Pressure Cooker Irish Stew

Pressure Cooker Irish Stew

Converting a favorite recipe for the pressure cooker

can be a little tricky but with a little guidance, you’ll be pressure cooking all your favorites with ease. Comfort foods like this Irish stew turn out tender and flavorful and taste like you’ve spent hours in the kitchen. Not only will your kitchen stay cool with the pressure cooker, you’ll have dinner ready in a fraction of the time.

What’s not to love?

In an electric pressure cooker, you’ll use one pot to saute, cook and serve your dinner from. That makes clean up a snap! And who couldn’t use less mess after a long day?

I recently ditched my old pressure cooker for the Instant Pot and so far, I’m very happy with it. My old model was a 6 quart and this one is an 8 quart. Nice and roomy! With it’s stainless steel inner pot, the unit heats up very quickly so I can get to work right away. Ya gotta love that!

For the Irish stew, (and any other kind of stew) you’ll want to brown the meat to start. Using the saute feature on the IP, heat a couple of teaspoons of oil and place the meat in, turning it to brown all sides. Depending on the size of your model and the amount of meat you’re cooking, you may have to work in batches so you don’t crowd the pan. Crowding the pan will only steam the meat and not sear it like you want.

Once you have all your meat browned, set it aside. You’ll have browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. That’s the good stuff! Add your onion next and saute for about 2 minutes. This will get those bits unstuck and the onion will absorb all that good flavor.

Continue sauteing and add the rest of the veggies, except the potatoes. Those go in last. Saute the rest of the veggies a minute or two.

Next, add the browned lamb to the pot along with the juices that have released.

Pour in your beef stock.

Add your potatoes, herbs and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Push the keep warm/cancel button to reset the functions. Press the meat/stew button.

Press the minus button to adjust the time down to 20 minutes.

When your unit comes to pressure, the float valve will pop up. The timer will begin counting down after that.

For this recipe you will not move the steam release valve for quick steam release. Once the unit has finished counting down the time, let it naturally release on it’s own.

After the food is done and the steam has released, remove the thyme stems and add your freshly chopped parsley. If you add the parsley before cooking, it’ll lose it’s bright color and freshness.

I’ve read in several forums that meat can be a bit bland when made in the pressure cooker. This dish, however, is anything but bland. The tender chunks of lamb with all those wonderful veggies are truly delightful and rich in flavor.

Cutting the cooking time by more than half on this recipe certainly makes my crew happy without bargaining that slow cooked taste. I do hope you’ll give this one a try and add it to your favorite go to comfort foods as well.

If you’re not into pressure cooking and want to try my original recipe in the oven, just click this link here —> Simple Irish Stew.

Stay tuned for more great pressure cooker converted recipes, coming soon!

Have a wonderful day and as always, keep it delicious!

Till next time ~ much love, Connie