Instant Pot Sloppy Joes

Now that I am finally getting the hang of this Instant Pot thing, I thought I’d try it out for one of my favorite (and easy) recipes for those gross, rainy days like today:

Sloppy Joes!

There’s something so nostalgic about these; when they were cooking, I felt like I was transported back to my childhood, at some annoying friends birthday party my Mom probably forced me to go to, waiting to eat. I didn’t like people much, even then. I was in it for the food. Example: I joined Girl Scouts because I was told they have pizza during meetings, not to mention ENDLESS GIRL SCOUT COOKIES. I would have been a fool to pass that shit up.

But I digress…

Back to these delicious messes. If you like your Sloppy Joes less sweet, you can take away 1 tbsp of the tomato paste, but I thought this ratio was perfect. And it’s seriously so easy in the Instant Pot! Loving this thing so far.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 lbs grass-fed ground beef
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 tsp Kosher salt
  • Black pepper to taste
  • 3/4 cup ketchup
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp light brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • Potato Rolls (for serving)

Directions

  1. Put your Instant Pot on Saute mode (press Saute button), and press the Saute button again to set it to “More”. The Instant Pot will be ready when the front screen says “Hot”.
  2. Add the tbsp of olive oil and the ground beef, then season with the salt and pepper. Break it up with a wooden spoon and cook for 5-6 minutes.
  3. Drain the fat from the pot and return beef to Instant Pot, cooking and stirring occasionally til the bits start to brown. They can’t brown if they’re swimming in fat. Note: Be careful when draining the excess fat as the inner pot will be hot and doesn’t have handles, so use oven mitts.
  4. Add the onion, pepper, and garlic and saute for another min or two until fragrant.
  5. Time to deglaze that pan! Add the brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire, and the 1/2 cup of water and scrape up any brown bits that are stuck to the bottom. I call them “flavor scabs”.
  6. Now it’s time to add the thicker liquids – DO NOT MIX THESE IN. Just let them sit on top of the meat mixture before pressure cooking. Trust me, this is a rule of the Instant Pot.
  7. Close the pressure cooker and make sure it’s “sealed”, aka the vent valve is on “sealing”. Cook for 5 minutes on High Pressure, then once it beeps (letting you know it’s done) let it sit in the pot in Natural Release mode for 10 minutes. After that, turn the float valve to venting position to let the remaining pressure out. Note: When I took the lid off of mine, I felt it was a little watery still, so I put it back into Saute mode (with the cover off) to let it reduce for a few minutes. 
  8. Serve on Martin’s Potato Rolls (my favorite) and enjoy!

7 Comments

  1. This recipe alone would make buying an Instant Pot worth it! 😆

  2. Pingback: 21 Easy Fall Instant Pot Recipes That Will Warm You Up This Season | Good Cookery

  3. This was so good! Thank you for the recipe! My one suggestion is to add the 1/2 cup of water to the list of ingredients.

  4. Excellent recipe, love it. I use and sauté sweet onions first (add garlic after a few min)…then brown meat, drain fat. When deglazing I also add a splash of cab sauvignon…next level yum.

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