Mushroom Barbacoa Tacos: Juicy Vegan Barbacoa Recipe

I love my barbacoa recipe. There is only one slight problem: as you may know, I do not actually eat meat that often. I do, however, love mushrooms. See where I’m going with this?

So I wanted to take the smoky, warm, slow-cooked flavour logic of my beef barbacoa and turn it into a mushroom barbacoa that feels like a proper taco filling in its own right.

I don’t want my mushrooms pretending desperately to be beef. And I don’t want it to taste like the obligatory vegan taco somebody added to a menu because they felt they probably should. I want something juicy, savoury and deeply satisfying.

And that meant starting with the mushrooms themselves. That proved a bit difficult, since I had to source at least 4 different types of mushrooms for this recipe. So I had to wait for quite a while until I could really tackle this creation.

Quick Answer: What Is Mushroom Barbacoa?

My mushroom barbacoa is a plant-based adaptation of barbacoa made with oyster, button, shiitake and wild mushrooms, slowly cooked with chipotle, garlic, onion, mushroom broth, cumin, oregano, cloves and a little apple cider vinegar. Using several types of mushrooms is important here.

Oyster mushrooms provide the torn, meaty texture. Button mushrooms give structure and bulk. Shiitake and wild mushrooms bring considerably more aroma, savouriness and umami.

I serve the finished mushroom barbacoa in fresh corn tortillas with refried beans, avocado crema, onion and coriander.

And yes, I keep some of that reduced mushroom cooking sauce. The taco should be dripping a little. Otherwise, where is the fun?

Is Mushroom Barbacoa Traditional Mexican Barbacoa?

Obviously, mushrooms are not traditional barbacoa.

Traditional Mexican barbacoa is fundamentally a meat preparation, with particularly famous versions from central Mexico involving slow cooking in an earth oven.

This recipe is therefore very clearly an adaptation inspired by barbacoa flavours and slow-cooking logic, rather than an attempt to claim mushrooms were secretly being cooked underground in Hidalgo all along.

If you want to understand traditional barbacoa and see how I adapted it for a practical home kitchen, read my Barbacoa Tacos at Home guide first.

My mushroom version takes some of that same flavour structure with chipotle, garlic, onion, oregano, cumin, cloves, vinegar and slow cooking, but adjusts it considerably for mushrooms. Mushrooms are different from beef, having considerably less protein and fat, so my below recipe adjustment matters.

Why I Use Four Different Mushrooms

I was on the hunt for several different types of mushrooms because I wanted this recipe to have both texture and flavour. One mushroom alone was not quite doing everything I wanted.

Here is my logic.

Button mushrooms: structure and availability

Regular button mushrooms are great. They are inexpensive, widely available and retain a fairly solid texture during cooking. But they don’t really have a pronounced flavour. For this recipe, I see them as the dependable base rather than the star.

Oyster mushrooms: the workhorse

Oyster mushrooms are probably the most useful mushroom in this particular taco. You can tear them apart with your hands rather than neatly slicing them, producing irregular strands and pieces that become soft and almost shredded after slow cooking. That gives the filling much more interesting texture. Again, though, oyster mushrooms are relatively mild.

Which is why I don’t stop there.

Shiitake: concentrated savouriness

A smaller quantity of shiitake immediately adds another layer. They have a deeper, more distinctive flavour and bring the savoury intensity that the milder mushrooms are missing. You don’t necessarily need them to dominate the recipe. You need them to make the whole mushroom mixture taste more mushroomy.

Wild mushrooms: where the flavour really gets interesting

Finally, I add wild mushrooms. If I could cook this every time with beautiful Ukrainian porcini, I probably would. Porcini have an incredible woodland aroma and depth that regular supermarket mushrooms simply cannot reproduce. Use the best flavourful wild mushrooms available to you. The point is not necessarily to use four mushroom varieties because four is some magical number. It is to combine mushrooms chosen for texture with mushrooms chosen for flavour.

And that is a much better way to build this filling.

