🎉🌮 My Instant Pot Barbacoa Beef Recipe tastes just like the meat from your favorite Mexican restaurant, but is ready to eat in just 1 hour! Juicy and tender, it’s perfect for using in beef tacos, quesadillas, sandwiches, and more! Slow cooker option below.
What is Barbacoa Beef?
If you’ve never eaten barbacoa before, it’s essentially slow cooked beef that’s been flavored with a mixture of herbs, spices, and chiles. I used a trimmed boneless beef chuck roast in this Instant Pot recipe.
Barbacoa beef made in an Instant Pot is ready in about 1 hour. In traditional preparations of barbacoa, multiple different parts of the beef head were used, as well as sheep, goat, or lamb. A giant hole was dug to cook the meat for 12 hours, but we’re not going down those roads with this recipe.
Slap it in some warmed corn tortillas, top with a squirt of lime juice, cilantro, and red onions, and you have tacos to die for. It’s a fun change from pulled pork tacos, carne asada tacos, or tacos al pastor.
Was a BIG HIT at our annual Mother’s Day lunch. Making it again for my husband’s bday plus I’ve been asked for the recipe as well by family :-)
Emelia
Ingredients You’ll Need
To make this Instant Pot beef barbacoa recipe, you’ll need:
- Beef broth/stock
- White onion and garlic
- Canned diced green chiles
- Chipotles in adobo sauce: This recipe isn’t spicy per se, but rather it’s flavorful. If you want to up the heat level, use more chipotles in adobo and/or more chipotle sauce
- Lime juice and apple cider vinegar
- Dried herbs and spices: Ground cumin, Mexican oregano, salt, pepper, ground cloves, and bay leaves. If you can’t find Mexican oregano, regular oregano also works
- Olive oil
- Boneless beef chuck: I suggest buying a boneless beef chuck roast
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Instant Pot Barbacoa Beef
This is an overview of how to make this glorious beef barbacoa. Make sure to see the recipe card below for more details.
- Use a blender or food processor to blend the onion, garlic, chipotle peppers in adobe, adobo sauce, green chiles, lime juice, cumin, and Mexican oregano.
- Dice a chuck roast into chunks.
- Sear the meat in oil in an Instant Pot, creating a golden crust. This locks in flavor and moisture, preventing the meat from being tough or dry.
- Pour the sauce on top, and pressure cook. Use the quick release to release all the pressure, or use the natural pressure release function.
- Shred the beef with two forks, tossing it with the excess liquid. Then, add it to tacos, quesadillas, burritos, salads, Spanish rice bowls, slow cooker baked potatoes, and more. It’s also delicious with eggs and fresh cilantro!
What to Serve With Instant Pot Beef Barbacoa
Instant Pot Barbacoa Beef (Slow Cooker Option)
Equipment
- 1 Slow Cooker 6 or 7-quart
Ingredients
- ¾ cup beef stock, Mexican beer (Sol, Pacifico, Negro Modelo, etc.), or water
- 1 small/medium white onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 4 to 5 cloves garlic
- 1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles
- 4 chipotles in adobo sauce, or reduce/increase to taste based on preferred heat level
- 1 to 2 tablespoons adobo sauce, or reduce/increase to taste based on preferred heat level
- ¼ cup fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 heaping tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 heaping tablespoon dried Mexican oregano, regular oregano may be substituted
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 pounds boneless beef chuck roast, fat trimmed, and diced into 2-inch chunks
- 3 or 4 bay leaves
- corn tortillas, lime juice, cilantro, red onions, avocado, cotija cheese, etc.; for serving
Instructions
- To the canister of a high speed blender or food processor, add the first 13 ingredients (through cloves), and process on high speed to combine until smooth; set aside.
Instant Pot Directions:
- Add the oil, beef, and sear on all sides until nicely crusted using the Saute function; flip intermittently; press Cancel to turn off the heat.
- Add the 13-ingredient puree to the beef that’s in your Instant Pot, add the bay leaves, stir to combine, close lid securely and set vent to Sealing.
- Press Manual, then press Pressure until the light on High Pressure illuminates. Adjust the +/- buttons until time reads 60 minutes and cook.
- After 60 minutes, carefully turn the vent to Venting for quick release, wait until all of the steam has released, and the valve has dropped.
