Pressure Cooker Filipino Beef Tapa
If you have ever visited the Philippines you will find that we eat rice pretty much all day long. When I visited my family in Manila for a month in 2004, I ate this for breakfast pretty much every single day. That is to say unless I was having a sweet tooth craving, in which case I would eat ensaymada (a buttery, cheesy sweet cake). Personally, I love to break the yolk of the egg on top of the rice and then mix it all together.
Instant Pot Filipino Beef Tapa
If you have never had a sunny side up egg on top of your rice before, then you do not know what you’re missing out on in life! The usual way to make beef tapa is to use cured beef which you would revive with the marinade (overnight) that is used in this recipe.
Instead of using cured beef we are using fresh beef and letting it pressure cook in the sauce making it cut like butter and oh so finger licking good. I highly recommend you try this recipe out with garlic fried rice and a sunny side up egg, but you can always just enjoy it with plain jasmine rice as my kiddos do.
If you liked this dish check out my Pressure Cooker/ Instant Pot Filipino BBQ Ribs. For more Pressure Cooker/ Instant Pot Recipe head over HERE to find a list of other delicious meals you can try with your family. Let me know what you and your family think of this delicious Filipino style breakfast dish in a comment below.
Instant Pot Filipino Beef Tapa
Ingredients
- 2 lbs of Beef Sirloin, thin sliced or slice thin yourself
- 3 Tbs of oil
- 6 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 Cups of water
- 1/2 Cup of Soy Sauce, I used Silver Swan a Filipino Brand
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 3 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon of Oyster Sauce, or 3 tsp of Mirin
- 1 Whole Lime Juiced
- 1 tbs cornstarch
- 1 tbs water
Instructions
- Turn on your pot and press the Saute or the Chicken/Meat Button, Add oil and garlic and let cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Add sliced Sirloin and cook until browned on both sides stirring often.
- Once Sirloin is browned add the brown sugar, salt and pepper, soy sauce, oyster sauce (or mirin), lime juice and 2 cups of water and mix well.
- Once all ingredients are combined cook on Manual HIGH 12 minutes.
- Once the timer goes off do a quick release of pressure and then open the lid.
- Mix cornstarch with water and then add to the pot, turn on Saute mode or press the Chicken/Meat button and let boil for 5-10 minutes stirring every 2 minutes.
- Serve alongside fresh steamed jasmine rice, or garlic fried rice topped with a sunny side up egg.
- Enjoy!
This turned out amazing. Thanks for the recipe!
I keep finding myself coming back to your recipes! Yum!
This sounds amazing!! In the interest of not having a pantry full of ingredients I don’t use often, is it possible to substitute fish sauce for the oyster sauce? I’ve never used oyster sauce so have no idea if they’re interchangeable, so thought I’d ask before I go shopping. Thank you so much!!
I believe you could substitute it with oyster sauce, although it will make it a tad bit sweeter than the recipe I provided. BUT overall it will still taste just as delicious, I’ve interchanged, added and altered this recipe many times on my own due to your same obstacle where you only have limited ingredients on hand. It comes out delicious every time though so I would definitely just go ahead and use that and later when you have time and want to just purchase the fish sauce then, or don’t if you like it with oyster sauce. 🙂
When do you add the soy sauce?
Hi lee, I apologize for the confusion, in step 3 with all the other ingredients. I will edit the post to reflect that step.
Is corn starch required? Also does the beef need to be marinated prior?
Hi Nina! The cornstarch is not required BUT it does help thicken the sauce, you can use alternative products to achieve a thicker sauce if you would like. The beef in this recipe does not need to be marinated. Thankfully in this recipe, the Instant Pot/Pressure Cooker does all the work and gives you that marinated for 4 days flavor without the fuss. I hope this was helpful for you, please let me know if you have any other questions or how yours turned out. 🙂
Thank you so much for the quick response!!!
How can I tweak this for more of a bistek w onions recipe?
Hi Nina, Ah! So Bistek is actually a different recipe, I have been meaning to put that one up on the blog. So for Bistek you would need Soy Sauce and Lemon juice, add in a bit of sugar *Just to your liking, maybe a tablespoon* and then cook with sliced onions for the same cooking time. I don’t have the measurements for this exact recipe since I haven’t tested it out in the Instant Pot yet (only have made it stove top) but I love that dish!
Thanks for sharing the recipe. If I don’t have lime in my pantry at the moment, am I able to substitute lemon or calamansi? Would that alter the taste significantly?