Instant Pot Drive Thru Tacos

Instant Pot Drive Thru Tacos made at home are a fun, family meal. Fresh ingredients and a little trick for the most fun Taco Tuesday in your own home.

Make your own Drive Thru Tacos right in your own home, without wondering what lurks in the meat

Instant Pot Drive Thru Tacos are super simple recipe to make in your Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker, which mimics your favorite drive thru taco stand. I’ll even show you a trick to get the meat same texture.

Drive Thru Tacos are great for Taco Tuesday and taco bars.

Ingredients for Instant Pot Drive Thru Tacos

Can Ground Turkey Be Substituted for Ground Beef?

• Yes and it is very good. Ground turkey, as well as ground chicken releases quite a bit of liquid and shrinks much more than ground beef. I suggest using 1.5 pounds of ground turkey for this recipe.
• If using ground turkey or ground chicken instead of ground beef, add an additional two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce to “beef” up the flavor.

When cooking with stainless steel, making the pot non stick is easy.

How to Make Stainless Steel Pot Non Stick

• Before adding any fat to the stainless steel pot, heat it up fully.
• On the Instant Pot, the display will change to “HOT” once the pot is fully heated.
• For pressure cookers without this feature, allow the pot to heat up about three minutes.

Pro Tip: Make sure to deglaze the pot after browning the meat. The brown bits called “fond” will easily release from the bottom of the pot and add fantastic flavor.

How to Make Taco Meat like Taco Bell

After the ground beef has been added to the cooking pot, a bit of beef broth or fresh water should be added.

will help to break the meat down into tiny crumbles like the Drive Thru Taco joints..

During the sauté, the meat will brown and most of the water will evaporate.

I recommend a High Temperature Meat Chopper for breaking up the meat.

The crumbled meat really makes a difference in the texture.

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….

Pressure Cooker Salsa Lime Chicken would be great for a taco bar too. Pressure Cooker Chicken Enchiladas are a wonderful dish for a  Mexican themed dinner.

A Stainless Steel Mesh Strainer is useful to use to catch the meat while pouring off the extra liquid.

Time to season the meat. My homemade taco seasoning is made with every day panty ingredients and of course, no fillers. However, if you are in a hurry, you can always use a packet of taco seasoning.

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.
• All you have to do is measure out the amounts into a container and mix them up.

I suggest making a large batch and storing the taco seasoning in a container so that it is ready to use at any time.

Fresh 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.

The filling for Instant Pot Tacos can be made in advance and frozen. A great idea is to buy ground beef on sale and make a huge batch of taco filling so that you have several freezer meals.

Freezing Instant Pot Drive Thru Tacos Filling

Make sure to store the meat in a air tight container or use a Foodsaver. When you are ready to reheat, use your Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi 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.

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 Instant Pot Drive Thru Tacos

• If using ground beef or ground bison use Better than Bouillon Beef Base.
• For ground chicken and turkey, use Better than Bouillon Chicken Base.

Either boxed broth or stock can be used. If using flavor bases are mixed with water and add so much flavor.

You can absolutely just use water if you like, but the stock will really add some good flavor. Do whatever works for you. 🙂

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.”

Here is the tricky trick trick.

Wait what, she is adding Maseca Yellow Corn Flour. 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.

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.

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, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
• J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
• My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
• Meat Chopper and Masher
• Salbree Steamer Basket
• Fine stainless steel mesh strainer
• Homemade Yogurt Recipe
• Taco Holder Tongs
• Taco Bell Taco Sauce

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