You can always make your own slow cooked barbacoa tacos.
How many times have you been to Chipotle, saw their spread of burrito fillings and thought to yourself "man, homemade barbacoa would be so much better than this stuff," then ordered barbacoa anyway? It happens to me all the time, so I finally decided to make my own version of barbacoa--Mexican barbeque beef.
I'm sure there are countless ways to prepare it, depending on the region of Mexico and the availability of a slow cooker. I melded a few recipes together and used some stuff I had on hand. After slow cooking the beef for 10 hours, I served it taco-style in a warm tortilla with some pico de gallo, cheese, chopped cilantro and sour cream. I used simple garnishes so the chipotle and chili powder flavors could really shine through in the beef. Traditionally beef barbacoa is made with the entire cow's head, but for cooking-at-home purposes I used chuck. This is a perfect party recipe because it's easy to make, fairly inexpensive, yields more beef than you can probably handle and everyone loves it.
Slow Cooked Beef Barbacoa Tacos
Ingredients:
For the beef-3 lbs boneless beef chuck
1 large onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small can chipotle peppers with adobo sauce
1 tsp chili powder
1 quart chicken stock, use half to start and add more as needed
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup cider vinegar
For the tacos-
small corn tortillas
salsa or pico de gallo
sour cream
shredded cheddar cheese
chopped cilantro
Directions:
1 - Combine all beef ingredients in a slow cooker, adjusting the spicy items to taste. I like to use the whole can of chipotle peppers, but wouldn't recommend it if you're not into spicy foods.
2 - Set the slow cooker on low and cook for 8 hours. I cooked mine for 10 but it was definitely ready to go around 8. The longer the better!
3 - Check on it every few hours. If the beef needs more liquid, add the remaining chicken stock to moisten.
4 - After 8 hours, season to taste with salt, pepper and cider vinegar (if you're into that sort of thing).
5 - When the beef is ready to go, assemble the tacos -- warm the tortillas by wrapping them in a paper towel and throwing them in the microwave for a few seconds (or grill them if you want to get really fancy) then add the beef, salsa, cilantro, sour cream and of course, cheese.
Terry
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