This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission.
You don’t need take out with this simple Instant Pot Pepper Steak. This easy pepper steak recipe is bursting with flavor and is incredibly quick and simple in the pressure cooker!
What is Chinese pepper steak made of?
This delicious pepper steak with onion chinese recipe is a family favorite around here! It’s made with tender beef strips that have the best flavor with all the soy sauce and brown sugar!
The green peppers and onion come together to really give it an amazing flavor that everyone will love.
No one even asks for take out anymore! We all just love this Instant Pot Chinese Pepper Steak Recipe so much!
You will need an electric pressure cooker for this recipe.
If you prefer to slow cook this, try Crockpot Pepper Steak.
Let’s make Instant pot pepper steak.
Ingredients:
- Beef strips (I used thinly sliced round steaks and sliced them into strips)
- Green bell pepper, sliced thick
- Red bell pepper, sliced thick
- Onion, sliced thick
- Garlic powder
- Beef Broth
- Ground Ginger
- Soy sauce
- Black pepper
- Brown sugar
- Cornstarch
How to make instant pot pepper steak:
First, add the beef to the electric pressure cooker.
You can saute the beef in a tablespoon of vegetable oil on the saute setting over medium high heat. This is optional.
Second, add the seasonings, brown sugar, and soy sauce on top of the beef.
Then, pour the beef stock into the Instant pot. Stir everything together to combine.
Next, add the lid and make sure it is set to sealing. The pressure needs to be set on high for 10 minutes.
When it has finished, do a quick release to release the pressure. If you prefer it extra tender and want the steak to fall apart, do a natural release).
Now, add the peppers and onions. Seal the pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 1 minute with a quick release.
You could even use yellow bell peppers for a change! Just use what you have on hand. It’s so yummy.
Take the lid off and hit the cancel button. Next, change the pressure cooker to the sauté mode.
Finally, get a separate small bowl and add the water and cornstarch together. Whisk until the cornstarch is mixed in.
Stir this into the pepper steak mixture in the pressure cooker.
It will thicken everything nicely. Now, bring to a boil for 3 to 5 minutes.
Once the sauce begins to thicken, turn off and serve over white rice.
Get all the flavors of chinese restaurant but at home.
What kind of steak to use?
- Round steak or flank steak work great in this recipe.
- You can even use stew meat.
How to serve Chinese pepper steak
- We like to serve this dish with rice. I even cook the rice in the Instant pot and it’s very simple! You can use brown rice or white rice depending on what your family likes.
- Cauliflower Rice Recipe
- Easy fried Rice
More tips:
- Did you know you can also freeze rice to make dinner time even easier? Such a time saver.
- Homemade Egg Rolls– That would be something fun to try if you have a little extra time.
- This dish is also good with a simple side salad or steamed broccoli in the microwave. We like to keep it simple around here!
Pressure cooker pepper steak is the fast.
Even on the nights I forget to take meat out of the freezer, my instant pot comes to the rescue! I used to run around like crazy all day and then at dinner time my meat was still frozen.
Now, I just put everything into the instant pot and dinner is ready. No more take out for us or running around trying to hit the drive thru when I can have dinner ready in 30 minutes.
This dinner is so simple and delicious that it will be on your menu plan rotation frequently. It will definitely be a family favorite.
The beef is so tender that you can literally cut it with your fork. I just love how the soy sauce and brown sugar marinate this meat. It’s SO good.
I pour extra sauce over my rice because it has the best flavor. Your entire family will love this Easy Pepper Steak Recipe. It’s definitely a crowd pleaser.
Print instant pot pepper steak recipe:
Instant Pot Chinese Pepper Steak recipe
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs Round Steak (cut into strips)
- 1 green bell pepper (sliced thick)
- 1 red bell pepper (sliced thick)
- 1/2 onion (sliced thick)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 1/2 cups beef broth
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 Tbp cornstarch
Instructions
- Place the beef in the Instant Pot.
- Add the seasonings, brown sugar, and soy sauce over the beef.
- Pour the beef broth in the Instant pot.
- Stir to combine.
- Add the lid and make sure it is set to sealing position. Set the pressure to high for 10 minutes.
- Once finished to a quick release (or if you want the steak to fall apart, do a natural release).
- Then add in the peppers and onions. Seal the Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for 1 minutes with a quick release.
- Remove the lid and hit the cancel button. Then change the pressure cooker to the sauté mode.
