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. 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 or potatoes, on top of salads, or in a “burrito” bowl with rice and fun taco toppings.
This is the most flavorful taco meat that you’ll ever meet! It’s delicious served with tortillas (like my paleo naan), over salad or on top of nachos. I love this recipe so much that I’ve made it twice in the past couple weeks and have been happily enjoying leftovers.
Whenever I make taco meat, I like to freeze a portion of it for a lazy cooking day. It makes for awesome leftovers. This recipe is delicious as is – but if you want to stretch the meat out to serve more people or to last you a little longer, you can add some chopped potatoes to it. I’ve done this – and it’s fantastic.
I love making taco meat in my Instant Pot because it’s my favorite kitchen gadget ever. It cooks everything super fast and I really feel like it intensifies the flavors of the seasonings that I use.
One thing you have to keep in mind when making this recipe is that meat can sometimes release quite a bit 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 have to boil off a good amount of water that the meat naturally releases. Once I remove the lid from the pot, I press the “saute” button and leave the pot alone until most the water boils off.
Then, I top the meat with lots of cilantro and use it in all different sorts of ways.
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 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
- Add all of the ingredients to the Instant Pot except for the ground beef.
- Press the “Sauté” button on the Instant Pot and saute for 5-6 minutes.
- Then add the ground beef to the pot and cook until mostly brown.
- Cover and lock the lid. Cook on the Manual setting for 30 minutes. Make sure the steam valve is closed.
- Once the meat is done, the Instant Pot will automatically switch to the “Keep Warm” mode. Allow the pressure to release naturally or use the quick release.
- Open the pot and if the meat released a lot of liquid, press the “Saute” button to boil off any extra liquid. This may take 10-15 minutes, depending on how much liquid the meat released.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve.
Looking for more Instant Pot Recipes? Try these:
Instant Pot Shredded Chicken
Instant Pot Carne Guisada
Instant Pot Saag
Instant Pot Habanero Chili
Instant Pot Dal Makhani
Goat Curry in a Hurry
Instant Pot Texas Beef Chili
Instant Pot Ground Lamb Curry
Instant Pot Butter Chicken
Could you follow the same directions with ground chicken or turkey? Or would you adjust time?
Mina, you can use ground chicken/turkey instead of beef. I’d keep the same cooking time (to help the flavors come flavors together). The meat will likely cook in less time though so it’s up to you!
Trying this tonight!!!!! And saving some of you other instant pot recipes to try!
Awesome!! Let me know how it turns out for you! 🙂
Would this work with frozen ground beef?
Yes, it’ll just take a little longer for the meat to thaw/brown on saute mode.
How would I adjust the cooking time if halving the recipe?
I didn’t and it came out just fine. 🙂
Setting it for 30 minutes in the pressure cooker doesn’t make the meat turn into mush since it was already mostly cooked before that? I’m just wondering how the texture will be since ground meat cooks fast already.
Hi Liz, nope it doesn’t turn to mush (hopefully you can see the pictures on my blog post). You can cook it for less time since as you said, it is already cooked. I just stick to the bean/chili mode because I believe the time allows the flavors to really come together.
Would you put the potatoes uncooked in with the recipe, or cook them separately and add later?
Thank you!
If you add potatoes, I suggest cooking them separately then adding them in (otherwise they’ll get too soft)
Actually, you can also add them in step 6!
I’m following the Fast Metabolism Diet and can’t use oil during certain phases. Is there a way to do this recipe without the oil?
OMG this is wonderful!! My husband and I had it for Mexican xmas this year, in burritos & taquitos. And then … the leftovers spiced up our favourite Hamburger Soup. Wow! Keep up the good work.
Happy to hear that 🙂 And hamburger soup sounds amazing!
I’m using my instant pot for the first time with this recipe! When you say “make sure the steam valve is closed” do you mean “sealed” setting?
Awesome, I can’t wait to hear how it turns out for you! And yes, I mean the “sealed” setting 🙂
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! The meat has a complex flavor that reminds me of one of my favorite restaurants. I’ll crispy make a double batch next time to have extras for the freezer.
Awesome! I’m so glad you liked the recipe – thank you for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Absolutely delicious! I make my own taco meat all the time but never thought to use my Instant Pot…what a revelation! I used ground chicken and halved the recipe; I added about half a cup of tomato sauce, a teaspoon each of coconut sugar and apple cider vinegar before switching into bean/chili mode (the recipe I’ve used for a decade includes these ingredients and I find it makes a huge difference to add a splash of acid and and a dash of sweetener to taco meat). Loved the spice combination and the great flavor that developed by cooking this under pressure!
Awesome! I’ll have to try that some time 🙂
Just made this and it’s fantastic! My bf said it’s so good he could rub it all over his body! Ha ha! He’s hard to please! Can’t wait to try your other recipes. Delish!
Haha that’s awesome! I’m so glad you both liked it 🙂
If I wanted to double this recipe and make it in my 8 quart Instant Pot, how long do you think I should cook it for? This sounds really great! Thank you!
Hi Beth, you can keep the time the same – the Instant Pot will just take longer to reach pressure before it begins the countdown due to the extra meat inside. Hope that helps! Let me know what you think of it!
Is the manual setting meant to be on Low or High?
high 🙂