In recent months, I have been unfaithful to my first love at Chipotle. After sampling my daughter’s barbacoa bowl, I turned my back on a long-term relationship with chicken, and have had a fling with barbacoa.
According to Wikipedia — the source of all things trivial — “barbacoa” originated in the Caribbean, moved to Mexico, and eventually stormed into Texas, where the name evolved into “barbecue”. End of abbreviated history lesson.
In my smalltown Minnesota kitchen, barbacoa begins with beef brisket, and ends up in a corn tortilla, surrounded by tasty toppings. There are probably dozens of delicious ways to eat this tender, flavourful beef, but when perfection is achieved, why change things up?
The key to tasty barbacoa is a medley of spices. I mean, seriously! How can you go wrong with onion, garlic, and chili powders, cumin, oregano, thyme, and a host of other flavour-makers – all of them permeating grassfed beef with pressure, steam, and heat? An electric pressure cooker (I love my Fagor!) makes it effortless, and won’t heat up your kitchen.
The end result will cause you to invite friends and neighbours over for dinner. And hope for leftovers.
How do you serve barbacoa?
Barbacoa Beef Brisket for Pressure Cooker
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
Easy to make, and quick to serve when utilizing a pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 3 pounds (or so) grassfed beef brisket
- 1 Tbsp onion powder
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp chili powder
- 1 Tbsp cumin
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 2 tsp dry mustard
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 1 cup broth or water
- 2 Tbsp corn starch
Instructions
- Combine all the spices and herbs to make a dry rub.
- Trim excess fat from the brisket, and cut into palm-sized pieces. Toss with the dry rub, pressing it onto every surface of the meat.
- Pour the stock/water into the pressure cooker, and set meat pieces in. Seal and cook on high for 50 minutes. Allow pressure to release naturally.
- Check to make certain meat is tender. If it isn’t, close up the cooker and add another 5 minutes.
- Remove meat from pressure cooker and shred with two forks.
- Sprinkle cornstarch over the surface of remaining liquid, turn on browning feature, and cook stirring constantly until thickened. Toss meat with the sauce to warm it up, then serve with taco fixings.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
