braised chipotle beef [instant pot]
Just about anywhere you are in Southern California, you are probably only ever a 5-10 minute drive away from authentic Mexican birria. In its home state of Jalisco, birria is traditionally made with goat, but its beef cousin birria de res is common where I live; in either meat situation, tough cuts are slow stewed in a chile-rich herb stock and served either in a soup or in a tortilla with a side dipper of shiny orange-red consommé. Often, birria specialists only really make birria, which is how you know it’s going to be good. If you ever find it being served out of a truck at a gas station parking lot, you can trust it’s going to be even better.
This recipe is sort of a pared-back consolidation of a huge number of reference birria recipes I saved during research, and is in no way “authentic birria” or even close. I am not remotely capable of executing on a centuries-old tradition of Mexico in my pressure cooker, and generally I leave these sorts of things to the experts for a reason. But I do like to make it at home regardless every so often, and because every time I make it people ask me about the recipe, I’m publishing it anyway and simply calling it what it is: braised chipotle beef, cooked in the Instant Pot.
My recipe for braised chipotle beef uses an identical technique to the one I use to make Greek lamb. You put the meat and the braising liquid in the instant pot, cook it longer than you think you need, blast the shredded meat with a broiler to make up for the browning you skipped, and submerge in its juices to re-hydrate. The sauce-broth is pretty spicy thanks to a whole can of chipotles in adobo, but you can easily scale this back if you aren’t down with as much heat.
The real win here regardless is the texture: after just an hour or so in the instant pot you have a huge pile of impossibly tender meat shreds that can be remixed into any number of different formats. Often, I make it into a low-carb version of a bowl (cilantro-lime garlic cauliflower rice, some pinto beans, guac, assorted hot sauces, maybe jalapeños, but it’s equally well-suited for tacos, quesadillas, nachos, enchiladas, even reconstituted into some kind of chili. If you are going the tortilla route, I highly recommend (but am in no way affiliated with) Caramelo, a tortilla producer out of Lawrence, Kansas that will ship you the flakiest freshest pork, duck, or avocado fat tortillas that you can keep in your freezer for a rainy day.
Even with a good tortilla, this recipe is still not any more authentic than, say, Chipotle is authentic, but sometimes authenticity to what your heart desires is authentic enough.
RECIPE
The instant pot braises this chipotle beef to tender, shredded perfection in about two hours. Perfect for making tacos, burrito bowls, or even nachos if you’re feeling dangerous.
Effortful time: 20 minutes
Total time: ~2 hours 30 minutes
Serves: 6-8
YOU NEED
3 lbs. chuck roast, excess fat trimmed off, cut into 1” cubes
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 tbsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp oregano, preferably Mexican
1 tsp. salt
Black pepper, to taste
7 oz. can chipotles in adobo; you can cut this in half if you don’t like it hot
1/8 tsp (seriously, just a pinch) of ground clove
2 cups of water
Juice from 1 lime
2 bay leaves
make it
Blend your braising liquid. In a food processor or container you can use an immersion blender in, add all the ingredients except the meat and bay leaves. Blend until very smooth.
Prep your meat. If your meat isn’t trimmed and cubed, do this now—I ask the grocery butcher to do it, or I buy pre-cut beef chuck stew meat (only do this if your butcher counter marks what cut their stew meat is; the non-chuck cuts sometimes used are too lean for this recipe). Put the meat in the Instant pot, then pour over your braising liquid. Tuck in the two bay leaves.
Pressurize and leave it alone. Seal and set to high pressure for 1 hour, 15 minutes.
Light up the broiler. Once time’s up on the IP, turn on the broiler to low. We’re going to reverse-sear it to make up for not browning first. Let it heat 10 minutes while some of the pressure escapes naturally.
Broil the meat. Manually release the remaining pressure from the Instant Pot. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Use tongs to move the meat to the sheet—it will likely fall apart a bit the second you touch it, which is ok. You want it in very fine shreds. Separate any intact fat and discard. Then broil on low 3 minutes or until edges just begin to crisp. Return all the meat to the nice warm chipotle bathtub.
For storage: when you go to put the meat away, either in the fridge or freezer, save the leftover liquid. It keeps your tender shreds from drying out when you reheat.