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 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.
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 you 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.
don’t add extra liquid to this… here’s why:
One thing you have 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, in salads, in a burrito bowl, etc.
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.
AC says
The best taco recipe I have ever tried. All the seasonings come together perfectly. I added 1 tbsp of tomato paste. The meat was so tender!
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
That’s so great to hear 🙂 Thank you for the review!
Kelley Silva says
Our absolute favorite taco meat recipe!
My Heart Beets says
Kelley, that’s so great to hear! Thank you for letting me know how much you like the taco meat 🙂
Sandra says
Tried this today it was very flavorful but I did leave the green peppers out because I don’t like them but it still had a good flavor but in my opinion needed more of it so that’s why I gave it 4 stars but this is personal preference so take that into consideration. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Wendy Nearhoff says
LOVE this recipe! I won’t make my taco meat any other way. This will always bring a wonderful memory of my sister coming to visit me. We hadn’t seen each other in years and my hubby and I bought our first house. I made this for her and she LOVED it. As a matter of fact she tried it on the stove as she didn’t have an IP. Needless to say the flavor just wasn’t the same so she is now the owner of an new IP. I can’t wait to try some more of your recipes. I just subscribed and am so happy I found you. It was a year ago that I found you but man have I had this MANY times since then. I may have gotten my sister addicted to it.
Could you use this with shredded chicken? Or cook some chicken in the seasoning and broth maybe and then shred it? Not sure if you know but thought I would ask.
My Heart Beets says
Wendy, that’s so great to hear! Thank you for sharing this with me – I’m so happy to hear that this recipe reminds you of such a great visit with your sister and I love that she makes this now too! I haven’t tried this with chicken, but you’ve inspired me so I think I will. I’m sure it’ll be great. If you try before me, please let me know how it goes!
Sarah says
After our first time trying this recipe a few years ago, we completely stopped buying prepacked taco seasoning blends and just always keep a jar of this blend around for all our taco needs.
We especially love the leftovers from this recipe in breakfast tacos or burritos the next day 🙂
My Heart Beets says
Sarah, I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for letting me know how much you like this recipe 🙂
Lorne McInnes says
I have made this recipe every two weeks for three years. I add corn and celery for colour, texture and vitamins. I also swap out one green pepper for a red one for colour. Bag it in 1/2 cup glad bags and freeze it. It is wick and easy for dinners when I get home. Thank you.
My Heart Beets says
Lorne, really happy to hear that you’ve been making this so often for so long! That’s so awesome to hear. Thanks for letting me know how much you like this and for sharing how you meal prep 🙂
Wendy Nearhoff says
Lorne, Thank you so much for this response to our fabulous host. My hubby always says to make less but I did half and it just didn’t taste as good. So I can now freeze the left overs for next time thanks to you! I am making this again today and was worried I was going to have too much as I can’t eat spicy food like I use to. So thank you for commenting and helping me out!
Lauren Taulbee says
I have made this like 5 times now! So delicious.
My Heart Beets says
Lauren, wow that’s so awesome to hear! Thanks for letting me know how much you like this recipe 🙂
Matt says
Best ground beef instant pot recipe online.
My Heart Beets says
Thanks, Matt! So great to hear – thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Angie says
I made this today and the meat was delicious – best instant pot tacos I’ve ever made!
My Heart Beets says
Angie, that’s so great to hear! Thanks for letting me know how much you liked the taco meat 🙂
Elise Gallaher says
This is fantastic! New family favorite!
My Heart Beets says
Thanks Elise! I’m so glad you liked this 🙂