Pressure Cooker Barbacoa Beef

This healthier spin on barbacoa beef makes ultra tender and flavorful shredded beef from lean eye of round roast. You can make it in an Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or even a slow cooker. Every serving has 13 grams of protein with only 2 grams of fat and 90 calories, making it an excellent healthy meal prep recipe. Burrito bowls, cheesy baked tacos, taquitos, quesadillas, nachos—you name it!

Pressure Cooker Barbacoa Beef Recipe Walkthrough

I’ve included a visual guide below with notes about ingredients, types of pressure cookers, and tips for making this recipe successfully. If you’ve made recipes like my pressure cooker Mexican chicken or Ninja Foodi carnitas, or you’re a pressure cooking pro, you can probably skip down to the recipe card.

And as always, if you have a recipe question I forgot to cover drop a comment at the bottom of the post.

Slice a 2-pound eye of round roast into 4 pieces.

The recipe calls for eye of round, which has 145 calories, 26g of protein, and 4g of fat per 4 oz raw according to the USDA FoodData Central. Most traditional barbacoa recipes will call for fattier cuts like beef cheeks or chuck roast, but I’ve found you can still get super tender barbacoa with leaner cuts.

In case you have trouble finding eye of round, I’ve included a few alternatives like the bottom round roast I used for my Ninja Foodi pot roast, the chuck tender roast I used for my smoked pot roast, or the top round from my Crockpot chili mac below.

Other lean beef options (nutrition information for 4 oz raw via USDA): 

• bottom round roast:  160 calories, 25g of protein, and 6g of fat
• tri-tip sirloin roast: 175 calories, 21g of protein, and 10g of fat
• chuck eye roast: 160 calories, 23g of protein, and 7g of fat
• top round steak or roast: 130 calories, 27g of protein, and 3g of fat

Since the recipe doesn’t call for any additional oil or high-fat ingredients, you can certainly get away with a fattier cut of beef if you’d like.

Salt and pepper both sides and sear all sides using a pressure cooker’s sauté function. 

I used my 6.5-quart Ninja Foodi, which has a ceramic coated pot. If you’re using an Instant Pot or pressure cooker with a stainless steel pot, you might want to use a little oil instead of cooking spray.

You’ll want to make sure the pot is hot before adding the beef. Once you’re in business, give the first side of the beef a full 3-4 minutes to develop some nice color. Then flip for another 2-3 minutes and use tongs to brown the sides of each beef piece for 30 seconds or so.

You’ll deglaze the pot to get all the fond off the bottom in the next step. So don’t sweat the crispy bits when browning the beef. Give it time and brown that beef!

Add spices, diced green chiles, lime juice, and beer or beef stock and pressure cook for 55 minutes with natural release pressure.

Many barbacoa recipes call for fresh onion, garlic, and canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. To keep things simple, my version takes a shortcut with dried chipotle chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder. You’re more than welcome to go with fresh, though. I’d go with something like half an onion, 5-6 cloves of garlic, and 2-3 chipotle peppers finely minced or blended together.

Spices aside, the only other question mark might be the cerveza. I used Tecate, but you could use any beer here. The alcohol will cook off but if you wanted to go alcohol free, beef stock would work as a substitute. Or you could use a non-alcoholic option like Athletic Brewing.

Shred the beef. 

The beef should be fall-apart tender. If it’s not, you can seal your pressure cooker and add another 10-15 minutes. The long cook time should help turn the collagen in the beef to gelatin and make the beef super tender.

Optional: Use your pressure cooker’s sauté function to reduce the remaining juices.

If you’re planning to make things like tacos or enchiladas were a more concentrated mixture would come in handy, this extra step may be the move. Around 5 minutes should do the trick. Be careful to not reduce too much.

Add the barbacoa beef back to the juices.

That’s it, you’re ready to rock. As you’d expect, this barbacoa gets better the longer it’s in the juices. So if you’re not in a rush, let it hang out in the juices with your pressure cooker set to its “keep warm” function.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the optional step of broiling your finished barbacoa beef if you are using a Foodi or Instant Pot Duo Crisp. Like I mentioned in my Instant Pot BBQ pulled chicken, this is a great way to add some extra texture and crispy edges to shredded proteins without overcooking. Usually 6-10 minutes does the trick.

Serving Your Healthy Barbacoa Beef

If you’ve tried my ground turkey tacos, you know I love to make cheesy, crispy tacos on a griddle. To make tacos in bulk, you could bake a big batch. Check out my baked beef tacos for an example.

You could also use your barbacoa beef to make air fried barbacoa quesadillas, air fryer taquitos, or nachos using my low calorie tortilla chips.

If you’re making burrito bowls a roasted corn salsa works great with some rice and black or pinto beans. And my Mexican potatoes and easy refried black beans would be great side dishes for tacos, enchiladas, or whatever else you decide to make with your barbacoa.

Update: I’ve now used this beef barbacoa for two spin-off recipes—leftover barbacoa beef enchiladas and barbacoa beef tostadas.

I can’t wait to hear what you come up with. Let me know how you serve your pressure cooker barbacoa or what you thought about the recipe in a review below!