bitter. The appreciation of taste starts with the taste receptors on the tongue.

Q: What temperature should the roast beef be when cooked?

That depends. For medium-rare roast beef , you want the internal temperature to reach 120 degrees F . For medium roast beef, the internal temperature should read 145 degrees F .

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How to Make Roast Beef in a Pressure Cooker - This homemade roast beef is made in under an hour! Using a pressure cooker, such as an Instant Pot or a Ninja Foodi All-in-One, a perfectly tender and super moist roast beef is made with little effort. This easy Roast Beef recipe is great for any Sunday dinner, holiday celebrations or even easy enough for a weeknight meal!

After making this Garlic Roast Beef recipe a couple of years ago, I decided it was time to not only update the recipe but also simplify it ever so slightly.

This keto roast beef recipe is a twist on my Easy Poor Man’s Prime Rib from Cook's Illustrated. In this recipe, you simply heat the oven to a very high temperature before turning off the oven and letting the beef cook itself for 2 hours.

Wanting to achieve the same deliciously moist result with once again, a much cheaper cut of meat (I used a bottom round roast), I decided to try to make a roast beef in a pressure cooker.

Pressure cooked for only 3 minutes and then left to continue to cook in the pressure cooker, this bottom round roast ended up juicy, and absolutely amazing! Serve it with a side of au just that forms naturally in the bottom of the pressure cooker, this homemade roast beef recipe couldn't be any easier or faster!

Table of Contents

Why this recipe works

Quick - it only takes about 10 minutes of "hands-on" time and under 1 hour before it is ready to be served
Simple - it only requires a handful of ingredients
Cheap - you can use a bottom round roast or an Eye of Round which is a cheaper cut of meat and can often be found on sale
Easy Clean Up - the homemade roast beef and the "au jus" is made at the same time which means there is only one pot to clean.
Sophisticated- this keto roast beef recipe is fancy enough for a holiday meal but also easy enough to serve on a busy weeknight!

homemade roast beef recipe in a pressure cooker

Ingredients

This easy roast beef recipe does not require very many ingredients

Beef - Eye of round was used for this recipe.
Spices - A combination of dried garlic powder, salt and pepper are sprinkled generously over the roast before it is seared. Then, some additional rosemary, sage, 2 bay leaves and more garlic is added to the broth to end up with a delicious "au jus"
Broth - I used low sodium broth beef broth as I did not want my "au jus" to end up too salty. My philosophy is always to go light on the salt as it is easier to add it at the end if need be (and impossible to remove when mistakingly added in too large of quantities)
Oil -

What kind of cut is Eye of Round?

According to Wikipedia, round steak is a beef steak from the "round", the rear leg of the cow.

The round is divided into cuts including the eye (of) round, bottom round, and top round, with or without the "round" bone (femur), and may include the knuckle (sirloin tip), depending on how the round is separated from the loin.

This is a lean cut and it is moderately tough. Lack of fat and marbling makes round dry out when cooked with dry-heat cooking methods like roasting or grilling.

Round steak is commonly prepared with slow moist-heat methods including braising, to tenderize the meat and maintain moisture. The cut is often sliced thin, then dried or smoked at low temperature to make jerky.

Instructions

Learning how to make roast beef in a pressure cooker is really easy!

Set the pressure cooker to "saute - Hi" and add the oil. While pressure cooker heats, pat the beef dry and season one side with spices

Add the beef, seasoned side down, to the hot instant pot. While beef is searing, season the top side before flipping once nice and brown on the bottom side (about 3-4 minutes). Repeat with all sides of the beef. Remove the beef from the pot and set it to the side.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the instant pot along with onion, scraping the bottom to remove any brown bits. Sauté for 3 minutes and then add the soy sauce, bay leaves, minced garlic, rosemary, and sage and stir for 1 minute

Add 1 cup of salt-free or low sodium beef broth and stir to incorporate all the ingredients. Add the trivet and place the roast beef on the trivet. Pressure Cook at High Pressure for 3 minutes + 30 minutes Natural Release.

Remove the roast and cover with aluminum foil. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before thinly slicing the beef. IF desired, strain the leftover juice in the pot and drizzle it over the beef.

Hint: Use an instant read thermometer to test the internal temperature of the beef. This beef (depending on the thickness of the beef) ended up at 120 degrees F. which is rare. I always under cook my beef as it is always easy to increase the doneness of your beef but IMPOSSIBLE to undo "doneness"!

Why does the recipe call for "Low Sodium" or "Sodium-Free" stock?

Since the beef is seasoned in the pot itself, some of the salt that is used on the beef will end up in the pot.

If you use a regular chicken, vegetable or beef stock, you may find that your "au jus" is a little too salty.

I have made this recipe several times and since we are only dipping the roast beef in the "au jus", we actually don't mind using the regular broth. However, if you do not like salty food, make sure you use salt-free or low sodium broth so that you can adjust the level of saltiness to suit your tastes.

What if my roast beef is not cooked the way I like it?

If the temperature of the roast beef is too low, simply place the roast beef back in the pressure cooker on the trivet and close the lid.

Do not pressure cook again but simply leave the pressure cooker on the “Keep Warm” mode to slow roast the beef roast.

The temperature should rise 7°F – 10°F per 5 minutes.

Tips and Tricks for this Pressure Cooker Garlic Roast Beef:

the directions for this recipe use an eye of round that is about 3 lbs and is about 3.25 inches in thickness - a thinner cut of beef will end up more medium-rare
try to find a cut of beef that is uniform in thickness to ensure even cooking
make sure to get the pot hot before searing beef for the Maillard reaction to occur
add additional salt to the "au jus" depending on preference
for larger or thicker pieces of beef, leave the beef in the pressure cooker on "warm" and check it every 7-10 minutes until the desired temperature has been reached
Medium-rare roast beef internal temperature should read 120 degrees F.
Medium roast beef internal temperature should read 145 degrees F.
take the temperature from the middle and thickest section of the beef
slice the roast beef against the grain
I used my Ninja Foodi All-in-One to create the recipe

What is "Au Jus"?

These French words literally translate to "in juice". For this recipe, the au jus is the leftover juice in the bottom of the instant pot. Strain the liquid using a fine-mesh strainer and serve the au jus drizzled over the beef.

What is Umami?

The umami taste is often described as a meaty, broth-like, or savoury taste, and is independent of the four traditional basic tastes — sweet, sour, salty and bitter. The appreciation of taste starts with the taste receptors on the tongue.

What is the Maillard Reaction?

Maillard reaction is the chemical reaction that occurs between amino acids and reducing sugars in the presence of heat that results in the browning of food while forming new aromas and flavours. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins that can be found in our food.

What temperature should the roast beef be when cooked?

That depends. For medium-rare roast beef, you want the internal temperature to reach 120 degrees F. For medium roast beef, the internal temperature should read 145 degrees F.