Make the curry to beat all curries with this cheater Beef Rendang recipe! It's fall-apart tender, and absolutely delicious--but best of all? Ready in under an hour.
Beef Rendang is a dry curry recipe that normally takes several hours to make. It was originally a way to preserve meat but is now eaten as a tender, flavorful dish. I decided to figure out how to cook this in my Instant Pot with the help of my friends over at dailylifetravels.com so I could cut down cook times without cutting down on authentic flavor.
What Is Beef Rendang?
I've had this dish in Singapore several times, but until I found the hander cheater ingredient I refer to below, I've never been able to capture the authentic taste of a good beef rendang.
Ingredients You'll Need
- Onion
- Minced Ginger
- Minced Garlic
- Serrano peppers
- Vegetable Oil
- Rendang Curry Paste
- Skirt steak
- Full-Fat Coconut Milk
- Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
How To Make Beef Rendang
Do you know how I always make my own spice blends for the most part? I rarely use premixed spice pastes but when it comes to Thai Dishes like Thai Green Curry, or a Japanese Chicken curry, I have been known to use ready-made pastes.
You could definitely scour the internet for recipes to make your own rendang spice blend. Then, you could go looking for galangal, lemongrass, and makrut lime leaves.
Or you could use this relatively inexpensive paste to make a great Beef Rendang.
Thus, Cheater Instant Pot Beef Rendang is born! Beef Rendang uses a spice paste, mixed with coconut milk and shredded coconut to create a beautiful flavor profile and awesome texture. This meat is so tender when it's finished that it just falls apart and melts in your mouth.
Best of all, your Instant Pot reduces the cook time by several hours.
One thing to note is that traditional beef rendang is a very dry dish. Since we are pressure cooking it, there will be some liquid in this dish. You can use the sauté feature on your Instant Pot to evaporate some of the water, or you can leave it as it is, and enjoy the sauce over rice or mashed cauliflower.
- Finely mince the onions, garlic, and ginger.
- Turn the Instant Pot to Sauté and when it is hot, add the vegetable oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the finely minced vegetables and stir to coat with the oil.
- Add the rending paste and stir, allowing the paste to roast for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the skirt steak and stir to coat with the spices, about 2 minutes.
- Pour in [1/4] cup of water. Use this to very thoroughly deglaze your pot. If you have any burned bits at the bottom, the pot will not come to pressure.
- Add in the remaining [1/4] cup water and [1/2] cup coconut milk.
- Set your pressure cooker to cook for 25 minutes at High Pressure. Allow the pot to rest undisturbed for 10 minutes and then release all remaining pressure.
- Open the lid and if you want it a little drier, sauté off some of the water. Note that the sauce thickens as it cools.
- Add the remaining 1/2 cup of coconut milk and stir well. Garnish with the shredded coconut before serving.
If you like this recipe, you should also check out my Instant Pot Low Carb Kimchi Beef Stew!
Want More Instant Pot Recipes?
- Instant Pot Butter Chicken is an easy 30-minute dinner and you can make rice on top of it, as the video shows.
- Pressure Cooker Rice and Dal is a great vegetarian rice dinner.
- This Lebanese Lentil and Rice dish is another great Vegetarian Instant Pot recipe.
- Instant Pot Indian Khichadi is comfort food in a bowl!
- Instant Pot Risotto with Shrimp is another one-pot comfort meal.
- Buffalo chicken casserole for the days you want low carb recipes
- You might also like low carb Chicken Biryani that uses riced cauliflower.
- Chicken and Mushrooms are a great combo.
- My kids love Instant Pot Pork Chops with Rice and Vegetables
- Zucchini Lasagna- You won't even miss the pasta.
- Haluski Recipe - A wonderful cabbage and noodles recipe.
If you love this Beef Rendang recipe as much as we do, make sure you share it you your friends on Facebook and Instagram. Don't forget to Pin it so you can make it again soon.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon Minced Ginger
- 1 tablespoon Minced Garlic
- 1 Serrano peppers, adjust to your preferred spice level
- 2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
- 1 package Rendang Curry Paste
- 1 pound skirt steak, cut into 2 inch chunks
- 1/2 cup Water, divided
- 1 cup Full-Fat Coconut Milk, divided
- 2 tablespoons Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
Instructions
- Finely mince the onions, garlic and ginger.
- Turn the Instant Pot to Sauté and when it is hot, add the vegetable oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the finely minced vegetables and stir to coat with the oil.
- Add the rending paste and stir, allowing the paste to roast for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the skirt steak and stir to coat with the spices, about 2 minutes.
- Pour in [1/4] cup of water. Use this to very thoroughly deglaze your pot. If you have any burned bits at the bottom, the pot will not come to pressure.
- Add in the remaining [1/4] cup water and [1/2] cup coconut milk.
- Set your pressure cooker to cook for 25 minutes at High Pressure. Allow the pot to rest undisturbed for 10 minutes and then release all remaining pressure.
- Open the lid and if you want it a little drier, sauté off some of the water. Note that the sauce thickens as it cools.
- Add the remaining 1/2 cup of coconut milk and stir well. Garnish with the shredded coconut before serving.
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Nutrition
And don't forget to check out my air fryer cookbooks! Every day easy air fryer, and Air Fryer Revolution.
Joy Clark
Amazing!!!
Jerry
It's Indonesian, not Malaysian btw.
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Tina
First learned of Rendang Curry watching Gordan Ramsay: Uncharted in Indonesia. I was intrigued but did not want to go through the efforts it took on the show. First place I looked was Two Sleevers for a recipe I knew would be easy to make and always tasty. Making it tonight!!
Reny
Hello,
This is so true, even with us the Indonesians, it’s widely known that Rendang Instant mix from Bamboe series is the best mix. If you have these items, Do try to add them to make it more authentic:
A thumb of galanga (Crackdown)
1 lemongrass
2-3 lime leaves
2-3 salam leaves
We Indonesians, when we cook this dish, we mix them all together with the meat and the coconut and we usually stir it every 4-5 min, and it will cook nicely after 4-6 hrs depend how much you cook. When using the crockpot yes it will cut down the cooking time, but the best result after cooking it in crockpot, you can move the dish to normal cooker and cook further 15-30 min to get rid the excess water.
It’s not fair to call this dish as Malaysian dish, as it came originally from Indonesia, from a tribe called Minangkabau. Even the Rendang Bumbu Bamboe is actually Indonesian paste.
Happy Cooking!
URVASHI PITRE
I love your suggested additions!
Kelly
Have cooked this today and am planning to leave on keep warm all day until ready to eat. When do you advise I add the remainder of the coconut milk - after npr or just before I serve? Thanks I can’t wait to eat it
URVASHI PITRE
I would add after NPR
Aisa
Can I make this using all coconut milk instead of water plus coconut milk?
URVASHI PITRE
So coconut milk seperates under pressure. That’s why I used water to do it. Otherwise you have an “oil slick” on top.
Waingro
Perfect. I have two packets of Indofood Rendang mix sitting in my cabinet for over a year now. I'm sure this will be awesome like all of your other recipes!
Waingro
Okay, so I made it and it came out fantastic. I didn't have beef, so I used pork loin and cooked for 10 minutes. After it was finished, I boiled off a lot of water to make it nice and thick.
Janis
Have you tried the Ayam brand Redang curry paste in this? If not can you suggest a starting point for amount?
URVASHI PITRE
I haven’t tried that one sadly but I suspect it would be the same. So what is do is use half of what’s specified since you can always add more but can’t remove 🙂