This Instant Pot taco meat is so flavorful! I love cooking taco meat in my Instant Pot because I can make a big batch and feed my family throughout the week.
This is the most flavorful taco meat that you’ll ever meet! It’s delicious served with tortillas, over salad, or on top of nachos. I love this recipe so much that I usually make it a couple of times a month and my family happily enjoys leftovers.
When you make taco meat in an Instant Pot, not only does it cook the meat quickly, I feel like it also intensifies the flavors of the seasonings that I use.
“Best recipe for tacos, period, Ashley nailed it.”
Susan G.
Get Creative with Leftovers or Freeze the Meat for Later
I enjoy making and eating traditional tacos, but when it comes to leftovers, I try to be creative by using the meat in breakfast tacos with eggs and potatoes, on top of salads, or in a “burrito” bowl with rice and fun taco toppings (think: red onion, cilantro, cheese, olives, sour cream… what can’t you put on a taco?).
This recipe is delicious as is – but if you want to stretch the meat out to serve more people or to last a little longer, you can add some chopped potatoes to it. I’ve done this – and it’s fantastic.
The great thing about this recipe is that it makes quite a bit of taco meat. You can eat some now and freeze a portion of it for when you want to enjoy a lazy cooking day.
“Love this recipe! . Freezes beautifully and tastes as good when thawed as it did when it was freshly made! I have shared this recipe more than any other with my instant pot friends. Thank you!”
Kim
Don’t Add Extra Liquid to This… Here’s Why:
One thing to keep in mind when making this recipe is that meat can release a lot of liquid. That’s why I don’t add any additional water to the Instant Pot before making this taco meat. Even without adding liquid, I sometimes have to boil off a bit of water that the meat naturally releases. Once I remove the lid from the pot, I press the sauté button to boil off any remaining liquid.
Then (as I mentioned above), I top the meat with lots of cilantro and use it in all different ways: tacos, burritos, salads, in a burrito bowl, etc.
“We LOVE this recipe. I have done it several times as written, but also modified it according to what I had in on hand, subbing in turkey for beef, sweet bell peppers for green, sweet onions for red. It has always come out great!!! We usually make it in bulk and freeze extra…but even then it doesn’t last very long. Thanks!”
Susan
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef or ground meat of choice
- 4 tablespoons oil
- 2 red onions diced
- 3 green bell peppers diced
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon cayenne
- ½ teaspoon chipotle powder
- Cilantro garnish
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to the Instant Pot except for the ground beef.
- Press the “sauté” button and stir-fry for 5-6 minutes.
- Then add the ground beef to the pot and cook until mostly brown.
- Secure the lid, close the pressure valve and cook for 10 minutes at high pressure.
- Naturally release pressure (or you can quick release too if you’re in a hurry).
- Open the lid, and if the meat released any liquid then press the sauté button to boil it off.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve.
Notes
- I do not add any additional water to the Instant Pot prior to cooking this because meat naturally releases water as it cooks. You can add a bit of water if you’d like, but you’ll need to boil it off at the end by pressing the sauté button once it’s done cooking.
Joanna says
Do you remove any of the grease that the meat releases?
Susan says
This is a regular part of Taco Tuesday in our house. I love how many veggies are mixed right in with the meat, making it easy to up the nutrition for my kids. I usually make it with ground turkey or half turkey and half beef. We often use both green and red or yellow green peppers because we usually have both in hand to be eaten. We have doubled this and used it all week (super good with black beans on top of a Mexican pizza) and we have cut it in half when we only had one pound of meat. Every which way, you can’t mess it up!
Nik says
Simple and tasty. I added a 1/4-1/2 red lentils and same amount Rao sauce before pressure cook to add some extra bulk and nutrition.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
So glad you liked it!
Jennifer says
For feeding a crowd, is it possible to double the recipe, or is it best to make two separate batches?
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Yes, you can double this recipe. Double all the ingredients and keep the cook time the same. Enjoy!
James says
Delicious and simple. Thank you!
Melissa says
This makes no sense- no water? And the site is so buggy with ads you could never read the recipe
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Hi, I’m sure you can use an ad blocker through your browser if you’d like. Also, use the jump to recipe button – it’s easier to find the recipe that way.
Shaylee says
Hello! Do you think I could double this recipe?
Ani says
Hi Ashley. I’ve been following you for a coupla years. You really helped me get started on the Indian recipes (of my childhood) with the instant pot. As my friends say, I am now a formidable cook of Indian recipes. Thanks to you. Now, I am massive Mexican cuisine fan. I tried this recipe today And it did come out very well. I used a combination of two different levels of fat in the minced beef I used. The taco meat that comes out is very nice. But it is missing something…
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Hi Ani, I’m so glad to hear that, thanks for letting me know how much you’ve enjoyed my recipes. That means a lot 🙂