Instant Pot Short Ribs (Galbi Jjim) – Fast and Delicious!

Instant Pot Short Ribs (Galbi Jjim) recipe is here!! YAY!! Which means…YES – I got my Instant Pot!!!

Actually, I got it almost a month ago…😉 but I was so busy with travel and consulting for a new restaurant opening, the instant pot sat sadly on my counter all this time…in case you don’t know what Instant Pot is – it is a slow cooker + pressure cooker + rice cooker all rolled into one. Go to Instant Pot site for more info and see this review.

After having tried 2 recipes in one day, I have a feeling Instant Pot and I are going to become very very good friends. 😍

WHY INSTANT POT is Great for Galbi Jjim

Usually, Korean Short Ribs Stew (Galbi Jjim) takes hours to make and although it is one of my best recipes, I end up not cooking it very often because I need to set aside at least 3-4 hrs to make it. But with the Instant Pot Pressure Cooker function, I made it in just 35 minutes (cooking time)!!! So here’s what I really like about the Instant Pot so far –

• Time – I made this Instant Pot Short Ribs in 1/4th of the time needed to make Galbi Jjim the regular way (from 2 hrs down to 35 minutes of cooking time).
• Foolproof – when cooking Galbi Jjim, there’s always a risk of either cooking it too much or too little unless you time it or constantly check it. But with this Instant Pot Meat/Stew function, it cooked it just perfectly. Fall of the bone but not overcooked.
• Keeps warm without reducing – another thing that often happens when reheating Galbi Jjim is that every time you reheat, you can end up cooking too much and the liquid becomes too concentrated. But with the Keep Warm function, you can reheat it without any concerns for reducing too much.
• Flavor – My family was really surprised how great the flavor was. This Instant Pot Short Ribs recipe produced just as good, if not better results than my original Galbi Jjim recipe. This modified Galbi Jjim recipe uses red wine instead of sake, more vegetables to meat ratio and less water.

MY STOVE TOP GALBI JJIM RECIPE (if you don’t have an Instant Pot)

No Instant Pot or a pressure cooker? No problem. Here’s my Stove Top Galbi Jjim RECIPE!

OK, well, let’s get started!

Instant Pot Short Ribs – Korean Galbi Jjim Recipe

Servings: 3-4              Prep Time: 20 min       Cook Time: 35 min                Difficulty: Easy

Full Ingredients appear in RECIPE CARD at bottom of page:

Ingredients

• 2 lb Beef Short Ribs (소갈비 Seo Galbi)\
• 5 large dried shitake mushrooms
• 1/2 lb Korean radish or Daikon
• 1 large carrot
• 3 green onions (1 for garnish)
• 8 peeled chestnuts, Korean canned works well
• 10 Tbsp shitake mushroom water
• 1 cup water
• 1-2 Tbsp sesame oil (finish)
• Galbi Jjim Seasoning Sauce(see Recipe Card)

1. Soak dried Shitake mushrooms in water. If you use warm water, it will speed things up and be ready in 10-15 min. If using cold water, it will take 30 min.  or longer – until the stems are fully soft. Do NOT throw away the mushroom water.
2. Soak short ribs in cold water to draw out any impurities.

While mushrooms and ribs are soaking, peel and cut radish into big chunks. About 3/4 in thick and 2 inch sides.

Peel and cut carrots into big chunks (1.5 in long). Cut green onions into 2 in long pieces.

When mushrooms are fully soaked, take them out of the water and cut into quarters. Remember to save the mushroom water for later. See my Galbi Jjim post for more details.

After the ribs have been soaking for 15 min or so, water will be cloudy like below-

Remove ribs from water and let the ribs drain. With a knife or scissors, trim off excess fat and score center of the ribs (just a shallow cut, not all the way down).

If using canned chestnuts (I like canned chestnuts because they still stay crunchy after cooking), drain away the syrup and just save the chestnuts.

If using fresh or dried chestnuts, just use as is.

Prepare sauce by mixing all sauce ingredients.

Now, we are ready for the Instant Pot! Add the ribs, then all the vegetables (radish, carrots, mushrooms, chestnuts) and green onions.

Pour Galbi Jjim seasoning sauce on top.

Add 10 Tbs of mushroom water (from 1) and 1 cup of water.

Now close the lid and set it to Meat/Stew function which should be 35 minutes of pressurized cooking!

When it is done, follow instructions to release steam and open. You can see that there is a large amount of fat/oil that is on top. We need to remove this! You can remove the fat using the traditional method of cooling and letting the fat solidify  (see my youtube short on how to) or use a fat separator OR you can use a new method that I found while cooking for this recipe! See my next post no how to separate fat from stock.

After skimming the fat, taste the meat and the sauce. Adjust by adding more honey or soy sauce if you’d like. Finally, add 1-2 Tbs sesame oil as a finish.

Garnish with some fresh julienned green onions. Serve with rice and kimchi and you will love it!

Psst…the purple flowers are Sage flowers.  Galbi jjim is not the prettiest food to take pictures of so I wanted to add a bit of color..

A quick short video on how I remove fat from my Galbi Jjim –

How to remove fat from Korean Galbi Jjim (Short Rib Stew) #koreanfood #galbijjim #koreancooking

Notes

• My Galbi Jjim recipe is kind of on the sweet side. If you like things less sweet, just reduce the sugar amount.
• Add jujubes, kabocha squash or potatoes if you’d like.
• Most Galbi Jjim recipes will end up with very little broth but mine is more like a stew which I like. I always felt things were too dry. And the leftover broth is so yummy when poured over rice.

Enjoy!!

XOXO ❤

JinJoo