Instant Pot Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
Its been a week. Last week I got hit with the stomach bug and that was definitely not my cup of tea. It knocked me on my butt for a good three days but thankfully, I have kicked the bug to the curb and I’m finally able to enjoy real food again.
You truly don’t miss real food until you can only eat saltines, rice, chicken, and boring, bland food, haha – it was rough. I was craving everything under the sun but I knew I had to let my body run its course before introducing crazy foods back into my system.
Back during Black Friday, the Instant Pot had a ridiculous deal. I bought one (which I haven’t unboxed yet because we are moving soon and I truly do not have any more space in the kitchen for another appliance) and can’t wait to use it.
My mom has been the biggest fan of pressure cookers for as long as I can remember. I remember her using one when we were really young and throwing racks of ribs into the pressure cooker when she got home from work around 5pm and us having the most tender, flavorful, and fall off the bone ribs for dinner. She would make the most amazing meat dishes in the pressure cooker and she has been telling me for about seven years now to get one.
I have always 1. been afraid of them and 2. kept saying I didn’t have kitchen space. Two of those points are still very valid; I’m still afraid of them because I just envision the entire thing blowing up (which I know that’s not really possible) and I definitely don’t have any more kitchen space hence why we are moving.
However, I am thrilled to be able to use a pressure cooker very soon because the amount of time this would save us in the evenings is pretty much right up my alley.
AND THEN…my mom told me you can make Taiwanese beef noodle soup in the pressure cooker and I about lost my mind. I don’t know why I never thought to do such thing (probably because I never thought I’d really own a pressure cooker) but ever since she made it for me one weekend, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
I LOVE Taiwanese beef noodle soup. The best is eating it in Taiwan. And it’s crazy but it’s wildly popular there year-round. Yes, I vividly remember going to the market with my parents and going to these stalls with lines of people getting beef noodle soup for lunch and then sitting on benches in suits/dress clothes slurping away in like 90 degree heat with humidity. WORTH IT.
Jason had his first authentic Taiwanese beef noodle soup when we went to Taiwan and he loved it. He loves when my mom makes it and he’s so excited that we can make it in the pressure cooker soon.
Get all the gloriousness of Taiwanese beef noodle soup but in half the time with making it in the Instant Pot (pressure cooker)!
- 2 1/2 pounds bone-in beef shank
- 1 large onion, quartered
- 2 tomatoes, quartered
- 3-4 peeled garlic cloves
- 1 piece of large ginger, sliced into large thin pieces
- 1/3 - 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup shaoxing wine (Chinese cooking wine)
- 3 star anise
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 3-4 dried Thai red chilies, optional
- 1-2 pounds Asian noodles, depends on how much soup vs. noodle ratio you like
- Green onions, for topping
Bring a large pot of water to a boil then blanch the beef shanks. You don't want to cook them all the way through, just about 2-3 minutes. This allows the impurities to get cooked off. Remove the beef shanks and discard the water with the impurities.
Add the beef shanks to the pressure cooker then add the remaining ingredients. You DON'T need to add water because the beef naturally releases water throughout the cooking process.
Using the meat preset (or similar), pressure cook the beef. With my mom's pressure cooker, she had to run the meat preset twice. If this confuses you, just pressure cook it for 25-26 minutes.
In the meantime, cook the noodles and divide evenly into bowls.
Once the pressure cooker is done and pressure is released, add meat and soup on top of noodles.
If you feel the spices and liquid amounts are not enough, feel free to add more. My mom gave me this recipe and since she has been making this for years and years, she pretty much eyeballs it all so tweaking this recipe is very easy to do yourself :)
We typically serve this soup with a side of cooked spinach but you can with any vegetable of your choosing.
Posted on February 13, 2017
gotta say – looking at the photos alone has me craving this! :P
Thanks lady!!!
i cant wait to buy an instant pot. every culture seems to have a variation of noodle soup, i shared a Nepali version today with chicken. I am absolutely digging the noodles and soup looks delightful.
