This is a feed-a-group sort of a recipe! Slow cooked meat (beef) with a bunch of aromatic spices, chipotle+ adobo, herbs, broth until its literally falls apart, then shred it up and serve it with all the usual taco fixings. We used flank steak here, but short ribs or chuck work as well. If you are a rice, nachos, potatoes sort of household this would be great along with any of those sides! This fed four adults for dinner and a second meal later in the week.
Barbacoa is an aromatic mix of smoky, spicy chipotle peppers, garlic, lime, cumin, oregano, and cloves pressure-cooked with seared pieces of beef until it is fall-apart tender. Pile it high into tacos or to top a burrito bowl, or with melty cheese in a quesadilla, I can assure you this will be a meal that will WOW your diners.
How To Serve Barbacoa
- Tacos! by far the tastiest and popular way to serve barbacoa, simply pile high in your favorite tortilla and top it with all the fixing. I love a simple cabbage slaw, sliced jalapeno, pickled red onions, sliced radish and cilantro.
- Add the shred into a flour tortilla along with rice, refried beans, guacamole, veggies, cheese for a hearty burrito.
- Use the shreds in enchiladas along with veggies+ enchilada sauce topped with cheese and baked until melted. Yum!
- Make a rice bowl with cilantro-lime rice/cauliflower rice, guacamole, slaw or sautéed bell peppers for a delicious burrito bowl.
- Makes an excellent component to nachos with all the fixings
- A topping for a Taco salad with chopped romaine, kale, tomato, roasted corn, onions, avocado, sour cream, lime and dressing.
- Use it as a filling in an quesadillas. The possibilities are endless!!!
Cooking Barbacoa
Barbacoa is slow cooked meat recipe. Best cooked under pressure in a conventional pressure cooker or electric pressure cooker/Instant Pot or slow cooker. The meat is cooked slowly until it falls off the bone(but were using boneless piece of meat here), this is achieved easily and perfectly in a pressure cooker. If neither of them is available it can be made in a regular pot, cooking times vary.
Homemade Barbacoa Tacos
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker Electric or conventional
- 2 forks to shred
Ingredients
- 2½ lbs flank steak or chuck roast
- 4-5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp olive oil or avocado oil
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp Mexican oregano or regular
- 1 tsp regular or smoked paprika
- 3-4 chipotle with 2-3 tablespoons of adobo sauce OR as much as you can handle
- 2 tbsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 2-3 small dried bay leaves
- ½ cup water or broth
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Sprinkle the meat with salt. Heat the pressure cooker to saute function. Add the oil. Once the oil is warmed, brown the meat until it develops a nice sear on each side about 3-4 minutes.
- Set the seared meat aside and turn off the saute function. Scrape off any browned bits so they don't burn, you can use them later so don't throw it out.
- In a small bowl, combine the broth, chopped garlic, ground cumin, cloves, paprika, ,apple cider vinegar, tomato paste, chopped chipotle and Adobo sauce, oregano, and black pepper. Stir to combine well.
- Add the meat back to the pressure cooker, pour the spice mixture all over the meat until evenly coated. Add the bay leaves. Secure the lid and set to cook on high for 60-70 minutes.
- Once the time is up, allow the machine to natural-release pressure. Then release any remaining pressure and remove the lid. Discard the bay leaves. Transfer the meat to a chopping board, using two forks, shred the meat and serve warm. The liquid can be cooked down for a delicious sauce to pour over or dipped.
- See the list above for serving suggestions.
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