For a great tasting, super easy recipe that is perfect for feeding a crowd, meal planning, or Game Day, try Instant Pot Barbecue Beef. Use the meat for barbecue beef sandwiches, or over rice or on potatoes. This is essentially a 2-ingredient pressure cooker barbecue beef (if you use premade bbq sauce), and it is delicious!
Instant Pot Barbecue Beef
When it comes to cooking a beef roast in your electric pressure cooker, the Chuck roast is probably the most tender, a fall-apart cut you can make (trim the visible fat first, for this recipe).
What if you happen to have a Rump roast, or Bottom Round, as it is also called? This cut of beef is leaner than the chuck, so it comes out a little less fall apart, but it shreds very well. You can use it for almost anything from French Dip sandwiches or tacos, to shredded beef, which is where I’m going with this recipe.
This BBQ Beef is easy to make. You just brown all sides of the roast chunks, then sauté the onions. After that you just add the roast back in with the broth/water, and cook it!
Pile the shredded beef high on a kaiser bun, or your favorite slider rolls. It’s so good on mashed potatoes, too! Lots of uses for this Instant Pot Barbecue Beef recipe!
I’ve included one of my barbecue sauce recipes to use with this Instant Pot Shredded Beef. If you have your own favorite recipe, go ahead and use that. You can also use your favorite bottled sauce, which I sometimes do! It’s so easy!
Instant Pot Mississippi Pot Roast
Instant Pot Simple Pot Roast
Instant Pot Pulled Pork
Instant Pot Bone-In Ham
Instant Pot Barbecue Beef is an easy shredded beef recipe to make, & versatile. Make bbq beef sandwiches, serve over rice or potatoes. Pressure cooker bbq beef is tasty!
- 3 - 4 lb Bottom Round or Chuck Roast (cut in thirds) Chuck roast is more tender, and a bit fattier
- Salt
- Pepper
- 2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 1 Onion, cut in half and sliced into 1/4" thick half-rings
- 1 1/2 cups Water or Beef Broth
- 1 - 2 cups Barbecue Sauce*, or to taste
- 1 1/2 cups Ketchup
- 1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Paprika (or smoked paprika)
- 1 tsp Liquid Smoke
- 1 tsp Chili Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/8 tsp Cayenne Powder
Season the beef chunks with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Turn on the pot's Sauté function. When it is hot, add the oil and then the roast chunks. Brown a few minutes on each side.
Take out the meat and set on a plate and add the onion to the pot with a splash or two of the water/broth. Cook for a couple of minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot, to get the browned bits up (deglaze).
Add the remaining water/broth, and the meat back in. Close the lid and lock in place. Set the steam release knob to the Sealing position.
Cancel the Sauté function.
Set to Pressure Cook/Manual, High Pressure, and use the + or - buttons (or dial) to select 60 minutes. When the cook cycle is finished, let the pot sit undisturbed for 10-15 minutes (10-15 minutes Natural Release). A smaller roast, like 2 pounds) means smaller chunks, so might only need 45 minutes cook time.
Turn the steam release knob to the Venting position (or push button if you have one) and release the remaining pressure. When the pin in the lid drops down, open and remove the meat to a large bowl to shred.
If the meat isn't shreddable, put it back in and cook it another 10 to 15 minutes.
Use two forks to shred the meat.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the onion from the pot and add to the shredded beef.
Mix in some of the barbecue sauce. How much is up to you. If you want to use the meat for tacos, or something not bbq, divide it and just put the sauce on the portion you want to be bbq.
Serve on buns, or over mashed potatoes, rice, in tortillas, pita bread, etc.
*You can use any barbecue sauce, so if you have a favorite brand of pre-made sauce, or your own recipe, go ahead and use that. Very flexible. Calorie count will vary.
Resources to Make This Recipe and More
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Made this A few days ago….loved it! A big hit with the family. I used Annie’s organic sweet and spicy bbq sauce. Just awesome!!
Hi Martha! Thank you for the nice review! I’m glad you liked this recipe, it’s a hit with the guys here at home! I need to try that Annie’s bbq sauce, thanks for the tip!
Can bbq sauce be added to meat in the pot and pressured for a few minutes?
As lons as it has enough thin liquid to come to pressure.
