Barbacoa is the Spanish word from which we got barbecue. It refers to a style of cooking, created by the Taíno people of the Caribbean, in which meat is slow-cooked over an open fire or in a hole dug into the ground. Authentic barbacoa in Mexico is often made from the cheeks of cattle or sometimes pork, lamb, or goat instead. It is traditionally served on a warmed corn tortilla with simple toppings such as chopped cilantro, diced onions, and a squeeze of lime juice.

While I love this authentic style, slow-cooking over an open fire is not realistic for my weekday life.

This is where this Instant Pot Beef Barbacoa comes in handy. It’s an easy adaption of this authentic Mexican food that is easy to prep and come home to after a long day of work or school.

If you don’t know what an Instant Pot is, it’s a programmable multi-cooker that does the work of several appliances. You can pressure cook, slow-cook, sauté, prepare rice, make yogurt, etc. I had been in love with mine and will be posting lots of recipes using it.

As with most of my slow-cooking recipes, we’ll start off by browning the meat. It’s rare that I don’t do this (except with chicken breasts) because I find it really helpful for the flavor and texture.

I used chuck roast for this beef barbacoa because it is relatively affordable and becomes very tender with slow-cooking.

So, start off by browning the beef with the Instant Pot on Sauté mode as pictured above.

The beef won’t be fully cooked at this point. That’s what the slow-cooking will be for.

After browning the beef, you’ll be left with this. Looks like a mess right?

Nope! Next step is to deglaze the pot. The French culinary term for this browned food residue is sucs and there is a lot of flavor in there. This is why you will use a liquid, in this case, beef broth, to deglaze the pan and dissolve the sucs.

You’ll end up with this sauce, the fond, that you will cook the beef in.

Add the browned beef to the fond, along with the remaining ingredients and you are all set for slow-cooking.

Like always, feel free to adjust the ingredients as desired, but make sure to use chipotles in adobe sauce for that authentic flavor.

When the beef barbacoa is ready, it will shred easily with two forks. You can serve it just like that, but I chose to sauté the shredded beef in a little oil to make it extra crispy. This step is completely optional.

This will easily become one of your favorites so save it now to try later: