A Fiesta for the Tastebuds

It has been a while since I shared a recipe, so I thought I would try to fit in a few of our favs in the next few posts. One of our absolute favorite meals is Mexican-Style Shredded Beef. This is a delicious crockpot recipe that was an instant hit. It is super easy and extremely versatile! It can be served as nachos, burritos, or quesadillas to name a few options. Tonight we enjoyed it as nachos alongside a yummy bowl of taco soup.

Mexican-Style Shredded Beef

1 beef chuck shoulder roast (about 3 lbs.)*

1 T. chili powder

1 T. ground cumin

1  T. coriander

1 t. salt

½ t. ground red pepper

1 c. salsa or picante sauce

2 T. water

1 T. cornstarch

Cut roast in half. Combine chili powder, cumin, coriander, salt and red pepper in small bowl. Rub over beef. Place ¼ c. salsa in slow cooker. Top with 1 piece of beef. Layer ¼ c. salsa, remaining beef, and ½ c. salsa in slow cooker. Cover; cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours or until meet is tender. (You can also cook on HIGH for about 4 hours I have found.)

Remove beef from cooking liquid; cool slightly. Trim and discard excess fat from beef. Using two forks, shred meat.

Let cooking liquid stand 5 minutes to allow fat to rise. Skim off fat. To thicken liquid blend water and cornstarch. Whisk into liquid. Cook on HIGH until thickened. Return beef to slow cooker and cook 15 to 30 minutes until hot. Adjust seasoning if desired.**

Serve as meat filling for tacos, fajitas, burritos, or quesadillas. Leftover mixture may be refrigerated up to 3 days or frozen up to 3 months.

*I have used bottom round roast at times. It shreds easier and has less fat.

** It doesn’t have to take this long. The meat doesn’t necessarily get cold, especially if you cover it after you shred it. And the liquid is also hot which warms the meat.

-I make up quite a bit of rub and just use what it takes to cover the roast I am using. Since we have this meal quite frequently, I have found that it saves time. Feel free to play with the ratio of spices. My mom adds more red pepper and even uses cayenne pepper. I usually stick with this ratio because I don’t do hot well! Also, I don’t really measure the salsa. I just use enough to cover the bottom to begin with, then enough to cover the next layer of meat. Then I will usually throw in the rest of the jar. It probably makes a little more liquid, but you can just adjust the corn starch amount as needed.