A traditional Mexican favorite, not so slow cooked: Beef Barbacoa Tacos

Barbacoa is a flavorful Mexican meat preparation with many variations. Here, it’s cooked in an Instant Pot and served as tacos. Recipe below.

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]I[/su_dropcap]t is colder in Chicago right now than in Antarctica. And the North Pole. And Mount Everest. But even before the polar vortex bore down on us this week, bringing the coldest weather in a generation, snow and cold had us thinking of meaty, stewy, cozy dishes. And as luck would have it, Marion had recently come across a barbacoa recipe.

Barbacoa is a Mexican meat dish—beef or lamb or goat—slow cooked with seasonings and typically shredded for tacos or tamales. Traditionally, it is cooked in a pit in the ground, covered with maguey or avocado leaves. But now, it is more often steamed or oven-braised or cooked in a slow cooker. If you look for a definitive recipe, you will not find one. Seasonings, aromatics, cooking liquids and amounts of each are laughably varied.

In the end, we used a Rick Bayless recipe as our starting point, then borrowed from other recipes and added our own tweaks. We like that Bayless’s cooking favors subtle complexity over big, one-note flavor bombs; this dish was a perfect example. It was also a textbook demonstration of chiles being used for flavor, not for heat. This dish includes dried ancho and guajillo chiles, and a canned chipotle in adobo sauce, and there was barely a hint of heat. Just nicely layered flavors.

Bayless’s recipe is for lamb barbacoa, but now is not the season for readily available big pieces of lamb shoulder. So we opted for beef. And rather than using a slow cooker (see Kitchen Notes), we experimented again with our Instant Pot. Either cooking method will render delicious, (reasonably) tender meat. As you see above, we made tacos with it—the leftovers will probably be spooned over rice.

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Instant Pot Beef Barbacoa

Barbacoa is a flavorful Mexican meat preparation with many variations. Here, it's cooked in an Instant Pot and served as tacos.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Servings 6 at least

Equipment

• Instant Pot (or slow cooker—see Kitchen Notes)

Ingredients

For the cooking sauce:

• 2 dried guajillo chiles
• 2 dried ancho chiles
• 3 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, roughly chopped
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1 cup beer (you can substitute more water, but the beer is nice)

For the meat:

• 3 pounds beef stew meat or a chuck roast cut into chunks
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more, if needed
• 10 dried avocado leaves (see Kitchen Notes for sourcing, substitution)

For serving:

• corn tortillas
• fresh cilantro leaves
• chopped white onion
• your favorite hot sauce, if desired

Instructions

• Prepare the cooking sauce. Place the dried chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water (I weighted them down with another bowl to keep them submerged. Let sit 10 minutes to soften. Drain the chiles, stem and seed them, then tear into large chunks and put the pieces into a blender. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients up through the water and blend until smooth.
• Cook the beef. Season beef with salt and pepper. Working in batches, brown meat briefly in Instant Pot set on sauté, about 3 minutes per batch (you're not trying to sear the meat, just lightly brown so it's not red). Transfer each browned batch to a large bowl. Drizzle in additional oil as needed between batches.
• Return all the beef to the Instant Pot, along with any accumulated juices. Pour the puréed sauce through a medium-mesh strainer over the meat. Pour the beer over the meat and stir to combine everything. Lay the avocado leaves on top of the meat. Seal the Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for 1 hour.
• When the pot shuts off at the end of the timed cooking, let it sit undisturbed for 10 minutes. Then, wearing an oven mitt, turn the steam release handle to open. When the float valve drops down, you can safely open the pot.
• Assemble the tacos. Warm the tortillas—while they are traditionally heated on a griddle or in a dry pan, we prefer to microwave them, to keep them pliable. Cut or shred enough of the beef chunks for your tacos. Put a generous amount beef on each tortilla and drizzle with a little of the sauce from the pot. Top with cilantro, onion and hot sauce, if desired. You can also customize with other taco toppings you like—avocado, sour cream, shredded cheese... Serve.

Kitchen Notes

Avocado leaves? Really? Yes, these leaves, also called hoja de aguacate, are a frequently used seasoning in Mexican kitchens. They impart a mild anise taste to the dish. You can find avocado leaves in Latino markets and in some supermarkets. You can also substitute a star anise pod, or forgo this element altogether.

Using a slow cooker. Do everything up through browning the meat, then assemble the dish in your slow cooker. Cook on high for 6 hours.