Pressure cooker Chinese pepper steak and onions is packed with flavor and perfect for dinner tonight. Throw it into your Instant Pot or Ninja Foodi for a healthy pressure cooker steak meal.
Do you love pepper steak at restaurants? Well this pressure cooker Chinese pepper steak is really easy to make and done in NO time at all. There’s nothing like making a healthy Instant Pot recipe in under 30 minutes that your whole family will enjoy. (affiliate links present)
Instant Pot Chinese Pepper Steak
You can make this in your Crockpot Express or Ninja Foodi too. Any brand will work as long as it has the high pressure function. Electric versions do and it makes the meat super tender.
The beef is tender, packed with flavor, and it’s full of fresh vegetables too. Add as many as you’d like really. a fresh tomato and red bell peppers were used this time. You can make it as spicy as you’d like or mild, that is the great thing about making things homemade.
If you are new to pressure cooking we have a lot of easy one pot meal recipes for you here. To begin with let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should still deglaze pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the pressure cooker I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
Ninja Foodi Pepper Steak
Here’s a peek at the vegetables we used. There are lots of bell peppers that are red but you could use any colors you want. If I find these on sale I will buy a bunch to make this and a batch of green pepper jelly too. You can make that quickly in your IP after this is cleaned up on the saute function.
You can really load up the veggies with this one. They get nice and tender in no time at all. A really healthy one pot meal for sure that even my kids enjoyed.
Make it as spicy as you like or leave it on the milder side. You can do this in several different ways of course. Seasonings like dry Sriracha are great as well as diced jalapeno, use your favorite combos.
Instant Pot Pepper Steak
It is easiest if you do all the prep work beforehand, but that doesn’t take long. You could put the meat and marinade in a freezer bag and put into the fridge overnight too if you wanted. I will do this with our Ninja Foodi beef and broccoli to create really bold flavors.
This would create a really intense Asian tastes since the steak would absorb the sauce. That is totally up to you but that would require you to think about dinner the night before. You can use a bottled sauce like our Instant Pot teriyaki chicken but a homemade blend is quite simple and you can adjust how spicy you want it that way too.
What is Chinese pepper?
Sichuan pepper is a spice in Chinese cuisine that is commonly used in the Sichuan cuisine The pericarp is most often used. The leaves of various species are also used in some regions of China. You can use regular pepper if you prefer, that is what we feature in this recipe to make it easier.
What meat should you use for pepper steak?
We typically use the same to make this or our Slow Cooker Pepper Steak with onions. Flank steak or skirt steak are the best options as they are marbled and get more tender the longer they are cooked. Here are the ingredients we used on this go around, like I said you could add heat with cayenne or dry Sriracha too if you wanted.
- Vegetable oil
- Skirt steak or sliced thin boneless beef round steak
- Minced garlic
- Salt
- Black pepper
- or Szechuan pepper diced very small
- Hoisin sauce
- Sugar
- 1 Roma tomato, diced
- Red bell peppers, cut in strips
- onions and green peppers work too
- Cornstarch
- Water or broth
- 4 green onions, chopped
- Serve over brown or white rice
You could make quinoa or brown rice instead for more protein and/or fiber. They all work great, just depends on what I have on hand at the time really.
How to Make Pepper Steak in a Pressure Cooker
This reminds me somewhat of how we make our Instant Pot fajitas with tons of bell peppers. The key to these is how thin you cut the beef. That way it is easier to eat, chew, and smaller means the most tender meat that will soak up the sauces so well.
- Remove excess fat from your steaks. Cut into thin beef strips.
- Turn your pressure cooker to saute. Add vegetable oil and let it heat for 1-2 minutes, then add in the steak. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Add in the garlic, seasonings, hoisin sauce, sugar, tomato and bell peppers. Turn pot off.
- Whisk cornstarch with the cold water or broth in a small cup until smooth. Pour it into the your pressure cooker and stir all the ingredients together.
- Close the lid and steam valve.
- Set to pressure cook on high pressure for 3 minutes, followed by a natural release for 2 minutes. Then release rest of steam.
- Serve beef and peppers on top of rice! A splash of soy sauce on top is great too.
It is a bit like our Instant Pot stir fry but with some heat!
What kind of beef is used for a stir fry?
Most use the tenderest beef cuts such as sirloin, tri-tip, ribeye, top loin (strip), tenderloin, shoulder center, or shoulder petite tender. All of these can be cut into strips for use in traditional or unique stir fry recipes like these. Another similar dish you’ve got to make are our air fryer fajitas.
If you love this one, try our pressure cooker hoisin chicken which has some of the same flavors. It is mild and has chicken instead of beef, a great dinner for tomorrow night though.
Looking for other pressure cooker Ninja Foodi recipes? Pressure cooker sausage, onions and peppers is so easy, cheap and healthy. Let us know what you think of this Instant Pot pepper steak recipe.
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Pressure Cooker Chinese Pepper Steak
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1.5 lbs boneless beef round steak cut into thin strips
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tomato diced
- 2 bell peppers cut into thick strips (too thin will get really really soft)
- 4 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/3 c water or broth
- 4 green onions diced
Instructions
- Remove excess fat from steaks. Cut steak into thin strips and peppers into thick slices.
- Turn the pressure cooker on to saute mode. Add olive oil and let it heat for 1-2 minutes and then add in the steak.
- Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add in the garlic, seasonings, hoisin sauce, sugar, tomato and bell peppers. Turn pot off.
- Whisk the cornstarch with the water or broth in a small cup until smooth. Pour it into the pressure cooker and stir all the ingredients together.
- Close the lid on the pressure cooker. Turn the pressure valve to sealing.Set for a manual high-pressure time of 3 minutes.
- Allow for a natural release for 2 minutes at the end of the cooking time. Serve over rice!
Brandy
Monday 31st of January 2022
Making this in the Instant Pot was the perfect dinner after a busy day. It was quick, tasty, and a great recipe. Will definitely be making this for dinner again!
The Typical Mom
Tuesday 1st of February 2022
Yay!
Allison
Monday 31st of January 2022
I typically make a dish similar to this on the stovetop but we loved this Instant pot version even more. Thanks for sharing!
Barb
Wednesday 24th of March 2021
Made this in my ninja foodi and the water message came on. Should you add more water or broth in the beginning It seamed to be a little to browned on the bottom. Not quite burnt but almost Add broth and stired it around fixed it
The Typical Mom
Saturday 27th of March 2021
Did you saute the meat first? If so you'd need to deglaze your pot after that to avoid that message.