Instant Pot Braised Short Ribs are easy to make and the result is completely mouthwatering. Through pressure cooking, the meat soaks up a ton of flavor from the seasonings and gets so tender that it literally falls from the bone.
Why You'll Love These Instant Pot Short Ribs
The flavors in this dish are simple, but far from boring. Pressure cooking the beef short rib along with aromatics and seasonings gives the dish deep umami and ties all of the flavors together.
Plus I add an unexpected special ingredient that really kicks the flavor profile up a notch.
This recipe includes chipotle chiles in adobo sauce for a bit of smoky heat.
The amount of chipotle in the recipe is just enough to add a high note to balance the deep, rich, umami flavors of the meat without making it too spicy.
If you like more spice, by all means, add more chipotle and/or more of the sweet-spicy-smoky adobo sauce it is packed in. But keep in mind the recipe as written calls for ONE chili with a tablespoon of the sauce, not one can of chili!
The sauce also has tomatoes, garlic, onions, and other seasonings. All of that flavor is infused into the meat in this Instant Pot recipe and the result is mind-blowingly delicious.
What is so special about this Instant Pot ribs recipe?
Beef short ribs traditionally require long, slow cooking to become infused with the flavors of the sauce and turn fall-off-the-bone tender. But with cooking short ribs in the Instant Pot, you can get deliciously tender, perfectly cooked short ribs in a fraction of the time.
From start to finish, you can make these pressure cooker braised shortribs in 60 minutes and that is including the time it takes your pressure cooker to come up to pressure and to naturally release the pressure.
It’s so quick and easy, I guarantee you'll think this is the best short rib recipe.
This Instant Pot Short Ribs recipe is ideal for serving to guests or for a regular weeknight meal. You don’t need to use your oven, stand over the stove, or heat up your house. The Instant Pot does most of the work for you.
What are short ribs?
They are literally, very short ribs. They are the five or so short ribs on an animal that are too short to be used for steaks, and so they're sold as short ribs.
You can get a few different cuts of short ribs. The ones I used as are an extended English style, which is essentially a chunk of meat with a bone in it.
You can also get flanken style ribs as I used in my Korean Galbi recipe, and then you have the super short spare ribs I used for this Chinese Spare ribs recipe, which are basically pork ribs, which are different from short ribs which are always beef, or you can use these long beef ribs for making Smoky Pressure Cooker ribs, and country style ribs are really just pork shoulder that you can use for my pulled pork recipes and....
Are you thoroughly confused yet?? Here's the good news. They'are all delicious. So there's that. But to recap my ramblings:
- Short ribs are 5 beef ribs that are too short for steaks.
- They can be cut English style or flanken style
- Spare ribs are small pork ribs
- A rack of ribs can be either pork or beef.
- Country Style ribs are cut-up pork shoulder, also known as pork butt. So really, not ribs at all, to be honest.
How to make this easy pressure cooker ribs recipe
- Make the sauce. Purée onions, bell pepper, tomatoes, chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, garlic, and seasonings in a food processor or blender.
- Saute. Heat the Instant Pot using the sauté function and then add the pureed vegetables and seasonings. Cook until the mixture has thickened. Deglaze pan with 1/4 cup of water.
- Add ribs. Add the short ribs and 1/2 cup of water.
- Cook. Seal the pot and pressure cook for 45 minutes.
- NPR. Let the pressure release naturally for 15 minutes and then quick-release any remaining pressure.
- Serve. Remove the meat from the pot and serve immediately, along with the sauce.
Tips and tricks for making this Instant pot short ribs recipe
- You can use either bone-in or boneless short ribs. The cooking time will be about the same either way. I prefer to use short ribs with the bone in because I think the bone adds flavor during cooking. On the other hand, a boneless short rib recipe makes serving a bit easier. When cooking large pieces of meat in the pressure cooker, always use a natural release. This prevents the proteins in the meat from seizing up and turning your meat tough.
- I don’t recommend pre-searing the meat before pressure cooking. Because of the super-heated cooking environment created by the pressure cooker, this step is unnecessary. It only adds time and effort to the recipe. For a more in-depth explanation, watch my video on the Maillard reaction and how it functions in a pressure cooker to give you deeply flavored dishes.
- If the meat isn’t as tender as you’d like after you’ve released the pressure, put it back in for another 5 minutes on high pressure. The pot will come to pressure faster the second time since the contents are already hot.
- If you want to thicken the sauce, after you remove the meat from the pot set the pot to sauté again and cook, stirring, until the sauce reduces and thickens.
What To Serve With Instant Pot Beef Short Ribs
- These air fryer Scrumptious Cheese Biscuits are great for sopping up the delectable sauce from the braised short ribs.
- This cheesy Potatoes Au Gratin made in the air fryer make a really impressive side dish, perfect for entertaining.
- Potatoes Anna is tasty and elegant and requires only 4 ingredients!
- Or try Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, an easy air fryer side dish. They take minimal effort and are full of flavor!
- If you’re looking for a green vegetable side, these Air Fryer Green Beans are perfect. They are light and flavorful and can be on the table in less than 15 minutes.
- Sauteed Swiss Chard with Bacon is another green vegetable side that always gets rave reviews. It requires only a few ingredients and is quick and easy to make.
- You might enjoy these Chinese Spare ribs as well.
- Try some of these Best BBQ Side Dishes.