- Remove the lid, discard bay leaves, shred the meat with 2 forks, and I recommend allowing it to sit in the juices for about 15 minutes before serving so it soaks up even more flavor.
Slow Cooker Directions:
- If using a slow cooker (I recommend a 6-quart size, give or take) and it has a searing function, use it here by adding the oil, beef, and sear on all sides until nicely crusted; flip intermittently. If it does not have a searing function, sear the beef in a large skillet or Dutch and then transfer it back into your slow cooker.
- Add the 13-ingredient puree to the beef that’s in your Slow Cooker, add the bay leaves, stir to combine, close lid, and cook for about 4 to 5 hours on High or about 7 to 8 hours on Low.
- Remove the lid, discard bay leaves, shred the meat with 2 forks, and I recommend allowing it to sit in the juices for about 15 minutes before serving so it soaks up even more flavor.
- Serve on warmed tortillas, or make burritos, quesadillas, tostados, sandwiches, tortas, etc.
Notes
- Beef will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Mexican Recipes Using Beef:
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One Skillet Beef Taco Pasta – An easy recipe that’s ready in 20 minutes, made in one skillet, and loaded with Mexican-inspired flavors! A family favorite that’s great for busy weeknights!
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Steak Fajita Salad with Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing — 🥗🍅🥑🌶️ Tastes like your favorite steak fajitas, but in fresh and crisp salad form! Mouth-watering sliced sirloin steak, crisp bell peppers, onions, and juicy tomatoes are layered over a bed of lettuce to really level up your salad game!
Steak Quesadillas – 🌮🥩🧀 Stuffed to the max with juicy strips of steak, peppers and onions, and plenty of melted cheese, these EASY quesadillas are a family FAVORITE!
I don’t usually cook, but this Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef recipe was so easy and tasty, I can see myself cooking at home more often. It also tastes great on its own or over rice or in tacos. The recipe is easy to follow, doesn’t take a lot of time, & can easily be doubled or tripled
I don’t usually cook, but this Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef recipe was so easy and tasty, I can see myself cooking at home more often. It also tastes great on its own or over rice or in tacos. The recipe is easy to follow, doesn’t take a lot of time, & can easily be doubled or tripled
I loved this recipe so much . It’s really awesome
I loved this recipe so much . It’s really awesome
great
Love this delicious Instant Pot or Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef, seems super delicious . Super excited to try this one
Thanks for sharing this instant Pot or Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef recipe. This one seems super delicious . Super excited to try this one .
Thanks for sharing this instant Pot or Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef recipe. This one seems super delicious . Super excited to try this one .
Thanks for sharing this instant Pot or Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef recipe. This one seems super delicious . Super excited to try this one .
Love this Instant Pot or Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef, this one seems so delicious . My family members gonna love this
great
Made this last night. It was unreal! Our dinner guests said it was the best barbacoa they’d ever had.
Thanks for the five star review and glad this was the best barbacoa they’ve ever had!
Averie – Wow!!!!! This was just ridiculous! Sooooo good! Very impressed with how much flavor and the sauce is amazing. I only used 2 chipotle peppers and removed the seeds – and that was the perfect heat level for us. Just impressed – how easy and how delicious! I will make this a lot!
Thank you so much !!!
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad this was fast and easy and that you got the heat level just right!
Looking forward to trying this recipe today. One question, though. Once you sear the meat, do you then cut it into 2 inch cubes as the ingredient list states or do you place the whole seared chuck roast into the instant pot or slow cooker?
You dice it into cubes and THEN sear it.
Thank you, Averie. That is what I did :) and it is now slow cooking. The family can’t wait to try it!
Excellent and enjoy!
Fantastic barbacoa! I loved using my multifunction slow cooker for this–it was easy to sear the beef while I blended up the sauce. I’ll make this again!
Thanks for the 5 star review, Paula, and I am so glad your multifunction slow cooker came in handy for this recipe :) I am glad you will make it again too!
I have always wanted to try making barbacoa–thanks for this great recipe! I’ve bought it from the grocery but always figured homemade would be pretty easy (and with less sodium). It’s all about the spices!
I have had this recipe on my mind for quite awhile, wanting to make a barbacoa, and am glad I tackled it because it was easy enough and had so much flavor!