Mushroom confession #1:
I have been waiting to create this mushroom barbacoa experiment for so long that I made a little bit a sacrifice on wild mushrooms – when I got my button mushrooms, oyster and shiitake, I was desperately lacking that extra type, so I have used dried Ukrainian porcini as a test #1, and for the test #2 I have bought lightly marinated wild mushrooms in a jar and rinsed the marinade off. What my testing showed: having oyster mushrooms gives you a base for this barbacoa recipe, whilst dried porcini (collected in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains and then dried) brought an amazing mushroom flavour – it was divine! Unfortunately, the second test with a jarred wild mushroom mix was underwhelming – yes, it was more exciting to eat than just having oyster mushrooms, but the flavour was somewhat lukewarm. So yes, the choice of mushrooms for this recipe is key.

Why Mushroom Barbacoa Needs a Different Marinade

I started with the flavour profile of my beef barbacoa, but I quickly discovered that simply replacing beef with mushrooms doesn’t work. Mushrooms absorb flavour frighteningly efficiently. That sounds theoretical, but you do not want your taco to taste predominantly of vinegar and chipotle. So I kept reducing both.

The resulting marinade is deliberately less acidic and less aggressively spicy than my meat version.

I still want you to get smoke from chipotle, warmth from cumin and cloves, savouriness from mushroom broth and the aromatic base of onion, garlic and oregano. But the mushrooms are still allowed to taste like mushrooms. This is important (probably for most recipes in general).

Chipotle should contribute smoke and depth here, not simply set fire to your mouth.

If you want to understand how I use chipotle as part of a broader salsa system rather than treating every chilli as generic heat, see my Mexican Hot Sauces & Salsa System.

Mushroom confession #2:
Well, I must admit that in my third round of cooking this recipe, I have minimised vinegar to the bare minimum of 1 tbsp. It’s there to help collapse the mushrooms, and you can even go further and use just 1/2 tbsp if yours aren’t very meaty. If you are using my chipotle paste and not chipotle powder, my paste already contains vinegar, so you can use just my paste for this recipe.

My Mushroom Barbacoa Recipe

Ingredients

For the Mushroom Barbacoa

• 300 g oyster mushrooms
• 300 g button mushrooms
• 200 g shiitake mushrooms
• 200 g flavourful wild mushrooms
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1/2 tbsp chipotle powder or chipotle paste
• 1 cup / 240 ml mushroom broth
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• Salt, to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 tbsp neutral cooking oil

A Note on Mushroom Broth

You can absolutely make your own mushroom broth. It is very simple, and making a little extra gives you an excellent excuse to cook mushroom soup afterwards. Nothing wasted, and I totally love this approach. But equally, this is not a test of who works harder. A good ready-made mushroom broth is completely fine.

How to Prepare the Mushrooms

Clean and cut the button, shiitake and wild mushrooms into substantial pieces. For the oyster mushrooms, use your hands. Tear them lengthways into irregular strips, removing or breaking apart any particularly thick stalks. I prefer this to neatly cutting them with a knife because those uneven strands give the final filling much better texture. You want mushroom barbacoa, not mushroom cubes.

Make the Barbacoa Marinade

Blend together:

• onion
• garlic
• chipotle paste
• mushroom broth
• apple cider vinegar
• cumin
• oregano
• cloves
• oil
• salt
• black pepper

Blend until you have a fairly smooth marinade.

Keep the bay leaves whole and add them during cooking.

Marinate the Mushrooms

Combine all the prepared mushrooms with the marinade and mix thoroughly. Leave them to marinate for at least one hour.

At first you may look at the pot and think: There surely isn’t enough liquid here.

Do not panic. Mushrooms contain plenty of water and will begin releasing it as they sit and especially once they start cooking. Give everything a good mix occasionally so the marinade coats all the mushrooms evenly.

Cook Low and Slow

Transfer the mushrooms and all their marinade into a suitable pot and add the bay leaves. Gradually heat until the liquid begins to simmer. Then turn the heat down and cook low and slow for approximately one hour, stirring occasionally. The mushrooms will soften, release liquid and gradually absorb the barbacoa flavours.

Towards the end, pay attention to the sauce. I want enough liquid left to coat the mushrooms generously, but not a watery mushroom soup. If necessary, let the sauce reduce a little further until it becomes more concentrated.

And do not throw that sauce away. That stuff belongs in your taco.

