This homemade beef barbacoa recipe is easy to make in the slow cooker, and it’s SO flavorful and delicious! Perfect for burritos, tacos, salads, quesadillas and more.
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Homemade Barbacoa Recipe | 1-Minute Video
Barbacoa
This barbacoa recipe is simple to make in your slow cooker, and makes the most tender, flavorful, delicious barbacoa beef.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds beef chuck roast (fat trimmed), cut into 2-inch chunks
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 chipotles in adobo sauce, chopped
- 1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles
- 1 small white onion, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon dried Mexican oregano (or standard dried oregano)
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 cup beef stock or water
Instructions
- Slow cook. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a slow cooker. Toss gently to combine. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4 hours, or until the beef is tender and falls apart easily when shredded with a fork.
- Shred and toss. Using two forks, shred the beef into bite-sized pieces inside of the slow cooker. Toss the beef with the juices, then cover and let the barbacoa beef soak up the juices for an extra 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaves.
- Serve. Use a pair of tongs or a slotted spoon to serve the barbacoa beef and enjoy!
Notes
Storage instructions: Any leftovers can be stored (with their juices) in a food storage container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 3 months.
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
This was AMAZING! Pure delicious bliss!
New family favorite. We enjoy it both as tacos and rice bowls. A definite keeper!
Good and easy! Used beef consommé instead of beef broth because that’s all I had and it worked fine.
Was the most scrumptious barbacoa I’ve ever had! It’s also the first recipe I pinned first new to Pinterest and first I’ve made. Couldn’t have been better, so much flavor. Making it again for my birthday, Thankyou for a perfect recipe and accurate time frame ?❤️
Y’all – you have GOT to make this. It is so freaking good. For once, the recipe sounded SO GOOD that I made it exactly as written and even measured the danged ingredients so I didn’t risk screwing up something as delicious as a good barbacoa. I was not disappointed. I blended the seasonings/broth the night before in my Ninja smoothie blender and tossed the bay leaves in so the next morning before work I just had to roughly cube the meat and toss it all in the pot. I used my IP on the medium slow cook setting for 8 hrs (the meat was still slightly frozen) and it then switched to warm for 3 hrs until dinner. It was perfectly cooked. Even without shredding and re-mixing, the outside of the meat had enough spice and flavor that I kept a bit to the side for our 2 yr old and then mixed the rest up for the adults. The toddler declared it “spicy!” and then continued to gobble it down. The adults agreed that it had a nice level of spice. We made burrito bowls but TBH you could eat it out of the pot with a fork and save some dishes. It’s that good. The chilis in adobo gave it the heat and smokiness we were looking for. I haven’t lived near Chipotle in years so I can’t compare this to their barbacoa but DANG it was good. I froze half of it for later but can’t imagine “later” will be too far away. 100% going into the recipe box.
One of my new favorites! So full of flavor!
Made this recipe without the chipotle peppers or lime (hubby not a big fan) & is very picky with beef) OMG came out awesome! Hubby said this is the one!! Beeen dabbling with different barbacoa recipes a few years and WHOLE family gave this one a thumbs up its great!! Love that it’s not hard to make most ingredients are on hand – just can’t rave enough about it!!! I served it as tacos with diced onions, cilantro & lime and a homemade salsa- thank you so much!!! This is the one!
I had to tweek it since I didn’t have lime juice, but I did have sour orange. Since I started it late I’m cooking on high, though I’m sure low would be better. I also couldn’t find my bay leaves lol.
My reviews was supposed to be five stars but the stars didn’t display correctly on my phone…so I’m resubmitting!
Best Barbacoa I’ve ever made – thank you!!!!
This recipe was so delicious – even the picky eaters in my family ate it! The meat turned out really tender and had a great flavor.