Instant Pot Korean Short Ribs

Instant Pot Korean short ribs recipe. 

Try this super flavorful Korean short ribs made in an Instant Pot (or in any other electric pressure cooker). The sticky sauce glazed meat is bone fall apart tender and lip-smacking delicious!

Today, I’m sharing my first instant pot recipe. In case you don’t know, Instant Pot is a hugely popular electric pressure cooker in North America and the UK. And, after a long wait, I finally got hold of this gadget a few months ago. In case you’re curious, mine is a 6 quart / 5.5 litre sized pot.

During this time, I have tried several Korean recipes in this pressure cooker, but by far the best one to come out so far is today’s braised Korean short ribs (aka galbi jjim cooked in Instant Pot)!

And, I tell you, these ribs give a ton of flavor while being less time and labor intensive when compared to traditional galbi jjim. It really tastes amazing and I can proudly say that it’s our family’s favorite dinner at present. 😉

Now on to the tips.

Cooking Tips

• Soaking ribs

Korean cooks love clean taste, so before we cook ribs, we like to prep them a bit.

First soak them in cold water. You will notice that the water will soon have a red hue. Many will call it blood, but I recently learnt that it’s actually myoglobin, a protein that’s found in the muscle tissue of the meat.

Soaking time is also an opportunity to get rid of any residue bone fragments on the meat as well.

Many Korean cooks will recommend soaking the ribs for a few hours (even overnight!), but I think you can easily lose the meat flavor by doing so.

So I recommend you to just do it while you’re waiting for the water to boil up for the next prep work.

• Boiling ribs

I love this step. Yes, for sure it’s an additional step that takes time, but this brief boiling of the ribs helps the scum to float, so that you can easily drain it and rinse it.

Also, fat and other tough tissue from the meat can be more easily removed by boiling too. (A lot easier to cut compared to when the ribs are raw).

• Fast natural release

I don’t know about other electric pressure cookers, but Instant Pot has two venting options – natural release and quick release. But you can also manually do “fast natural release”, which falls in between the two categories.

Fast natural release is basically, naturally venting the pressure for some time (15 mins in this recipe) then switching the vent option to quick release to depressurize the pot completely.

Why? If you decide to go with natural release, it can take anywhere from between 15 mins to 30 mins to depressurize the pot. And, it’s a long time to wait since you will want to move on to the next step, which is sautéing the vegetables in the same pot.

If you decided to do the quick release, then you will notice that the ribs are not as tender as they could be. And, I believe this is to do with the sudden pressure change, because you’re releasing the pressure too suddenly.

So to achieve the optimal short rib texture and also to save time, I recommend you to do fast natural release when following this recipe.

• Sautéing vegetables

You might be tempted to add the vegetables (carrots and radishes) with the meat and pressure cook all together to save some cooking time. (Yes, I’ve done that!) But you will end up with undesirably sad looking carrots and radishes.

Since you will have to thicken the sauce (because there is a lot of liquid after pressure cooking), I recommend you sauté the vegetables to cook them and also to thicken the sauce. 20 minutes is all you need and the outcome is marvelous!

• Skimming fat

Short ribs are a fattier part of beef and you will notice it in the sauce after pressure cooking.

If you want to reduce the fat amount, you can skim it by cooling the sauce in the fridge / freezer for a few hours. The fat will harden on the surface of the sauce, so you can easily scrape off with a small spoon (option 1). The downside of this method is that it delays your dining time until it is done.

Alternatively, you can use a fat separator after sautéing the vegetables (option 2). It does make the job neat.

• Using an electric pressure cooker (other than Instant Pot)

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can use other pressure cookers too.

I don’t have experience with other brands, but one of my readers converted my traditional galbi jjim recipe for her Philips pressure cooker, and she reported that it worked well.

Ingredients for Instant Pot Korean Short Ribs (Serves 4)

Main

• 1.5 – 1.7 kg / 3.3 – 3.7 pounds bone-in beef short ribs
• 250 g / 8.8 ounces carrots, peeled & cut in medium size chunks
• 200 g / 7 ounces Korean radish (or daikon radish), optional, cut in medium size chunks

Sauce

• 1/2 cups water
• 1 (170 g / 6 ounces) red apple (or nashi / asian pear), cored & chopped
• 1/2 (60 g / 2 ounces) onion, peeled & chopped
• 6 Tbsp regular soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp rice wine (mirin)
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 5 whole black peppercorns

How to Make Instant Pot Korean Short Ribs

1. Fill the large pot with some water (about 2/3 of the pot) and bring it to boil. While the water is boiling, soak the ribs in cold water. Once the water in the pot is rapidly boiling, transfer the short ribs into the pot and boil them over medium high heat for 6 to 8 minutes.

Drain the water away and rinse the ribs in cold running water. Cut off any excess fat (with a pair of scissors) from the ribs. Place the short ribs in the instant pot.

2. Meanwhile, blend the sauce ingredients in a mixer or food processor until smooth.

3. Pour the sauce over the short ribs. Put the lid on and make sure the vent is in the sealed position. Set the pot to pressure cook on high for 35 minutes. After the pressure cook cycle is complete, allow the pressure to naturally release for 15 mins (the vent is still closed). Then do quick release and wait until the quick release cycle is complete. Be careful of any remaining steam. Unlock and remove the lid.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a large bowl then cover and set aside. Cancel the keep warm mode. (Which would have activated automatically when it finished pressure cooking.)

4. Add the prepared vegetables into the pot. Set the pot to sauté (normal) for 20 minutes and cook the vegetables until soft. Meanwhile, the sauce will turn thick and glazy.

Set the pot to off and transfer the vegetables and the sauce to the meat, then toss to coat. (If desired, you can separate the oil from the sauce as explained in the cooking tips above). Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

5. Serve the ribs with steamed rice and other Korean side dishes. Steamed vegetables such as broccoli go well too.