Cook and observe as I do:
Cooking is an enjoyable process, but ingredients, tools and environment differ. That’s why you need to taste, check the texture and flavours often. Check your barbacoa after 30 minutes first and see: is there enough liquid, and how soft are the mushrooms? If you have them soft and the sauce is barely covering them all, it is your first cue that you probably don’t need to cook it for the entire hour. Transfer the mushrooms with a slotted spoon to a bowl, and start reducing the liquid into a thicker sauce. This is important as you want to end up with a good quantity of a stickier sauce for your stewed mushrooms.

What Does Mushroom Barbacoa Taste Like?

The finished filling should be: earthy + smoky + deeply savoury + gently spicy + aromatic + juicy

I do not suggest aggressively vinegary. And you don’t want it overwhelmingly smoky. And importantly, not cooked until all four mushrooms become one anonymous brown substance. You should still get slightly different textures running through the filling. That is the reason we bothered buying all those mushrooms in the first place.

How I Build My Mushroom Barbacoa Taco

This is where my Taco Craft logic comes in.

For meat barbacoa, I can be extremely minimalist:

tortilla + barbacoa + onion + coriander + salsa + lime

Mushrooms need a slightly different structure.

My mushroom barbacoa taco is:

corn tortilla + refried beans + mushroom barbacoa + avocado crema + onion + coriander

With perhaps a tiny amount of chipotle hot sauce if you want another spicy accent.

Why? Because the mushroom barbacoa already gives me savoury flavour, smoke and juiciness. I don’t need to attack it with another acidic salsa. Instead, I want substance from beans and roundness from avocado. It makes the taco feel complete.

This is the same philosophy I use throughout my Taco Craft system: don’t automatically pile every possible topping onto every taco. Work out what the filling is missing and add that.

Check it out: Taco Craft – My System for Building Better Tacos.

Mushroom Barbacoa Taco Assembly

For each taco, I use approximately:

• 1 warm corn tortilla
• 2 tsp refried beans
• 1 tbsp mushroom barbacoa, plus some reduced cooking sauce
• 1 tbsp avocado crema or mashed avocado
• Finely chopped onion
• Fresh coriander/cilantro
• (optional) fresh cheese (queso fresco) or vegan cheese
• Chipotle hot sauce, optional

And yes, spoon a little extra mushroom sauce over the filling. I want it to be juicy. And maybe slightly messy. Tacos that require absolutely no napkin occasionally make me suspicious. You’re with me?

Why Refried Beans Work So Well Here

Mushrooms give this taco loads of savouriness and texture, but beans make it considerably more substantial. I use just a thin layer of refried beans rather than turning this into a bean taco.

They add creaminess, protein and body while giving the juicy mushrooms a base to sit on. I use the same basic logic in my Refried Beans, Crispy Mushrooms & Chipotle Crema Taco.

You can also make your own refried beans using my refried beans recipe.

Avocado Crema: Keep It Rich, Not Spicy

For this taco, I don’t think the crema needs another aggressive dose of acidity or chilli. There is already enough going on. Sometimes avocado simply needs to be avocado. Mash it and use it as it is. Or make a simple avocado crema.

For an even richer plant-based version, blend avocado with soaked cashews. Nutritional yeast is optional if you want another savoury layer. The job here is richness and softness.

If you want something closer to classic guacamole instead, see My Favourite Guacamole.

And Please Use a Proper Corn Tortilla

You knew this note was coming. You can spend time buying four types of mushrooms, marinating them, slowly cooking them and reducing their beautiful mushroom-barbacoa juices…

…and then put everything into a dry industrial wrap.

But why would you do this to yourself?

A fresh corn tortilla brings its own aroma, flavour and soft texture and is particularly good with juicy fillings like this one. If you haven’t made them before, start with my guide to homemade corn tortillas.

Which masa harina did I use for this cook?
This recipe illustrates particularly well my ongoing Masienda / Maseca / Bob’s Red Mill masa harina testing and comparison. For mushroom barbacoa, I wanted a soft tortilla that puffs up easily and creates a soft pillow of tortilla for tasty mushroom filling. I chose the new product from Masienda – Masa Taquera. I love to work with this masa harina; it allows me to achieve a predictably soft texture, 90% puff, and an equally pleasant mouthfeel.

I get it via Masienda store on Amazon and use a forwarding company to send it to me (I’m so far away from Mexico!)

