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Pressure cooker barbacoa. This is my favorite, homemade shredded beef recipe made pressure cooker or instant pot-friendly! Serve the shredded meat in tortillas or turn it into a burrito bowl!
Pressure Cooker Barbacoa is what you need to put on the menu!
This is the I need a flavorful dinner without having to work too hard meal.
Start with instant pot barboca. Sear the beef, toss it in the pressure cooker with the blended sauce and sit back.
Let your rice cooker make you a batch of rice, or make homemade cilantro lime rice if you’re wanting to make a Chipotle Barbacoa beef bowl.
And then simply top it with your favorite toppings. Use salsa verde, blender salsa, pickled red onions, a black bean and corn salad, shredded cheese, a dollop of sour cream – the sky is the limit.
Want to make quesadillas? Do it. Want to use the beef to make enchiladas? What are you waiting for!
My husband and I made this and it came out absolutely delicious! We had enough to have it two diff nights! I wouldn’t change a thing! Thank you for sharing!
Ingredients for Instant Pot Barbacoa recipe:
- Beef: Barbacoa is made from the head of a cow, mainly beef cheeks and tongue in parts of Mexico and South Texas. Since this isn’t something we can find in mainstream grocery stores, I use chuck roast, bottom, round or mock tenders here instead.
- Vinegar: apple cider to be specific
- Lime Juice: adds acid
- Garlic: add in whole cloves
- Onions: give the onions a rough dice
- Seasonings: you’ll need ground cumin, oregano, cloves and kosher salt and black pepper.
- Beef Broth: or use 1 cup water and some beef bouillon instead
- Chipotles in Adobo Sauce: find them in the international food aisle
- Tomato Paste: just a squeeze
- Oil: to sear the meat
- Bay Leaves: toss in when the meat pressure cooks
Recipe Tips
- Blend the sauces so the spices and flavors are distributed. If you don’t have a blender, use a food processor
- Pressure cook on high pressure to ensure that the meat cooks in the time listed
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge or you can pop the cooked meat in the freezer for later.
- You can braise this in the oven too. Sear the meat in a large pot, then braise at 300ºF for 3-4 hours. I also have a slow cooker recipe.
Pressure Cooker Barbacoa Beef
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 medium yellow onion see notes
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup lime juice
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2-4 chipotle peppers to preference
- 1 cup beef broth
- 4 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2½ pounds chuck roast or bottom round, trimmed of excess fat
- salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- BLEND: Add the onion, vinegar, lime juice, garlic, chipotle peppers, beef broth, cumin, oregano, cloves, and tomato paste to a blender and blend until smooth.
- SEAR: Cut the chuck or round bottom roast into 3-4 large pieces. Season the meat with a good pinch of salt and pepper on all sides. Heat ½ the oil in the pressure cooker or instant pot and sear the meat for 7-8 minutes per batch (in two batches.)
- PRESSURE COOK: Add all the beef back into the pressure cooker along with the blended sauce and bay leaves. Cover the pressure cooker. On the instant pot, hit the 'beef/stew' button and let cook for 60-70 minutes depending on the thickness of the meat (mine took exactly 65 minutes).
- RELEASE PRESSURE: Allow the pressure to release naturally or turn to the 'vent' setting if you're impatient like me. Allow it to vent completely before attempting to remove the lid.
- SERVE: Discard the bay leaves and use two forks to shred the beef. Toss the beef in the juice, cover and allow the beef to soak up the juice for another 10 minutes or so. Serve as tacos, enchiladas, burritos, nachos, burrito bowls or however you like!
Notes
- Oven Braising Method: Follow steps 1 and 2 on the recipe card. Then pour the sauce over the seared meat with the bay leaves. Cover with an oven save lid. Then place this in a 300ºF oven for 3 hours. Check to see if the meat is done around 2.5 hours. It should shred with some resistance. Cook for another 30 minutes. Then, turn off the oven and leave the meat in there for 1 hour. Remove, discard bay leaves, shred and serve as desired!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
Hi or low pressure?
Hi pressure! I’ve never used the low pressure setting
Made it this weekend and it was a hit ! Everyone loved it
I’m making this right now. I pressure cooked refried beans this morning….. we have snow coming for the next 3 days. This will warm us right up. ❤️
Hi! I’m new to the instant pot and am still figuring out how to use it. Does the 60-70 minute cooking time include the time it takes to come up to pressure?
Thanks for the recipes! Love your site 🙂
No unfortunately, it doesn’t include the pot coming to pressure. It’s really difficult to predict how long it will take for that so I don’t include that in the time.
It is delicious. Cut back on the cloves. Added fresh chilis. Shared with my neighbor. She served over rice, I used tortilla
On the repeat list.
