Now you can make delicious Instant Pot Carne Asada at home using this quick and easy recipe! The marinade gives the beef wonderful flavor and the Instant Pot cooks the beef perfectly tender and juicy. Instant Pot Carne Asada can be used in tacos, nachos, burritos, or a Mexican rice bowl with your choice of toppings.
If you love ordering Carne Asada street tacos from your favorite food truck or Mexican restaurant, you’re going to love this recipe. The recipe is super easy and the beef comes out tender and so flavorful.
Tips
The recipe as written is the quick and easy version and doesn’t require marinating the beef, but if you have the time, it’s well worth it to marinate the meat for 30 minutes to a few hours.
Ancho chiles are dried poblano chiles, which are pretty mild. Ancho chile powder is available at regular grocery stores in the spice aisle and in Latin grocery stores.
Dried arbol chile peppers are fairly spicy, so you can either leave them in whole or break them into two pieces for more heat. Feel free to remove them before serving.
I use chuck roast because it’s the cut of beef that I like to cook in the Instant Pot. If you wish to substitute another cut, just make sure it’s one that is marbled with fat and not a lean cut, which can result in your meat being too tough.
I love to serve carne asada tacos with this guajillo sauce, adapted from the Elote Cafe Cookbook:
- 5 to 6 guajillo chiles, stemmed
- 2 tsp vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup onions, chopped
- 1 tsp garlic, minced
- 1 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
- 1/2 tsp cumin, ground
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 Tbsp Mexican oregano
- 1 cup water
- In a saute pan, toast the guajillo chiles till fragrant and lightly charred. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Add oil to the pan and saute the onions and garlic, sprinkled with salt, over medium-high heat until caramelized.
- Add cumin, black pepper, oregano, water and toasted guajillo chiles.
- Simmer over low heat until chiles are soft.
- Allow the mixture to cool and blend in a blender until smooth.
Another sauce I like to serve with tacos is this spicy mayo sauce:
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 Tbsp plain yogurt
- 1 tsp [sriracha sauce or to taste
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 1/2 tsp garlic, minced
- salt, to taste
- Stir together all ingredients until smooth.
If you’re new to the Instant Pot
and aren’t familiar with how to use it, please read the Instant Pot DUO Beginner’s Quick Start Guide or the Instant Pot ULTRA Beginner’s Quick Start Guide first and then come back here to learn how to make this Instant Pot Carne Asada.
Instant Pot Carne Asada Ingredients
How to Make Instant Pot Carne Asada (Step-by-Step Instructions)
- In a medium bowl, combine ancho chile powder, black pepper, brown sugar, Mexican oregano, salt, garlic, lime juice, yogurt, and broth. Mix well.
- Add beef to the marinade and stir to combine.
- If you have the time, refrigerate for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
- Add beef and marinade to the inner pot.
- Stir in onion.
- Add dried arbol chiles.
Instant Pot DUO Pressure Cook:
- Close the lid and make sure steam release handle is in ‘Sealing’ position
- Press ‘Manual’ (or ‘Pressure Cook’) and ‘+’ or ‘-‘ until the display reads ‘12′ (12 minutes).
Instant Pot ULTRA Pressure Cook:
- Close the lid.
- Select Pressure Cook mode and adjust the time to 12 minutes (00:12).
- Press ‘Start’.
- Instant Pot display will change to ‘On’.
- Once the Instant Pot is pressurized, the float valve will go up.
- The display will count down from 12 to 0; it will then switch to ‘Keep Warm’ mode and display ‘L0:00’ or ’00 00′ and begin to count up.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally (NPR). The float valve will be in the down position. This may take 15 to 30 minutes.
- Press ‘Cancel’ and open the Instant Pot.
- Stir contents of Instant Pot.
- Remove beef with the slotted spoon and transfer to a serving bowl.
- Serve Instant Pot Carne Asada in warmed tortillas, with your choice of toppings including queso fresco, guacamole or avocado pieces, salsa, pico de gallo, crema, pickled onions, cabbage, sauteed vegetables, and cilantro. Try out my guajillo sauce and spicy mayo recipes from the Tips section above.
- Beans and rice are great accompaniments to complete this meal.
Quick and Easy Instant Pot Carne Asada
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tsp ancho chile powder
- 1 tsp black pepper powder
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp Mexican oregano
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp garlic minced
- 2 Tbsp lime juice
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1/4 cup beef broth
- 2 1/2 lbs beef chuck cubed or sliced into strips
- 1/2 cup onion chopped
- 6 dried arbol chiles stems removed
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine ancho chile powder, black pepper, brown sugar, Mexican oregano, salt, garlic, lime juice, yogurt, and broth.
