Instant Pot Beef Taco Meat

Make Instant Pot Beef Taco Meat with fresh or frozen ground beef and homemade seasoning with this easy recipe. Perfect for tacos and 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 busy days or days when I am completely exhausted and too lazy to put much effort into dinner.

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

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

How to Cook Ground Beef For Taco Meat in the Instant Pot

Like I said, this recipe is super simple. And yes, you can do this on the stove --I've made it this way a gazillion times. But honestly, I like cooking ground beef in the pressure cooker better. The meat is softer, the flavor is deeper, and you can sit back and let the pot cook.

First, you brown the ground beef and add the 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. Sometimes, I leave them out. It depends on whether we want to have beef and bean burritos, enchilada casserole or baked tacos.

Next, add some beef broth, black beans, if you want, and pressure cook it for 5 minutes. You can sauté the meat after pressure cooking if you want to reduce the liquid.

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

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

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Originally published in 2018 and updated in 2020.

Recipes with Taco Meat

• Beef and Bean Burritos
• Easy Baked Tacos
• Enchilada Casserole
• Doritos Casserole
• Taco Tater Tot Casserole
• Serve over Instant Pot Jasmine Rice