Do you think this could be frozen in batches for future use?
I’m not sure if you mean prior to cooking or post! If it’s freezing once cooked, yes for sure! This freezes just fine. If it’s prior, I haven’t thrown it into the IP frozen before, so not sure about how much that would change cooking times, unfortunately.
Delicious, thank you!
This is the first thing we have cooked in our new instant pot and WOW, so so good. I gave the recipe to my boyfriend who made this two nights ago and now I’m making it again tonight! 🙂 We are on the Keto diet so finding good recipes like this is like hitting the jackpot. For anyone reading the comments who is also on the Keto journey, we made tortillas using this base recipe:
https://www.wholesomeyum.com/recipes/fathead-pizza-crust-low-carb-keto-gluten-free-nut-free/
We added cumin, garlic salt and cayenne to the dough and rolled out thin tortillas. Another score!
(I hope you don’t mind me sharing another site on your site. Forgive me 0_0 )
Since you mentioned that you’re into murder/crime podcasts (I love Serial!!!), I have some good ones to share.
S-Town, Sword and Scale, Dirty John, Someone Knows Something, Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo, Atlanta Monster and In the Dark.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the barbacoa beef recipe! And thank you for the recommendations on the podcasts! Currently in the thick of Dirty John and it’s soo good! I’ll be sure to work my way through your list 🙂
My husband and I made this and it came out absolutely delicious! We had enough to have it two diff nights! I wouldn’t change a thing! Thank you for sharing!
This looks absolutely delicious!! If I’m making it for a crowd, with roast that are 3 lbs each, should I just make the recipe twice?? (instead of putting both roasts in.)
Not sure if you’d be able to fit 6 pounds in one go, but if you can, you can simply double the ingredients. The pressure cooking time may vary though and unfortunately without testing, I’m really not sure by how much. It would be easier if you made it twice, but totally your call! Hope everyone enjoys the Barbacoa!
I don’t have an instant pot but I have the Fagor appliance….what’s the beef/stew button
Hi Anna! The beef/stew button is just a shortcut on the IP. If you’re using a different pressure cooker, you’ll just use the button that you use for pressure cooking and dial it to the same amount of time listed. Please keep in mind that the timings listed may vary. It may take less/more time in a different pressure cooking appliance. I hope you enjoy the barbacoa!
This Barbacoa is delish!! I didn’t have clove so it was left out. And I used Italian season instead of oregano….I also forgot the add the bay leaves (bummer cause they are expensive). Even without those things and the substitution, it made a fantastic meal!! My boyfriend told me that this will have to be on our favorites for rotating meals.
This turned out delicious!!! I used a blade roast, cut into a few big chunks. I deglazed the pan, after browning the meat, with a couple ounces of tequila. I like the way you got that heautful char on your tortillas!!! I just figured out how to get them like that by dipping the tortilla in cold water then frying them in a crazy hot cast iron pan…sooo yummy!!!
Can this be made in a slow cooker?
Hey Kim, here’s a link to my slow cooker version. You can use these ingredients and make it in the slow cooker if you’d like (there are slight variations between the recipes.) Hope you enjoy it!
Both lime and tomatoes are on my can not eat list due to medical reasons (along with avocado! ☹), would they be okay to leave out or would they need to be replaced with something else?
You can just leave out both the avocado and the tomato paste (it’s such a small amount anyway.) I would suggest using a replacement for the lime juice such as lemon juice (if you can have that) or white vinegar. If you decide to go the vinegar route, I’d suggest using 2-3 tablespoons 🙂
Made this tonight for dinner. Excellent dish. I placed avacado in a taco shell, laid the barbacoa on top with cheese and sour cream. Side quinoa and mexican corn with black bean. Yum! Thanks!
How would you do this if you don’t have a pressure cooker (I know, I know) and want to do it in your slow cooker?!
Hey Katie, if you look below the ‘notes’ on the recipe card you’ll see a link to a slow cooker version of a similar recipe. If you’d like to make this particular recipe, I’d suggest following the recipe through most of step #2, searing the meat in a skillet, then placing everything into a slow cooker and letting it cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 and then picking back up at step #3. Hope you enjoy it!
By Chipotle peppers, is that canned in adobo sauce or fresh chipotle peppers?
It’s the peppers that are canned in adobo sauce, Nathan!
I made this as a test to see if I’d like it for a taco bar for faculty I will be serving at my son’s school. It was fabulous! I cooked mine the night before we were going to try it, and I think the flavor was even better then. I also made the chicken carnitas from this site, and they were great too. I liked the barbacoa beef better, but my son preferred the chicken carnitas. Both will be on the bar!
Made this minus chipotle peppers. Soooo Good! My daughter liked it so much she asked for it for her birthday!