Instant Pot Beef Bourguignon | Creme De La Crumb

Pull out your pressure cooker and whip up this quick and easy Instant Pot Beef Bourguignon and enjoy savory fall-apart tender beef chunks and veggies. If Ina Garten and Julia Child created a beef bourguignon together – this would be it!

You know how people buy treadmills and then joke that they are only there as decoration or as something to hold clothes on in your room? I am kind of starting to hear something similar about Instant Pots, which I can’t even believe. My Instant Pot is one of my favorite kitchen appliances and I almost can’t wait to try a new recipe in it. Even if it sits for more than a week, I start to look at it longingly and think up new recipes for the lonely little guy.

It might not sound very romantic but that’s how I came upon this recipe for Instant Pot Beef Bourguignon. Even though you might take one glance at the ingredients and the time (one whole hour? For an Instant Pot?) but it’s well worth all of it. Plus, a typical bourguignon recipe takes at four hours (FOUR!) from start to finish. There just aren’t many more shortcuts you can take or ingredients you can eliminate and still get this classic beef dish. Trust me, I’ve tried them all.

The other reason for this dish is that, while my whole family loves chicken, sometimes we just crave a nice cut of beef. I wanted something with a hearty depth of flavor, a really meaty, filling, comforting dish. I have made this in the past the classic way and it just takes too much time. So, here we are! I’m not sure what Julia Child would say about this recipe, but I feel as though she’d applaud its ability to be quick and just as delicious as the original.

WHAT IS BOURGUIGNON?

Bourguignon refers to food that’s made the way the people of the region of Bourgogne, France, make it. Which, like all things you might associate with “burgundy” essentially means with red wine. Therefore “beef in the style of Burgundy” means beef that is braised in red wine, alongside other ingredients like mushrooms, onions, bacon, and potatoes.

The key to this dish though is the sauce, which is made with not only the wine, but the drippings from the bacon and beef, as well as the broth and flour, which create a roux or thickening agent to make the broth not so soupy and more easily mopped up with a big piece of crusty bread.

WHAT SIDE DISHES GO WELL WITH BEEF BOURGUIGNON?

With a hearty dish like this, almost anything goes. That said, here’s what I typically serve with my beef bourguignon:

• A thick slice of sourdough or country bread slathered in butter.
• Rolls — either homemade or frozen.
• Mashed potatoes, like this recipe for Slow Cooker Buttery Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes. That is, if you want to skip the potatoes in this recipe and also go crazy and use your slow cooker AND Instant Pot all in one day.
• Serve this dish over wide egg noodles.

Add a side salad, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, or another hearty veggie.

CAN I FREEZE BEEF BOURGUIGNON?

Yes, this meal will freeze well once it’s made. You can keep it in an airtight container for up to three months. Be sure to label it and add the date that you made it. If you’re anything like me, your freezer is full of leftovers and meals for another day and you don’t want to lose track of how old something is.

WHAT MEAT IS BEST FOR BEEF BOURGUIGNON?

Since this dish is really a beef stew at its core, what you want to get a cut that works well being cooked slow and low (ignore the fact that this is an Instant Pot dish for the moment). That being said, I like to use chuck beef, but the shoulder, shin, or any braising cut will work. If you’re not sure, ask the butcher at your grocery store meat counter or go to an actual butcher who specializes in knowing which cuts of meat work best for every kind of dish.