Instant Pot carne guisada – beef stew, Puerto Rican style. Satisfy your cozy cooking cravings by pressure cooking tender beef and vegetables in a peppery, sofrito-scented, tomato-based broth.
Yes, it’s been too long! This new recipe is dedicated to my newest furry friend – an absolute rascal of a dog, who was rescued from the streets of San Juan, loves beef, and begs for Puerto Rican food almost as much as I do 
- Why to Use Instant Pot for Carne Guisada
- Puerto Rican vs. Tex Mex Carne Guisada
- Ingredients: The Flavors Behind Puerto Rican Carne Guisada
- Step By Step: How to Cook
- How Long to Pressure Cook?
- Quick vs. Natural Pressure Release
- Storage & Make-Ahead Meal Prep Tips
- Meal Prep Ideas
- Double Decker Dinner with Carne Guisada!
- Nutrition Insights
- More Latin Instant Pot Recipes
Why to Use Instant Pot for Carne Guisada
Instant Pot is a big time-saver for any kind of beef stew.
Beef stew meat is most often chuck – this cut has lots of collagen-rich connective tissue, which means it needs to be thoroughly cooked before the fibers can cook down into melt-in-your-mouth gelatin and become perfectly tender.
On the stove, in my cast iron dutch oven, beef stew needs to simmer for at least 60-90 minutes. With Instant Pot, the pressure cook time is only 20 minutes. Account for 10 minutes to build pressure, and you’ll be eating your stew 2-3 times faster than before!
Puerto Rican vs. Tex Mex Carne Guisada
Carne guisada is essentially a literal translation for “meat stew.” You will encounter a dish by this name in many Latin countries, each with their own regional spins. Most include beef, potatoes and carrots in a tomato broth.
Puerto Rican carne guisada follows this pattern, and its defining ingredient is recaito, the cornerstone seasoning of borinquen cuisine. Beef stew gains major flavor from this paste of onions, garlic, peppers and herbs. Some cooks also like to add green olives, for an extra briny punch.
Tex Mex carne guisada may be the most commonly recognized variation of the dish in the US, and it is a little different than other carne guisadas in Latin America. Often lacking potatoes and carrots, this meat-forward stew features a thick gravy flavored with chili peppers.
Ingredients: The Flavors Behind Puerto Rican Carne Guisada
Beef stew meat can often be purchased as pre-cut cubes, or you can buy a chuck roast and slice it yourself into two inch pieces. I prefer grass-fed beef, which is leaner than conventional meat.
Garlic, oregano and cumin are a trifecta of seasonings that are tossed with the beef to lay the foundation for the stew’s flavor.
Recaito is a staple of Puerto Rican cooking – it is a type of sofrito, a paste of minced aromatics, traditionally including onions, garlic, peppers, and culantro. Prepared recaito can be found frozen or bottled in supermarkets that carry a good selection of Latin ingredients – but I’ve never found one that doesn’t include some preservatives or other unsavory additives. I was lucky enough to have culantro growing in my backyard garden, so I made my own (see instructions in recipe).
Canned crushed tomatoes are the main liquid base for this stew: savory, acidic, and juicy.
Bay leaves add a sweet, herbal aroma.
Onion, carrots and potatoes load up your pot with veggie goodness. You can feel free to throw in other hearty veggies, if you please. This time I had some spare celery to use up, so in it went!
Fresh cilantro is optional – I know so many of you can’t stand it, including the dude I married… But I seriously love it in this kind of dish, scattered in right before serving to brighten up the rich, hearty stew.
Step By Step: How to Cook
Mise En Place
Mise en place = get everything ready for cooking! First, take out your stew meat and season it with the garlic, oregano, cumin and salt. Let it sit and briefly marinate while you chop your vegetables.
To stand up to the cooking time for stew beef, we want our vegetables in big, hearty chunks. Aim for roughly 2-inch pieces for your potatoes, and big wedges of onions. When I add carrots to stews, my favorite method is a “roll cut” technique – I describe it in detail here in my ***Instant Pot Potatoes & Carrots post.
If you have other hardy vegetables on hand, go ahead and cut them up – I don’t always add celery, but today I had a little bit that I needed to use up!
Brown Beef
Turn on Instant Pot’s Saute mode and add a splash of olive oil. When it gets hot, add your cubes of seasoned beef. Let them get nicely browned on the bottom before you start turning them to cook the other sides. Cook the meat in batches to avoid crowding the pan – if you don’t, you will have a hard time getting true browning and you will not build the same flavor.
Make Stew Base
After the meat is browned, set it aside and put your chopped onion and sofrito into the cooker. Let the onion soften, and scrape the bottom of the pan to release the brown bits. Then mix in the canned tomatoes and drop in the bay leaves. Finally, add the chopped vegetables and return the beef to the pot, along with any juices that dripped onto the plate where you’ve been keeping it.
