Instant Pot Ground Beef Tacos

Make Instant Pot Ground Beef Tacos with fresh ground meat or frozen ground beef using this easy recipe. A quick dinner perfect for taco night, burrito bowls or homemade burritos.

Ground beef taco meat is one of the easiest Instant Pot recipes you can make. Actually, it’s an easy dinner recipe — period!

Tacos are my go-to easy dinner recipe for a busy weeknight or busy days when I am completely exhausted and too lazy to put much effort into dinner.

I pretty much rely on easy Instant Pot ground beef recipes to get me through days like these. And, even though we love making Instant Pot salsa verde chicken for tacos, ground beef is even easier.

And, if you forget to set out ground beef to defrost, no problem! You can cook frozen ground beef in your Instant Pot — it’s super easy!

Ingredients

You only need a few simple ingredients for this Instant Pot taco meat recipe. If you don’t have the ingredients on hand, you can easily find them in your local grocery store:

• Olive oil — or vegetable oil to make browning the beef easier
• Lean ground beef — No need to drain grease
• Beef broth — for flavor, or use water
• Taco seasoning — homemade taco seasoning or a packet

How to Make Instant Pot Ground Beef Tacos

Like I said, this Instant pot tacos recipe is super simple. And yes, you can cook taco meat on the stove top –I’ve made it this way a gazillion times.

But honestly, I like cooking ground beef in the Instant Pot pressure cooker or any electric pressure cooker better. The meat is softer, the flavor is deeper, and you can sit back and let the pot cook.

First, you turn on the saute setting. When it reads HOT, add a little oil to the bottom of the pot.

Next, add your fresh beef, and brown beef on the saute function.

Then, add the taco seasoning or your favorite spices.

I use my recipe for homemade taco seasoning, but you can use a packet if that’s what you have.

Sometimes, I add black beans to the taco filling. Sometimes, I leave them out.

It depends on whether we want to have beef and bean burritos, enchilada casserole or baked tacos.

Cooking Time

Next, add some beef broth, and be sure to deglaze the bottom of the pot if needed.

Pressure cook the taco meat for 5 minutes on high pressure. After 5 minutes is up, do a quick release to release the pressure.

If you’re busy, you can even do a natural pressure release and let the meat keep warm until you’re ready to serve. That’s the beauty of pressure cooking!

You can sauté the meat on the saute setting after pressure cooking if you want to reduce the liquid.

Total cook time depends upon the size and brand of pressure cooker and if you do a quick or natural release. Once cooked, spoon the cooked taco meat into hard taco shells and add shredded cheese, lettuce, sour cream or your favorite toppings!

How to Cook Frozen Ground Beef

For best results, use 1 or 1.5 pounds of frozen ground beef or 2 flat 1 pound-bricks of meat, side by side.

Just place the frozen beef in the Instant Pot without the trivet, add beef broth or water, and pressure cook the frozen meat for 10 minutes.

The meat won’t be fully cooked inside, but you easily break it up now. Then, sauté the beef, add taco seasoning and more broth, and it will finish cooking as you sauté it.

If you have more than 2 pounds of frozen beef, it will take longer to cook.

Pro tip — If you’re buying meat in bulk, try freezing it as flat as possible in 1 to 1.5 size pieces.

Variations

I made this Instant Pot taco meat recipe as simple and easy as possible. But, you can easily jazz it up!

Add black beans and serve over cooked rice for burrito bowls, burritos or wet burritos. Spice it up with chopped jalapeño peppers and diced onions.

To make this pressure cooker taco meat recipe leaner, use ground chicken or pork. Or use ground turkey for turkey tacos!

How to Store

Store the leftover ground beef taco meat in an airtight container for 4 days.

You can reheat the leftover taco meat on the stove or in the Instant Pot on saute mode. No need to pressure cook it again.

For longer storage, place cooked taco meat in a freezer safe container. This is perfect for meal prep!

Originally published in 2018 and updated in 2021.

I hope your whole family likes this easy Instant Pot taco meat recipe as much as we do! For more quick meal ideas and easy recipes, including easy Instant Pot recipes, be sure to follow me on social media.

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