If you love this Instant Pot Short Ribs Recipe as much as we do, make sure you share it with your friends on Facebook and Pinterest so they can make them too!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup Onion, chopped
- 1 cup Bell Peppers
- 1 cup Tomatoes
- 4-6 cloves Garlic
- 1 Chipotle Chile in Adobo Sauce, with 1 tablespoon of sauce from the can
- 1 tsp Dried Thyme
- 1/2 tsp Ground Allspice
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 1/4 cup water , for deglazing
- 2 pounds beef short ribs
- 1/2 cup water, for ribs
Instructions
- In a food processor or blender, blend together onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, garlic, chipotle chili thyme, allspice, salt, and pepper.
- Select SAUTÉ/HIGH on the Instant Pot. When the pot is hot, add the oil. Once the oil is hot, add the blended vegetables. Sauté stirring frequently until the water has largely evaporated from the paste, about 8-10 minutes.
- Add in the short ribs and another 1/2 cup of water and stir.
- Secure the lid on the pot. Close the pressure-release valve. Select MANUAL/PRESSURE COOK and set the pot at HIGH pressure for 35 minutes.
- When cook time is complete, let pot release pressure naturally for 15 minutes. At the end of the cooking time, use a quick release to depressurize.
- Serve the ribs with the sauce on the side.
- You can use either bone-in or boneless short ribs. The cooking time will be about the same either way.
- If the meat isn’t as tender as you’d like after you’ve released the pressure, put it back in for another 5 minutes on high pressure. The pot will come to pressure faster the second time since the contents are already hot.
- If you want to thicken the sauce, after you remove the meat from the pot set the pot to sauté again and cook, stirring, until the sauce reduces and thickens
- Macros and serving size assume half the weight of the ribs is bone so you will have 1 lb of cooked meet, with 4 oz of meat per person.
NetT
A little hot but delicious I put mines in 40 minutes 🤤
Shital T.
The 2 stars is kind of misleading because the recipe WITHOUT the instructions on time is 5 stars. Uvarshi, you're WAY OFF on the cook time. Like the one commenter said, after 15 min + 10 min of waiting, the short ribs are like a tough piece of steak. I had to add 20 minutes TWICE! That includes waiting 10 minutes after each 20 minute "session." A recipe that you claim should've taken me 25 minutes (without prep) actually took me 55 minutes of cook time + 30 minutes (10 min each time I had to wait to release the pressure) Thanks to you, my family ate dinner over almost TWO HOURS LATE. The flavors were outstanding but the recipe is clearly VERY CLEARLY wrong!
My cut of short ribs were from Costco; 5 strips, about an inch thick, boneless. Each strip was about 5-6 inches long. You say you remade the recipe but I find that very hard to believe. These things should not turn out that different. If you did remake it, my only guess is that you did not try a boneless cut like I had, and the other commenter used. If you again used a bone-in cut, then that was a mistake, pure and simple.
Unfortunately I won't be back to your site. It's not worth it to try inaccurate recipes like this that you don't even bother correcting. You didn't even correct the missing instruction of what to do with first 1/4 cup of water. The only reason I knew about that was because of the other comment in the thread.
URVASHI PITRE
I have 800 recipes on this site. I have five stars on hundreds of them becusse I test and test and retest recipes. I can only surmise that we are using different cuts of beef. I will have to go look and see how to describe the cuts differently.
I’m sorry you’re using one recipe to judge the entirety of my work over the last several years.
A rack of ribs doesn’t even take more than 25 mins so I can’t imagine why your beef took 55 minutes.
Shital T.
Your other recipes may very well be fine. The one at issue, however, is this one. I'm sure you can understand my frustration with such a huge difference in cooking time, and how this experience provides no incentive to check out those other recipes. I've never had anything like that happen with a recipe before. And, it's not like I'm the only one that had that identical issue, and yet the recipe details remain the same. As the other commenter identified, every single instapot short ribs recipe out there calls for at least 40 minutes of cook time. So, whether you can imagine it or not, that's out there, and you can look it up yourself.
Debbie Wolf
Hey Urvashi. I don’t see where the first 1/4 cup of water is used. It would be right after the vegetables are reduced I’m assuming. But that’s where the short ribs are added along with the 1/2 cup water. Is it used only if needed? I plan on doing an Instant Pot 101 for my friend Brian and he’s interested in this recipe. I just haven’t made it yet. I have a couple other things lined up for us to make together for him to get the feel of his IP. He’s really looking forward to your Italian Sausage Kale soup that I picked for him to make. 😊 Thanks!
URVASHI PITRE
That ¼ is used for deglazing the pot after browning the veggies
KB
yeah, this didn't work out at all. I looked up other short rib recipes and they all said 45 min on high pressure. 15 min was not enough, nor was adding that extra 5. I used 1 pepper and 1tsp, not 1T and still WAY TOO HOT.
URVASHI PITRE
So although it does depend on how thick your short ribs are, I can’t imagine the thickness of ribs that would take 45 minutes. A large 2 LB roast might take 45 mins, not smaller little ribs. If your ribs were thicker than the ones in my photo they would take more time for sure. As to heat, it’s a personal preference. I use 2 peppers but others use half of one.
David Vallance
Sorry this was terrible. The short ribs were like rubber I even tried putting them on for another 10 minutes. They cut like a over done steak but were, as I said, like rubber. The sauce was way too spicy. I think with half a pepper it may have been okay but the chipotle just overwhelmed everything. Stay well clear when sautéing as your eyes will nip like crazy. First time cooking short ribs in the instant pot and the last.
URVASHI PITRE
So that totally doesn’t mesh with my experience. Mine fell off the bone and I remade the recipe so they weren’t so well done. We’re yours about the same thickness as mine in the pic?
David Vallance
Actually they were smaller.