How To Cook Beef Shin In The Instant Pot

How to cook the best instant pot beef shin. Simple step by step instructions for cooking your shin of beef in the instant pot pressure cooker.

Use this beef shin recipe as your go to for soup, stews, casseroles, roast beef, warm beef sandwiches, tacos and more.

Our instant pot beef shin was originally shared on Recipe This in early 2017, and updated in 2020 . This is the latest version with more photos and even better beef shin recipe information.

Beef Shin

It was my wonderful chef husband Dominic that first introduced me to beef shin.

We hadn’t been living in Portugal long, it was our first winter here and he came back with these big portions of beef when doing the weekly grocery shop.

I just assumed it was regular braising beef, but he told me it was beef shin and that I must make beef shin in the slow cooker.

I did and fell in love with beef shin.

It then became my go to winter meat that I would buy whenever it was on sale.

Normally, we will get a big batch of beef shin at Christmas when it is on sale, load into the freezer and save for later.

Quite often, that will be a trolley full of beef shin, as we love it that much.

I notice that there is not enough people talking about how amazing beef shin is and wanted to share with you just how much I love beef shin and why you should be cooking it in your instant pot or slow cooker.

Today we are sharing with you how to cook instant pot beef shin and then tomorrow, slow cooker beef shin for our slow cooker users.

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What Is Beef Shin?

Beef shin is cut from the shank of the cow or more specifically taken from the lower leg of the steer.

Because the shin is active, it needs a slow cook, or a pressure cook otherwise it will be an overly tough piece of meat.

Beef shin is also boneless and sold in a similar shape and size to the beef fillet.

• What does beef shin taste like? Beef shin tastes like a more flavoursome version of braised beef or as you might call it, chuck roast. When slow cooked or pressure cooked it will have the texture of braised but with the taste of silverside.

• What is beef shin good for? Beef shin is ideal for stews, soups, and casseroles. It also shreds well too so you could use it for pulled beef recipes such as tacos and wraps. One of our readers loves to use it for our air fryer meat pie recipe so if you love pies do consider cooking beef shin.

• Is beef shin expensive? It can be, depending when you buy it. I see it for sale here in Portugal in the summer at double what the cost is in the winter.

• How to cook beef shin quickly? The pressure cooker is the best option. It will cook shin 4 times as fast as the slow cooker, yet it will come out just as tender as your beloved crockpot.

• What is beef shin called in America? The Americans don’t tend to have beef shin and instead just focus on beef shank. If I wanted to cook beef shin and lived in America, I would look for boneless beef shanks.

• Beef Shin Vs Chuck? Beef shin is a nicer tender cut compared to chuck. If you wanted the next step up from beef chuck for delicious tender meat, then go with shin. Plus, shin has a much better flavour.

• Beef Shin Vs Oxtail? Oxtail used to be the cheaper alternative to beef shin. A similar cut and a similar price point, they both became popular for stews, soups, and casseroles. But over the years with oxtail becoming more and more popular, shin has become the cheaper cut. Both are great cuts of meat and I have both in my freezer as I type this.

• Beef Shin Vs Shank? As the beef shin comes from the same area as the shank, they are very similar. Beef shin is more popular if you want an off the bone meat that you can transform into stews, casseroles and soups, whilst shank is best served on the bone over mashed potatoes.

Can You Cook Beef Shin In The Instant Pot?

Yes, you can cook shin meat in the instant pot pressure cooker, or any other electric pressure cookers.

I have done slow cooker and instant pot beef shin many times over the years and have found that beef shin in the instant pot is the best option.

This is because as you braise beef shin in the instant pot, the fat comes off it more, making it leaner and more flavoursome.

In your recipe today for shin of beef in the instant pot, I am showing you how to cook your beef shin and use it for everything, but I am sure you want some simple recipe ideas.

Well, here are a few ways we do beef shin in the Milner house:

• Beef Shin Casserole – You can use your beef shin and dice it instead of cooking it whole and then use it for a beef shin casserole or a shin of beef stew. Why not try our instant pot beef stew and dumplings recipe with shin?
• Beef Shin Pie – You can use beef shin like we do in a delicious air fryer meat pie. It makes the best pies and you can freeze spare pies for another day.
• Whole Beef Shin – Or keep it simple like we have done today and cook a whole beef shin. Then you can slice the beef shin like roast beef and it makes a fantastic roast dinner plan B.
• Beef Shin Soup – I always use leftover beef shin in soup. I can then freeze the leftovers and then reheat in the microwave next time. Follow our instant pot leftover brisket soup as this is a great roast beef soup recipe.
• Pulled Beef Shin – When you cook shin of beef add an extra 20 minutes to the cook time and it will have a pulled beef texture to it.
• Beef Shin Tacos – Use beef shin as the base for our instant pot tacos recipe. They are so good, and they make a really big batch.
• Beef Shin Sandwiches – There is something special about reheating beef to make yummy sandwiches. That same rule applies to leftover shin. You can follow our air fryer prime rib sandwiches recipe and then swap the prime rib for shin.

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Beef Shin Recipe Ingredients

Shin – You will need the shin cut of beef. We had a large beef shin that weighed 2.5kg/5.5lbs before being cooked in the instant pot.

Onion – Its all about flavouring the instant pot before the shin of beef is added. I recommend some onion and garlic for this as well as some extra virgin olive oil.

Stock – After browning your shin you will want some good stock to deglaze the instant pot with. I recommend a combo of red wine and beef stock.

Seasoning. Then for seasonings, I recommend salt, pepper, Worcester sauce, tomato puree, mixed herbs and thyme.

Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this braised beef shin instant pot recipe it has just been our Instant Pot. We have this one and it’s my favourite and great for a lot of different instant pot quick recipes.

Plus, we recommend you head over to our instant pot recipes category as we have many electric pressure cooker recipes and have been using instant pots for 5 years.

How To Cook A Shin Of Beef?

• Sauté. First peel and dice your onion and sauté in the instant pot with some extra virgin olive oil. Stir in frozen garlic.
• Brown. Next season your beef with salt and pepper and then brown the beef shin on all sides. Put the shin to one side. Press cancel.
• Deglaze. Add your red wine and beef stock and deglaze the instant pot. Add the meat back to the instant pot and make sure the bottom of the shin of beef is submerged. Then add the seasonings over the beef.
• Cook. Place the lid on the instant pot, set the valve to sealing and pressure cook for an hour followed by a natural pressure release.

And I am sure you can see now how simple and easy it is cooking beef shin and why you should be doing the same.

How Long To Cook Shin?

Braised shin of beef takes JUST one hour to pressure cook, followed by a natural pressure release.

Note that beef shin can be cooked in a 1/3 of this cook time but you want beef shin that is tender and pulls apart and not beef that is tough.

Listen To Instant Pot Beef Shin

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More Instant Pot Beef

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Your beef shin instant pot recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.

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