I love different cultures and their classic meals!
I can’t think of a better dish to keep me warm this winter! :)
Glad to hear you are feeling better, this soup looks fantastic!
Pressure cookers are amazing! Glad your feeling better!
I’m dying, my husband requested Taiwanese beef noodle soup for dinner tonight. He said to me yesterday “use the instant pot” to which I replied ‘I don’t know how to convert my recipe to the instant pot, but I’m sure I’ll find one on the internet sometime.’ Well what do you know… here it is! Thank you! (And you are right, nothing compares to those street venders in Taiwan 😋)
Omg, that’s hilarious and awesome at the same time! Yay!! :)
Thank you for this symphony of flavours. Will do for a week end !
What a perfect dinner! Love these flavors!!
Now this a bowl food of comforting flavors! Yum!
This sounds delicious. I don’t have a pressure cooker, can it be adapted to a Dutch oven and cooked low and slow?
Yes, definitely! My mom has done it both ways.
This looks delicious! I have been on a major soup kick ever since it’s gotten cold out!
Looks good! How many cups of water did you use for this recipe?
Hi, in step #2 it says why I don’t add water to this recipe.
What is your favorite noodle for this recipe.
I can’t wait to try this! Thanks!
I just use regular udon noodles
Thanks for this recipe! Just got an instant pot and I cant wait to try this. Up til now, I always had to wait til my grandma felt like making her amazing beef noodle soup=p
I was born in Taipei and my mom learned to cook from a famous chef while we were still there. One of our favorite comfort food had always been her beef noodle soup. Sadly, she passed away a few years ago and her recipe was lost in the shuffle as I was never great at cooking. :( My husband who’s American LOVED her beef noodle soup so I’ve been searching everywhere for a recipe similar to hers. Yours look very similar so I’m definitely going to give this one a try! Thanks for sharing!
Haha, I just got an Instapot–and over a stomach virus! My son and I are gonna try your recipe tomorrow night, because we’re craving the (as we know it) Braised Beef Soup Noodle Own Gravy. Thank your mom for the recipe!
I was kind of disappointed with the recipe. I thought you would rewrite your Moms recipe to show how to use the actual Instant Pot. Do we set it to cook on the meat setting for 25 minutes? Do we natural or quick release the pressure? or a combination of both…if so what time for each? TY for clearing this up for me.
What do you mean you thought I’d rewrite my mom’s recipe to show how to use it in the actual Instant Pot? I did do that. Did you see the recipe that is included in this post? In step 3 it says exactly what to do. It also says in step 5 “once pressure is released.” – it can be either or…quick release or natural.
We just returned from Taipei two days ago and we all loved the beef noodle soup there. We are still at the table after eating your soup and it was a winner! We all loved it!
I used a pound of beef short ribs, fat cut off as much as possible, and a pound of beef brisket.
I mostly followed the recipe as written but I added a little 5 spice powder to it and one dried chili.
Pressure cooked a little longer than stated (instant pot on manual 45 mins total) because the meat needed a little longer to get tender.
The soup was very concentrated so I used half of the lightly salted water that we used for cooking the noodles and half of the soup mixture. Served with some choi sum on top. Kids said it was better than the ones they had in Taiwan! Thank you!
Wow, that’s a great compliment!! Better than the ones in Taiwan?? Omg, thank you!!!
Thanks for posting this! I made it today and it was phenomenal and less daunting than I thought. Cheers!
Great to hear!! Thanks for the feedback!
“You DON’T need to add water because the beef naturally releases water throughout the cooking process.”
