Making ground beef in the Instant Pot is a great way to cut down on effort and perfect for meal planning. Cook up a batch of hamburger and divide it up for weekly meals with this nifty time-saving trick!
Squish your ground beef down into a round pattie. You want it to be about 1 inch thick (at most) if using a trivet it may hang over the sides, and that's okay.
Pour your liquid into the Instant Pot and place your meat on the trivet. Place the trivet inside the IP as well.
Close lid and seal. Set to High Pressure for 6 minutes. Do a 5 minute Natural Pressure Release and manually release the remaining pressure.
After the pressure has been released, remove lid and check meat with an instant read thermometer. It should be 160-165 degrees F.
Carefully remove trivet of meat from the Instant Pot and discard grease. Break up the meat to remove larger chunks and use as needed.
For Frozen Ground Beef
Unless your log or brick of ground beef is too big to fit inside the Instant Pot, do not break it up. If it is too big, break it down and place it side by side as best as you can.
Set it to High Pressure for 25 minutes. Do a 5 minute Natural pressure release and check internal temperature. It should be a minimum of 160F degrees.
Didn't Reach 160F? Tips:
For FRESH---If not reached temp, seal it closed and set to high pressure for another 2-3 minutes and do a 5 minute NPR again. ---If using FROZEN ground beef, do a 5 minute High pressure with a 10 minute NPR.
Alternatively, you can remove trivet of partially cooked meat, discard grease and set Instant Pot to Saute (with a 10 minute timer) and cook the meat with a wooden spoon, breaking it up as you go. This is also the faster method.
Notes
Note: As tempting as it is, do not cook more than 3-4 pounds of frozen meat at a time. It takes FOREVER to get to up pressure and it risks leaving meat in the food safety danger zone for too long as well. ALSO make sure all plastic or wax packaging products have been removed from the ground beef before it is placed in the Instant Pot.How to safely dispose of greaseI can't think of any good reasons to keep it, and leaving it in the pan to cool can be a messy clean up later.So, I'm going to share my FAVORITE trick for disposing of grease. I use this method for hamburger grease and bacon grease (if I'm not planning on keeping it). Simply line a bowl (one that can handle the heat) like ceramic with aluminum foil.Pour the hot grease inside and allow it to cool for several hours out of reach on the counter. I usually leave it on the counter overnight and toss it in the trash in the morning when I'm tossing out coffee grounds anyway.When the fat has solidified, just pull up the foil and toss it in the trash. It may not be a fast solution, but it's cheap and easy.