This easy Instant Pot Beef and Rice Plov is a great weeknight dinner. The tender beef, prepared with carrots, onions, along with a collection of spices, flavors the rice that cooks perfectly in the pressure cooker and takes a fraction of the time than if you would cook in on the stove.
The Instant Pot is a great appliance for recipes like this that normally take much longer to cook on the stove. This Instant Pot version of Beef and Rice Plov is a favorite beef and rice meal in the Slavic cuisine that originated from the wonderful Uzbek cuisine.
Traditional Plov (rice and meat pilaf) is made with lamb, but I prefer using beef. I have a stovetop recipe already posted here, but cooking it in the Instant Pot is so much faster and the results are excellent, as long as you don't overcook it. The most time consuming part of the recipe is browning the meat and the vegetables, the rest is so quick and easy.
The long grain white rice gets so much flavor from the spices and the aromatic vegetables - onion, carrots and garlic. The leftovers reheat really well, so you can serve it the next day, or even freeze it for another meal down the road. I love reheating Plov on a skillet - it creates the perfect texture and flavor.
Ingredients:
This recipe is for a large batch of Plov. Feel free to halve the recipe; keep the cooking times the same.
3 lbs top sirloin beef, cut into 1 inch cubes
2-3 Tablespoons oil (avocado, sunflower, grape seed, light olive oil, etc.)
2 onions, finely chopped
3 carrots, cut into julienne
2-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
salt, ground black pepper, to taste
½ - 1 teaspoons cumin
1-2 teaspoons paprika
1-2 teaspoons dry herb mixture, optional
3 cups long grain white rice
What Meat is Best For Plov?
I prefer to use top sirloin - it has great flavor and becomes nice and tender.
You can also use beef chuck, but you will need to cook it longer - up to an hour, for it to become tender. You can also use chicken thighs or pork shoulder or boneless country style pork ribs. After sautéing the chicken or pork, you don't need to braise it, just add the rice and cook for 3 minutes. I do not recommend using chicken breast or pork loin for Plov, since they will dry out and become tough.
What Rice is Best For Plov?
I use long grain white rice, either basmati or jasmine - basmati is my personal favorite. Medium grain, short grain and brown rice will all have different cooking times than long grain white rice. Medium grain and short grain rice will also have a clumpy texture and the grains of rice will stick together.
You do not need to wash the rice in this recipe. However, you can wash it if it's your preference.
Spices to Use For Plov
Cumin, salt, ground black pepper and bay leaves are the most widely used for Plov. I also add paprika and other dry herb seasoning that I simply like the taste of - Onion Salt from Trader Joe's and a chicken seasoning mix, which has lots of delicious spices, such as garlic, onion, sea salt, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, black pepper, fennel, coriander and bay leaf. You can use any combination of herbs and spices that you like. You can also use coriander and barberries, more traditional spices used with Plov.
How To Make Instant Pot Beef and Rice
- Prepare all the ingredients. Cut the meat, chop the onions, slice the carrots and mince the garlic.
- Saute the beef.
- Turn on the Instant Pot. Using the “Saute” function on the Instant Pot, adjust the heat to “More”. Add the oil and when the oil is hot, brown the beef in batches, until golden brown on both sides. (To make this process faster, you can also saute the meat in a skillet too.)
- Next, saute the veggies.
- Add the onions, carrots and garlic. Season with salt and ground black pepper to taste. Mix to combine and cook for about 5 minutes, until the vegetables start to soften.
- Return the beef to the Instant Pot and season with more salt, ground black pepper, paprika, cumin and other dry herbs or seasoning blends that you like.
- Braise the meat and vegetables until the beef is tender.
- Pour in about 2 ½ cups of water, enough to just cover the meat and vegetables. Add the bay leaf. Switch from "Saute" mode to "Pressure Cook". Cook on High Pressure, for 15 minutes.
- Use the quick release option to release the pressure and open the Instant Pot. Remove the bay leaf and discard.
- Lastly,add the rice, spreading it out on top of the meat and vegetables, being careful not to mix it in too much, leaving it on the top layer.
- Pour in another 2 ½ cups of hot water on top of the rice, once again being careful not to disturb the rice too much. Add about 1 teaspoon of salt to the water. Cover the Instant Pot again and turn the valve to "Sealing".
- Turn on the "Manual" mode, High Pressure, for 3 minutes.
- When the Instant Pot turns off, let it stand for 3-5 minutes and then use the Quick Release option to release the pressure and open the Instant Pot.
