Make your own Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos & Burritos and enjoy them fresh and hot right in your own home, without wondering what lurks in the meat.
Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos
Tacos, a thing of beauty. Taco Stands are found on almost every street corner.
A food we can eat with our hands, including the vessel that holds all the delicious meat and toppings. What could be better? Well, for me, I want to know exactly what is in the meat I am eating.
I mean, I am embarrassed to admit, that I do love those Drive Thru Taco stands and I get a bit giddy when the hubs brings home a box of Tacos.
Instant Pot Drive Thru Tacos are super simple recipe to make in your Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker, which mimics your favorite drive thru taco stand. I’ll even show you a trick to get the meat same texture.
Cast of Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos
While this recipe for Instant Pot Tacos are not authentic it’s a great recipe for an easy taco bar.
For an authentic and incredible taco, the type which is found all over the streets of Tijuana, Baja, California you’ve got to make these Air Fryer Tijuana Street Tacos. Just like at those Mexican taco stands, where meat is skewered beneath a pineapple and the pineapple juice drips into the meat as it is being cooked, this recipe is authentic.
Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Ground Beef or Other Ground Meat
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Beef Broth or Beef Base (mixed with water)
- Maseca
- Homemade Taco Seasoning.
My Pressure Cooker Salsa Lime Chicken with Cilantro Lime Rice, is another Mexican-ish dish you might enjoy and will accompany these Tacos nicely!
Another delicious Mexican-ish dish is my Pressure Cooker Chicken Enchiladas. They are super easy to make and perfect for a Mexican themed night.
Allow your Pressure Cooker to Heat
When using oil in a stainless steel pot, the best way to make it non-stick, is to first heat the pot.
This easy trick will help when sauteing and browning meat, as anything that does want to cling on, will easily release when you deglaze.
Pro Tip: Heating a stainless steel pot before adding any kind of fat, will help to make your pot non stick.
Add Ground Beef and Water
Here is the trick to get the meat nice and smushy, like the Taco chains around town.
How to Make Taco Meat like Taco Bell
Pro Tip: After adding the oil to a hot pot and the ground beef (or turkey) beef broth or fresh water will help to break the meat down into tiny crumbles like the Drive Thru Taco joints..
The meat won’t be oily or wet by the time after cooking and will be infused with wonderful flavors.
Break up the Meat into Crumbles
A meat breaker upper thingie works really well for this crumbling task, which seems silly, but really makes a difference.
After all, Instant Pot Drive Thru Tacos are much better for your belly than those nasty mystery meat tacos at fast food stands. What do you imagine is actually in those? And do you think the employees really wash their hands after…well, you know….
Why Break up Meat?
- This will allow you to get the meat to be the texture of the Drive Thru Taco Stands.
During the sauté, the meat will brown and most of the water will evaporate.
Strain the Liquid from the Meat
Now, to beat the meat silly. I mean, to remove any excess water from the pot, a stainless steel mesh strainer is useful to catch the meat so it doesn’t go tumbling down the drain.
Add the Meat back to the Cooking Pot
Time to season the meat. Now, you can easily add a packet of taco seasoning, or, you can put your big girl or boy panties on and add the individual seasonings.
Come on, you can do it…Actually, make yourself and quadruple the batch so that you have it read for future recipes.
The Best Homemade Taco Seasoning
How to Make Homemade Taco Seasoning.
Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Minced Onions, Ground Cumin, Dried Oregano, Paprika, Cayenne Pepper, Sea Salt, Freshly Ground Black Pepper are the individual seasonings for Pressure Cooker Drive-Thru Tacos.
If you don’t have all the ingredients in your pantry, a packet of taco seasoning may be substituted.
My Homemade Pico de Gallo makes a great topping for these tacos. Make up a batch in advance and let it marinate in the refrigerator until dinner.
Add the Seasoning Mixture
Can Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos Be Frozen?
Absolutely they can. Makes sure to store the meat in a air tight container or use a Foodsaver. When you are ready to reheat, use your Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker. The pot in pot method works best. Grab a trivet and a stainless steel pan and add the frozen meat.
Place a cup or water in the bottom of the cooking pot and set the cook time for 5 minutes.
Pro Tip: We like making a few batches at once and storing them in the freezer for later use. All you would then need to do is to get some toppings ready, while the meat is reheating.