Pressure Cook
Now – all you have to do it close the lid, set Manual mode for 20 minutes, and let your Instant Pot take care of the rest for you! When you open it back up, don’t forget to scatter in the fresh cilantro, if you’re into that kind of thing. 
How Long to Pressure Cook?
I have used my Instant Pot to cook lots of beef stews; for typical 2-inch chunks of beef chuck roast, I’ve found that cooking on high pressure for 20 minutes results in very tender and juicy meat.
Quick vs. Natural Pressure Release
Quick pressure release is often recommended against when cooking meats, because it is associated with risk of drier, tougher texture. This rule of thumb is actually more specific to braised meats, in which the protein sits in a small amount of liquid and the surface is mostly exposed to the air. Quick pressure release and the rapid cooling that results can quickly evaporate moisture out of braised meat.
In this case, because the beef stew meat is mostly submerged in the cooking liquid, there is less risk of drying your meat when opening the pressure valve. If you’re in a hurry to get dinner on the table, quick release will not likely cause you any problems.
My preference is still to wait at least 10 minutes for the cooker to naturally cool before opening the valve – if I can help it! For collagen-rich, low-and-slow cuts like beef stew meat, the extra time will never hurt… it can only make the beef more tender.
Storage & Make-Ahead Meal Prep Tips
Following USDA food safety rules, leftover beef stew can be safely stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
To keep your carne guisada fresh longer, store it in the freezer. For best results, pack it into airtight containers and use it within 6 months. Reheat gently to avoid mushy vegetables.
Meal Prep Ideas
Wondering what to serve with Puerto Rican carne guisada?
- Rice is the most common pairing, giving you a fluffy grain to soak up your savory stew.
- A fresh salad or lightly steamed green vegetable would round out the table nicely.
- Plantain tostones are mashed-and-fried, crispy, salty patties that will turn your meal into a feast!
Double Decker Dinner with Carne Guisada!
Double Decker Dinner is a personal favorite Instant Pot recipe theme, all about finding the right combination of foods that pair together as a balanced meal and that can be stacked and cooked at the same time in the same pressure cooker. It’s one-pot wonderful!
If you’d like to serve your beef stew with a bed of brown rice, you can cook them together!
Just get yourself a tall cooking rack, plop it right into your stew, and top it with a stainless steel insert pan. Fill the insert pan with equal amounts of dry brown rice and water. You don’t have to cover the insert pan with a lid, or foil, or anything – just close up your pressure cooker lid, set the 20 minute cook time, and cook.
When you open the lid, use oven mitts to carefully lift up the hot rice pan and remove the cooking rack. Fluff and serve together – so easy!
Nutrition Insights
Food for thought, from your friendly neighborhood Registered Dietitian Nutritionist + food science buff!
This savory carne guisada doesn’t just nourish your soul – by pairing nutrient-dense beef with a variety of vegetables, it supports your body with powerful nutrition, too!
Beef is a rich source of high-quality protein, and essential minerals like iron and zinc. Tomatoes are rich in vitamin C and lycopene, an antioxidant that has been associated with a reduced risk of certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Potatoes offer a good source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, and potassium, which supports healthy blood pressure levels. Carrots provide beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A – essential for vision and a strong immune system. And the rest of the peppers, herbs and spices are abundant in various antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds that round out a powerful nutritional profile!
More Latin Instant Pot Recipes
[Instant Pot] Ropa Vieja: Cuban Shredded Beef Stew
Your pressure cooker makes it easy to cook flank steak into saucy, savory shreds for ropa vieja, my favorite classic of Cuban cuisine.
[Instant Pot] Picadillo: Cuban Style Ground Beef
Looking for another simple, healthy dinner to cook with ground beef or turkey? Try Instant Pot Picadillo.
[Instant Pot] Carne Guisada: Puerto Rican Style Beef Stew
Ingredients
Method
- Use a blender or food processor (a mini chopper works very well) to blend all ingredients until smooth.
- Season the beef by tossing it with the garlic, oregano, cumin and salt. Let it sit and briefly marinate while you chop your vegetables.
- Using the saute function, heat the oil in the pressure cooker. When the oil is hot, add the beef in batches to avoid crowding the pan. Cook until lightly browned, then set the beef aside and add onion and sofrito into the cooker. Cook until the onion soften, and scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Then mix in the canned tomatoes and drop in the bay leaves. Finally, add the chopped carrots, potatoes, and any other desired vegetables and return the beef to the pot, along with any juices it has released.
- Close the lid, with the valve set to sealing position. Cook on high pressure for 20 minutes.
- When the cooking time is complete, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then carefully open the valve to manually release any remaining pressure. Top with fresh cilantro if desired.
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