This Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef recipe is cooked slow and low and has an amazing flavor! Pair with tortillas and cilantro lime rice for a delicious tex mex meal.
Our slow cooker works overtime every week creating delicious meals. We’re obsessed with this Crockpot Bourbon Chicken recipe! Sweet and spicy, it call also be made as an Instant Pot Recipe!
Barbacoa in the Slow Cooker
In Mexican cooking, Barbacoa refers to shredded beef. Seasoned to perfection, it’s the “Instant Pot pulled pork” of the beef family.
And my recipe makes it so easy for you to make this at home!
Traditionally barbacoa is cooked in a pit (much like kalua pork). But we’re tackling the “slow and low” by using our crockpot. The result is a tender, shredded beef!
Add in all the seasoning, and you’ve go the perfect taco tuesday dinner.
- Easy weeknight meal with very little prep.
- Juicy, tender beef.
- Spicy, fruity blend of seasonings to create the ultimate flavor!
Don’t forget dessert! Our homemade fried ice cream is the perfect finishing touch after today’s delicious dinner.
Ingredient Notes
- Chuck Roast- while barbacoa is often made with beef cheeks, chuck roast is an easy readibly available cut of meat for most home cooks. The marbling and fat in the roast renders down to create a fork tender bite of beef.
- Chipotle Chilies in Adobo Sauce- provides the smoky, spicy heat. Be sure to save the leftovers from the can in the freezer for next time!
- Spices- Garlic, cumin, oregano, kosher salt, pepper, cloves, bay leaves.
- Chicken broth- can also substitute with beef broth.
- Lime juice- both apple cider vinegar and the fresh squeezed lime juice provides the perfect acidity and freshness to this dish.
How to make Barbacoa in Crockpot
- Add Meat. Add chuck roast to bottom of a slow cooker (crockpot). Set aside.
- Make Sauce. In a food processor (or blender), combine apple cider vinegar, lime juice, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, garlic, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, and ground cloves. Process on high until smooth. Spread over chuck roast.
- Slow Cook. Add chicken broth and bay leaves to the slow cooker. Cover and heat for 6-8 hours on low.
- Serve. Remove beef and shred. Remove bay leaves and return beef to crockpot. Serve on a tortilla with all the fixings.
What to Serve with Barbacoa
One of things that my family loves most about Mexican food and Cinco de Mayo is the ability to customize dinner with all your own toppings.
So whether you love avocado or onion, you can make it your own.
Here are a few of our favorite serving suggestions:
- Cotija Cheese, crumbled (or shredded cheddar)
- Guacamole (or sliced avocado)
- Pico de Gallo (or diced tomatoes and onion)
- Cilantro Lime Rice
- Salsa Verde
- Black Beans
- Mexican Street Corn
- Diced Onions, Jalapenos, lettuce, cilantro
- Sour Cream or plain Greek yogurt
- Corn Salad
You can create a “taco” by serving on a warmed flour or corn tortilla. Or turn your barbacoa into a “bowl” with all the toppings on a bed of lettuce.
Tips and Tricks
- When making the chipotle pepper paste, use only the peppers, not the sauce. You can freeze the excess from the can in ice cube trays for future recipes.
- Want to cut back on the heat? Use just the sauce from the can of adobo peppers and not use the peppers themselves. My family loves a little spice.
- If cooking a larger roast than 4 pounds, cook closer to the 8 hour mark for the most tender results.
- Make it a freezer meal. You can combine everything in a ziploc freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw in refrigerator overnight, dump it all the slow cooker and cook as directed.
- Or, freeze the leftovers for meals later!
- Use the leftover Barbacoa meat in tacos, enchiladas, and quesadillas! Stir some in homemade mac and cheese for a zing!
- YES you can make Instant Pot Barbacoa too!!!
More Easy Dinner Recipes
- Chicken Avocado Enchiladas
- Enchilada Beef Rollups
- Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Mississippi Pot Roast
- Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Chili
- Pork Carnitas
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Barbacoa Beef Recipe {Slow Cooker}
Ingredients
For the Barbacoa:
- 4 pounds beef chuck roast
- 2 limes juiced
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce just the peppers, not the sauce
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 ½ Tablespoons cumin
- 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1½ teaspoons ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 3 bay leaves
Instructions
- For the barbacoa: In food processor (or blender), combine vinegar, lime juice, chipotle peppers, garlic cloves, cumin, oregano, pepper, salt and ground cloves. Process on high until smooth.
