Instant Pot Taco Meat with Frozen Ground Beef

How to make Instant Pot taco meat with frozen ground beef to make Instant Pot tacos you will love. Get ready for dinner on Tuesdays or any other day of the week using fresh or frozen beef in Ninja Foodi or any pressure cooker as the base.

Instant Pot Taco Meat Frozen

It doesn’t matter what brand you have though. A crockpot express or Ninja Foodi will make all the same things. The latter just has an extra feature of air fry to crisp it at the end if you want but that typically isn’t necessary.

You can use fresh or defrosted hamburger or if you’re forgetful frozen works too. You would need to start with our Instant Pot frozen ground beef recipe first. Then proceed with the seasonings to make it taste amazing and saute together with a bit of broth.

Instant Pot Taco Meat Large Batch

I love Instant Pot dinner recipes because I can cook dinner in less than 30 minutes! My pressure cooker allows me to cook more homemade meals for my family and for guests. If there’s a party happening you can easily double or triple the amounts below. Then set to keep warm for the next hour or two so people can serve themselves.

Ninja Foodi Taco Meat

There are fewer dishes to wash since I can sauté and cook all in one pot too. I don’t have to heat up my whole house using the oven to cook a casserole or large piece of meat

What kind of meat is used for tacos?

The best meat to use for taco meat is a simple ground beef, a 70-80% lean variety. The fat is going to help give flavor to the meat and we are able to drain the grease prior to serving (or not).

Yes you can use this for the obvious. Throw it into some soft tortillas with cheese and lettuce for dinner, but that is just the beginning y’all. If you want a low carb option I would suggest spooning it into our air fryer zucchini boats too.

I swear, I never used to cook with onions a few years ago. They are so cheap for the amount of flavor and texture they give so now they’re a must. Omit the diced tomatoes if you wish but those lend a lot of flavor too.

How to make the best taco meat

1. Do NOT overcook it! – I could just stop there, but I won’t. It is beef so you don’t need to stress out about it being pink like chicken or pork. So let there be a bare amount left. 
2. Add flavor!! – I actually love taco seasoning and add a bit more than 1 oz. a lot of times. I like to let the meat sit in the sauce for a few minutes after it’s cooked so it can really soak up all that goodness.
3. Don’t drain it- Ok so you don’t want it soaking in grease but don’t drain all the fat that cooks off when the pink is going away.
4. Use 80/20 because a bit more fat = flavor, you shouldn’t have to drain any if at all, and I prefer this to anything leaner, it’s got more flavor.

Load it up!! – I add onions, chiles and diced tomatoes…sometimes chives but if you love diced green peppers then add those with your onions too. Taco meat isn’t meant to be plain I say…..then load up the taco itself, oh my mouth is watering already……..

We keep our taco meat recipe fairly simple, and use what’s on hand. Feel free to add your own seasonings, or other diced veggies for taco night.

Ingredients

• 6 or 8 quart Instant Pot or Ninja Foodi 
• Packet of taco seasoning – or you can make your own homemade taco seasoning if you’d rather
• Onion diced is nice
• Diced chiles -mild to hot are available, hatch chiles are amazing
• Diced tomatoes – Italian diced tomatoes is our choice, you can omit entirely but it brings a lot of flavor. Could substitute with chunky salsa as well.
• Ground beef or ground meat like turkey is fine too

Can you make taco meat with frozen ground beef?

Yes, this is how to cook frozen ground beef a number of different ways in case you forgot to thaw it out the night before. 😉 You will want to thaw and slightly brown before adding seasonings.

My family loves this served all different sort of ways. Want a keto and gluten free style, think about making lettuce wraps or a taco salad.

Homemade flour tortillas for soft ground beef tacos are great. You can make this slow and low all day long as slow cooker taco meat too if you want, then make Instant Pot taco bowls with either one.

How to Make Instant Pot Taco Meat with Frozen Ground Beef

• Pour 1 c. water into your Instant Pot and lower a trivet down.
• Place 1-2 lbs frozen ground beef on your trivet. Close your lid and steam valve and set to high pressure for 5 minutes.
• Do a natural release for 10 minutes.
• Lift out meat and drain liquid in your pot. Continue on to next steps.
• Break up into smaller pieces and add your diced onion.
• Dump in your can of diced chiles and cook (gently mixing) until ground beef is almost done, all pink is almost gone but there is still a little.
• Pour in your diced tomatoes, if you want to add those, and sprinkle in your taco seasoning.
• Gently stir to coat all meat and veggies.
• Immediately when pink is gone on your ground beef turn pot off and pour taco meat into a bowl to serve so meat doesn’t continue to cook in pot and dry out.

You could use a mix of half spicy ground pork and half hamburger too, a great mix. After you make these try our other 4 types of Instant Pot tacos so your family can make easy pressure cooker recipes each week and really enjoy them, here are a few more Instant Pot ground beef recipes too:

What to make with leftovers

We have a bunch of leftover taco meat recipes if you don’t eat it all, all will please everyone in your house. This Instant Pot taco soup is a pantry recipe using cans of this and that Kid favorite Instant Pot chili mac is also something I love topped with lots of cheese.

Then try our Instant Pot carnitas that are out of this world and can be served on top of rice too, or in tortillas.