First time making this, and was fantastic. Thanks so much for the recipe.
That’s great, Larry! I’m so glad you liked it! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
Sorry but do you cook with the BBQ sauce or add after? Thanks!
Add the BBQ sauce after.
Shoot, I didn’t read the comments before trying this out! It’s in the pot cooking with a sauce, I didn’t even think that sauce goes after… I wonder what I’ll get out of it now ??
Oh no! Please let me know if it turned out okay. The reason I have the BBQ sauce go in last is so you don’t get the Burn message. I hope it turned out okay!
It turned out good, everyone loved it, so will do it again, the right way ? Meat was very tender and because it cooked in the sauce tasted well spiced. Thanks God I didn’t get a “burn” message, I was monitoring it very close. Also it wasn’t just sauce some water mixed together too, so maybe that saved my dinner ??
Oh that’s great, Kristina! Thanks for letting me know!
What did we ever do before instant pots?!
I used this for a 4th of July gathering last night, and it was fantastic! I did mix a little bit of the barbecue sauce (1/3 cup?) and a little liquid smoke in with the meat while it was cooking. It came out amazing, and almost didn’t need extra sauce. Thanks for the recipe! I’ll be using it again in the future.
I’ve got this in the pot right now. Excited for lunch. Thanks for the recipe!!
made this for dinner tonight and what a hit!! so yummy!
Nice!
I made this yesterday in my slowcooker as I don’t have the Instant Pot. 8 hours on low, it turned out fine. That BBQ sauce.. OH MY, it’s a winner!! Thank you for sharing this recipe!!
Hi Caitlin! It is a great slow cooker recipe as well, and I should have mentioned that in my post! Thank you for letting me know. I’m so glad you liked it!
Awesome in its flavor and simplicity. I’d like to add a finishing touch that I love. After I shred the beef I put it in my cast iron pan. I mix a little of the roast juices to my bbq sauce and add it to the pan (I use 1/3 of my sauce at this time). I put the whole thing under the broiler until the tips get crispy. Stir, sauce, broil 3 times total.
Yummy! Great tip, Ashley! Thank you for your review!
I substituted pork for beef and it came out heavenly!!! If you have the time, make the bbq sauce recipe, it’s so delicious and so worth it!!! This is the first thing I made in my new Instant Pot so I wasnt sure how it would come out but it was perfect! The in-depth instructions really helped a newbie like me navigate this new gadget. Thank you for sharing:)
Awesome! Thanks for letting me know, and for your review!
Have you used a frozen roast for this recipe before? If I try it with frozen, what is your suggestion for extending the cooking time?
If you use a frozen roast that you are unable to cut in half, extend the cook time to 80 minutes. It really depends on how thick it is, and not the weight. But try 80 minutes, and see how that works.
Very good sauce. I used low sugar ketchup and Splenda and it was still good. I like that this recipe gave me every step in using the instant pot since I rarely use it. However don’t plan on it taking the time listed in the recipe. Plan on at least an hour and 40 minutes by the time you sautee each side of the beef and sautee the onions and let your pot get up to pressure.
Hi Joni, thank you for your comment, and I’m glad you liked this recipe!
I just just received my Insta pot for Christmas. I was not looking forward to learning how to use one more appliance but my daughter insisted I would love it! So, I selected this recipe since it had minimal steps,and very explicit instructions. I am glad I did! It was perfect the first time. And I absolutely love the BBQ sauce. I had plenty left over, So you could half the recipe, but I will use it elsewhere. Also, it was a bit on the sweet side so if you don’t like that you could probably reduce the sugar. All in all this will be a go to recipe for cooked beef. I can imagine many other recipes for this tasty beef. Thank you! My first Insta pot adventure was a success!
Hi Patricia, I’m so happy that this was a successful first recipe in your new Instant Pot! Thank you for your review!
For the meat–I doubled all of the ingredients (except the oil), cut my partially frozen roast up, and cooked it for the recommended 60 minutes. I left it alone until the pressure plug came down on its own. The meat came out tender and ready to shred. I left the liquid in the instant pot and turned on the saute to let the liquid reduce. Then I added the reduced liquid to the meat. Thank you for a simple and delicious recipe!