Shredded Beef Tacos: Crock Pot Delight

I love Mexican food. Anytime I see a recipe for Mexican food, I am likely to pin it, especially if it looks easy.

Yesterday, I decided to try a brand new pin (I usually go with older pins first), slow cooker shredded beef tacos. My type of recipe, Mexican and slow cooker. It ended up tasting good, but there are a few things I will tweak in the future.

The first thing you need to do is create a rub out of 2 tsp. chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, and 1/2 tsp smoked paprika. I subbed regular paprika for the smoked version because that was all I had on hand. Then you are supposed to rub the spice mixture all over 2 lbs of beef, in my case a chuck roast. 

Notice the large jar of garlic? Yep. That is my shortcut.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I didn't feel that the rub was enough to get over all the meat. If there is a technique I'm missing, please let me know. The rub I had made was only enough to go on one side...barely. So, I mixed up some more rub. The next time I do this recipe I plan on tripling the rub so that I have plenty of rub to cover the meat. I'd much rather end up with a bit extra than scrambling to make more. (If you triple, you would need 2 Tbsp chili powder, 1 Tbsp cumin, and 1 1/2 tsp paprika.)

Once the rub is applied, heat up 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet and sear the meat on each side. Searing should only take 1-2 minutes per side. Put the meat in the bottom of you slow cooker. Add your minced onion (1 small) and minced garlic (4 cloves) on top of the meat.

The food in the crock pot ready to go.

You will then add 1 cup of beef broth or stock to the skillet, deglazing the pan. Add 2 Tbsp of tomato paste to help thicken the broth and 1 tsp of chipolte powder. The pinned recipe says to add a chopped chipolte pepper into the recipe. I did not do that and instead went with her substituted suggestion of the powder. However, the 1/2 tsp did not give the beef much flavor or kick so if going with the powder, I would add the full teaspoon.

The beef all shredded and ready to serve.

Once the sauce has thickened, after 3-5 minutes, pour it on top of the meat in the crock pot. Cover the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. After it is done cooking, take out the meat with a slotted spoon. Shred the meat and serve with flour tortillas (or if you prefer, corn) and all the fixings. Another thing you can do is use the meat to make beef quesadillas.

We really did like this dish. I just want to add a bit more kick and flavor to it in the future. One thought was that I might add cayenne pepper to the rub or even include the chipolte powder in the rub. 

Ready to eat! (The quesadilla was made for my toddler.)

Shredded beef tacos with all the fixings!

Another successful pin!