When it comes to birria tacos, we are in love. But we wanted a quick and easy birria recipe that didn’t involve making a consume from scratch or dry roasting peppers. So we cut down the steps and perfected an easy version in this Insta Pot Birria.
Have you tried tacos de birria yet? If not, stop what you’re doing and hit your local authentic taco shop and have your world changed. These hearty messy tacos are shredded meat served with a layer of cheese, fried, and with a rich consume on the side for dipping. But making the best birria tacos can be a long but rewarding process.
Our authentic birria recipe starts with a beef neck and homemade pepper puree from dried chiles. Then, it’s braised in a Dutch oven and served as a Mexican beef stew. The result is impressive; the shredded beef created the best quesabirria tacos we could ask for. But we wanted to know whether we could speed the process up and still get fantastic flavor.
Can you make birria in an instant pot?
We wanted a truly easy birria recipe: toss everything into the pressure cooker and return to a finished dish. No rehydrating peppers, no making consomme. Just a quick recipe for excellent birria de res. And yes, after testing a few versions to maximize the pressure cooker for a deeper flavor, we came to a quick recipe for weeknight birria queso tacos.
But first, we needed to determine the best meat for birria. Our traditional recipes started with a beef neck, a tough cut that needs hours to break down to become tender. For this instant pot birria recipe, we went with a smaller, underutilized cut and one of our favorites.
What is beef cheek?
Beef cheek is an underused unique cut from the cheek of the cow, and under or around a pound for both. Because this is one of the most worked muscles on the animal, it’s tough unless cooked long enough to allow the connective tissue to break down. Then the bold, beefy flavor shines through for tender bites.
This cut loves a slow smoke or braise, like in our braised beef cheek ragu. The meat can take the time needed to break down and gently become fork tender.
It also does well in the Insta Pot, where the meat cooks faster under high pressure but still has its strong beefy flavor. If you can’t get your hands on beef cheeks, check out our trusted places to buy meat online or use a chuck roast or boneless short ribs instead.
By tossing all of the ingredients into the instant pot, then shredding the meat after it cooks, we were able to get shredded birria and consome in one go. All we had to do after that was fry the birria tacos.
Ingredients
For the instant pot birria
- Beef Cheeks – if you need help finding beef cheeks, see where we order meat online for great sources. Alternatively, a chuck roast, short ribs, or beef shank would also work.
- White Onion
- Garlic cloves
- Chipotle Chiles in Adobo Sauce – find these in the Latin area of your local grocery store in small cans
- Bay Leaves
- Oregano
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Ancho chili powder or Dark chili powder
- Cumin
- Beef stock or broth – we love our homemade roasted beef bone broth.
For the birria taco recipe
- Tortillas – flour or fresh corn tortillas (stale corn tortillas will fall apart, fresh is best)
- Monterey Jack Cheese – or your favorite mild melting cheese like Oaxaca cheese
- Onion
- Jalapeno
- Fresh Cilantro
- Fresh Limes
How to Make Instant Pot Birria
Make the insta pot birria
- Start by removing the beef cheeks from the package and patting them dry with paper towels. Then, season them with salt and set them aside.
- Add the diced onion and remaining ingredients for the birria into the instant pot and nestle the beef cheeks in.
- Secure the lid and set it to pressure cook for one hour and twenty minutes.
- When the instant pot has finished pressure cooking the birria, let the pressure vent naturally for 10 minutes before carefully releasing the remaining steam and removing the top.
- Transfer the beef cheeks to a bowl and shred them with two forks. Spoon a little of the cooking liquid into the shredded beef to moisten it.
- Remove the bay leaf from the birria sauce.
- Using an immersion blender, puree the birria sauce and strain it into a large bowl. If you don’t have an immersion blender, use a food processor for this step.
- Now, you can chill and store the birria and consomme for later or serve immediately.
Make the birria de res tacos
- Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Dip the tortillas into the consomme liquid and let them drip dry before adding them to the preheated skillet.
- Quickly sprinkle the shredded cheese onto the tortilla and spoon the shredded beef birria over top.
- Fold the tortilla over to make a taco and fry on both sides until the cheese has melted.
- Mince the onion, jalapeno, and cilantro and mix in a small bowl.
- Serve the Insta Pot birria tacos hot with a cup of the birria broth for dipping, the onion mixture and a spritz of fresh lime juice from lime wedges.
What to serve with insta pot birria tacos
Besides serving this with a hot cup of consomme for a dipping sauce and the minced onion jalapeno mix, the answer for what to serve with instant pot birria tacos is simply, more cheesy tacos.
But if you really want to round this out with side dishes, try a light salad, charred peppers and onions, black beans, cauliflower rice, or traditional rice.
