Instant Pot Beef Bourguignon (2024)

Instant Pot Beef bourguignon is one of my favorite cold weather comfort foods. It's a flavorful classic french recipe with tender chunks of beef in a rich red wine gravy, made in a fraction of the time thanks to pressure cooking!

When hubs bought me an Instant Pot on Black Friday a few years ago, I was both excited and confused. It was both 'a whole new world of opportunity' but that landscape was totally blank.

I feel like that is the same way with so many people who ended up with this new electric pressure cooker and air fryers, not knowing what to do with them has made us leave them in a corner of the kitchen to collect dust.

But nope, not on my watch. I love using it to make dinner, especially in the summer and fall. Pulled pork for sandwiches, green beans for Thanksgiving, and any tough cuts of meat that we want done in time for dinner all go into the Instant Pot!

So meet my easy beef bourguignon recipe: a one pan plan that is possibly the best thing that comes to my Instant Pot every autumn season. With a rich, savory gravy and fork-tender beef, she's a winner at the dinner table every single time.

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What is Beef Burgundy?

Beef bourguignon, also called Boeuf Bourguignon or Beef Burgundy, is a 'new' classic French beef stew (coming along in the mid 1800's) where tougher cuts of beef are slowly braised in red wine and garnished with mushrooms, herbs, carrots, pearl onions, and bacon in a hearty dish that has become an icon in French cuisine.

Julia Child's iconic recipe brought it to the mainstream U.S. audience, but it is a lot more fussy than my own version.

We're not doing all that fuss from the original recipe like boiling bacon, playing the cha-cha slide with a casserole dish and the oven, or washing all that amazing beef and bacon flavor out of the pot (why?!).

We crisp up some bacon and sear the beef, sauté the veg and then pressure cook until the beef is super tender and shreddy. Serve over the fluffiest, richest mountain of mashed potatoes possible.

Ingredients

Thick Cut Bacon - Bacon gives a great flavor that plays an important role in beef bourguignon. The bacon fat flavors the entire stew, and who doesn't love bacon bits?

Chuck Roast - You want to buy a chuck roast and cube it yourself. Beef stew meat is really just scraps, odds and ends the butcher had leftover from many different cuts of meat, and you deserve quality, honey.

All Purpose Flour.

Beef Stock - Use a good quality beef broth or stock, I really like using Better than Bouillon base

Carrots - is it beef stew without carrots to help lend a naturally sweet note?

Mushrooms - So classic. So good. And also one of the few vegetables that Greyson will eat. I use cremini, but use button mushrooms or your favorite variety.

Tomato Paste - tomato paste has a deeper, richer flavor (and more umami) than tomato sauce.

Red Wine - Use a wine you like to drink, okay? I learned that the hard way when I first made beef stew back in 2012. A nice pinot noir will work, if you're not sure what to use. It's also optional, if you want this recipe alcohol-free.

Herbs - You can use fresh or dried! I drop in a bay leaf, fresh thyme leaves, chopped rosemary, a little oregano, it's all good.

Onions - pearl onions are the classic, and can totally be used, but I always have some yellow onions on hand and they're perfect for stewing.

Cornstarch - okay so this makes the gravy extra thick but wait, there's more:

Butter - so we are going to mont beurre the gravy, and what that does is make the sauce more luxurious, emulsifying the ingredients and making is silky and shiny. Also, it's butter. You know I had to add a little.

How to Make Instant Pot Beef Bourguignon

The full recipe, including measurements and notes, are in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.

Turn your Instant Pot onto the sauté setting, and place bacon right on into the inner pot. Crisp it up and get that fat, then transfer it out into a small bowl.

Next, sear those beef cubes in batches in that bacon grease. You might find the beef will stick to the bottom of the pot, but don't force the meat to come off. When the Maillard Reaction happens -when the meat sears and gets that good color- the meat will release and it will be easy to pick up.Remove the browned beef from the pot and repeat with the remaining beef.

Saute the vegetables, tomato paste, and herbs, then mix in the flour.

Add in the liquids and place the lid on. Make sure that the steam release valve on the lid of the instant pot is at 'sealing' not 'releasing'!

Cook on high pressure for 45 minutes and let it cycle through natural pressure release for 10 minutes before releasing the remaining pressure.

Turn on the sauté setting again and stir in the cornstarch slurry. Now stir in the pats of butter and watch that gravy get thick and shiny.

What to Serve with Beef Bourguignon

I will always say that beef stews and potatoes deserve one another. From smashed potatoes, to roasted potatoes, to classic mashed potatoes, you can't go wrong.

Also absolutely fabulous? Garlic butter dinner rolls. They are perfect for sopping up that savory gravy and they are so rich and buttery!

I like to keep the beverages crisp and bright with this. A Tuscan lemonade co*cktail is bright and bubbly, and an easy cherry shirley temple never gets old.

Storage and Reheating Instructions

Keep the beef bourguignon in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, and reheat in a microwave-safe dish in the microwave until warmed through. No fuss!

Frequently Asked Questions

More Comfort Food Recipes

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• Oven Braised Chuck Pot Roast
• Creamy Chicken and Fluffy Herbed Dumplings
• Roasted Spatchco*ck Chicken with Potatoes

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