Add Beef Stock, Chicken Stock or Water
We love to use turkey in this recipe, as much as we like the beef, so you might be wondering about the liquid.
Liquid for Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos
- If using ground beef or ground bison use beef broth.
- For ground chicken and turkey, use chicken broth.
The above links are to concentrated bases. To use a flavor base, mix together one teaspoon of base per cup of water.
You can absolutely just use water if you like, but the stock will really add some good flavor.
Do whatever works for you. 🙂
Simmer the Meat Until all Liquid has Evaporated
There is a very short cook time. At this point, you might be thinking that this is just as easy to do on the stove.
Well, it is, however, some people don’t have stoves, don’t want to use their stove, or don’t want to have to slave over a hot stove.
Plus, the real reason to make Instant Pot Drive Thru Tacos is that the flavors are super infused when cooked under pressure. You could use this method and walk away during the cook time or take 30 minutes and watch the pot on the stove.
Now you are thinking, how many times did she say “stove.”
Sprinkle the Masa over the Meat
Here is the tricky trick trick.
Wait what, she is adding masa/maseca. What the hell is that?
Masa is a corn flour.
Why add Masa to Instant Pot Tacos?
- Masa adds a wonderful and unique taste and locks in the moisture from the broth.
Masa is also wonderful to thicken up my Pressure Cooker Competition Chili Con Carne recipe and adds a delicious flavor to the Chili.
Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos
Serve in taco shells and garnish with your favorite vegetables and toppings. I love these cute little Taco Holder Tongs, so that my filling doesn’t end up all over my plate. Oh, comeon, they’re cute and cost under $5.00 too! We like our Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos pretty simple.
Toppings for Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos
- Shredded lettuce
- Grated cheese
- Diced tomatoes
- Avocado slices
- Sour Cream or Homemade Yogurt
Another admission, I love Taco Bell Taco Sauce in the little packets. I use the sauce when I use this taco meat in burritos. OMG, so good.
Luckily, I can buy bottles of the sauce, so, all is good with the World.
Tips and Tricks for Instant Pot Tacos
- Heat pressure cooker before adding oil.
- Use a meat masher and mash up the meat until it looks like mush.
- Make sure to strain out the water very well.
- If you don’t have or cannot find Masa, grind up a hard taco shell (turn it into powder) and use it instead.
Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Burritos
My husband is a Soft Taco/Burrito, sort of guy, so he eats his either with Soft Taco shells or I roll them up to make a Burrito.
When I do Burritos, I add a scoop of my Pressure Cooker Frijoles (Re-Fried Beans) for a seriously yummy Burrito!
However you eat them, enjoy!
More Taco Recipes to Make:
- Air Fryer Baja Fish Tacos with White Sauce
- Instant Pot Taco Sloppy Joes
- Air Fryer Carne Asada Recipe {Grilled Meat Tacos}
- Air Fryer Tijuana Street Tacos {Carne/Beef}
Taco Tuesday is every day of the week, as far as I am concerned!
Kitchen Equipment and Essentials
- Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker
- J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
- My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
- Meat Chopper and Masher
- Salbree Steamer Basket
- Fine stainless steel mesh strainer
- Homemade Yogurt Recipe
- Taco Holder Tongs
- Taco Bell Taco Sauce
Caring is sharing! If you would like to support This Old Gal, please share this recipe on Social Media, so that I can continue to bring you more wonderful recipes!
If you share a picture of something you make from our blog, tag it with #thisoldgalcooks so we can see it. We might feature it on Instagram! It makes my day when I see you’ve made one of our recipes!
Here is your handy printable recipe:
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil Extra Virgin
- 1 pound Ground Beef Turkey or Chicken
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 1.25 cups Beef Broth (or 1.5 tsp Better than Bouillon Beef Broth + 1.25 cups water)
- 2 teaspoons Maseca Corn Flour
Seasoning Mix
- 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder mild
- 1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Granulated Onion Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Minced Onions dried
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Ground Cumin ground
- 1/4 teaspoon Dried Oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon Paprika
- 1/16 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper ground
- 3/4 teaspoon Sea Salt or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper or to taste
Recommended Products
Instructions
- Select Sauté or Browning on your pressure Cooker and allow to fully heat.
- Add oil, ground Beef and 1/2 cup of broth/water. Break apart meat and sauté until browned.
- Turn off pressure cooker and use a mesh strainer to strain out any excess water from meat.