My Final Verdict on Mushroom Barbacoa

I find this mushroom barbacoa enormously satisfying and versatile. It takes less time to cook than beef barbacoa. And once you already have the building blocks, like tortillas, beans, avocado crema and perhaps a bottle of homemade chipotle sauce in the fridge, assembling the tacos is ridiculously easy.

What I particularly like is that it doesn’t feel as though something has been removed from a meat taco. That is usually my test for plant-based cooking.

I don’t want to eat a dish and think: This is quite good considering there is no meat.

I want to think, like, ‘Oh, I haven’t realised it didn’t contain any meat’. It is indeed delicious because the ingredients that are actually there make sense.

Here you have earthy mushrooms, smoke, warm spices, creamy beans, avocado and fresh corn tortilla. Nothing is missing.

Mushroom barbacoa taste test:
I truly loved the finished taco; it was tasty, satisfying and balanced. I just also thought that you can adjust the assembly a little bit – if you like a lighter version, you can remove refried beans; but if you want it richer, add more avocado and/or cashew crema. And that’s beautiful. Having cooked a larger batch of this mushroom mixture allows you now to use these mushrooms in quesadillas, burritos, bowls and even in chilaquiles for your breakfast. So good and practical, too.

Mushroom Barbacoa FAQ

What mushrooms are best for mushroom barbacoa?

I prefer a mixture rather than one variety. Oyster mushrooms give the filling a torn, meaty texture, while shiitake and wild mushrooms provide stronger savoury flavour and umami. Button mushrooms add structure and make the recipe practical and affordable.

Can you make vegan barbacoa with mushrooms?

Yes, although it should be understood as a plant-based adaptation rather than traditional barbacoa. Mushrooms work particularly well with smoky chilli, garlic, oregano, cumin and warm spices, while slow cooking creates a juicy taco filling.

Do you need to sear mushrooms for mushroom barbacoa?

Not in this version. I marinate the mixed mushrooms first and then slowly cook them in the barbacoa marinade, allowing them to release their own liquid and absorb the seasonings.

Why does this mushroom barbacoa use less vinegar than beef barbacoa?

Mushrooms absorb the marinade very efficiently. In my testing, too much vinegar or chipotle quickly dominated their flavour, so I reduced both compared with my beef barbacoa recipe.

What do you put on mushroom barbacoa tacos?

My preferred combination is fresh corn tortilla, a thin layer of refried beans, juicy mushroom barbacoa, avocado crema, chopped onion and fresh coriander. Add a little chipotle hot sauce only if you want extra heat.

Can mushroom barbacoa be made ahead?

Yes. The mushroom filling can be prepared in advance and gently reheated with its cooking liquid before serving. Keep your tortillas and fresh toppings separate until you are ready to build the tacos.

What should I serve with mushroom barbacoa?

For tacos, I would keep things relatively simple: fresh corn tortillas, refried beans, avocado or avocado crema, onion, coriander and optional hot sauce. The filling is already aromatic and strongly seasoned, so it does not need an enormous pile of toppings.

More Taco Craft from Dito:

If this is your kind of taco, continue with:

• Barbacoa Tacos at Home – the beef recipe that inspired this adaptation
• Ancho Mushroom Tacos – another flavour-forward way I use oyster mushrooms
• Refried Beans, Crispy Mushrooms & Chipotle Crema Taco
• My Favourite Guacamole

Cooked It? Tell Me What Mushrooms You Used

Mushrooms vary enormously depending on where you live, and that is part of what makes this recipe interesting. If you make my mushroom barbacoa, tell me which mushroom combination you used and what worked best. And if you have access to beautiful local wild mushrooms? Please make me jealous.

Want to make better tacos rather than simply collect recipes? Explore my Taco Craft, Salsa Magic and Proper Tortillas guides.

Here are also my most used and loved tools and ingredients for a joyful Mexican cooking:

Masa harina for tortillas: Masienda, Bob’s Red Mill, Maseca

Chillies: Chipotle, Ancho, Guajillo, Tajin

Delicious Habanero Sauces: Mexico Lindo

My go-to jarred Chipotle hot sauce: Cholula

Tools: Tortilla Press, Ninja blender, Global knives.

Masienda store on Amazon – for the best masa harina for your taco tortillas