Instant Pot Beef and Potatoes Curry (with stove top instructions)

Curry is definitely in my top 5 favorite things to eat and if I could choose only one curry, it would be beef curry with potatoes. I could eat this everyday. Add dhal and mango achar and I would be in curry heaven!
Often the beef used for curry is a tough cut of meat which means that it can take a decent amount of time to cook, unless you have the magic of the instant pot! If you guys are not on to the instant pot yet, let me change your life! It is an electric, pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice maker, do it all in one appliance type of magic. When I first got my instant pot I made every meal in it for a month. Easy peasy. If you are interested in checking it out, click here to get one.

Making the Curry Paste for the Beef Curry:

I started by making my curry paste or masala (typical first step for any curry dish). I added a small yellow onion, 5 cloves of garlic (because I love garlic), about 5 springs of fresh thyme (leaves removed from the stems), 3 heads of green onions and 1 cup to 1 ½ cups of water to my blender. I then pureed it all together for a minute or two. Then I poured the pureed seasoning into a bowl and added curry powder, garlic powder, onion powder, ground cumin, coriander, turmeric, paprika and bay leaf. I mixed it all together to form a thick paste. Side note: My 5 year old and 10 month old, eat whatever we are having for dinner so I don't make my food spicy, but if you prefer a more spicy curry feel free to add pepper.

Choosing the right curry powder:

Typically when I make curry I use Lalah's Curry Powder which has all of these ingredients I added to the curry paste and a few more, but I wanted to show you that you don't necessarily have to buy Lalah's. The curry I am using in this recipe is a generic curry powder I bought from Walmart and it came out just as good. But if you want to try it with Lalah's and you don't have an Indian, Asian or Caribbean market where you live, you can get it from Amazon (linked here). These days you can buy pretty much anything from Amazon.com, I've even seen cassareep on there, although I haven't bought any from there (yet).

Cooking the curry paste:

Next, I turned on my instant pot and set it to sauté. When it was ready (pot display says "hot"), I added 3 tablespoons of oil. When the oil was hot I added the curry paste and cooked it for about 5 minutes, until most of the liquid cooked off and it was thick and somewhat dry. Feel free to add more oil at this point, to prevent burning.

This is what it looked like before I added the beef. Notice how thick the paste has become, versus when I initially added it to the pot, (see previous pic).

Adding the Beef to the Instant Pot

While the curry paste cooked I prepared my beef. I am using grass fed chuck roast, that I cut into 2 inch cubes, but you can also just get stew beef from the supermarket that is already cut into chunks. I added 1 teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper to the beef and gave it a good toss. Then added the seasoned beef to the cooked curry paste. I let that sauté for 5 to 10 minutes so that the beef browns a bit. You may also do this in batches.

Using different cuts of beef:

If you prefer beef with bones (which gives the curry an amazing flavor) go for it. I've also made this recipe with neck bones, bone in shank cuts, and other cuts of beef with bones. You will need to adjust the pressure cooking time. For cuts with mostly bones and less meat, I pressure cooked on high for 45 minutes. For cuts with one or two bones I pressure cooked on high for 30 minutes.

Adding the Potatoes:

Next I added 3 small red potatoes cut into halves (you can do quarters but be careful not to make it too small or it will melt away when you pressure cook the beef). Finally I added 1 cup of water and stirred the curry up a little trying to get most of the contents of the pot submerged in the liquid.

Sealing the Instant Pot and Pressure Cooking:

This next step is very important. I Turned off my instant pot by hitting cancel. Then covered the pot with the lid and turned the vent to sealing. Then I pressed the manual button, turning the pot back on, and set it for 25 minutes.

When the 25 minutes were up, I pressed cancel to stop the instant pot from going into the warming mode, then I vented the instant pot, removed the lid carefully and switched it back to sauté. I did this so that any excess liquids in the pot can cook down forming a thick curry. I let it cook on sauté for 5 minutes, then I turned the pot off and my curry was ready to serve.

Don't have an instant pot and want to make this on the stove top? Here is how:

1. Follow all the instructions for making the curry paste
2. Add the oil to a large skillet, braiser on high heat and bring up to temperature
3. Then add the curry paste and cook until the paste is dry
4. Add the seasoned beef and sauté until the beef is brown, then add about 2 cups of water, cover and reduce heat to medium
5. Cook until beef is tender, checking often and adding 1 to 2 cups of water. Depending on the cut of beef this should take about 1 hour
6. Then add your potatoes and more water (if needed) and continue to cook until the potatoes are tender and the curry has a thick delicious sauce

The Printable Instant Pot Beef Curry with Potatoes Recipe:

Printable Recipe Card

Instant Pot Beef Curry with Potatoes

Althea Brown

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 40 mins

Total Time 45 mins

Course Main Dish

Cuisine Guyanese/Indian

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1.5 to 2 lbs lbs Stew Beef cut into 2 inch chunks
• 3 small red potatoes about 1 lb, peeled and cut into halves
• 1 small yellow onion cut into halves
• 3 heads of green onions
• 5 sprigs of thyme leaves removed from the stems (optional)
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoon oil for cooking
• 2 cups water

Special Equipment:

• Instant Pot

Instructions

 

• Add onion, garlic, green onion, thyme and 1 cup water to a blender and puree for about a minute until all the seasoning have blended together.
• Add blended seasoning to a bowl. Then add curry powder, onion powder, coriander, tumeric, paprika, cumin and bay leaves. Mix together to form a thick paste.
• Plug in and turn your instant pot on to the sauté setting. When instant pot is hot, add oil. Let oil heat up to almost smoking, then add the curry paste.
• Cook the curry paste until the liquids cook off and a somewhat dry masala is left.
• Add salt and pepper to beef and toss so that all the pieces are seasoned.
• Add seasoned beef to the cooked down curry paste.
• Sauté for 5 to 10 minutes until all the pieces of beef are somewhat browned, you can do this in small batches if you prefer
• Next add potatoes to the sauté beef. Add the remaining 1 cup of water
• Turn off the instant pot, by hitting the cancel button.
• Then cover the pot with the lid and set the vent to sealing.
• Turn the pot back on by hitting the manual button and setting the cooking time to 25 minutes.
• When the cooking time is up. Turn off the pot, by pressing the cancelled button and vent the pot by turning the vent knob to venting.
• When all the pressure has been released, remove the lid and turn the instant pot back on to sauté. Cook the curry for an additional 5 minutes or until the sauce cooks down to form a thick curry.

Notes

1. You can make this dish without a instant pot, but it will take twice as long. Follow steps 1 through 8 but instead of the instant pot use a dutch oven or a heavy pot with a good lid. Add enough water to cover all the beef and potatoes and cook on medium heat until beef is tender (about 1 hour).
2. You can substitute cumin for geera (roasted cumin) if you prefer the flavor of geera to cumin.
3. If you don't have an instant pot, but similar electric pressure cooker, follow the instructions of that pressure cooker to pressure cook to beef for 10 to 15 minutes.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!