Instant Pot Swiss Steak
Getting beef right now is hard. When my last grocery shopper couldn’t find sirloin, they asked if I wanted something as a substitute. I wanted to know what was available and inexpensive. Her answer was… cube steak. I thought, “what the heck, throw it in”, which is how I ended up with 8 pounds of cube steak. I think I have only used cube steak three times in my life, and two of them were for chicken fried steak to keep my Texas husband happy. The third time I ever used cube steak was about 20 years ago. I made Swiss steak. Swiss steak is usually made with an inexpensive cut of beef such as cube steak and cooked slowly until tender with a gravy with onions, peppers and tomatoes. Instant Pot Swiss Steak makes it easier.
One of the reasons I want to make this right now is that I have a red and a yellow bell pepper that are pushing the edge of going bad. It’s a now or never kind of thing. I remember making Swiss steak once before but don’t exactly know how to do it now.. Every recipe for Swiss steak I have ever seen wants the steak floured and browned before the slow cooking step. I can’t do this. Browning these pieces would be too time consuming and just too tiring.
Just as I was about to give up and find a different recipe, I remembered something I had read a few years back. Browning meat first isn’t always necessary when slow cooking something. There are a few chefs who say it is alright to not always brown first. Paula Wolfert, a cook I respect, thinks that starting meat cold can work in slow cooking situations like this one. If Paula can do it, then why can’t I?
Since I am going to be losing a small amount of flavor from the browning process (maillard reaction), I am going to add a small amount of something with an umami flavor back in. I’m thinking of Worcestershire sauce and fish sauce. Bear with me here. I’m only going to add a little, and nobody will taste fish or be able to tell. I think mushrooms will also boost the taste of the sauce. I don’t want to put them in raw because they’ll add too much liquid. Neither do I want to saute them first because that would be to hard for me. Sometime ago, I bought a bag of porcini powder on clearance. I recognize I am one of the few who would have mushroom powder in her pantry. I used it three times before this. Finally, I am going to get to use it again!
To boost the thickness of the sauce I need to replace the flour that I would have browned the meat with. Adding a cornstarch slurry at the end will make up for it. For me, Swiss steak is really just a stew using beef more inexpensive than stew beef. Hopefully, Instant Pot Swiss Steak is going to be easy enough to make in the future.
*** It was!
Instant Pot Swiss Steak
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 3 lbs Cube Steak cut into serving size pieces
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1 Red Bell Pepper sliced thinly
- 1 Yellow Bell Pepper sliced thinly
- 1 Large Yellow Onion sliced
- 2 15 oz. Cans Diced Tomatoes
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
- 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 Tablespoon dried Porcini Powder optional
- 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 4 Tablespoons Cornstarch
- 4 Tablespoons Water
Instructions
- Sprinkle salt on both sides of cube steak pieces.
- Mix juice from canned tomatoes with Worcestershire Sauce, fish sauce, garlic powder and porcini powder, Pour about a ¼ cup in the bottom of Instant Pot Liner with the trivet removed. Put a layer of cube steak (overlapping is fine) in the Instant Pot liner and then a small handful of onions. Continue with this order until you get to the last layer of cube steak.
- On top of the last layer of meat put any remaining onion, the bell peppers and tomatoes.
- Pour remaining tomato juice mixture over the top.
- On ‘Manual’ set the Instant Pot to 17 minutes. ‘Natural Release’ for 10 minutes
- In the last 5 minutes of the ‘Natural Release’ mix the cornstarch and water in a small bowl (this is called a slurry).
- After “Natural Release’ is finished, vent the remaining steam.
- Remove lid. Remove cube steak pieces to a deep platter or casserole dish. Set Instant Pot to ‘Saute’ and add the black pepper. Pour in the cornstarch slurry and stir right away. After mixture has simmered for 1 minute, turn off heat
- Pour the onion, pepper, and gravy mixture over cube steaks and serve!
Modifications
