The Juiciest Instant Pot Birria Taco Recipe

This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy

Watch the recipe

YouTube ↗

Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · fall-apart beef swimming in rich, spiced consomme

Subscribe

Watch the full method on YouTube →

My first taste of birria tacos was only a few months ago, but it was love at first bite, and I knew that I had to prepare this Instant Pot Birria Taco recipe! The wonderful experience I had chowing down on birria at the restaurant most certainly did inspire me to make this taco recipe, and I give more details in my free motivational guide, Make Cooking Fun!, how going out to eat can inspire you to create restaurant goodness at home. This Instant Pot Birria Taco recipe is a must-try especially if you’re new to Mexican cooking! Plus, the use of the Instant Pot really makes the cooking process of these birria tacos so much easier, and I’m always excited to share a new Instant Pot recipe! Take a trip to Mexico today as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge! You can sign up to my newsletter to get started for free, plus you’ll get all of my new recipes delivered right to your inbox!

The video recipe will guide you through step by step on every part of this mouthwatering Instant Pot Birria Taco recipe! I’d really appreciate if you’d subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already, and please hit the bell button so you receive the notifications when my video recipes go live! I love to make the video recipes to give you a full picture of what exactly is going on so you’re guaranteed for success! Let’s get cooking!

What Are Birria Tacos?

Birria Tacos refers to using the birria consommé as a filling for tacos! Once the meat is cooked, you’ll remove it from the broth and then shred it. Then, you dip corn tortillas in the broth, add the birria filling inside the tortillas, fold the tortilla in half, pan fry the filled tortilla, garnish and serve! Actually, you’ll notice that birria tacos are like a fusion of quesadillas and tacos - we use taco-sized tortillas but fold them in half and pan-fry them with the filling!

Why Make This Instant Pot Birria Taco Recipe?

• Slow-cooked goodness: This Instant Pot Birria Taco recipe is one of those recipes where you’ll cook it in the morning and go about your day, and it’ll be ready by the time it’s dinner! Slow cooking really works its charm here, and it’s very hands-off for you!
• Tender meatiness: Some of the most tender meat you’ll ever taste! If you’re really craving some good beef, then you definitely need to try this out!
• Full of flavor: The meat is so delicious, but we’ve got wonderful flavors in that broth from the spices and chilies used!
• Instant Pot-friendly: If you’ve got an Instant Pot, then this will really help out with the slow cooking! I’ll show you how to make your Birria Tacos in the Instant Pot for this recipe, but you can also use any slow cooker or Crockpot.
• Make-ahead friendly: The hands-on portions of the recipe only involve the beginning where we sear the meat and make the sauce for the broth, then at the end when we actually assemble the tacos. You’ll need to allocate 10 to 12 hours of slow cooking for the meat, so you’ve got an entire half day to go focus on other things as the main cooking process happens, then have dinner ready for you in the evening!
• Perfect for a crowd: This recipe will use a lot of meat, and therefore yield plenty of tacos. If you’re looking to create a Mexican fiesta that will have everyone remembering it forever, then I totally recommend you make these Birria Tacos!

Dietary Information for This Birria Taco Recipe

• Gluten-free: If using corn tortillas.
• Keto-friendly: If using low carb tortillas or eating the consommé on its own.
• High in protein and healthy fats
• Addictively delicious no matter what you follow!

Tools Needed for the Best Birria Tacos

• Saucepan: We’ll boil the dried chilies, onion and fresh tomatoes.
• Instant Pot: This is where all the slow-cooking magic will happen. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, a CrockPot or any other slow cooker will work just fine. You could even use a large dutch oven to brase the birria.
• Cutting board: To cut the onions and trim the fat off your meat.
• Sharp chef’s knife: A key to trim the fat off, and this will be used to remove the seeds from your dried chilies! Really make sure that your knife is sharp enough.
• Stainless steel pan: This is best to sear the meat before you slow cook it.
• Blender: You need a high power blender to blend the spices and the veggies to make a smooth sauce.
• Sieve: To strain the blended vegetable, spice and chili sauce you’ve prepared when you add it to your Instant Pot.
• Tongs: To transfer your cut of meat into the Instant Pot.
• Measuring spoons: To measure the spices.
• Measuring cup: To measure your beef broth.
• Fish spatula: Excellent for flipping your delicate taco. While the name is called “fish spatula,” I seriously use this for everything, from omelettes to pancakes to quesadillas!