- Scrape bits from bottom of cooking pot.
- Add all seasonings, Worcestershire Sauce and 3/4 cup of broth and mix through.
- Lock on Lid and close Pressure Valve.
- Cook at High Pressure for 3 minutes.
- When beep sounds, wait 10 minutes and then release the rest of the pressure.
- Open lid and sprinkle masa over meat mixture. Hit sauté and mix in the masa while simmering until until liquid has evaporated.
Notes
Nutrition
PIN this Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos & Burritos!
Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos
Love this recipe and I adore you! I make your recipes for my kids and husband all the time. Thank you for posting them!
Thank you so much, Melissa. Jill
Made this tonight. Used a bit of veloutine to thicken the sauce and taco seasoning mix (had on hand). Delicious,nice to be able to use the Instant Pot for this recipe.
Thank Jill
Thank you, Jennifer. I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Jill
If you double the meat do you double all the other ingredients? Will cooking time still be three minutes?
Very good recipe ?kids love it usual make a lot and make a couple of days later beef bean and cheese burrito’s .
My kids and my husband love this recipe. Used turkey and didn’t have Masa, but still so good.
Thank you, Mel. Jill
So good, Jill! Love this recipe! Thank you , will use this forever,
Thank you, Lee Ann. Jill
Loved them!
Ive made this recipe several times, using ground chicken and have never been disappointed.
Thanks, Joanie. We like to use turkey too! Jill
LOVE these!
This recipe is excellent. I make it all the time.
I’m so glad you like this recipe, Teri. Jill
The best
Thank you, Mary. Jill
Our favorite taco meat recipe!
Thank you, Diana. Jill
This has become a staple for the weekend we get all the kids. 3 pounds feeds 1 teenage and 3 tween boys as well as 2 adults.
Thanks, Krista. Jill
Do you just triple the recipe when you cook 3 pounds of meat? Do you still do 3 min for press cooker?
This was excellent! Thank you for the easy weeknight recipe!
Thanks, Paige. Jill
I have been looking for a filling like this forever. I usually use packaged seasoning, but was glad to find the perfect mix for homemade. I made it tonight and it was delicious. Thanks
Thank you, Frieda. Jill
Made this tonight in my instant pot mini for my daughter and me. Got a big 2 thumbs up from my picky 15 year old. Definately a keeper and so quick n easy!!!
Terrific, I am thrilled this was enjoyed so much. Jill
My husband has recently switched over to a plant based diet. Having used this recipe for ground beef (and loving it), I decided to use it with vegi crumbles and it turned out to be every bit as good as the beef recipe. It absorbed all the beef broth and I did not need to reduce any liquid. I will used this for making him enchiladas, burritos, and soft tacos. The spice blend is incredibly good.
Wow, that is so wonderful. Thank you for sharing your results with me. Jill
This question would probably go for all of the recipes. If you double the ingredients, do you double the cook time?
No. Jill
Very yummy we all loved it!
This recipe is awesome! I love how the meat boils and breaks down into small crumbles. The spice mix is perfect. I did 5# with no problems. Used homemade bone broth and left out the maseca because I didn’t want to add carbs and loved the result! Thank you!
Thanks, Kathy. So glad you enjoyed the Tacos. Jill
My kids are begging me for tacos as they got the Dragons Love Tacos book for Christmas. I’m going to try this tomorrow!
Question, why drain in the first place if you’re just going to add water or broth right back in? We’re not fat averse at all, so unless there’s another reason I’d rather leave it in…
Ok, I’ve had a long term love affair with same drive through taco place since my senior year of high school and my boyfriend would take me there for lunch on Saturdays. I always loved the smooth texture of the meat in my tacos, but no matter how much smashing or chopping or stirring I did, it still came out like hamburger! Until tonight-these were the best tacos I have ever made, Seasonings were perfect and texture was great. My husband raved over them, and we almost consumed all of two pounds of taco filling (for 5 of us). These are tacos worth cooking at home!
Hi Cynthia. What high praise. Thank you so much. I am glad you enjoyed your homemade tacos! Jill
Great recipe! This was my first dinner I made with my new instant pot. Thank you!
Congrats, Danielle. So glad the first meal was a success. Many, many more, I am sure will also be a success. 🙂 Jill
Made this today in my 8 qt IP with 5.6 lbs of 90% lean ground beef. Great recipe, thank you. Now to freeze in 1# packages to use as needed.
