Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos [Instant Pot]

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

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 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

1. Heat pressure cooker before adding oil.
2. Use a meat masher and mash up the meat until it looks like mush.
3. Make sure to strain out the water very well.
4. 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
• Sonder LA End Grain Teak Cutting Board, Juice Grooves & Compartments
• Meat Chopper and Masher
• Salbree Steamer Basket
• Fine Mesh Strainer
• Homemade Yogurt RecipeTaco Holder Tongs, Taco Tongs
• Taco Bell Taco Sauce

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Here is your handy printable recipe:

Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos

5 from 21 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Snack

Cuisine: American Mexican, Mexican

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 3 minutes

Total Time: 18 minutes

Servings: 8 tacos

Calories: 174kcal

Author: Jill Selkowitz

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 (Bone Broth, or Fresh Water)
• 2 teaspoons Maseca Corn Flour

Seasoning Mix

• 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder mild
• 1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon 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

Equipment

• Instant Pot, Mealthy MultiPot or Pressure Cooker
• Meat Chopper/Masher
• Mesh Strainer

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

Ground turkey, chicken, bison can be used in place of beef.

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

The Beef Broth adds wonderful flavor. Use a box of broth or mix together 1.25 teaspoons of Better than Bouillon Beef Base and 1.25 cups water.

Masa is also a wonderful ingredient to thicken up my Pressure Cooker Competition Chili Con Carne recipe and adds a delicious flavor to the Chili.

Make some Homemade Pico de Gallo and let it marinate in the refrigerator until dinner. It makes a great topping on the Drive-Thru Tacos.

When I do Burritos, I add a scoop of my Pressure Cooker Frijoles (Re-Fried Beans) for a seriously yummy Burrito!

Originally published December 13, 2016. Republished August 3, 2019.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos

Amount Per Serving

Calories 174 Calories from Fat 117

% Daily Value*

Fat 13g20%

Saturated Fat 5g31%

Cholesterol 40mg13%

Sodium 434mg19%

Potassium 217mg6%

Carbohydrates 2g1%

Fiber 1g4%

Sugar 1g1%

Protein 11g22%

Vitamin A 365IU7%

Vitamin C 1mg1%

Calcium 23mg2%

Iron 2mg11%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Drive Thru Tacos