Tender French Dip Instant Pot Recipe

Best French dip Instant Pot recipe with tender roast beef on a bun that’s out of this world. Use your pressure cooker or Ninja Foodi to try this for dinner. Similar to our Instant Pot bbq beef but with only a few ingredients, great for sliders. Served with au jus sauce for the best one pot meal ever.

Instant Pot French Dip

I mean this is definitely going to make it on to your monthly meal rotation. Love when I find beef on sale, then I load up. Making things like this with fresh or a frozen roast (when I forget to defrost it) have been game changers. Has allowed us to eat together as a family more often, which is our goal as parents.

If you don’t have an InstaPot you can still make it though. Any electric pressure cooker brand like Crockpot Express and/or Ninja Foodi works just as well. Just throw it all in and enjoy this one pot meal in the evening.

Ninja Foodi French Dip

You can jump to recipe below but you may have a few questions in your mind before getting started. These are the ones I had at the beginning, if you have others leave them in the comments below. I will do my best to answer those as well.

What goes with French dip?

We usually serve it as is but a side salad is always a good and easy side dish. Some like it with a bowl of Instant Pot tomato basil soup too.

What is French dip made of?

It’s made of sliced roast beef (pork, ham, turkey, or lamb are sometimes used) served on rolls or slices of French Bread. Dipped and eaten with warm au jus broth/sauce sometimes called a consommé. You can thicken it with a bit of cornstarch roux but typically it is served like a thin beef broth of sorts.

To make it easier on myself I typically just strain the drippings in my pressure cooker and serve alongside. You could whisk in some cornstarch to thicken a bit but that isn’t really necessary in my opinion.

Ingredients

• Beef brisket or a chuck roast could be used if that is what you have on hand
• Olive oil, melted butter or vegetable oil
• Onion soup mix
• Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce could be used as an alternative
• Beef broth, could use half broth and half red wine if desired
• Bay leaves
• Kosher salt and pepper
• Provolone cheese
• Hoagie rolls or slices of French bread are typically used

Do you need to brown meat before cooking French dip?

The first thing you usually want to do when cooking a large hunk of meat like this one is to sear the roast. This can be done on the saute function for less than 15 minutes, just to get some browning on the outside. Can be skipped but it is important to keep it nice and moist and add a bit of texture to the outside too.

You can choose to use your favorite cut of beef really, the sauce is what makes this delicious. I typically look to see what is on sale really. Of course some cuts are more expensive than others, more importantly this is for about 2 lbs. Just like our Instant Pot birria tacos with consommé the sauce and meat MUST be served together or it’s a no. 😉

French Dip Instant Pot Frozen

You can make this starting with our frozen roast in Instant Pot timing and these ingredients below. When pressure cooking a thick piece of meat you need to remember that once the cooking time is complete it’s important to allow the steam to naturally release. Quick release will suck some of the moisture out, no good.

It is important to use enough liquid where the protein is fairly submerged. This will create very tender roast beef that will be fork tender when done. That is what you want for sure!! You don’t want to boil it by submerging it entirely but these machines depend on liquid to essentially steam it.

You want to break down all those connective tissues, that is what makes it chewy and not as appetizing. Some cuts are tougher than others but really when pressure cooking it is hard to cook it too long. The biggest thing that will happen the longer it’s in there is instead of being able to slice, it will shred instead.

Here we go, just follow along with our step by step directions so you can make the best pressure cooker roast beef like this too.

Keep in mind that with time to pressurize, pressure cook and naturally release the steam you’ll need about 100 minutes for the process to complete. Quick compared to other methods of cooking but still takes time.

How to Cook French Dip in Ninja Foodi

• Set pot to saute and add olive oil. Rub salt and pepper all over your piece of beef and brown on all sides. Then turn your pot off. Be sure to deglaze Instant Pot after you remove your meat.
• Add meat back into your pot. Whisk together onion soup mix with beef broth and pour that in. Then add Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves.
• Seal your lid and move valve to sealed. Cook for 50 minutes on high pressure. Do NOT quick release when done. Allow pot to naturally release pressure for 20 minutes – 25, this will make meat tender.

Shred beef in pot or on cutting board. It should be fall apart tender so you can do this with forks. If you used a much larger piece of protein you may need longer than 50 min. to get to this point. Put meat on hoagie rolls with a slice of cheese. Serve some of the broth in your pot in a small cup on the side so you can dip sandwiches in before each bite.

Shredding should be very easy. If it is hard to pull apart then it hasn’t cooked long enough. For a 2 lb. beef brisket this timing should be perfect. You could slice it too against the grain but it will likely fall apart more than staying in tact.

It is totally up to you what you like included with your meat. Use your imagination. Many times it is served “plain” with just meat and cheese with au jus dipping sauce on the side. If you wanted it to be low carb just skip the bread all together and still delish.

Other easy Instant Pot one pot meals you’ll love

I use this one really often when I am just done at the end of the day but still want a homemade meal. You just need meat cut into large chunks, and a bottle of your favorite sauce. I mean even teriyaki works well.

Make a pot of rice with maybe some steamed vegetables on the side and dinner is served! Way cheaper than going out to eat, healthier, and family dinners are the best to get your kids (especially teens) talking. 😉