Instant Pot Frozen Ground Beef

Instant Pot frozen ground beef can be thawed and cooked in no time at all. If you’re forgetful like me, thawing frozen ground beef in Crockpot Express or Ninja Foodi has never been easier!

Frozen Ground Beef InstaPot

We cook a lot of frozen meat in Instant Pot…because I tend to be forgetful. 😉 There is nothing worse than everyone getting home around dinnertime and realizing you have nothing thawed. You are all hangry and not prepared to go out to eat. What to do? We have help for you using your pressure cooker tonight.

If you need easy Ninja Foodi recipes, you can use that pot instead. A Crockpot Express or Mealthy is the same as well, you just need the high pressure function and they all have that so either one is just fine.

I love thawing frozen ground beef in my pressure cooker because it’s keeps it’s juiciness, drains out all the fat. Since I am forgetful I no longer have to worry if I’ve forgotten to take it out of the freezer the day before! It’s one of the best ways of cooking frozen ground beef.

Ninja Foodi frozen ground beef

• Yes, forgetfulness happens often. So I started by explaining how to cook frozen meat in an Instant Pot in this pressure cooker frozen whole chicken post.
• All of this is for “those days” when everything seems to slip your mind. Now there are NO worries because you can go from a rock hard block of frozen meat to juicy dinner in no time at all.

I use ground beef in the Instant Pot at least 2 times each week to make and create new recipes.

Whether I mix it with other ingredients to make Instant Pot turkey meatloaf or make meatballs to throw in spaghetti or whatever. There’s always something I can make with a pound of ground beef.

Frozen Ground Beef Instant Pot Without Trivet

This year we made the big move from CA to ID and out here a lot of families buy meat fresh from local farms and we did as well. A large freezer now lives in the garage and is packed with meat in bulk that will last us the entire winter.

After we purchased a quarter of a cow recently I started cooking with beef even more so I needed a way to figure out how to go cook frozen ground beef in no time. This works for frozen ground turkey too of course.

We have a list of Instant Pot beef recipes and add to it quite often. As I experiment with other frozen beef cooked in the pressure cooker, I will include them and share on my website as well.

• When it comes to pressure cooker frozen meatballs you can really just throw them right in with some sauce and they will be just fine.

However with a larger piece of ground beef you really need to thaw it out first, and then cook it the rest of the way on saute as you would normally with a pound of fresh ground beef.

How to thaw Instant Pot frozen ground beef

If you are TOTALLY new to the pressure cooking world, an Instant Pot will change your life. It took me a little while to get to know all the buttons and now I use this thing like all the time, I mean daily.

You just use a trivet, I like the ones with handles! It makes it a bit easier to lift out when it’s done. If you do not have one of these, first off I suggest you get one because it is useful for so many things. BUT if you don’t have one yet I have an alternative.

You could ball up 4 pcs. of foil and place on the bottom with a small plate on top you can use that. The negative to that is the fat won’t drain away like it would with a trivet but it will work. Make sure the plate is oven safe and use a pot holder to lift it out because it will be really hot.

Cooking frozen ground beef in a pressure cooker

This method drains almost ALL of the grease and fat away from the meat. It ends up at the bottom of the pot (seen below). SO you get leaner ground beef to cook. Instant Pot frozen ground turkey works the same way.

1. It’s a great tip to have in case you forget to thaw it out the night before.
2. You can thaw ground beef in about 20 minutes versus overnight.

I honestly have been doing this for quite some time. But since it’s such a simple thing I ignored the fact that I hadn’t written a post about it. Now I’m sharing this tip with all of you.

I think other than saving me a ton of time it saves those days when I’m forgetful. Dinner is saved!

Frozen Ground Turkey in Pressure Cooker

Typically I buy 80/20 ground beef, turkey or chicken would work just fine too. When we bought a cow earlier this year though I didn’t know what those were. For the most part they are rather lean.

• However I’ve always had an issue with draining the fat well and in the past.
• I’ve poured the cooked ground beef into a strainer, and turned on the hot water to rinse it.

Now it’s done for me!!

Look! The fat drains away from the meat using this Instant Pot frozen ground beef method.

Combined with the water you add to the bottom, now you just dump it before you turn it to saute. Fat is gone!

Frozen Ground Beef Instant Pot Time

Here are quick directions but I also have a printable recipe card at the very bottom for you as well.

It is a lot quicker to defrost and then cook than Crockpot ground beef.

Instant Pot frozen hamburger

Pour out liquid and fat that has accumulated inside your Instant Pot

1. Place thawed ground beef back into your pot
   1. note: there will be a thin outer layer of meat that will be cooked, raw and thawed inside
2. Cook as you normally would, had this been fresh ground beef. 

Add taco seasoning and anything else to make an Instant Pot casserole or any sort of beef dinner recipe you want.

Now you can make our Instant Pot taco meat in no time at all starting with a rock hard pound of frozen beef! OR follow these directions for air fryer ground beef (thawed) and add seasoning packet at the end.

• Instant Pot cheeseburger macaroni is amazing
• Our 5 ingredient Instant Pot chili is probably the most popular since you just need 5 main ingredients

I am sure you have a handful of your favorite dishes with this type of protein so go with your fave.

Here are a few of our favorite Instant Pot ground beef recipes to make once this is done!

• This flavorful Instant Pot taco casserole is amazing and a kid fave
• Try this Instant Pot hamburger potato casserole

Then make our pressure cooker stroganoff casserole with your meat tonight!

How to cook frozen meat in Instant Pot

Now you don’t only have to make a pressure cooker recipe once you’ve thawed your meat. You can make things like our crockpot lasagna casserole too, the possibilities are endless!

• If you need to know how to cook frozen chicken in the Instant Pot I have for you 
• Here are free printable Instant Pot cooking times sheets so you know how long each item takes to cook.
• This is how to cook frozen Instant Pot shrimp as well. We love seafood so that has been helpful.

I am working on sharing a way to defrost meat in the slow cooker too and will share a link once that is figured out to perfection.

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