Later…
“add…soup on top of noodles”
I’m confused, how does the pressure-cooked beef makes the soup without water?
because, like the instruction says, the beef naturally releases water/liquid throughout the cooking process, therefore making the soup/liquid. when you cook with a pressure cooker, meats release a lot of liquid from the pressure and uses that to create the steam and pressure. trust me, i’ve done this a lot and have watched my mom do it. you can always read in other comments on this post that people have made it using my instructions and it has come out perfectly fine :)
Also, for non-alcoholics, what are the best substitute for Chinese cooking wine?
There is actually not much you can do to substitute it. You should just omit it.
I made this and it turned out perfectly. Super delicious ans EASY. I substituted a couple spoons of tomato paste since I didn’t have fresh tomatoes. Also added little chicken stock post pressure cooking to get more good that good soup.
So since your mom does the meat mode twice, does she release the pressure and then set it again?
Nope, she just presses it again haha
Loved it! Followed it except I added an extra pound of beef shank while so I could make beef rolls too
Thank you! Made this tonight and turned out so good! Beef was perfect. Fell apart when eating. Couldnt stop eating and now ready for a nap.
thank you for sharing- excited to try – have you ever tried to make tendon also in the instant pot?
No I have not but I’m sure my mom has :)
Hi! If I wanted to eat bok choy in it do you know what step I would add that in? Or should I boil it separately and add it at the end? Thank you!
I would cook it separately when you cook the noodles and then just add it into your bowls at the end!
This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try. Can this recipe be doubled?
Yes, definitely
It’s under 20 degrees here in DC, but also it’s Jan 2 so I’m pretending to be “healthy”. My go-to ramen recipe wasn’t going to cut it for dinner, especially on my first day back to work after holidays. I wanted warm, cozy, and full of flavor. I stumbled upon this and decided it was the one for tonight!
I did make a few changes based on what I had and my inability to navigate the large Asian grocery store I visited for ingredients. I used 1.7 lbs shanks, subbed 1 teaspoon five spice for the other spices (I got lost trying to find star anise, and upon googling substitutes realized the remaining spices on the ingredients make up five spice!), and added 1 cup water because we like lots of broth.
This was SO good. I pulled the beef out after 35 min on high with a natural release – it was fall off the bone tender. I chopped it to bite size pieces and put it back, turned the pot on simmer and added the noodles (I used dry ramen) and sliced bok choy. This was absolutely perfect, thanks for the great recipe!!
Yay!! So glad you enjoyed!! I’m in the DC area too and omg. SO COLD. It’s 4 degrees right now, INSANE!!!
We made some missteps in substitutions. Flavor-wise it turned out very tasty, though we don’t have anything to directly compare to. We tried a Beijing-style spicy beef noodle soup at a local restaurant in Dallas, Texas (Hello Dumpling), loved it, and I wanted to have something similar at home. It’s not really similar, though I do like the flavor a lot.
Our first mistake was substituting for the beef shank. I consulted the wisdom of the internet and it said chuck roast could be substituted. Not true, don’t do it. After pressure cooking 25 minutes the chuck roast was dry and stringy. Hindsight says a bone-in piece of meat is very different from a boneless one. We also didn’t have enough broth for the amount of meat present, probably because there’s a lot more meat in 2.5lbs of boneless roast. I am trying to salvage the meat now by cooking it longer in some beef stock.
Second mistake, less bad, was using mung bean thread (which I love) instead of some other kind of noodle. They soaked up most of the broth, and so instead of having a soup we have wet tasty noodles.
Good substitution: whole cloves instead of ground cloves. Probably a bit less clove flavor over all, but that’s ok.
I was a little lost on how much ginger to use. It worked out ok, and I guess it’s always going to be subjective based on how much you want in the dish, but when one wants to hew closely to a recipe (which we didn’t with all the subs), more exact amounts do help.