Browning the Beef
- Don't crowd the beef. If you add too much beef, it will begin to steam and you won't get a sear on the meat. As you brown on batch of meat, remove it from the Instant Pot and set it aside in another bowl. If the bottom of the Instant Pot starts to burn, pour in a bit of water, scrape out the burned bit, pour out the water, wipe out the inner chamber and start again.
- When you start a new batch of beef browning in the Instant Pot, add a bit more oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pot, and heat it up until the oil is shimmering again before adding the beef. This should happen very quickly.
- Also, you can use other cuts of meat, such as beef chuck, or even pork shoulder or chicken thighs.
- If you use chuck, it's a much tougher cut and you'll need to cook it longer. When braising, cook it on High Pressure for 45-60 minutes, instead of 15 minutes, until the beef is tender. The time depends on the size that you cut the meat and how tough it is.
- If using chicken thighs, you can skip the braising part and move on to adding the rice.
- The pork shoulder also depends. It may be tender enough after browning that you can skip braising it and just proceed with the rice. Try it and if it's tough, cover it with water like you do with beef and cook it until it's tender, then add the rice.
Use a fork to fluff up the rice and mix the rice with the beef and vegetables. Fluffing it up will keep the rice from becoming clumpy and mushy.
Serving and Storing
Favorite side dishes to serve with the Beef and Rice:
- Pickles. Store bought of homemade, briny, crunchy pickles are perfect with this meal.
- Garlic Dill Cucumbers
- Broccoli Cauliflower Salad
- Crunchy Cabbage Cucumber Salad
Store leftover Plov in an airtight container for 3-5 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and reheat in a skillet until warmed through for best results. (You may want to add a bit of water of broth to the rice when reheating.)
Instant Pot Beef and Rice Plov
This easy Instant Pot Beef and Rice Plov is a great weeknight dinner. The tender beef, prepared with carrots, onions, along with a collection of spices, flavors the rice that cooks perfectly in the pressure cooker and cooks it in a fraction of the time.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Main Course
Ingredients
- 3 lbs top sirloin beef (cut into 1 inch cubes)
- 2-3 Tablespoons oil (avocado, sunflower, grape seed, light olive oil, etc.)
- 2 onions (finely chopped)
- 3 carrots (cut into julienne)
- 2-4 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 bay leaf
- salt (ground black pepper, to taste)
- ½ - 1 teaspoons cumin
- 1-2 teaspoons paprika
- 1-2 teaspoons dry herb mixture (optional)
- 3 cups long grain white rice
Instructions
- Turn on the Instant Pot. Using the “Saute” function on the Instant Pot, adjust the heat to “More”. Add the oil and when the oil is hot, brown the beef in batches, until golden brown on both sides.
- Don't crowd the beef. If you add too much beef, it will begin to steam and you won't get a sear on the meat. As you brown on batch of meat, remove it from the Instant Pot and set it aside in another bowl. If the bottom of the Instant Pot starts to burn, pour in a bit of water, scrape out the burned bit, pour out the water, wipe out the inner chamber and start again.
- When you start a new batch of beef browning in the Instant Pot, add a bit more oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pot, and heat it up until the oil is shimmering again before adding the beef. This should happen very quickly.
- When you have browned all the beef (just get it brown on the outside, it will still be raw in the center), add more oil, if needed, heat it again and add the onions, carrots and garlic. Season with salt and ground black pepper to taste.
- Mix to combine and cook for about 5 minutes, until the vegetables start to soften.
- Return the beef to the Instant Pot and season with more salt, ground black pepper, paprika, cumin and other dry herbs or seasoning blends that you like.
- Pour in about 2 ½ cups of water, enough to just cover the meat and vegetables. Add the bay leaf. Cover the Instant Pot with the lid. Turn the valve to “Sealing”.
- Turn on the “Pressure Cook“ or “Manual” mode, high pressure, for 15 minutes.
- Use the quick release option to release the pressure and open the Instant Pot.
- Remove the bay leaf and discard.
- Add the rice, spreading it out on top of the meat and vegetables, being careful not to mix it in too much, leaving it on the top layer.
- Pour in another 2 ½ cups of hot water on top of the rice, once again being careful not to disturb the rice too much. Add about 1 teaspoon of salt to the water. Cover the Instant Pot again and turn the valve to "Sealing".
- Cook on High Pressure, for 3 minutes. When the Instant Pot turns off, let it stand for 3-5 minutes and then use the Quick Release option to release the pressure and open the Instant Pot. Use a fork to fluff up the rice and mix the rice with the beef and vegetables.
