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!
Amazing recipe, we made it for Cinco de Mayo family dinner. I used in insta pot, seared the chuck roast first then high pressure for 1 hour. I didn’t have clove but had everything else. Shredded up the beef and let in sit in the juices. This recipe is a keeper, thank you for sharing!
If I could give this more than 5 stars I would. It was so easy and so good. We used Pork Butt, because that is what we had. I also left out the diced green chilies as I knew it would be too much for the two older people in our household. I had planned on having it stretch to two meals, but alas it all went on night one. So tomorrow I am going to redo it with some boneless chicken breasts. I will only give it 2 hours on low, as that should be plenty of time for them. Tonight we had it on flour tortillas with your Cilantro Lime Slaw, which was incredible. We had Chipolte’s Barbacoa last week, and this was so much better! I look forward to trying some of your other recipes.
Sounds great but i can’t find the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce anywhere anything i can substitute?
It’s canned and a little hard to miss, what stores are you going to? They’re in the Hispanic section and I can almost always find them.
Hi! You can use 4 teaspoons ground chili powder.
I found this as a substitute and am trying it tonight…. Mix 1 tablespoon tomato paste (or if you must – ketchup), 1 tablespoon cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon chipotle powder (or smoked paprika/cayenne powder mix), 1/2 teaspoon cumin, a pinch of oregano, a pinch of garlic powder, and a pinch of salt.
Walmart has them in the Mexican food section. I bought them yesterday.
Walmart has it it a small can . And you can order on line at Walmart .com
I’m a little late to the party shay but I replace it with smoked paprika, cayenne pepper (or I make home made chipotles by smoking my jalapeños for a couple hours but thats time intensive) and then add a bit of tomato paste and water. This will achieve the same outcome. I would say 1 T of paprika, 1/2 T of cayenne and 1 t of paste and water each :)
Seriously one of the best recipes I’ve ever made! I use my Le Creuset dutch oven in which I sear the meat (have used chuck roast and tri tip), and bake in the oven at 425 for 45 mins then 2.5 hours at 325. When finished, I shred and let stand in the dutch oven at 225 until ready. I blend all of the ingredients in my food processor/blender doubling the chipotle and adding a 1/4 cup orange juice. My wife now loves me again! :)
Do you blend it after you’ve cooked the beef or you blend it and let the beef cook in the blended mixture?
You cook it in the sauce, so obviously it is blended prior to the cooking process, whatever process you use.
Absolutely amazing dinner in our household tonight. I couldn’t find diced chili’s so used 2-4oz cans of slice jalapeños (not for the faint of heart). I don’t find the canned diced chili’s ever add much to a recipe anyways. I used 3 chili’s in adobo and some of the sauce. My house smelled amazing all day. We had them with street style flour tortillas heated up in a cast iron pan along with diced onion, cilantro, Avocado salsa/or sour cream (depending on preference) and some cotija cheese. Just had a side salad with hatch chili dressing. I’m full but already craving the leftovers tomorrow. Thank you so much for the recipe, we absolutely loved it. ? ? well done!
The best flavors. Never using ground beef for tacos again. Thanks for sharing such a perfect combo of flavors for tacos! We had this for Christmas Eve and will make it a tradition.
do you think i could use stew beef? thats all i have on hand, silly question but will it shred still?
I am wondering the same thing. Did you try it with stewing beef?
This recipe is so good. Thanks a lot
Amazing
Love this recipe! Could this be done with chicken with good results? Has Anyone tried that?
For a shredded chicken version, I would follow the use recipe and ingredients above, with these changes:
– 2 to 3 lbs chicken breast (not frozen), instead of 3 lbs beef
– leave out the ground cloves
– add 1 jar (12-16 oz) of salsa (red or green)
– 1/4 cup chicken stock/broth or water, instead of 1/2 cup of beef stock
I don’t usually comment on recipes I try but this one turned out so so good. Before making this I thought barbacoa was some kinda taqueria voodoo magic that I would never attempt… but this turned out better than 95% of legit street tacos I’ve had!! Only thing I did different was to brown the beef chunks first then deglaze the pan with the beef stock. Thanks again! Decided to freeze a good portion of the meat the same night for my own safety lest I eat 3 lbs in two days.
My 15 year old son: “That’s your best dinner ever, Mommy!” Great recipe. Thanks! I browned the meat first and used only one chipotle pepper. Perfect!