If you love Chipotle, you’re going to love this copycat barbacoa beef. This was really easy and made my house smell amazing all day!
If you’re looking for a new slow cooker, this one is a favorite.
We love to serve this beef as filling for tacos, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, salads, or just “bowl style” over rice with vegetables on the side.
How to make slow cooker barbacoa beef
- Place garlic, onion, lime juice, cumin, oregano, chipotles, and cloves in a blender or food processor.
- Trim all fat off meat, cut into 4 inch chunks. Season with salt and pepper and brown on high heat in 1 teaspoon oil. If you’re short on time, you can skip this step, but it does give a nice depth to the flavor of the meat.
- Add liquefied spices, water, bay leaves and cook in a slow cooker on high for 4 hours, or low for 6-8 hours.
- Once cooked and the meat is tender, remove the meat and place in a dish. Shred it with two forks, and reserve the liquid for later (discard the bay leaf). Return the shredded meat to the pot, adjust salt and cumin (you may need to add more) to taste and add some of the reserved liquid back. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes to let the flavors penetrate.
Recipe Notes
this recipe uses canned chipotles in adobo sauce (you can see the kind we prefer to use below) and calls for 2-4, depending how spicy you would like it. My kids don’t like spicy food, so I can usually only get away with one chipotle pepper and a little bit of adobo sauce.
More copycat recipes
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Pressure Cooker Instructions:
To make this in your Pressure Cooker or Instant Pot, place the oil in the bottom and use the Saute feature to brown the pieces of roast on all sides (you may need to do it in a few batches).
Return all the meat to the pot, pour the sauce over the meat and toss gently to coat. Replace the lid securely and set vent to “sealing.”
Cook on manual high pressure for 1 hour. Turn to “venting” for a quick release. Remove the bay leaves, shred meat, and serve as desired.
More restaurant faves:
Six Sisters Stuff
Serves: 8
This beef is slow cooked until tender in a perfect blend of spices. It's great for filling tacos, burritos, salads, or just served over rice.
20 minPrep Time
4 hrCook Time
20 minTotal Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 5 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1/2 medium yellow onion
- 1/2 lime (juiced)
- 2-3 chipotles in adobo sauce
- 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 Tablespoon ground oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 3 pounds bottom round roast (or beef eye of round, all fat trimmed)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 cup water
- 3 bay leaves
- 4 cups cooked rice
Instructions
- Place garlic, onion, lime juice, chipotles, cumin, oregano and cloves in a blender until smooth; set aside.
- Trim all fat off meat, and cut into 4 pieces. Season all sides with salt and pepper and brown in a skillet over high heat in 1 teaspoon olive oil just until the outside is brown and seared to seal in the juices.
- Remove meat from skillet and place in the bottom of a slow cooker sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
- Pour liquefied spices, water and bay leaves on top and cover and cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 6-8 hours.
- Once cooked and the meat is tender, remove the meat and place in a dish. Shred it with two forks, and reserve the liquid for later (discard the bay leaf).
- Return the shredded meat to the pot and mix together with juices in the slow cooker. Let cook on warm for 10 minutes.
- Serve over cooked rice.
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See how to make these quick and easy slow cooker steak fajitas below:
Their barbacoa has to be my favorite meat, so I'm happy to have this one. Showed it to the hubbs, and he thinks we need to make it this next week :) Thanks for the recipe!
Stephanie @