- In a small separate bowl mix ¼ cup of cold water with a tablespoon of cornstarch together. Then stir into the pepper steak mixture in the Instant pot.
- Bring to a boil for 3-5 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Turn off and serve over a bed of white rice.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Facts
More instant pot beef recipes
- Easy Instant Pot Beef Teriyaki
- Instant Pot Beef and Broccoli Recipe
- Instant Pot Mexican Shredded Beef Tacos Recipe
- Easy Instant Pot Beef Tips and Gravy Recipe
- Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe
- Delicious Instant Pot Beef Stir Fry Recipe
- Easy Instant Pot Cube Steak
Turned out great. Only exception was I cut my top round in to slices, marinated in your spice/soy mixture for about 4 hours- then followed recipe. mushrooms and anything else i had lying around was added at the second step.
Will make again!
This was delicious!! I was afraid of my peppers turning to mush- I like my peppers with a little crunch, so I sauteed them and onion in the IP with a little oil, removed them and then I browned the meat a little added the spices and followed directions from there. I did 12min with 5 minute natural release. Meat was super tender the sauce was excellent! I will definitely make this again. Thanks!!
It was perfect better than takeout.
we loved this reveipe… a great one for left overs
Whole family enjoys this dinner. I sometimes add mushrooms or sugar snap peas! Serve over cauliflower rice or white rice. Serve fresh veggies with it also!
This is one of my go to for take out. I have tried several different recipes and this one is the best. No more take out. Love cooking with my pressure cooker. Also love that it is one pot recipe. Easier to clean up.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it – Thank you for sharing!
Tried it last night and it was a HUGE hit with the hubby!
Followed instructions exactly and cut veggies very thick so they were perfectly cooked. Used stew meat that we had on hand and it was deliciously tender.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
So I ended up getting an IP during the pandemic due to hearing such good things about them. My son and I came across your recipe for pepper steak and we absolutely love this recipe. We make it all the time. We did have to adjust for the cooking time, as our beef wasn’t as tender as we wanted the first time. Otherwise this is our go to recipe. Thank you!
Thank You, Loved this recipe. It was delicious!!
This is really good, especially for something so darn easy to make! Meat was tender upon quick release. I was afraid of the disappearing peppers as people mentioned, so added 1 and held one back. The key is they should be thickly sliced, as it says in the recipe. Mine did not disappear.
Im glad you loved it. Great idea!
4th time tonight. Love it. I use London broil. Stays together better than round steak.
This was not good. I had way to much liquid, I could never get it to set up right. Everything turned to mush. I think 15 min is too long. I’ve never had an issue before w/my IP so not sure what happened.
If the sauce is not thickening for you, I would double the amount of cornstarch that you used in the cornstarch slurry. Thank you.
I can’t get the gravy to thicken. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. Recipe is still a hit a my house
Thank you!
I made this tonight after reading the comments and used three Peppers instead of two. Put a sliced 1/2 onion and one pepper in mix of pepper slices (I mixed Yellow and Red slices). i cooked the steak with these the 15 minutes. Then i added a whole pepper of slices and a 1/2 sliced Onion. I sauteed for 8 minutes, it was fabulous! The gravy had a ting of sweet onion. The Pepper slices had some body and popped with color. Fabulous!
This will be a monthly event for us!
Thanks for taking the time to publish.
The peppers and onions need to be placed in after the 15 minutes, and set to saute to cook them to softness. Otherwise, the flavor and everything is great!!!
I have not frozen it before, but I think you can definitely give it a try! Let me know how it turns out. Thank you.
Would this dish freeze well? It’s just 2 people I’m making it for and don’t want it to go to waste
I made this pepper steak tonight and it was delicious! I sliced the peppers and onions very thin to make them ‘disappear’ so the kiddos would eat it and did fried rice(from Schwans) PIP over the beef, otherwise I didn’t change a thing. This recipe was so easy, the hardest thing was waiting for the steam release!
The recipe is super tasty and easy to memorize. Thanks for the idea for the peppers. I will add more peppers at the end. If I do nothing else the new peppers will become blanched or I can hit sauté for a few minutes to soften the peppers
15 mins is way too long for the peppers, next time I would do 10 for the meat, quick release add the peppers for 3-5 mins, there was nothing left of them, however the meat was like butter, will make again adjusting the time on the peppers