Instant Pot Carne Asada Street Tacos–this is easiest way to make carne asada tacos. Your electric pressure cooker speeds up the process and keeps the meat warm until you’re ready to enjoy the tacos.
Get the SLOW COOKER version of the recipe here

Instant Pot Carne Asada Street Tacos
Greg picked up some carne asada beef at the grocery store and requested that I make carne asada tacos. I gladly said that I would but only if I could use the Instant Pot to help me. He said that he didn’t expect anything different.
We all loved these little tacos. I buy my tortillas in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. They are uncooked tortillas that you can place on a hot pan and cook within 60 seconds. They taste amazing! I like to buy the small fajita size tortillas for these street tacos. If you need to eat gluten free you can use the small corn tortillas.
Next time I’m going to have avocado or guacamole to go with these Instant Pot carne asada street tacos. These tacos would be a perfect meal for the big football game on Sunday!

More recipes you’ll love…
Instant Pot BBQ Brisket Sliders
Instant Pot Cheesy Beef Rice Casserole
Instant Pot 5 Ingredient Enchilada Chicken

What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Carne Asada Street Tacos I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
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Instant Pot Carne Asada Street Tacos
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
This is easiest way to make carne asada tacos. Your electric pressure cooker speeds up the process and keeps the meat warm until you’re ready to enjoy the tacos.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds uncooked carne asada meat
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- 4 Tbsp fresh lime juice
- 3 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp ground red pepper
- Salt and pepper
- Freshly cooked fajita sized tortillas, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce, etc
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot to the saute setting. When the display says HOT add in the meat and soy sauce and saute it for 5 minutes, stirring every minute. Add in the beef broth, 2 Tbsp of the lime juice, brown sugar, garlic powder, cumin and ground red pepper.
- Cover your Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure the valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 10 minutes on high pressure. Once the time is up let the pot sit there for another 10 minutes (display will read L0:10). Move the valve to venting and then remove the lid.
- Add in the remaining 2 Tbsp of lime juice. Add plenty of salt and pepper to taste. I like to use kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Use a slotted spoon to spoon the meat into the middle of a tortilla and then top with desired taco toppings.
Notes
I bought a package of beef at Winco that was called beef carne taco meat. Ask your butcher for suggestions if you can’t find something similar.
I buy my tortillas in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. They are uncooked tortillas that you can place on a hot pan and cook within 60 seconds. They taste amazing! I like to buy the small fajita size tortillas for these street tacos.
Gluten free ideas: Double check your beef broth to be sure it is gluten free. Swanson’s Organic Beef Broth says gluten free and no msg right on the front of the box. Soy sauce is not typically gluten-free although Kikkoman brand makes a gluten-free soy sauce. Use the small corn tortillas.
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. You can make this recipe in your 3 quart mini by following the instructions above and cooking for 12 minutes instead of 10. If you want you can make this recipe in an 8 quart pot but you’ll need a little more broth to bring the pot to pressure.
Get the SLOW COOKER version of the recipe here
- Category: Beef
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Mexican
Keywords: Instant Pot
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What is ground red pepper? Are you talking about cayenne pepper? Thanks.
yep cayenne works great!
Perfect as usual!
★★★★★
Thanks for the 5 stars!
Fantastic recipe! First time I made this I messed up a few things and it still turned out perfect! I forgot to defrost my carne asada so I threw in the frozen meat for 20 mins, whisked up the ingredients, and just dumped it on top of the frozen meat. Pressure cooked for 20 mins. Forgot the beef broth! Dumped it in afterwards and cooked for 5 more minutes. Still turned out delicious! I’ve made it many more times without messing up and it’s super yummy!
★★★★★
How awesome that you used the frozen meat and it worked so great!
