Pressure Cooker Korean Beef

Note: I was sent a COSORI 6 Qt Electrical Pressure Cooker in order to write this post. Opinions are mine alone.

I’m seriously loving using my pressure cooker! My husband was out of town while I was experimenting with this recipe, so I enlisted the help of a couple of friends to be my taste testers. Luckily they were willing to oblige!

The unsuspecting friends showed up without knowing what exactly I was planning on preparing – they are very trusting! 🙂

I had a craving for bulgogi recently, so I decided to make a pressure cooker Korean beef. Bulgogi is typically made with thin, marinated slices of beef that are then barbecued. The marinade is usually a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic with a touch of crushed red pepper.

This recipe is inspired by the flavors of bulgogi, but instead of grilling thinly sliced beef, it instead uses chuck roast beef and a pressure cooker to make a super tender, shredded version.

Ingredients (serves 8):

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more if needed
• 4 lbs chuck beef, cut into cubes, excess fat trimmed
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 to 2 tablespoons beef stock
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/2 cup reduced sodium soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
• green onions, sliced, for garnish
• white sesame seeds, for garnish
• 4 cups cooked rice

To make, cut the beef into large chunks. Season with salt and pepper. (Go light on the salt, the soy sauce will provide all the salt you need!)

Press the “saute” function on your pressure cooker. Press the “cook time” button and increase the time to 25 or 30 minutes (it took me about 25 minutes to brown up all of my meat.) Press the “adjust” button and choose “more/high.” Press “on/start.” The pressure cooker will beep five times when it is preheated.

Carefully add the vegetable, oil and then add some meat to the pressure cooker (without crowding the beef).

Brown the meat on all sides. Remove from the pressure cooker and continue with the remaining beef.

When done browning the last batch, remove the final pieces and set aside. Press “stop/cancel” to turn off the saute function.

If needed, add a bit more vegetable oil. Add the onions and garlic to the pot and saute until fragrant, about 3 minutes.

Add a little bit of beef stock (1 or 2 tablespoons) to the pressure cooker and scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pressure cooker using a wooden or plastic spoon.

In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, soy sauce (or coconut aminos), sesame oil, red pepper flakes, and ginger.

Add back in all of the beef to the pressure cooker, as well as any juices from the beef.

Pour in the soy sauce mixture, evenly covering the beef.

Close the lid, ensuring that the steam valve is closed. Select the meat/stew pressurized cooking function. Press the “adjust” button and choose “more/high” to set it for 45 minutes. Press “on/start” to begin cooking.

Once the unit has reached optimal cooking pressure (~15 minutes), the unit will beep once and start counting down from 45 minutes. You’ll notice that the pressure release valve (red) rises up during this time.

The pressure cooker will beep 3 times to alert you when cooking has finished. It will automatically go on to “keep warm” mode for up to 6 hours. Once cooking is complete, turn off the pressure cooker by pressing “stop/cancel” and unplugging the power cable.

Let the unit cool down for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the float valve drops down. Using an oven mitt, move the pressure release value to the “release” position to let out any remaining pressure in the unit. Wait again for the float value to drop down before opening the pressure cooker.

The meat should be really tender.

Remove the meat from the pot, keeping the liquid in the pot, and shred with two forks. Add to a large bowl.

Measure out about 1 cup of the cooking liquid and add to the bowl.

Fill bowls with rice and top with the shredded beef. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onions and serve.

The beef is wonderfully flavorful and juicy. My friends and I just gobbled this up! It’s most certainly not spicy so if you prefer some heat, add a bit more crushed red pepper.

This is a great make ahead dish as well. If doing so, add some more of the cooking liquid to the container before refrigerating, so that when you reheat it, there is still plenty of juicy liquid to drizzle over the top!

I also made the rice in the Cosori Multicooker and it came out great! (Tip: if you have extra cooking liquid, substitute some of that in for the water/broth in your rice.)

If you’re looking for more information about the Cosori Multicooker, check out my review post here (plus a recipe for Barbacoa Beef Tacos).