Perfectly tender and flavorful Instant Pot barbacoa beef. The beef is properly seasoned with the best ever chipotle sauce, then pressure cooked until it’s falling apart. Great for tacos, burritos, rice bowls, and more!

If you cooked barbacoa beef before, you know it should be cooked low and slow until it’s very tender and easily shreddable. Cooking the beef in a slow cooker takes long hours, but you can easily achieve the same results in the Instant Pot.

Barbacoa is often confused with carnitas, the difference is that barbacoa is always made with beef and carnitas are made with pork. Also make sure to check out my Instant Pot carnitas recipe, it’s SO good!

And if you’re a fan of short ribs, then check out my Instant Pot short rib recipe, the ribs are braised in wine and honestly, they’re the best short ribs that you’ll ever have!

What is Barbacoa

Barbacoa means cooking meat slow and low over an open fire or in a pit. Mexican barbacoa is typically made with beef, goat, or lamb, seasoned with chilies, cumin, and herbs.

And while barbacoa means barbecue, it is now referred to cooking meat slowly until it’s tender and for home cooks this is usually achieved through slow cooking or pressure cooking. And sometimes it refers to the meat itself.

This is not authentic barbacoa, but a modified version for home cooks with easy to find ingredients (similar to Chipotle’s!). I think of it as a Tex-mex version of Mexican barbacoa, just like my Mexican shredded beef recipe that you can also make in the Instant Pot.

The Ingredients

To make barbacoa beef, you will need the following ingredients:

• Beef – I usually go for chuck roast, but brisket or pot roast also work in this recipe.
• Broth – use beef or chicken broth, you can also go for water but won’t get as much flavor. This will go in the sauce.
• For the sauce, you will need: Onion, garlic, chipotles in adobo, lime juice, apple cider vinegar, cumin, oregano, and cloves.
• Bay leaves, salt, and ground black pepper.

Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.

How to Make Barbacoa

First, you will need to make the pureed sauce which will hold most of the flavor.

In a food processor or a powerful blender, combine onion, garlic, chipotles, lime juice, apple cider vinegar, cumin, oregano, ground cloves, and beef broth (or water, or beer). Blend until pureed (see picture below) and set aside.

Moving on to the meat:

• Season the beef portions with salt and pepper.
• Press on SAUTE on the Instant Pot, and heat vegetable oil. Sear the roasts (in 2 batches) until brown on all sides. Switch off the saute setting, and deglaze the pot with 2 tablespoons of water removing any stuck bits to the bottom of the pot with a wooden spatula or spoon.
• Add the beef back in, cover with the pureed sauce and add the bay leaves. Give everything a quick stir so that the meat is covered in the sauce.
• Secure the lid and set the vent to SEALING. Select the PRESSURE COOK/MANUAL setting and set the cooking time for 60 minutes at high pressure. The Instant Pot will take around 7-8 minutes to come to pressure and start cooking. When the cooking program ends, quickly release the steam.
• Carefully remove the lid, discard the bay leaves, and take the beef out to shred.
• Shred the meat using 2 forks, then put it back in the Instant Pot in the sauce to soak it up.
• Strain liquid from beef, and serve in tortillas with your favorite toppings.

Serve the Instant Pot barbacoa beef in tacos with finely diced yellow or white onion, freshly chopped cilantro leaves, and thin radish slices.

You can also serve barbacoa beef in burritos with cilantro lime rice, or slider buns like Cuban style sandwiches, or even on nachos!

Top Tips

• I like to use chipotles in adobo as I like a bit of heat. In my recipe, I’m using 3 chipotles without the adobo sauce which gives moderate heat, but feel free to add more chipotles and even adobo sauce if you like more heat.
• Choose fresh marbled beef for the best flavor.
• When cutting the chuck roast into portions, cut into even size pieces against the grain to shorten the fibers as this will help making the beef more tender, and easier to shred when cooked.
• Store the leftovers in the fridge in a sealed container for up to a week, or freeze for up to a month.

Frequently Asked Questions