These sweet and sticky Instant Pot Asian Beef Short Ribs are ultra tender and ready in a flash thanks to the pressure cooker.
After falling in love with my Instant Pot Baby Back Pork Ribs (we seriously make them several times each month), I decided to give beef short ribs a try in the pressure cooker.
I’m smitten.
Beef short ribs are fantastic because they’re thick and marbled with delicious fats, which creates a lot of flavor in a small bite. I gave the ribs a quick rub down with some simple spices like ground ginger, garlic powder, salt and pepper, then I placed them on the rack inside my Instant Pot.
Instant Pot Asian Beef Short Ribs
Why do I place them on the rack instead of straight on the bottom of the instant pot liner? Well, I like to have the ribs cook without being boiled. I feel like boiling the ribs makes them lose a lot of their flavor. With the liquid underneath the ribs, they have a chance to maintain their meaty flavor.
Place one cup of water underneath the ribs and pop the lid on. Cook the ribs on Manual High Pressure for 30 minutes with 10 minutes of Natural Pressure Release before opening the valve and letting the pressure release completely.
Meanwhile you’ll want to mix together the delicious sweet and slightly spicy Asian-inspired sauce on the stove top.
The sauce is a mixture of soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, ginger, garlic and chili garlic sauce. It’s simmered on the stove top and thickened with a little cornstarch before slathering the tender beef short ribs.
Brush the ribs all over with the thickened sauce and pop under the broiler for a minute or two per side and you’re done!
Man oh man, these ribs were to die for! The whole house smelled amazing as they were cooking, and even my kids couldn’t wait to eat them!
The pressure cooker does all the hard work of making these ribs ultra tender in a fraction of the time.
You’re going to be blown away!
I finished them off with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and diced green onions. We serve these with a side of steamed white rice and a green vegetable.
Our favorites are these Parmesan Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli or Asparagus.
I know you’re going to LOVE these sweet and sticky ribs!
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Instant Pot Asian Beef Short Ribs

These sweet and sticky Instant Pot Asian Beef Short Ribs are deliciously tender and perfect when paired with steamed white rice and a green vegetable.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 3 lbs. Beef Short Ribs
- 1 tsp each: garlic powder, onion powder, ground ginger, black pepper, salt
For the Sauce:
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp minced ginger (fresh) or 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp minced garlic (fresh) or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp chili garlic sauce (found in the Asian aisle of the grocery store)
- 2 tbsp corn starch
For Garnish:
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp chopped green onions
Instructions
- Place the rack into the insert of your pressure cooker and pour in 1 cup of water. Combine 1 tsp each: garlic powder, onion powder, ground ginger, black pepper and salt and rub this mixture all over the beef ribs. Place the beef ribs on the rack, so they are above the water underneath.
- Put the lid on, make sure the valve is in the sealed position, then cook on Manual HIGH Pressure for 30 minutes. Let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes (do not open the valve for 10 minutes after the 30 minute cook time is over). Once it’s released naturally for 10 minutes, finish with a quick release (open the valve).
- Meanwhile combine the ingredients for the sauce in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking until smooth and thickened, about 5 minutes.
- Turn the broiler on in your oven and place the beef short ribs on a foil lined baking sheet. Brush the sauce on all sides of the ribs and broil for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, until the sauce becomes glossy and sticky. Garnish with the sesame seeds and green onions if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
You can use pork ribs in place of the beef ribs if desired.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 to 6
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Can this be done in a slow cooker? I have not gotten on the instant pot bus just yet.
I have about 7 lbs of pork loin ribs instead if beef, can I use this recipe?
The pork ribs would be awesome with this seasoning too!
These sound delicious and I can’t wait to make them. I’d like to double this recipe. Does it need additional cooking time or is it ok to cook for the same amount of time. Also, would the amount of water remain the same?
You don’t need to double the cook time, but I would definitely add an additional 10 to 15 minutes to make sure they get nice and tender. You won’t need to double the liquid.
