I make an oven-braised brisket about twice a year, for Passover and Rosh Hashanah. While I love the classic method, I've wanted to experiment with brisket a bit more. Brisket typically comes as a very large cut of several pounds which I cut into three pieces. We usually have one of these at each holiday and freeze them in the meantime. The other thing about brisket is that it takes a very long time to cook: over 4 hours with my usual method. As such, I wanted to use the Instant Pot for my first experiment.
I've previously done both pulled chicken and pork (also with the Instant Pot) recipes for use with tacos, nachos, potatoes, and so on. Brisket is also perfect for this because it needs to be cooked low and slow. In just an hour on high pressure, the meat becomes fall-apart tender. This sort of dish is highly customizable to taste. I seasoned similarly to how I would do ground beef tacos, with the addition of a poblano chili and soy sauce for some extra depth. I also used some Mexican oregano here, which I recommend picking up at a Latin American market if you can find one. Some Asian stores also stock Mexican herbs and spices.
We used about 1/3 of the meat from this recipe for a few rounds of tacos and froze the rest for later in two quart bags. For the tacos themselves, I used corn tortillas (heat on both sides in a dry nonstick pan and keep in a tortilla warmer), cotija, corn salsa, and sour cream. Guacamole is a welcome addition if available. This recipe turned out well, especially for a first attempt. In my pulled pork recipe from three years ago, I discussed some apprehension I had coming up with Instant Pot recipes. I'm happy to report I've developed some good instincts for what's going to work in the pressure cooker. The most important tip I've learned is when using the sauté setting to brown meat, it is imperative to deglaze and fully clear anything stuck to the bottom before sealing. If the Instant Pot detects burning on the bottom, it will shut off, so be careful.
