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.
Make healthy eating easy! Join our Dinner Prep Pro app.
- ZERO ADS on over 450 recipes
- Customizable weekly meal plans
- Grocery and meal prep checklists
- Bonus resource library and community
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.
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
stace11yel says
i’m new to your site and have to say, i’m loving it. this is the second recipe i have made so far and both have been five stars! i might try a natural pressure release next time to see if it tenderizes the beef a bit more but i didnt have the time and did the manual pressure release and it was great. this is so delicious! i used frozen peppers (also to save time) and that worked out well. i am really loving these recipes that incorporate rice, so much. thanks!!
Taylor Stinson says
I’m so happy you enjoyed! Doing a natural pressure release will definitely help to tenderize the beef a bit more 🙂
joanne beasley says
Excellent recipe. Easy to read instructions. Will definitely make again
Kim says
WE l8ked it but thought it needed more spice. Next time I will ad some red pepper flakes.
Stacia Jahnke says
Hubby loved this recipe!! I tweaked it to be Keto-approved by subbing our sweetener for the honey, cauliflower rice for the rice, only used 1/2 an onion and used coconut aminos for the soy sauce. Definitely a keeper!!!
Kim says
Loved this recipe, did this tonight and it was easy and flavorful!! Thankyou!! Added frozen green beans with with peppers and onions just for more veggies.
Nanci says
How would I go about doubling this for tonight Please . Looks so good
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Nanci – I would just double the ingredients then add one more minute to the cook time. That should work!
Tiffany says
Fun recipe! One big change I made was to use pearled barley in place of the rice. I know it’s not traditional but I’d been craving it. Since barley takes longer to cook, I partially pre-cooked it for 18 minutes, then removed it and layered everything back in the order the recipe indicates only using 1/2 C water since I didn’t need that much liquid. It worked perfectly!
Small changes – I used venison for the meat, 8 baby peppers for the bells, and coconut aminos in place of the soy sauce. However, the coconut aminos made the recipe too sweet so if you do this, omit the honey! We had to add salt at the table which is always OK with me, and a squeeze of lime solved the sweet problem. Will definitely make again!
Taylor Stinson says
So happy you liked it Tiffany!! And happy to know that you can make these substitutes – thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Dan says
Tylor, thank you so much for this recipe! Being a single guy in the city I decided to try this instapot thing. This was the first recipe I tried and I cannot belive the results! So easy, so good. I cant thank you enough.
Taylor Stinson says
I’m so happy you liked it Dan!!! Isn’t the Instant Pot amazing?!
Rosa says
Can this recipe be doubled? if so, does the cooking time change?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Rosa – you should be able to double it yes! I’d add an extra minute or two to the cooking time.
pl says
Thank you for this fantastic recipe. I’m new to instant pot cooking and this recipe was so simple and tasted amazing! This is now one of my favorite recipes.
Taylor Stinson says
So happy to hear that!!! 🙂