This instant pot recipe for tender Shredded Beef with Green Chile is perfect for taco night! This juicy beef that requires no chopping makes for easy preparation. Serve with tacos, salads, burritos, or on a bed of rice or grains.

My goal for this recipe was to create an Instant Pot shredded beef recipe for taco night that didn’t have any chopping involved.

Taco night has enough chopping and component prep as it is. I mean the guac? Shredding cheese? Chopping lettuce? Making ranch?

(Yes, ranch. Because 80% of the time we’re actually eating taco salads around here.)

I wanted the star of the show — the taco meat — to NOT be high maintenance.

I also have recipes for Shredded Chipotle Taco Beef and Copycat Chipotle Barbacoa Beef if you’re wanting more of a smoky flavor! And my Instant Pot Chipotle Salsa Chicken recipe is another great no-chop recipe for shredded taco meat.

Not a taco meat, per se, but my Gyro-Inspired Shredded Beef is also a versatile one for salads!

And I did it! In just 2-3 knife cuts. Which brings me to…

My Two Best Tips for Cooking Roasts in an Instant Pot

1. Cut your roast into roughly 1 lb chunks. This helps it cook more quickly and get more flavor into the meat. If you have a 3 lb roast, cut it into 3 pieces. Four pounds? Four pieces. You get the idea. It doesn’t have to be exact, so put your kitchen scale away.
2. Let the Instant Pot release steam naturally ALL THE WAY. Or at least for 20 minutes, which is almost all the way. This allows the juices to redistribute through the meat before you pull it apart. It also helps it to be more tender.

PS. I have a cookbook with 150 pressure cooker recipes and LOADS of tips in it. Just throwing that out there.

Ingredients for Mexican style Shredded Beef

• Beef roast
• Himalayan salt or fine sea salt
• Ground black pepper
• Ground cumin
• Dried minced onion
• Dried minced garlic
• Dried oregano
• Hatch green chiles (or about 2 4-ounce cans of fire-roasted green chiles)
• Jarred pickled jalapenos (or more for more heat)
• Water or broth
• Lime
• Fresh cilantro (optional)

Most of the time I like to chop some onion and garlic to add to my taco meat, but restrained myself.

I realize that a lot of you despise chopping onions. (My mom included. I don’t ever recall her chopping an onion when I was growing up.)

For this recipe I used dried minced onion and dried minced garlic. I like the flavors of these better than the powdered version, but if all you have is the powdered ones, use them.

(If you make my Everything Bagel Seasoning recipe, you’ll have both the garlic and the onion on hand — and it’s another use for them! Yay!)

About Green Chiles

Or chilis. Or chilies. Or however you’d like to spell them. I side with Hatch chiles and spell them that way.

Are you a fan of green chiles? The fire-roasted ones in the can or the hatch chiles in the big jars?

I started buying the 505 Southwestern chiles at Costco, and I might be in over my head. Those jars are BIG, and I didn’t make it through the first jar I bought without turning them into a science project.

I’m saddened by that because I freaking LOVE these chiles. I’d put them in everything except they do have a little heat and my whiny offspring complain about that.

Anyway, put a big ol’ cup full into the pot with the beef roast.

See? Still not chopping stuff.

By the way, I linked to more recipes using green chiles at the bottom of this post, so your giant jar of chiles doesn’t end up with the same fate as mine.

I also added some jarred pickled jalapenos to this taco beef for a little extra punch. The fermented jalapenos from Trader Joe’s to be exact. They’re pretty tasty.

No, you don’t have to add them. They took the heat level of this beef a little too far for two of my kids, but Steve and I LOVED it.

How to make Instant Pot Shredded Beef

It probably took me twice as long to write this post than it did to prep this beef. Maybe three times.

1. Cut your roast into roughly 1-pound chunks. Sprinkle the salt and pepper all over the pieces of roast and put them in the insert pot for your Instant Pot.
2. Sprinkle the rest of the seasonings on top, including the green chiles and jalapenos. Pour the water or broth into the pot as well. Use a pair of tongs to move the beef around and allow the green chiles to scatter a bit.
3. Close the lid, move the steam release valve to “sealing”, and set it for 90 minutes at high pressure.
4. Let the pressure cooker release steam naturally until the float valve goes down on its own.
5. Transfer the beef chunks to a large plate or platter and shred the meat.
6. Return the meat to the pot with the juice and stir in the lime juice and cilantro, if using.
7. Serve the beef immediately with all your favorite taco fixings!

How to make Shredded Beef in the Slow Cooker

1. Cut your roast into roughly 1-pound chunks. Sprinkle the salt and pepper all over the pieces of roast and put them in your 4 or 6-quart Slow Cooker.
2. Sprinkle the rest of the seasonings on top, including the green chiles and jalapenos. Pour the water or broth into the pot as well. Use a pair of tongs to move the beef around and allow the green chiles to scatter a bit.
3. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
4. Transfer the beef chunks to a large plate or platter and shred the meat.
5. Return the meat to the pot with the juice and stir in the lime juice and cilantro, if using.
6. Serve the beef immediately with all your favorite taco fixings!

FAQs

Serving Suggestions

Oh, friends. FRIENDS. We made some tacos with the grain-free taco shells from Thrive Market. Have you ever had those? They’re REALLY good. (By the way, you can get 25% off your first order by using that link up there. Thrive Market is so fun.)

• Tacos!
• Tacos Salads
• Instant Pot Cilantro Lime Rice
• Homemade Corn Tortillas
• Nachos
• Quesadillas
• Burritos
• Enchiladas

Freezing and Reheating

Since this recipe makes ALOT of shredded beef, you will likely have leftovers. Here are my storage and reheating tips:

STORAGE

You can store the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

I recommend storing all the juices from the cooking precess with the beef, as it will keep it from drying out when you reheat it (see reheating notes below).

You can also freeze the beef. Use either an airtight container to maximize freshness.

REHEATING

Scoop the shredded beef with some of the juices into a pan over medium heat. Saute until most of the juices have evaporated and the beef is heated throughout. Easy!

More recipes that use Green Chiles

Compiling this list made me realize that I have ZERO excuse for letting that jar of chiles go bad. Never again, I promise. Luckily they freeze well so I can split the big jar in to manageable portions!

This corn-free Green Chile Chicken Tamale Pie is my most recent green chile recipe — and that cornbread-like topping is made with a secret ingredient that isn’t nut flour. :)

If your spaghetti squash needs a home, make a Green Chile Chicken & Spaghetti Squash Bake!

Green Chile Turkey Burgers with Guac-Ranch are super easy and my kids inducted them into our family’s favorite dinner list. That’s a big deal.

Here’s the chicken version of this recipe! Slow Cooker or Instant Pot Green Chile Shredded Chicken.

Stacked Chicken & Green Chile Enchiladas are DELICIOUS, but a little more labor intensive than this easy shredded taco meat. They’re also a nice home for leftover shredded chicken!

This Quick Black Bean and Green Chile Soup is made from pantry staples in under 30 minutes!

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If you make one of my recipes, be sure to post it on social media and tag me at @perrysplate or #perrysplate so I can send you some love!