Oh my goodness. Sooo delicious! I seldom let my husband go shopping on his own because HE LOVES to shop and always brings home things that I have no idea what do with lol. Last week he brought home a 2 lb package is “picana asada” from walmart. I had no idea what it was. Looked like ground meat but when I opened it I saw that it was really very thin slivers of meat. Found your recipe and made this tonight! I hope he finds that meat again and again because this was the best taco I have ever had!! Followed your recipe to a tee
★★★★★
NICE!! Glad you found this recipe and liked it!
Yummy! Thanks for posting the recipe! I am a widow and just cook for myself so I cut the recipe in 1/2, I hardly ever use my instapot but I think it’s going to start getting a workout! For anyone that can’t find the carne asada meat, I found mine at Aldi’s.
★★★★★
I wish I had an Aldi’s!!!
Made this for the 1st time tonight. Needed a recipe for my “steak for tacos” packs of meat that I bought. The Hispanic / latin supermarket near me sells them in 1 lb packs, which is perfect.
I doubled the recipe, kept the cook time the same and used a slotted spoon to put it in a serving dish when it was time. Yummmmyyyyy will definitely be making these again!!
★★★★★
Yum! Glad you liked it Mimi!
It is always wonderful!
★★★★★
Thanks Jamie! so glad you liked it!
Just another note to say I make this every week now. I love this. I do make it spicier and 1/2 brown sugar for my husbands sake
.. but it’s perfect the way it is!
★★★★★
Wow every week! That’s great!
I used stew meat and cut into smaller pieces. The family loved it. Will make it again!
★★★★★
Good to know! Thanks for sharing your experience!
Great!
★★★★★
Glad you liked it!
I used beef stir fry meat because I could not find carne asade meat and it turned out perfectly. It was so tender! Definitely will be making this again.
★★★★★
Hooooray!!!!
I tried this recipe and it was just awesome. My kids loved it as well. Thanks again
★★★★★
Awesome so glad you enjoyed it! What meat did you use for it?
Karen, thanks for all your recipes. I’m just wondering if instead of adding salt and pepper “to taste”, usually after the item is cooked, you could put in a recommended measurement of seasoning, ie. 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp pepper.
Thank you, and I read “365” every day.
oh yeah, you could do that!
Can you double the recipe for 6 qt.
yes you can!
How much more liquid should I use for my 8 at? 1 cup maybe? Every recipe I try I always end up with a ton of liquid from using 2 cups as suggested per different recipe.
I think you could be okay with 1 cup. I think Instant Pot says 2 cups to cover their backs but I don’t think it’s really necessary.
Thanks Karen! Love the recipes by the way!!
How spicy is this?
not really at all
Never heard of “carne asada” meat before. I did a search and it came up to use flank or skirt steak. The flank steak is a leaner cut of beef. It also suggested loin short loin flap steak, which is supposed to be tender and butterfly shape. I’ll have to look for it for game day. My sister who has lived on the west coast for most of 60 years says that already prepared carne asada can be purchased at the grocery stores there.
yeah, that’s why I was sort of hesitant to write up this recipe. I didn’t know if others would be able to find this meat. Hope it works for you. I need to do more testing with other types of meat.
I can only find flank steak which the internet says works for carne asada. Should I cut it up and/or perhaps marinate it in something before I use it in this recipe for Super Bowl Sunday?
★★★★
If you have time to marinate I think you should marinate in the
¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
4 Tbsp fresh lime juice
3 Tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp garlic powder
2 tsp cumin
¼ tsp ground red pepper.
Then pour it all into the instant pot and add in the beef broth. I would cook for 15 minutes pressure cook time.
Am I understanding correctly, that the meat is unseasoned when you buy it? Not sure we can get the cut you described in the above comments – will likely try this with lean ground beef.
lean ground beef would work great!
Thank you for including the cooking time adjustment for a 3qt Instant Pot. I struggle with conversions when interpreting IP recipes for the MiniLux. Most appreciative!!!
you’re welcome. I’m trying to do it more.
What is Kearny Asada meat? I’ve never seen any meat labeled this way at the grocery store. Is it flank steak? Chuck roast? Etc. thanks!
*Carne Asada…silly phone 😉
I’m pretty sure it was beef bottom round roast but it was a cross between ground beef and stew meat consistency.