Thank you for the culinary adventure!
hello there,
i got exactly 2.5 pounds of bone in beef shank and followed the exact ingredients and instructions except i didn’t do the natural release because it was 27 minutes after pressure cooking (manual
pressure of 35) and it still wasn’t releasing so i did a quick release myself after 27 mins of when the pressure cooking was completed. I find there wasn’t enough liquid /broth (there was more ingredients than the broth!) , and i had to add more water later to have enough. It still tasted good because without the water addition i find it a bit too salty. Is there a reason why there’s not enough liquid ? Could it be because i didn’t chop up the meat first? or is it because i used frozen beef shank instead? But i did blanch it first, so don’t think it would have made a difference…
I will try again next time and see the results, and perhaps add carrots – what do you think of that? Thank you
It could be that you didn’t chop up the meat first but also, may depend on how large your pressure cooker is? Mine is 6 quart. Adding carrots will make them too soft and fall completely apart so you may not want to do that.
Found this in a search for instant pot recipes. Was delicious and so easy – thanks to you and your mom! I cooked 35 min and meat was perfect. Next time I’d use more liquid – ideally chicken stock – so there’d be more broth. But really so great. Brought my husband around to instant pot love!
I’m trying out the recipe now but it seemed to be over 30 mins and it’s still not cooked? Am I doing something wrong? Is a multicooker the same as instant pot?
A multicooker is the same as an Instant Pot. There are many questions for me to ask you so we can figure out why it’s not cooked: Did you use the multicooker on the pressure cooker function? Did you make sure the valve is sealed? Have you cooked anything using the pressure cooker function before? Did you substitute anything? What do you mean by “it’s still not cooked?”…like the meat still isn’t cooked or the multicooker hasn’t gotten to pressure or the multicooker isn’t doing anything?
Oh my goodness this was so amazing, I followed the recipe almost to the letter, just substituted the fennel seeds for fresh fennel (it was all I had at home) and omitted the alcohol. Thank you so much for this it will definitely become a staple meal in our house 😁
Just made this tonight! It was great. I made 2 batches since we bought over 7lbs of meat and had a 6 quart pot. Few suggested tweaks. Use 1/2 cup of soy sauce. Also add 2-3 cups chicken stock. We didnt get enough soup on the first batch and we added 1 cup of stock. We also added carrots and radish. Besides using the meat setting (35mins), I added an additional 10 minutes. 2nd batch, it melted in my mouth! On my next attempt, i will try dark soy sauce. as well.
Hi there,
do you chop the meat to bite size after you blanch the beef or after cooking in pressure cooker? Thanks!
You chop the meat into bite size prior to blanching the beef!
Oh my gosh! This was so good! I made it yesterday, it turned out amazing. The meat was so tender (we used brisket) and soup was super tasteful. I’m from Taiwan originally and my husband lived there for many years, we both agree this recipe is very authentic, its probably better than a lot of of Taiwanese restaurants’ beef noodle soup. We followed the recipe exactly but had few changes – we used boneless beef brisket instead of beef shank, used 1/2 cup soy sauce, added 2/3 cup chicken broth in the beginning, and used an about 2” ginger root. I’ll definitely make it again, perhaps try one tomato instead of two since my soup was a little bit acidic. Thank you for the recipe!!
This was such a rich broth and delicious supper. I added a bit of turmeric (it was handing around) and some pumpkin slices.
excited to try! i’m getting a 3qrt instapot. curious to know what size you’re using? I want to make sure things will fit! thanks
I’m using a 6 quart
This is a great recipe! Adding 2cups chicken stock was a great idea. This was abit too salty for me so I’ll be using the lower sodium soy sauce in my next try.
Hi. I am new to instant pot and love to use your recipe. Would you please give me a little more details about setting for instant pot. We choose meat setting on high pressure for 25-30 minutes and natural release. Is that what you mean?
Yes, exactly! :)
This was delicious!!! We’ve never had Taiwanese cuisine before, but I was looking for something to do with my 2 lb beef shank and also looking for soup, since the weather has turned. This hit the spot! Thank you so much for this delicious recipe!
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed your first taste of Taiwanese cuisine!