Ingredients for Instant Pot QuesaBirria Tacos

All ingredient quantities and full instructions can be saved with the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD at the bottom of this post! Furthermore, the recipe card allows you to adjust the individual ingredient quantities based on how many portions you want to make. If you have a huge Instant Pot or Crockpot, you can really have an awesome Mexican fiesta with this recipe!

For the Birria Consommé

• Birria meat: I used tri tip steak, but use any tough cut of beef, lamb or goat if accessible to you.
• Beef broth: I like the no salt added version so that I can control for salt according to my preference. This is the key liquid for the broth of the birria consommé - you won’t add any water.
• Chicken bouillon cubes: I know that this is a beef recipe, but chicken seasoning add its own flavor that’s unique and delicious.
• Dried chilies: I’ve used guajillos chilies and chilies de árbol.
• Chipotle chilies in adobo sauce: These add more smokiness and a good combination of sweetness and spiciness to heat, which balances out the pure smokiness of the dry chilies.
• Apple cider vinegar: A little bit adds a good tanginess to your broth. Alternatively, you can use regular white vinegar or white wine vinegar.
• Tomatoes: You could use diced tomatoes, but I’m using fresh tomatoes for this recipe. I just find them fresher and tastier. If you don’t have good fresh tomatoes accessible to you, then I would recommend you go for diced.
• Onions: Traditionally, white onions are used. I’m using Spanish yellow onion and it does the job just fine!
• Salt and pepper: Add these to taste to season your food as needed.
• Olive oil: To sear your meat.
• Spices: For ground spices, we’ll use ground coriander, ground cumin, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika. We’ll also add a bay leaf for extra flavor.

For the Birria Tacos

• Fresh cilantro: To be added in the filling and for garnish.
• Corn tortillas: I like the taste and texture of corn tortillas for this recipe, and this is the authentic choice.
• Onions: Some diced white or yellow onions is optional. Authentically, onions are added in the filling, and I chose to do that, though they’re not pictured here! Admittedly, it was a last-minute decision!
• Quesillo cheese: If you’re making Quesabirria tacos, then you’ll need some good shredded cheese! I’m using Oaxaca cheese, which can be found at your local Mexican grocery store. I really recommend Oaxaca for a true authentic experience!

How to Make This Instant Pot Birria Taco Recipe

Heat a pan on medium-high heat and while that heats, pat the meat dry to remove excess moisture, season with salt & pepper on each side.

Add a thin film of olive oil on the preheated pan and add the meat. Sear on each side until golden brown. We do not need to fully cook the meat at this stage. Once seared, transfer to an Instant Pot or slow cooker.

Deseed and devein the guajillo chilies and set them aside.

Then, in a separate saucepan, add the garlic, onion, tomatoes, guajillo chilies & chiles de árbol and fill the pan with water. Simmer the ingredients until the ingredients have softened.

Drain the water and transfer all the ingredients from the saucepan. Add the dried spices (garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, oregano and chicken bouillon) to a food processor and submerge the ingredients with beef broth. Puree until smooth.

Pour this mixture to the Instant Pot, close the lid and slow cook on low for 10-12 hours.

Take the meat out, and shred it using the help of two forks. If cooked well, the meat should shred easily.

Dip the tortillas in the consommé.

Then, add the cheese to the tortilla, followed by the meat. Sear the tortillas on a non-stick pan on medium heat until crispy on each side.

Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro and the consommé on the side.

Enjoy!

What to Serve with Birria Tacos

• Authentic Mexican Red Rice
• Popcorn Chicken Nachos
• Black Bean Salsa
• Indian-Style Spicy Corn
• Chunky Mango Guacamole
• Boiled Rice
• Loaded Cheese & Bacon Air Fryer Fries

Tips for Tender and Juicy Birria Tacos

• Trim any excess fat from your cut of beef or lamb before searing each side. The searing step is important since the caramelization adds a ton of flavor.
• To keep things a bit spicier, you can keep the veins from the guajillo chilies and just do the de-seeding steps.
• While you don’t have to chop the meat after shredding it, it helps get a much more pleasant texture while enjoying the tacos.
• If you want to keep the consommé and meat separate, you can easily first assemble the tacos by toasting the tortillas on low heat, with the cheese and meat. the fold in half and drizzle some of the oil from the consommé to incorporate that flavor in the tacos.

Make Ahead Instructions

Freezing Birria

You most certainly can freeze your beef birria! All you need to do is have your birria stew in your airtight container and place in the freezer. Your birria should last in the freezer for about 4 months.

