Skip to Content

The Easiest Instant Pot Beef and Noodles

Sharing is caring!

A white bowl full of beef and noodles on top of a white cloth napkin.

This is the quickest and easiest Instant Pot Beef and Noodles recipe you’ll ever try. Traditional hearty beef and noodles in a fraction of the time and work of most beef and noodle recipes, but still yields the same tender seasoned bites of beef and tons of creamy noodles in under an hour!

A close up image that shows the texture of the beef and noodles.

Beef and noodles is known for being easy comfort food, but it’s usually comfort food that takes a good long while to cook. This method of cooking beef and noodles is the ultimate shortcut method because we’ll utilize not one easy shortcut to lessen prep and cook time, but 2!

Most instant pot beef and noodles recipes call for chuck roast and that requires quite a bit of prep work. First the roast has to be trimmed and cut into small pieces or completely cooked and then shredded. 

For this recipe we’re going to use store bought cubed stew beef. Most packaged stew beef you buy at the grocery store is odds and ends of chuck roast and round. There can be other cuts of meat included as well. Because the store bought stew beef is already cut into bite sized pieces, all you’ll need to do is throw it in the bottom of the instant pot! 

Here’s a beginners’s guide to using the Instant Pot in case you need one before we start.  

Step 1:

Open your package of stew beef and throw it in the bottom of an instant pot that’s at least 6 quarts or larger. Toss the butter in on top of the meat. 

Step 2:
Adding the seasonings to the beef in the instant pot.

Add the seasonings: garlic powder, salt, onion powder, pepper and browning sauce.  Now I realize that probably not everyone has browning sauce in their pantry, but I think it’s absolutely critical for this recipe.

What is browning sauce? A highly concentrated blend of vegetable stock, spices, and herbs with caramel coloring added. It makes anything beefy just taste a little richer and gives it a great color. I always add it to my beef stews and gravy.

Step 3:

Add the frozen noodles, broth and consomme. 

Do you have to use frozen noodles?

After all the ingredients have been added to the instant pot and it is ready to seal and cook.

Yes, indeedy. Frozen noodles are the only noodles that can hold up to the cook time it will take for the meat to get tender. Dried noodles or fresh noodles would be mush at the end of 28 minutes in the Instant Pot.  Pour the beef consomme and beef broth over the top of the frozen noodles.

Ladling out the beef and noodles from the instant pot.

 And that’s it! Put the lid on the instant pot, seal it up and cook on manual for 28 minutes. Do a quick steam release. Stir it all together really well and then serve!

You’ll notice at the end of the cook time that the beef will still be in chunks, but it will be fork tender and easily shred! 

How can you quickly and easily make this without an Instant Pot? I’m sorry, but you just can’t. The Instant Pot makes tough cuts of meat cook up tender in a flash and I don’t know of anything else does the same thing. If you don’t have an Instant Pot yet, you need to get yourself one! I use this 6 quart model because it’s big enough for my family of 6.  You can find them for under $80 on Amazon.

More Easy Instant Pot Recipes:

Instant Pot Turkey and Noodles

Instant Pot BBQ Swiss Steak

Big Batch Instant Pot Shredded Chicken

Instant Pot Beef Stew

Instant Pot Cabbage Roll Soup

BBQ Swiss Steak with peppers and onions is served up on a pile of cheddar mashed potatoes.
Instant Pot BBQ Swiss Steak

A white bowl full of Beef and Noodles sitting on top of a white cloth napkin.

The Easiest Instant Pot Beef and Noodles

Yield: 4-6 servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 28 minutes
Additional Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 43 minutes

Traditional hearty beef and noodles recipe in 3 easy steps and under an hour.

Ingredients

  • 1 to 1 1/2 pound package of precut stew beef
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 2 tsp browning sauce
  • 1 (10.5 ounce) can beef consomme
  • 1 quart (32ounces) beef broth
  • 1 (24 ounce) bag frozen noodles *

Instructions

  1. Place the stew beef in the bottom of the Instant Pot. Then put in the butter.
  2. Add the garlic powder, salt, onion powder, black pepper, and browning sauce.
  3. Add the frozen noodles to the Instant Pot. Pour the consomme and broth over the noodles and beef. Place the lid on the Instant Pot and set the valve to seal. Cook on manual high heat for 28 minutes. When the timer goes off do a quick steam release. Give the beef and noodles a generous stir and serve!

Notes

* No substitutions on the noodles. Frozen noodles must be used for this to turn out correctly.

The amount of liquid after cooking depends a lot on the fat content of your stew beef. If your beef and noodles is too liquidy, you can make a slurry with cornstarch and water to thicken it up. They will thicken up some on their own as the beef and noodles cools to eating temperature.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a review or a photo! I'd love to hear your feedback!

Pin it to save for later! 

 

The easiest Instant Pot Beef and Noodles recipe you'll ever try. A traditional hearty beef and noodles recipe in 3 easy steps and under an hour. #instantpot #beefandnoodles #easyrecipe #weeknightdinner

Accidental Happy Baker is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at amazon.com at no additional cost to you.

 

SLU

Wednesday 20th of December 2023

I just got my first instant pot and decided to make this tonight!!! I'm so excited to try it

Amy D

Wednesday 27th of December 2023

Hope it turned out well for you!

Jeanette

Saturday 16th of December 2023

Looks great. I'm planning to try it this week. Do you brown the stew meat in the butter first?

Amy D

Wednesday 27th of December 2023

Hi Jeanette,

No, you don't have to brown the stew meat first. However, if you'd like to do that you certainly can!

Amy

Stephanie

Sunday 10th of December 2023

So I am making your recipe today and I did not have stew meat, but I had a chuck roast. I followed most of the directions to same with the spices in the browning in the consommé. I only am leaving it in for the 30 minutes. I’m hoping that the meat is going to be tender thoughts?

Amy D

Wednesday 27th of December 2023

I really can't say as I've never done it this way before. If you cut your chuck roast into stew meat sized pieces, that should turn out fine. But I'm not sure if that's what you meant or not.

Amy D.

Katie

Monday 27th of November 2023

This was so easy and really good!! Thank you!

SP

Wednesday 29th of March 2023

Made exactly as written but stirred in a bit of sour cream right before serving. Absolutely delicious!

Amy D

Thursday 30th of March 2023

Glad you enjoyed them!

Skip to Recipe