- In large crockpot, add roast, pepper puree, bay leaves, and chicken broth. Heat on low 6-8 hours.
- Shred beef and place back in juice, remove bay leaves. Serve on a tortilla with cilanto-lime rice, colby cheese, lettuce and guacamole. Enjoy!!!
Notes
- When making the chipotle pepper paste, use only the peppers, not the sauce. You can freeze the excess from the can in ice cube trays for future recipes.
- Want to cut back on the heat? Use just the sauce from the can of adobo peppers and not use the peppers themselves. My family loves a little spice.
- If cooking a larger roast than 4 pounds, cook closer to the 8 hour mark for the most tender results.
- Make it a freezer meal. You can combine everything in a ziploc freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw in refrigerator overnight, dump it all the slow cooker and cook as directed.
- Freeze the leftovers for meals later!
- YES you can make Instant Pot Barbacoa too!!!
Nutrition
This Barbacoa Beef recipe is made in the slow cooker and has an authentic mexican flair! Pair with tortillas and cilantro lime rice for a delicious tex mex meal.
Is there a way to tone down the Spiciness?
I don’t mind it but for a few in my family, it was a tad to spicy.
It does not have to be made in a hole in the ground with cactus! I don’t know where in the world you got your information but this is completely incorrect and totally false!
As a boy in central Texas, our Mexican neighbors cooked an entire cow head, wrapped in banana leaves, with wet burlap on top (I seem to recall the burlap was moistened with beer) and cooked it on hot coals in a hole in the ground, which was covered with a piece of tin, on top of which they shoveled a layer of dirt to hold the neat in the pit. It was cooked overnight. They told us they were “cooking barbacoa”. They consumed all the meat off the skull.
This is not actually barbacoa. As a Hispanic woman that grew up having barbacoa every Sunday morning of my life, this is quite frankly, laughable. Barbacoa, TRUE barbacoa, is made with beef cheeks. That’s right I said CHEEKS! You are essentially eating the cows face. Which makes sense as to why traditionally, barbacoa is served with lengua, or in English, tongue. Another delicacy. I, personally, don’t eat lengua, and I always ask for all meat when I go to the local “molinos” in my area. A “molino” is a little place that makes the barbacoa and tamales and the masa or dough for tamales. I know how to make both the barbacoa and tamales from scratch in my own kitchen, but I gotta tell you, that is some hard work. At least the tamales are. The barbacoa, is surprisingly easy. I’m sure this recipe is fantastic, but if you want authentic and traditional barbacoa, the cheeks is what you want to be cooking.
REAL BARBACOA IS MADE FROM A COW’S LIPS;TONGUE AND LIPS. IT’S AN ORGAN DISH.
I KNOW THAT BECAUSE I’VE ATE IT IN MEXICO.
So good! The beef turned out super tender and juicy and my house smelled delicious all day!
Looks good but this is not barbacoa! It just meat…barbacoa has to be made in a hole in the ground with cactus! Cant be made in a kitchen, sorry.
Darn. I have no cactus or holes in ground. I’ll just keep eating this though, cause it’s good 🙂
And it’s not made out of chuck roast…
Do you pour the pepper purée over the meat or just in the bottom of the crock pot?
Thanks!
YOu can do either. I usually pour it over the meat.
Made this for dinner tonight!
Wow!! This Crockpot Baracoa and Cilantro-Lime looks so amazing I’m going to make it tmw night for dinner. I come from a Hispanic back round and don’t find many recipes that speak to me like this recipe. Thank you for this idea.
Do you think the meat and sauce could be frozen and then cooked in the slow cooker as a freezer meal.
Hi:
I just found this recipe for crockpot barbacoa and would love to give it to my daughter-in-law since she loves, loves, loves this stuff. Could you please advise how much apple cider vinegar to use as the recipe says ? cup ! Would love to know how much apple cider vinegar to use ! Thank you !
Hi Jeanne, it’s 1/4 cup.
I love your blogs and recipes! Just wish you had a print option! 🙁
Hi jamie,
All my new recipes have print options, I’m working on getting these older recipes into the program!!
I was the general manager for Chipotle Mexican Grill and neither one of these recipes are even close!
They tasted delicious though!!
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I can’t wait to try this recipe! I LOVE Chipotle! I am going to the grocery store now! Thanks for sharing!