These were great! I’m fairly new to the Instant Pot and have had some successes and more than a few failures, usually when I try to adapt a non-IP recipe. I made this recipe with boneless beef chuck short ribs from Costco. It really turned out great. I didn’t have the chili garlic sauce so had to improvise a bit there. Will try to get that for the next time…and there definitely will be a next time. This was very easy to make, excellent results…made a very appealing dinner with rice and quick-sauteed asparagus in sesame oil. Beautiful and delicious! Thank you!
★★★★
Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I just made this recipe and the ribs were amazing. This was my first time making beef short ribs…they were cooked perfectly… moist, delicious and just falling off the bone. The sauce was spot on. The only thing I did differently was switch out the soy sauce with coconut aminos and added a lot more chili paste 🙂 .. thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
I bought Asian style bbq Beef Short Ribs, at Wegman’s. To be baked in oven. Was wondering, if done in pot in pot in pressure cooker. Should I do 30 minutes with 10 minutes NPR? Or 20 minutes, and 10 minutes NPR?
It would depend on the amount of ribs you have to cook. If you’re over 3 pounds of ribs, I would give it 30 minutes with a 10 minute NPR.
If I make this recipe for 2, using 4 shortribs, is the cooking time in the Instant Pot the same?
I’m not sure since I’ve never tested the recipe at that size. My gut would say that it should be fine if it cooks at the same time, it’ll just make it more tender.
Can these be made in a crock pot? If so, what changes would you make?
Can we use boneless ribs?
Yes, that would work too!
chloe, did you shorten the time with the boneless or roughly the same?
Love these! I’m making them for the 4th time and will surely make them weekly. I make garlic white rice and it’s such a delicious and easy meal!
These were a complete failure! I followed the recipe exactly & the meat was tough, chewy & had to be cut off the bone. Thank goodness I wasn’t preparing this for guests as they would have gone home hungry. Won’t try this one again
Other comments don’t have the same issue. I don’t know for sure where the meat was bought, but I find a huge difference between grocery store meat and meat bought from the butcher up the street. Could that have been the issue? I’m going to give this a try tonight.
Same results! Tough and chewy but very tasty. I had pretty thick ribs from Albertsons. Might try again but will cook for much longer 45 – 60 minutes
They we’re a total failure for me as well. I cook a lot. I’ve been using the Instant Pot for a while, so it wasn’t user error (sorry to say).
The picture before adding the sauce (in this blog’s photo) should have alerted me that these would not be “fall off the bone”; that picture is instead of “shrunk and withered away” from the bone. Which is exactly how ours looked after the pressure cooking and natural ten minute release. And how my short ribs have never, ever looked any of the many times I have cooked them with other methods and other recipes.
Our meat was so tough, it was very difficult to even cut any of the chunks into bites to eat. Also, the sauce was incredibly salty, due to the high level of soy sauce,and then cooking it down for those few minutes. At the three minute mark, the sauce turned very gelatinous due to the cornstarch. It tasted really gross.
We continued onward, though, and brushed the salty, gelatinous saucy onto the shriveled meat, and then broiled it. When we tried to eat it, no one could. It was one of the worst cooking fails I’ve ever experienced.
All that pricey, lovely, formerly meaty short ribs had to be dumped in the trash can.
So for dinner, I ended up scrambling two eggs and having that over rice with some sausage pulled off of a leftover pizza from the fridge. Everyone else went out for burgers.
And yes, I did allow pressure to naturally release for ten minutes as per the recipe. I set a separate timer to make sure I did this correctly. That was not the issue.
Hi Lee Lee, I’m really sorry you didn’t get the same results as everyone else. I’ve made these ribs plenty of times and they were super tender and the sauce wasn’t too salty for us. Maybe try using the lower sodium soy sauce instead of regular?
These were a hit with my family. Thank you for the great recipe!
hi when you are making the asian beef ribs on the rack in your pot can you double the recipe and have 2 layers of beef ribs?? I cooking time the same?
Just tried this recipe, ribs came out amazing! Followed the instructions almost exactly, couldn’t find normal garlic chili sauce at my grocery store so I used some garlic chili gochujang and a little extra garlic for the sauce.
I had some beef short ribs in the freezer so I tried this recipe and it was delicious! I really liked the sauce that went on them.