This extra time creates the most flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth pot roast. That said, for the best results, we highly recommend following our method which calls for thawed beef that’s seasoned with salt and been left on the counter long enough to take the chill off. Technically, the answer is yes, the cook time will just be longer (20 to 30 minutes longer). You might be wondering if you can use frozen beef for pot roast. Right after taking the beef out of the fridge, we season it liberally with salt, which means that as the beef sits, the salt has a chance to seep into the meat, making it extra tasty when cooked. This extra time has another benefit, it gives us a chance to season the meat. After testing this pot roast recipe in our kitchen, we found that if you start with beef straight out of the refrigerator, the roast doesn’t become as tender as when you give the beef some time out of the fridge so that it comes up to room temperature before cooking it.įor a three-pound roast, we found that leaving it on the counter for 1 hour was perfect. Now, I mentioned there was extra time for bringing the beef to room temperature. The great news is that a pressure cooker makes much quicker work of pot roast compared to a slow cooker, oven, or when it is cooked on the stove-top. I know 2 hours and 30 minutes might seem like a long time, but for ultra-tender and juicy beef, we need all of it.

This includes the time to bring the beef to room temperature (more on that below), searing time, and the cook time required inside the pressure cooker. For the total time needed, consider the time recommended to bring the beef to room temperature (more on that below), searing time, and the times required to release pressure built up inside the pressure cooker.įor a 3-pound piece of beef, the total time required will be about 2 hours and 30 minutes. You must understand that the time shown above is the actual cooking time, not the total time the recipe will take. As a general rule, when cooking beef roasts in a pressure cooker, assume 20 minutes of cook time for every pound of meat. The time it takes to cook pot roast in an Instant Pot will vary depending on how large your piece of meat is.

How Long Does it Take to Cook Pot Roast in a Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot)? When I say tougher cuts of meat, I’m talking about the leaner cuts with lots of connective tissue. It’s because of this that tougher cuts of beef work so well. Traditionally, the beef cooks at a low temperature for a long time. The best cuts of beef for pot roast are tougher cuts of meat like chuck, brisket, and round. A pressure cooker takes the cooking time down dramatically. In this recipe, we are using a pressure cooker (specifically, our Instant Pot) to make the pot roast. You can make this in a Dutch oven on the stove-top, in the oven, in a slow cooker, and a pressure cooker.

To make it, sear a large cut of beef until browned on all sides, and then cook it with aromatics like herbs, onions, carrots, and broth until it’s melt-in-your-mouth tender. Pot roast is more of a method than a specific cut of meat.

Related: Use your Instant Pot to make quick and easy salsa verde chicken What is Pot Roast?

6 qt instant pot