I love my InstantPot. There is no question there, and these InstantPot Short Rib Tacos are no exception. Dreamy, pull-apart short rib in 1 hour, dressed up with all the delicious toppings are exactly what my Sunday’s were made for. Of course the InstantPot means that now you can enjoy these any day of the week.

Short Rib is a tougher cut of meat so if you don’t have an InstantPot. you can still make these in a crock pot or in a traditional oven, but be prepared to cook these on a low temperature for 8 or so hours.

When I first started playing around with this recipe, we tried a variety of different spice mixes to see what flavour worked best with the meat. After a few different variations we came to the realization that actually, less is more when it comes to this incredible piece of meat. With the addition of a little red wine to stew in and some onions, the short rib can really sing all on its own. We added a dark, smokey chilli powder to bolster the flavour as well.

How to make these InstantPot Short Rib Tacos leaner:

There’s a couple of ways that you can keep this dinner on the leaner side, while still getting all the delicious from the short rib.

1. Swap lettuce cups for the taco shell: ditch the carbs and use a good size lettuce leaf to wrap up the meat. Just by cutting the taco shell, you can cut up to 100 calories from each taco! Be sure to pick a good size lettuce leaf for this, like romaine or iceberg.
2. Use cooking spray in place of oil: Short ribs have a good amount of marbling and therefor a good amount of fat for the sauce, meaning that the oil is only there to keep the onions from sticking when sautéing, making cooking spray a great option to cut some of the calories out of this dish.
3. Go easy on the Queso Fresco: The short rib is so tender and rich that you only need a little addition of the cheese on top. Add more lime to cut the richness and add some tang from the pickles for extra flavour.

If you’ve poked around the site a bit, you’ll know that I have a developing obsession with making cheese. It’s super easy, way more cost-efficient than buying, and so pleasing to make your own fresh. If you’ve been looking for a reason to try making your own cheese, you can find our home made queso fresco recipe here.

These short rib tacos are an absolute dream, and probably one of my favourite things to make. You can easily scale the recipe and all the fun sides make them the biggest party pleaser. The go-to-side smorgasbord in our kitchen is: Gubby Pickles, Queso Fresco, Salsa Fresca and of course, fresh coriander and lime.