Reheating Birria

You could reheat birria in a saucepan or in the Instant Pot if you have one. If using the stove, put your saucepan on medium-low heat. The meat is already cooked, and we don’t want it to get hard. Simply bring it up to a simmer and you’re ready. If you’re going to have birria from frozen, I recommend that you allow it to naturally thaw overnight in the fridge, then reheat using these instructions.

I wouldn’t recommend that you reheat birria in the microwave since it will definitely make the meat hard and you’ll lose the tenderness that we love so much from birria.

Why This Recipe Slow Cooks Instead of Using Pressure

This is the part worth being clear about, because most Instant Pot birria tacos recipes do the opposite. This one does not pressure cook. It uses the slow cook function on low for 10 to 12 hours, which is why the total time reads the way it does. There is no sealing position to set, no valve to close, no high pressure to come up to, and nothing to wait out afterwards — no natural release, no quick release, no remaining pressure to vent. If you own a slow cooker and not a pressure cooker, this recipe works in it unchanged.

The reason is collagen. Two lbs of tri-tip is a lean, hard-working cut, and what turns it into juicy tender meat is time at a low temperature so the connective tissue melts into gelatin rather than squeezing water out of the muscle. Pressure cooking gets you shreddable beef much faster, but a long slow cook is what gives you shredded beef that is still moist once it has been sitting in a taco. It also gives the chiles ten unhurried hours to give everything up to the cooking liquid, which is the consommé you are going to dip the tortillas in.

The one stovetop step is the sear at the start, and it is not optional. Pat the meat dry first — a wet surface steams instead of browning — season it with salt and black pepper on each side, then brown meat in a thin film of olive oil in a heavy pan or a cast-iron skillet. You are not trying to cook it through, only to build the browned crust that the long cook cannot create on its own. Then it goes into the pot in large chunks.

A couple of small things make the end better. When you puree the softened chiles, onion, garlic and tomatoes with the beef broth, run the blender or food processor on high speed until it is genuinely smooth; if you want a silkier consommé, pass it through a fine-mesh strainer on the way into the pot. And when the meat is done, lift it out with a slotted spoon into a large bowl before shredding it with two forks, so you can judge how much consommé to add back.

The Chiles, and What This Birria Deliberately Leaves Out

The heat and color here come from whole dried chiles rather than chili powder: 4 to 5 guajillo chilies for fruity depth and mild warmth, 8 to 10 chiles de árbol for sharp heat, and 2 chipotle chilies in adobo sauce for smoke. Pull the stems off the guajillos and deseed and devein them before they go in — the seeds and the pale veins are where the harsh, bitter heat lives, and taking them out lets you use a generous number of chiles without the sauce turning aggressive. They then get simmered in water with the garlic, onion and tomatoes until softened, which is what makes them blend smooth.

On the produce: the recipe calls for half a medium onion and 3 medium tomatoes without specifying a type. White onion is the traditional choice in Mexican cooking and is a little sharper and cleaner than yellow, and roma tomatoes are the usual pick because they are meatier and less watery, so the consommé does not thin out. Either substitution is fine — this is not a fussy sauce.

It is also worth saying what is not in here. There are no ancho chiles, no cinnamon stick and no whole cloves, all of which turn up in more traditional versions and push the flavor sweeter and more perfumed. This one stays savory and smoky instead. The cumin is ground rather than cumin seeds, so it disperses through the sauce rather than sitting in it, and the oregano is listed plainly — Mexican oregano is the authentic choice and is more citrusy and grassy than the Mediterranean kind, though either works. And the meat is boneless tri-tip, where classic birria is often built on bones, goat or a bone-in cut. That trades some richness for a much easier shop and a shorter prep.

Birria is a mexican beef stew from the state of Jalisco, where it has long been the food of weddings, baptisms and holidays rather than an everyday dinner. The taco version most people know now — griddled, cheese-filled, with a cup of consommé alongside — is a newer, largely Californian invention that food trucks made famous, and birria ramen is the same idea taken a step further. To serve birria this way, dip the 7 inch corn tortillas in the consommé first, then fold corn tortilla over the filling and sear until crisp. For quesabirria, layer the cheese down first and the meat on top so the cheese melts against the tortilla and glues it shut. Oaxaca cheese is the right one because it is a stretchy pulled-curd cheese; low-moisture mozzarella cheese is the closest supermarket stand-in and behaves almost identically. Finish with chopped cilantro and consommé on the side.