- Add beef to the marinade and stir to combine.
- Add beef and marinade to the Instant Pot inner pot.
- Stir in onion.
- Add in dried arbol chiles.
- Close the lid and pressure cook for 12 minutes on High Pressure.
- Let the pressure release naturally (NPR). [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods]
- Open Instant Pot lid and stir contents.
- Remove beef with a slotted spoon and transfer to a large bowl
- Serve Instant Pot Carne Asada in warmed tortillas and top with your choice of toppings including queso fresco, guacamole or avocado pieces, salsa, pico de gallo, crema, pickled onions, cabbage, sauteed vegetables, and cilantro.
Notes
- Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. minced garlic, cut vegetables, etc.
- If you have the time, refrigerate marinated beef for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
- See the blog post for more detailed recipe tips.
Nutrition
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I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
If you loved this recipe, please give it a 5 Star rating in the comment section below and please share it on social media using the social media share buttons at the top and bottom of this post. Thank you so much!
You might also like to try these Instant Pot Recipes:
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| Instant Pot Chili | Instant Pot Chicken Tinga | Instant Pot Carnitas |
Linda
Would the cook time be the same is I use flank steak?
Paint the Kitchen Red
Linda, if you cut the flank steak into thin strips the cooking time should work. Hope you like it.
Cooking Dad
Meat was very tender, but end result was not very flavorful.
Paint the Kitchen Red
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t care for the flavor. Here’s one way to get much more flavor: saute the meat after it’s cooked, adding in a little cooking liquid at a time, and allow the liquid to evaporate before adding more. This way the flavors get concentrated and you get a bit of a char on the meat. Keep doing this until the meat has the level of flavor you’d like.
Ela
Delicious and simple!
Paint the Kitchen Red
Thanks, Ela! Happy to hear it. Try my Instant Pot Carnitas – another very easy recipe!
SHANNA MUNOZ
I just have to say, I’ve made plenty of tacos in my day. I am married to a Mexican him is very picky. I was a little nervous to try this in the Instapot. The flavors were absolutely wonderful and it came out perfectly tender. Thank you for this recipe, great job!
Paint the Kitchen Red
Shanna – your email made my day! Thank you for sharing, I do appreciate it!
Elizabeth Bateman
Can you use stew meat? I also don’t have acho chili’s I have chipotle powder and canned green chili’s. I have thawed out stew meat I need to use. Usually make a quisada but this looked yummy
Paint the Kitchen Red
Elizabeth, yes you should be able to use stew meat and your other substitutions look fine, so I would give it a try. I hope you like it.
Liz Csordas
so delicious! i made bowls with this – rice, roasted mushrooms, spinach, salsa + avocado. beef is so flavorful!!!
Paint the Kitchen Red
I’m so happy to hear you liked the recipe, Liz! Be on the lookout for my chicken tinga recipe, coming tomorrow. I just finished the leftovers also as part of a rice bowl 🙂 Thank you so much for rating and commmenting on the recipe – much appreciated!
Matt
Delicious, Thanks!
Paint the Kitchen Red
You’re so welcome, Matt – happy you liked it 🙂
Julie Wanek
Excellent and Easy!
Kristen
Just out of curiosity, about how many servings will this make? I’m making it for a party soon and want to make sure I dont need to double up.
Paint the Kitchen Red
Kristen, I would say you can make about a dozen street tacos (smaller tortillas) – maybe enough to serve 4 to 6 people, depending on sides, etc. I think you can increase the quantity of beef by up to 30% more and not change anything else and still be good.
Kynthia Alice Rosgeal
The recipe works, but after cooking it I had to add about a 1/2 tsp of ground cumin. Other than that, very good.
Paint the Kitchen Red
Kynthia, pressure cooking tends to dull the spices and that’s why I usually up the quantity. Adding at the end is a good way to adjust. I’m glad you liked it and thanks for the feedback.
Elizabeth
How spicy is this when cooked – recipe fully followed? If you put less of the dried chilies, is it less spicy? Planning to cook for my family which includes small children. Thanks!
Paint the Kitchen Red
Elizabeth, I don’t find it very spicy – because you remove most of the liquid and use just the meat. But yes, I would reduce the number of red chilies if you’re concerned about spiciness. You’ll still have flavor. You can always change it up next time and add more spice.
Michelle Hansen
So when I put the beef in the Instant Pot- Iam Not adding the marinade with it?
Paint the Kitchen Red
Hi Michelle, I guess I should make that more clear – I will change the wording. The beef and marinade (which is fairly thick) need to be added. Thanks for your question!