Slow Cooker Beef Barbacoa
This Slow Cooker Beef Barbacoa is an easy Mexican-inspired entree, flavored with chiles, garlic, and spices, that will win your family over!
A chuck roast is seared and then slow-cooked in a crockpot with a flavorful, homemade adobe sauce. The Beef Barbacoa Recipe creates delectable shredded beef to serve with your favorite taco fixings or in your favorite Tex Mex recipes!
Why You’ll Love
- Recipes for this spiced-up, slow-cooked beef in the crockpot sounded fabulous.
- Using a slow cooker is perfect for our dreadfully hot summer weather, plus a nice change from my simple and frequent summer entree, Soft Shell Beef Tacos.
- After only a half-hour in the slow cooker, I knew this dish would be a hit. The aroma in my kitchen was definitely tantalizing. I greeted Bill with, “You’re going to love dinner tonight,” when he arrived home from work. I was overly anxious to dig in after being tempted all day long and so was he.
How to Make
- First, make the adobo sauce by combining vinegar, lime juice, chipotles, tomato paste, garlic, cumin, oregano, black pepper, salt, and cloves in a blender or processor on high speed until smooth.
- Remove any excess fat from the roast and then cut it into a few chunks.
- Pour oil into a frying pan and sear all sides of the roast on medium-high heat until browned.
- Place meat into Crockpot and pour adobo sauce over meat.
- Pour in the chicken broth and add bay leaves and onions.
- Cook on high heat for 6 hours or on low all day.
- While still in the Crockpot, shred the meat with two forks and turn the heat to warm.
- Serve with tortillas and a variety of fixings when ready.
Recipe Tips
- A well-marbled chuck roast provides fabulous flavor and is super tender as it cooks slowly. This is not a cut to grill as it needs time and liquid to break down the fibers and tenderize.
- Make sure to have a flavorful liquid along with the chuck roast as the longer slower cooking time allows the seasonings to infuse into the meat.
- Chiptole peppers in adobo sauce are a key ingredient. Chipotles are dried, smoked jalapenos, so there will be some heat. Adobo sauce is a slightly sweet, tangy red sauce.
- PRO-Tip: If you’re worried about this dish being too spicy, use only two peppers instead of 4. Note that the peppers hold more heat than the sauce.
- Freeze your leftover chipotles to use in future recipes.
- Chuck roast has a lot of pockets of fat, which provides wonderful flavor. Cut away larger pieces before putting the chuck into the slow cooker.
- Also, when you shred the cooked beef, remove any visible fat.
Frequently Asked Questions
Beef Barbacoa originated in the Caribbean, where beef, lamb, or goat, was slow-cooked over an open fire. This is where “barbecue” originated! The Spanish word Barbacoa translates to Barbecue in English.
Since cooking over an open fire is rather impractical for home cooks, using a slow cooker with similar seasonings, including chiles, garlic and spices is much more approachable. This beef barbacoa is the perfect filling for your tacos, burritos, and enchiladas. Or use it as a topping for a taco salad instead of ground beef.
Any cut of beef that’s good for slow cooking works well for barbacoa. It should have a lot of connective tissue like a chuck roast, brisket, or even beef cheeks.
And I’m a huge fan of chuck roast for slow-cooked stews and this slow cooker Beef Barbacoa. The flavor of this cut is marvelous as the extra fat makes it tender and tasty. For stews, a chuck roast is always my top choice.
You May Also Like:
No matter the season, there is a perfect beef recipe to add to your dinner menu. Besides this Slow Cooker Beef Barbacoa, here are some other favorites:
- Greek-Style Beef Kabobs (aka Souvlaki) by Cupcakes & Kale Chips
- Instant Pot French Dip Sandwiches
- Beef Teriyaki Kabobs
- Slow Cooker Beef Stew
- Beef Roulades
- Easy Meatball Subs
- Asian Beef with Peppers
- More Delicious Beef Recipes
Slow Cooker Beef Barbacoa Recipe
Amazing Mexican inspired barbecue beef in the slow cooker!
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 4 garlic cloves, sliced
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons salt
- A pinch ground cloves
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup chicken broth
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 2-4 chipotle chiles in adobo
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 4 pound chuck roast
- 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
- Serve with diced tomatoes, grated cheddar, guacamole, pico de gallo, lettuce, sour cream, bell peppers, tortillas
Instructions
- To make the adobo sauce combine vinegar, lime juice, chipotles, tomato paste, garlic, cumin, oregano, black pepper, salt and cloves in a blender or processor on high speed until smooth.
- Remove any excess fat from the roast and then cut into a few chunks.
- Pour oil into a frying pan and sear all sides of roast on medium-high heat until browned.
- Place meat into Crockpot and pour adobo sauce over meat.
- Pour in the chicken broth and add bay leaves and onions.
- Cook on high heat 6 hours or on low all day.
- While still in the Crockpot, shred the meat with two forks and turn the heat to warm. Serve with tortillas and a variety of fixings when ready.
Notes
Inspired by Food.com.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 648Total Fat: 41gSaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 2gUnsaturated Fat: 22gCholesterol: 193mgSodium: 922mgCarbohydrates: 12gFiber: 3gSugar: 4gProtein: 59g
56 Comments on “Slow Cooker Beef Barbacoa”
I could make this work for me. Although I am not at all complaining (I’m just happy I’m still healthy) and I have eaten well the past eight months, I am tired of my menus and recipes. Last week after moving to Boulder for the winter there was one night I was just too tired to think about putting something nutritious on the table. So I had Goldfish and a glass of wine for dinner. (Yeah, Liz, I did.) So currently I am on your site looking for good dinner entrees and noticed that I had commented on it before you modernized and changed it up a bit. Looks delicious. Worth a try. Better for me than Goldfish, I believe.
The chipotle peppers really make this taste special!
I can’t wait to make it again! It was a huge hit!
Had to make this last night…it was fabulous!
This turned out so tender and so flavorful! Will be using this recipe over and over!
love this recipe!
Love this! Such an amazing flavor and the leftovers are just as great!
Perfect slow cooker beef dinner. My boys will be all over this!
This would be dinner heaven for me!
Just got my printer re-loaded with black ink so I could finally print out this recipe. It looks perfect for me because I can make a big batch of this and freeze it in smaller proportions. You can take the Girl out of Iowa but you can’t take “living beef” out of the Girl.
I love beef but it doesn’t like me so well these days. We don’t have it often but I would love to sink my teeth into this.
Oh yes yes yes! I love using chuck int he slow cooker too. This barbacoa needs to happen at my house ASAP!
My meals have been a bit uninspired lately too. I feel like I’m just so busy and want dinner on the table now. This looks fantastic and sounds even better!
My brother has just invested in a crock pot, Liz, so I’m printing off this recipe for him to practice his new-found crock-pot skills. I’ll come back 6 hours later to check he has got it right 🙂 Looks divine!
This is something I’ve always wanted to make. thanks for the inspiration and the recipe!! It’s going to be a big hit in this house.
This ethnic dish is so flavorful and a favorite of ours. I love using my crockpot in the summer…there is no heating up of the kitchen.