Notes
This recipe is for a large batch of Plov. Feel free to halve the recipe; keep the cooking times the same.
I tried this recipe today and it came out so good. Even children loved it which is really important to me 😊. Thank you for a great recipe 👍
That's great, Inna! I love to hear your feedback and it makes me happy when others are enjoying the food that we love in our family.
Hi Olga! I'm thinking to make this but with pork... I have no clue what kind of cut it is, it's straight from the pig 🙈. It seems like a pretty fatty piece of pork. Any tips or suggestions?
Hi Christina,
Brown the pork until it's golden brown on all sides. Try it and see it it's tender. Some cuts of meat will be tender and juicy right after browning and other cuts of meat will need to cook for awhile for the connective tissue to break down. If the meat is tender, continue with the rest of the recipe, skipping braising the meat and add the rice and finish cooking it.
If the meat is still tough, braise it, just as you would the beef. Try it after 15 minutes and if it's still tough, add more time until it's as tender as you like.
My husband and son absolutely loved it! Thank you so much for the recipe❤ Tried your other recipes as well and all of them taste so good!
Love this recipe
Thank you, Kate:).
Best InstaPot recipe for beef plov! The cumin is my favorite part!
I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed it, Lana.
Hi Olga!
I just had a question as I am a bit confused. I want to use chuck, does that mean instead of pressure cooking it for 15 minutes like you would with top sirloin, I should pressure cook it for 45 minutes?
Thankyou!
Beef chuck is a much tougher cut of meat than top sirloin, so it will need much longer to become tender. If you use chuck, you will need to cook it on high pressure for 45-60 minutes until it becomes tender and only then add the rice.
I used this recipe to make Plov and it turned out so so good. Thankyou so much Olgas Flavor Factory for this simple recipe!
That's wonderful, Anna! I'm so glad you enjoyed the Plov.
This turned out delicious, thank you for the recipe 🙂 Love instant pot recipes
I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Katie:).
Hi Olga! If I am planning to use chicken thighs instead do I still need to keep the rice on the top layer or it is okay to incorporate everything together like you would when you make chicken plov on the stove top?
Best instant pot plov! So easy and delicious:)
This is the best instant pot plov recipe that I have tried, thank u for the helpful instructions, I would like more Instant pot pressure cooker recipes if u have any more 😊
Keep up the good work👍👌
That's wonderful, Tatyana. Thank you so much for taking the time to write.
Hi Olga!
I’m so excited to try this recipe! I have used another recipe that I found online for plov in an instant pot and I kept getting the burn message and it came out all mushy at the end, it was bad I was so bummed out. So I know you said you use basmati or jasmine rice, but which do you prefer for this recipe? Also what brand of rice do you use? I really want to get it right this time, thanks!
Hi Alina,
I use basmati, not any particular brand.
I hope this recipe works out for you:).
Hello! I just made this and it was very good and easy! Loved it! But I did have one issue, (I halved the recipe because it is just my husband and me) but when the plov was done cooking, there was still a lot of water, like a soup. I left my house for 30 mins and kept the IP on warm and when I came back all the water was absorbed, which was great but it made the rice extra mushy. We still enjoyed but any tips? besides using less water 🙂 Thank you!
Hi Anna,
I'm sorry to hear that.
I often halve the recipe myself and have never had that issue before.
Maybe reduce the amount of water that you used next time? It's also possible that the meat that you used and vegetables did not absorb as much as mine did, which resulted in you having more water than necessary. Based on the step by step pictures that I had in the recipe, was the amount of water that you used the same as when you were making your Plov? What I mean is, did the water cover the meat and vegetables and then the rice the same as when you were making the recipe, or did it seem like there was more water when you were cooking than what was pictured in the step by step recipe instructions?
Looks delicious, I want to make this soon. I have stew meat, how long do you think I should cook it for it to be super tender ? Thank you I’m advance 🙂
It depends on what cut of meat it is, Anna.
Stew meat is not always the same cut. I would suggest trying to cook it for 45 minutes up to 70 minutes. Try the meat after 45 minutes, if it's still not soft enough, cook it a little bit longer, etc.
I have tried several different insta pot plov recipes and this one is far my favorite! I took your advice and cooked the chuck roast longer and it was mouth watering! Thanks again for another delicious recipe!
I'm so glad that you enjoyed the Plov, Yuliya. Thank you for taking the time to share your results.