Hi there!
I need to make a lot of taco meat for a crowd (30) – what’s the best way to multiply this recipe? Thanks!
Tried this recipe today and loved it! I would like to make this for a group of 20-25 people. What would I increase for the cooking times? Thanks again!
Hi Jolene. So glad you loved the recipe. No increase of time needed. 🙂 Jill
Going to try
I made this last night (doubled the recipe for my large family) and we loved it. The meat was so tender and the flavor was wonderful! I used to try to accomplish this by adding water to my taco meat and simmering down on the stovetop (TWICE) but this was much quicker and worked better. Thanks for the recipe!
This recipe was OUTSTANDING!! I have a weakness for “drive thru tacos” and I’ve always cooked my taco meat in a pan on the stove, but tonight I tried your recipe with some ground chicken breast meat and LOVED it!! There was something special about the meat when cooking it with this method. Like you said, the flavor really gets infused into the meat and I love your spice blend. I think I’ll make it in bulk and weigh out the right amount for future taco nights! I’ve made a handful of your recipes and want to thank you for sharing so many recipes from your heart to our kitchens. Your recipes have never failed me and whenever I see someone in the IP FB group post a link to a recipe on your site, I know it’s going to be a home run.
Hi Stephanie~
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe. I also have a love for those nasty drive thru tacos, but was always concerned about the handing and what was really in them. Thank you for your kind words. Jill
I made your recipe tonight and LOVED it! I have a serious weakness for “drive thru tacos” and I’ve always cooked my taco meat in a pan on the stove. This recipe tasted special because I tried your method. Although it may take longer, it was satisfying and delicious. I loved your spice blend, which I’ll make in bulk so I can scoop out the right amount for taco night again. I’ll definitely make taco meat with your recipe again. It was excellent. Thanks for sharing all of these tasty recipes from your heart to our homes. I’ve made a few of them, and there are more on my list to try. When I see someone share one of your recipes in the Instant Pot Facebook group, I know I can trust it to be a home run. 🙂
My instant pot should arrive today so this is probably a beginner question but isn’t the pot hot after you sauté the meat? How do you easily grab it to drain it?
I sauté on high and grab the inner pot with my hands to drain and don’t find it too hot. If you’re sensitive to heat use an oven mit to take it out.
This sounds great! Would it be possible to double or triple this recipe and cook all at once for parties?
Hi Drew~
Sure, no problem. 🙂
Jill
Do you freeze the taco filling after cooking? How would you reheat?
can I make the Cilantro rice PIP with this?
I am really enjoying your recipes — I like using an Instant Pot and I prefer “real” ingredients and cooking from scratch. So your blog is super useful!
Hi Esther~
Thank you so much. I am glad you are enjoying your Instant Pot.
Jill
Would anything sub for the masa if we don’t have that on hand?
I’ve been thickening my burrito/chili dog and chili pots with corn meal for a number of years. Had a thin batch of chili and threw in a couple of tablespoons of cornmeal and loved the thickening and the flavor it contributed. Now I do it with all these dishes because I like the taste and I always have cornmeal on hand.
I’m going to try your seasoning blend, having grown bored with the one I’ve been using for the last few years. Here’s a good approximation of Taco Bell Mild Sauce. I use ½ teaspoon onion powder in place of the flakes, then double the recipe and keep it in a squeeze bottle in the fridge, because taco emergencies happen with astonishing frequency in my home.
http://www.copykat.com/2009/03/27/taco-bell-taco-sauce/
Thank you Jill! I love your recipes! I’ve added a “button” to my iPhone that takes me directly to your blog! You’re my super heroine!
Thank you, Patricia!
Jill
How do I do that??
How would this change for a freezer meal?
A friend gave me a jar if homemade Mexican seasoning for Christmas. How much of it would I add to this recipe instead of the individual seasonings? I imagine it is very similar to these seasonings.
Obviously, I am not Jill, but I thought I might be able to help since I use the exact seasoning mix that she does as my homemade taco seasoning and have for a few years now. Mark, this seasoning mix makes 3 tablespoons. The store-bought mixes recommend 3-4 tablespoons per pound of meat. With your homemade seasoning (I do my own as well), I use 3 tablespoons. Try 3 tablespoons initially. If there is not enough flavor, add 1 additional tablespoons.