This Easy Instant Pot Pepper Steak is a delicious 30-minute dinner idea packed with bell peppers, sirloin steak and a tasty soy-pepper sauce!
Ingredients and substitutions
- Olive oil – or any other neutral cooking oil like canola oil or grapeseed oil.
- Yellow onion – white onion or shallots would also work.
- Sirloin steak – use any 12 oz. steak variety of your choice.
- Low-sodium soy sauce – tamari or coconut aminos are the best substitutes for soy sauce.
- Honey – brown sugar would also help add a hint of sweetness to this dish.
- Rice vinegar – white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar would also work.
- Garlic – fresh minced garlic is best but jarred minced garlic will work in a pinch.
- Black pepper – if you want your pepper steak to be extra spicy, double up on the black pepper.
- Water – this is crucial to the dish and will help cook the rice.
- Jasmine rice – you can use plain white long grain rice, but make sure to double up on the amount of water if you do so.
- Green and peppers – use any combination of colour bell peppers of your choice.
- Green onions – chives or shallots would also be good as garnish or you can leave these out altogether.
- Sesame seeds – black or white sesame seeds would both work or you can leave these out.
How to make pepper steak
- Add the first 10 ingredients to the Instant Pot in order.
- Cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.
- Do a quick release of the pressure.
- Stir in the peppers.
- Let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
- Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds and serve!
What to serve on the side
This pepper steak dish is a meal all on its own with steak, rice and veggies. That being said, you can still serve it with a nice side salad, some more steamed veggies or even some crusty bread on the side!
Frequently Asked Questions
Pepper steak apparently originated from a Fujian dish that was originally pork, but has since evolved into a Chinese-American style dish consisting of thinly sliced beef seasoned with soy sauce and loads of black pepper. The pepper gives the dish quite a kick but it's not super spicy.
In order to ensure tender steak, you can use a natural pressure release. It's also beneficial to marinate the steak in a mixture of cornstarch and baking soda (use 1 tsp of each) – this can make your meat more tender if that is a concern.
One thing you've probably noticed is that I usually do a base of protein and starch to cook on high pressure, and I almost always wait until the end to add the veggies. I'm telling you, there's nothing more that I hate than overcooked, soggy bell peppers. I would rather my veggies get tender from sitting in the hot rice and sauce.
Storing and reheating
You can store the leftovers of this recipe for up to 5 days in the fridge. To reheat, sprinkle a tiny bit of water over top and microwave for 1-2 minutes.
Freezing this recipe
You can also freeze this recipe in individual-sized servings for up to 3 months. Before microwaving, defrost the leftovers in the fridge overnight.
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More Instant Pot recipes
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- The Instant Pot DUO Plus 60
is the version I use in this recipe. - Grab some glass meal prep bowls for your leftovers.
- I get my grass-fed beef from Butcher Box.
is the version I use in this recipe.
Easy Instant Pot Pepper Steak
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 12 oz sirloin steak, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 tsp black pepper (double it if you want it spicy!)
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup jasmine rice
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 1 tbsp Sesame seeds, for garnish
Instructions
- Add olive oil, onions, steak, soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, garlic, black pepper, water and jasmine rice to the Instant Pot in that order, gently pushing rice underneath the liquid as much as possible but not stirring.
- Cook on high pressure for 3 minutes. Instant Pot will take 10-15 minutes to preheat then the 3 minutes on high pressure. Do a quick release of the pressure. When safe to do so, open lid and stir in peppers, then replace lid and let sit 5-10 minutes until veggies soften.
- Serve garnished with green onion and sesame seeds. Enjoy!
Comments & Reviews
Resa Glennon says
Hi Taylor!
I LOVE your recipes and have tried many already. I’ve made the Pepper Steak numerous times but no matter the meat ALWAYS comes out tough and rubbery…and it’s sirloin steak! I’ve even tenderized it but same. I have not tried your suggestion with baking soda and cornstarch but I was wondering if I could use a piece of chuck roast which always comes out delicious in the Instant Pot?
Just printed up another one of your recipes for dinner tonight! Thanks
Resa
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Resa, I would try my baking soda and cornstarch method to tenderize or use chuck roast instead. Steak strips always come out tougher unfortunately than a roast. I’m so glad you enjoy the recipe overall!
Valerie Duval says
This was delicious! Even my husband who’s not a fan of peppers loved it! Especially because the peppers aren’t cooked to a mush! Absolutely loved how easy it is, too. Will do again for sure, perfect for quick weekday dinner. Thanks!
Taylor Stinson says
I’m so happy you both enjoyed 🙂 Thanks for leaving your review!
Cjmd says
Love this recipe! The only thing I did was use strip steaks I had in the freezer trimmed them good first. Delish!
Taylor Stinson says
So happy you enjoyed 🙂
JoAnn Carroll says
I used Arborio rice a little more honey and vinegar but the dish was absolutely the b best!!! We loved it and cannot wait to have it again!!! Increased water for the rice!!
Taylor Stinson says
So happy you enjoyed, JoAnn!
Margaret says
Hi there. I’m new to using my IP and have a question. I recently made teriyaki chicken and rice at the same time in my IP (chicken and sauce were at the bottom and the rice & water were in a seperate glas bowl on top of a wire rack, right on top of the chicken). I cooked it for 10 min on high pressure and chicken and the rice came out perfect. I can’t imagine that there’s any reason why I cannot do that with this recipe but I am just unsure about the cook time. Would anything change if I cook the rice this same way? Thanks!
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Margaret – I haven’t tried it this way myself but based on your experience with the teriyaki chicken I feel like it should work! What time did you cook the chicken dish for? That’s probably a good indicator of the time you should use. Although I don’t imagine you would need anymore than 5 minutes of cook time. Let me know how it turns out if you try it this way!
Cynthia says
This was a wonderful dish. Thank you so much for sharing and it will be a keeper for this household. I did a few things differently though:
I used cubed steak because I find sirloin to be a bit tough, cubed steak turned out very tender
Cook at 4 minutes rice wasn’t quite done at three.
Use beef broth instead of water
Used 1/2 TBSP olive oil and 1/2 TBSP sesame olive oil for richer flavor.
AMAZING! Thank you!
Taylor Stinson says
So happy you enjoyed Cynthia! Glad those changes worked out 🙂
Sandy Warhurst says
Can this recipe be doubled? I have a 6-quart Instant Pot.
Taylor Stinson says
Yes it can be 🙂
Kim says
What about the cooking time if you double the recipe? Would you add more time? If so how much?
Taylor Stinson says
I don’t believe you have to adjust the cooking time if doubling – it should be fine!
Angela Woolems says
This looks so delic. How would you adapt the cooking time using brown rice since it takes longer to cook.
Thanks
Angela
Taylor Stinson says
I wish I could help Angela but I honestly don’t know how to adapt the recipe this way since I’ve never done it myself. If I had to guess, you could add 3-4 extra minutes to the cook time but I’m really not sure. Sorry about this!