Looking for more easy south-of-the border recipes to make for weeknights? Then look no further than these popular posts for Mexican Street Corn Chicken Pasta Salad, Super Easy Mexican Rice, and Mexican Beef and Rice Skillet.
Ingredients
White or yellow onion — Either one will work here, you’re going to chop it up then blend it up so no need to finely dice or make your cuts fancy. Garlic — I use minced garlic from a jar but you could also chop up 3 large garlic cloves Chipotles — I use chipotles from a can of chipotles in adobo. Do they come any other way other than that or dried? I think those are the only two ways and the canned ones are much much easier to work with! Tomato paste — Canned or from a squeeze tube, it doesn’t matter, but tomato taste is yum for its concentrated tomato flavor (plus, using tomato paste instead of sauce keeps the tacos from being too watery after you shred them. Apple cider vinegar — You need that acidity to help work the rest of the spices and flavors into the meat. Apple cider vinegar is my favorite choice for this because of its slightly sour taste that pairs well with the lime juice and tomato paste. Lime — Fresh lime juice tastes fresher and has more bite than bottled, but if you don’t have fresh, then bottled will work too. Salt — I use salt to taste here in the paste for the meat. I find it needs just a little more than you might think, and I always recommend Himalayan pink salt or sea salt! Cumin and cloves — I use ground cumin and cloves in this dish, they both really give a depth of flavor and that tex-mex spice and smell you want! Oregano — I find that dried oregano works best in this recipe for barbacoa beef, but you can use fresh if that’s all you have. Brisket or chuck roast — Both briskets and chuck roasts are tougher cuts of meat, which is why they work well being slow cooked over longer periods of time. Either cut off beef works great in this barbacoa recipe.
Expert Tips and Tricks
While I used a 3.5 quart slow cooker to test this recipe, it can easily be scaled up to feed more people. However, note that, depending on the size of your slow cooker, you may want to reduce some of the cooking juices before returning the shredded meat. Simply pour or ladle them out before adding the shredded beef back in. No small food processor or bullet blender? No worries. Instead, just finely chop the onions, garlic, and chipotles before stirring everything together into a paste. You can freeze cooked Chipotle Barbacoa Beef in an airtight container for up to 6 months. Alternately, you can add the uncooked beef and the marinade together into a Ziplock or airtight container and then simply thaw in the fridge and pop in the slow cooker when you’re ready to eat it.
More Delicious Beef Recipes
Roasted Garlic Butter Beef Tenderloin Instant Pot Beef Bourguignon Vegetable Beef Soup Slow Cooker Beef Roast BBQ Beef Brisket Tacos.
Did you try this recipe? Fantastic! Please take a moment to rate the recipe below and leave a review! And don’t forget to snap a photo and tag me on social, I love to see your CDLC creations. Simple ingredients — Nothing fancy needed for these fancy-sounding chipotle barbacoa tacos. Everything is probably in your pantry or fridge right now, in fact. And if not, it’s nothing that a quick trip to the international food aisle of your local grocery store can’t fix. Delicious — Maybe it’s the barbacoa meat, slow cooked for 6 hours, maybe it’s the sauce it cooks in, so full of garlic, onion, chipotles, tomato paste, lime, juice, and herbs. Maybe it’s the ways you can top a taco, maybe it’s all of the above! No matter what does it for you, I can guarantee these tacos are some of the most delicious, flavorful tacos you’ll ever make. Great for leftovers — I honestly get sad when my family crushes all the barbacoa beef in one meal. I much prefer to have leftovers and eat it again and again for the next days’ lunches. It’s good cold too!
