Tender, juicy shredded meat is my jam. With over 25 shredded meat recipes in my cookbooks and website, I’ve got lots of tips and tricks to getting the most flavorful shredded meat for your meals. This is my go-to easy shredded chicken for tacos!
Sometimes I like to make recipe “projects” that take more time and ingredients and sometimes I need taco meat STAT. My Instant Pot shredded chicken is a “STAT” kind of recipe with only a few ingredients you can keep on hand to easily get this chicken finished to feed your people.
I love using my Instant Pot for things like this (because I’m terrible at planning ahead) but you could toss all of the ingredients into your slow cooker, if you prefer!
Instant Pot Taco Chicken ingredients
All you need is…
- Your favorite Tex-Mex inspired spice blend (For this I used my Chorizo Seasoning, but you could also use Homemade Taco Seasoning or my Sweet Potato Fry Seasoning.)
- Salsa (any kind)
- Chipotle peppers (from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce) or dried chipotle powder
- Tomato paste (just a little, to give the sauce more body)
- Lime juice
- Fresh cilantro
What kind of salsa should I use?
Short answer: Any kind
Long answer: For this recipe I prefer using fresher salsa — like the ones you find in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. You could use jarred salsa or even salsa verde!
How to Make Shredded Chicken in Instant Pot
- Put the chicken in the insert pot of your pressure cooker and sprinkle your choice of tex-mex spice blend on top.
- Whisk together the salsa, minced chipotle pepper, tomato paste, and the juice from 1/2 of the lime. Pour the mixture over the chicken.
- Close the lid and the steam valve. Set the cooker to high pressure for 15 minutes. Let the cooker release steam on its own for 15 minutes, then manually release any remaining steam.
- Remove the chicken from the pot and shred it with a couple of forks. Return the shredded chicken to the pot and stir in the cilantro and the juice from the other 1/2 lime.
Tips for Making Shredded Chicken in Instant Pot
Can we pause for a minute to appreciate the brilliance that is PRE-DICED CHIPOTLE PEPPERS? When I saw these in the grocery store (Winco, if you’ve got one local!) I realized one of my deepest desires had been fulfilled without my having to ask.
Whole chipotle peppers in adobo sauce are kind of a pain. You open the can, use one pepper, and then need to figure out what to do with the rest of the peppers before they go bad.
You can always freeze the peppers in an ice cube tray — that’s what I normally do. And then forget about them while you open a fresh can 4 months later. *facepalm*
The nice thing about the pre-diced ones is that they seem to have the seeds removed. Good news!
If you’ve made this shredded chicken recipe from my cookbook, you’ll notice that I added some extra seasoning.
Believe me, it wasn’t a scientific decision. I literally just wanted to make this chicken but was too lazy to pull out the cookbook, so I was relying on memory and improvisation — and ended up with a better version!
Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Breast Variations
Crockpot – To make this recipe in the slow cooker, place chicken in a 4-6 quart slow cooker along with the tex-mex spice and chile mixture. Push the chicken around a bit so the chile mixture can go in between all of the pieces. Close and cook for 4 hours on high or about 6 hours on low. Remove chicken, shred, and place back into the slow cooker. Stir in cilantro and lime juice.
Using Frozen Chicken
I recommend defrosting your frozen chicken completely before starting to make this recipe to get more evenly cooked pieces.
Ways to Use Shredded Chicken For Tacos
Meal Prep: Making a batch of this shredded taco chicken over the weekend ensures that you have quick meals during the week.
Freeze It: If you’re prepping even further ahead, know that this chicken freezes and reheats beautifully!
Feed a Crowd: Double this recipe to feed a bunch of people!
Take it Camping: I made a batch of this Instant Pot shredded chicken and took it camping. Everyone we went with loved it! We made foil packet tacos with it and threw them over the campfire!
If you like this recipe, try another one of my shredded taco meat recipes!
Serving Instant Pot Shredded Chicken Tacos
Serve in tacos, on taco salads, rice bowls, add to soups, or throw some into your morning hash!
More Shredded Taco Meat Recipes on Perry’s Plate
Instant Pot Green Chile Shredded Chicken — if you want to try a green chile chicken version!
Chipotle Copycate Barbacoa Beef is an easy way to get that tasty shredded beef they serve at Chipotle! Recipe includes instructions for Instant Pot and Slow Cooker!
Shredded Chipotle Beef is a slightly different from the barbacoa recipe with lots of chipotle flavor.
Instant Pot Green Chile Shredded Beef is another good home for a large jar of Hatch green chiles.
If you make one of my recipes, be sure to post it on social media and tag me at @perrysplate or #perrysplate so I can send you some love!
Shredded Chicken Breast (Instant Pot)
Just a few ingredients are needed for this easy chipotle salsa shredded chicken! Taco Tuesday just got even more tasty.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1 Tablespoon tex-mex spice blend (see note)
- 1 1/2 cups salsa
- 1 chipotle from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce, minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 juicy lime
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Put the chicken in the insert pot of your pressure cooker and sprinkle your choice of tex-mex spice blend on top.
- Whisk together the salsa, minced chipotle pepper, tomato paste, and the juice from 1/2 of the lime. Pour the mixture over the chicken.
- Close the lid and the steam valve. Set the cooker to high pressure for 15 minutes. Let the cooker release steam on its own for 15 minutes, then manually release any remaining steam.
- Remove the chicken from the pot and shred it with a couple of forks. Return the shredded chicken to the pot and stir in the cilantro and the juice from the other 1/2 lime.
- Serve in tacos, on taco salads, rice bowls, add to soups, or throw some into your morning hash!
Notes
Nat's Note:
You can simply use Homemade Taco Seasoning in this or any other Tex-Mex style blend. I really love my Chorizo Seasoning in this! If you happen to have some, it's another use for that great blend.
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James
Wednesday 30th of December 2020
I'd like to note that the homemade recipe says 2 TBSP per lb of meat.
This recipe says 1 TBSP for 3 lbs of meat.
Since I'm going back and forth, making both, the last thing I saw was the 2 TBSP per lb.
Re-reading this, I have SIX TIMES the amount of seasoning and am sure that this will be ruined.
You should find some way to resolve this, as I will have a costly waste of food.
Natalie Perry
Wednesday 30th of December 2020
Hi James. There's nothing to resolve. The recipe called for 1 TBSP of seasoning, and that is the correct amount for this recipe. The seasoning recipe itself does recommend more seasoning per pound of meat because it's assuming that the seasoning blend is the only source of seasoning for taco meat. (Like when you'd rip open a package of taco seasoning and mix it into some ground beef.) This shredded chicken recipe also has salsa and a few other things to add flavor so it doesn't need as much of the seasoning. I'm sorry if you were confused by this. You could cook more plain chicken in your Instant Pot, mix it into the overseasoned batch and freeze some for later meals, if that helps.
Kristi Bassett
Friday 9th of October 2020
I found those diced adobo peppers too, brilliant!!! And seriously, it doesn’t matter what recipes I’ve used before—once you post one for something similar I guarantee I’ll like your version more. You’re a wizard.