Instant Pot Taco Meat – From Fresh or Frozen!

So, tacos. We’re back on that. It’s always the same with me, tacos, tacos, tacos!

But this time guys, this is traditional taco meat. Well, American traditional taco meat. You know, ground beef and taco seasoning. Truthfully though, I usually use a mix of beef and chicken, but more on that later.

I love this recipe. I make it often because as stated, I love tacos, and I buy meat at Costco. It’s Costco man, nothing is little there – you know this. So, I always end up bringing home 6 pounds of ground beef or three pounds of ground chicken/turkey and toss it in the freezer in 1 pound packs. Thus, frozen meat. Great to have on hand, yes, but also a pain when you want dinner and it’s frozen in a block.

It’s why I love Instant Pot taco meat. It works both ways, toss the bricks of frozen meat in or fresh. It does not matter one bit. The other reason is the flavor – it’s just infused into the meat, not just “coated” like when you make taco meat on the stove. The texture is not as chewy either, which I love. It reminds me of restaurant or fast food tacos.

Yes, I know you can just do it on the stove in 20 minutes, but I’m telling you, it’s just not like this. You have to experience it to get what I’m saying. It’s worth the time. And it’s all passive anyway.

Like I said earlier, I do mix and match the meat. Age and biology forces me to watch my diet. But I still love tacos, so I do use leaner meats and it makes no difference. If I’m serving this to someone who is all about the beef and using a mixture of beef and poultry, I’ll add a splash of Kitchen Bouquet in the second step and it makes the poultry look like beef and no one knows the difference. (BTW, this works like a champ to make ground chicken, turkey or tofu look like crumbled beef!)

And guys, this makes a lot. At least for my house. It’s just me and management here, so we do tacos, breakfast quesadillas, frozen burritos, taco salad.