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My Instant Pot Beef & Barley Stew recipe is a classic stew with super flavorful beef broth that has cooked-all-day flavor, is full of tender beef, vegetables, and perfectly cooked barley. This is a hearty beef and barley soup that will fill you up, which makes it a perfect winter dinner.
Since this Stew is so comforting, filling, and easy it also makes a great dinner to take to a family with a newborn, a new neighbor, a family grieving a loss, or for a meal train.
How to Make Good Beef & Barley Stew
There are a few steps that will ensure you have a great Beef & Barley Stew that is full of flavor.
- Use a good beef stock that has a lot of flavor. If you have homemade, great, but if not look for a beef stock instead of broth. A stock generally has more flavor.
- Cooking in the Instant Pot allows you to get cooked-all-day flavor in just 20 minutes!
- Use a quality Beef Base. If you are not familiar with beef base, it comes in a jar and can be found in the soup aisle at the grocery store. It comes in a paste form and has super intense beef flavor. It is like the grown up brother of beef bouillon. I always keep beef base and chicken base in my kitchen!
- Add a little tomato paste at the end to give it another layer of flavor.
- Seasoning the soup properly with salt and pepper always enhances flavors perfectly!
Dinner with the Instant Pot
If there is one thing I can say about the Instant Pot is that it can make dinner prep super fast!!! Beef and Barley Stew is something that would normally take about an hour to prep and cook. But, with the pressure cooker it is done in a flash.
I use the Instant Pot Duo Plus 60 6 quart 9-in-1, I also recommend the Instant Pot 6 quart 7-in-1. I like these two pots because of the size, 6 quarts. This is the perfect size for just about any Instant Pot recipe you will come across.
I’m not sure I will ever use all the functions, like sterilize or yogurt. But, If I want them they are there! The functions I use most are the Soup/Broth, Saute, Pressure Cook, and Bean/Chili.
I will definitely use the slow cooker mode too, but right now I’m obsessed with the quicker cooking recipes using the pressure cooking modes!
Some of my other favorite Instant Pot Recipes are my Chicken & Rice Soup, Cajun Rice with Chicken & Sausage, and Turkey Meatballs. Or you can check out ALL my Instant Pot recipes here.
I hope you will give this recipe for Instant Pot Beef & Barley Stew a try in your kitchen.
Love- Susie
Instant Pot Beef & Barley Stew
Ingredients
- 1 yellow or white onion chopped
- 2 celery stalks, sliced
- 3 plump garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 ½ cups carrots, sliced
- 1 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp each- onion powder & garlic powder
- 1 ½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp beef base
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 ½ lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch chunks (can be anywhere from 1-1 ½ lbs)
- 1 cup pearl barley I use Bob’s Red Mill brand
- 32 oz beef broth or stock
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
Instructions
- Add the oil, onions, carrots, celery, and garlic to the Instant Pot on saute mode. Saute for 5 minutes. Turn off saute mode.Add the onion powder, garlic powder, Worcestershire, salt, pepper, and beef base, stir to combine with the veggies.Add the stew meat, pearl barley, beef stock, and water.
- Close the Instant Pot and set to meat/stew mode (or manual/pressure mode), high pressure, for 25 minutes.Do a quick release. Stir in the tomato paste.Serve!
If nutrition facts are provided they are calculated as an estimate to the best of our knowledge.
reb
Nice that people can adapt to their tastes! I thought the flavor was great (and I only had veggie broth). We are trying to eat less meat so I added 1/2 c more barley and a tad more water. And the house smells great!
Katrina
This was delicious – however it caused my instant pot to spew out the liquid (all over my ceiling, walls, and counters (in my panic I didn’t think to throw a tea towel over it) It’s an average size instant pot, where did I go wrong?
Susie Weinrich
I am so sorry that happened! I use a 6 quart, if yours is smaller then that it could have been too much liquid? You were right to throw a towel over the vent. Another option is to use a wooden spoon (or something long) and poke the vent closed/sealed and let it natural release for an additional 5 minutes.
Katrina
I realized after I’d commented that I’d added a can of diced tomatoes, which clearly added too much liquid. I’m a bit of a calamity in the kitchen apparently! It was a good excuse to clean the walls anyway. 🙂
Margaret
I made this for the first time tonight and it was delicious. I’m not a huge onion person so I used half the onions and added additional carrots. It’s really flavorful. My husband loved it and asked for seconds!
Christan
First thing I made in my new instant pot! Excellent result. I added about half a cup of red wine. So so so good, thank you!
Sheegs
This is wonderful. I made this last night. Thanks so much for posting this recipe.
Jane Langlotz
The overall flavouring was good, but it was way too thick with barley..almost looked like porridge. I suggest you lessen the amount of pearl barley to 1/2 or 1/3 cup.
Susan Matney
Could you use already cooked beef in this recipe? If so, would there be any changes to the time? Thanks
Susie Weinrich
You will still need to cook for about 20 minutes to get the barley cooked all the way through.
James
Got this recipe from a coworker and tried it tonight. Absolutely loved it. The barely was a nice change from rice or potatoes and I enjoyed it. Making this in the instant pot i was able to make dinner and take a nap after working! Thank you for sharing this. It’s going to become a new favorite!
Susie Weinrich
A nap while making dinner is probably the best thing in the world!!! I’m so glad you loved the recipe.
Susan Matney
Thank you! We are cooking this tonight!
Kristin
Excellent recipe. Easy to follow and super quick. The flavor of my Mom’s award winning beef stew, but lighter and… better! Will definitely make again soon.
CandyC
Really, really good! Thank you!!
Rechelle
I can’t seem to find Barley Pearls, would Pot Barley work?
Susie
that should work too!
KevinM
Very Tasty. I made it per the recipe with 2 exceptions. I used a cup of red wine instead of the water and we like spicy so I used Sriracha Chili Paste instead of tomato paste. I am now letting it simmer to thicken it up just a bit.
Susie
Great subs!!! I hope you loved it.
Renee
Too beefy. Overall this is a good recipe, but I think I’d leave all the bass out and leave it to the beef stock and steak. It has no depth. All I get it beef flavor and barley texture.
Kirstyn
Thinner than my usual, but the taste is fantastic! Love this and bookmarking!
Anne Thomas
Soooo good!!! Husband had never had barley before. This will be in regular rotation for us. We add a little heat, but its great as is!
Karla
Can I use ground beef instead of beef stew meat? If so, are there any time changes? Thanks!
Susie Weinrich
You can absolutely use ground beef instead. I would crumble and brown the ground beef to start, drain any grease, and then move on with the recipe as written. You will still want to pressure cook for 25 minutes for the pearl barley.