Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef
Updated Dec 22, 2025
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This Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef recipe delivers melt-in-your-mouth beef that’s tender, juicy, and full of savory, smoky flavor. Using a simple mix of spices, lime juice, and a little chipotle in adobo, the beef simmers all day in the crock pot until it shreds effortlessly. It’s perfect for tacos, burrito bowls, nachos, or make-ahead weeknight dinners where you want big beefy flavor with minimum effort.
This set-it-and-forget-it crockpot meal quickly became one of my kids’ favorite recipes, and it is amazingly versatile. Cubes of beef go into the slow cooker with a tangy, smoky spice blend, a splash of lime, and a little chipotle heat, then everything cooks low and slow until you can shred the beef with two forks.
This fall-apart, juicy, flavorful beef is perfect for tacos, burritos, or burrito bowls, or a pulled beef sandwich. It uses an inexpensive cut of beef, making the dish very economical, and the leftovers are fantastic. Or make this Barbacoa Beef Chili.
Minimal effort, big reward, and a weekday/weeknight hero recipe. All hail the crock pot!
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What's In This Post?
This easy Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef recipe is a go-to staple. The flavorful and tender meat is perfect for soft tacos.
What Is Barbacoa Beef?
Barbacoa beef, pork, lamb, or goat is, by definition, slowly cooked meat. The word is Mexican, and originally, parts of an animal were wrapped in leaves and steamed and smoked simultaneously over fire. The dish came to America from Mexico by way of Texas and is very much a part of Mexican immigrant and Tex-Mex culture, as well as the cuisine of Mexico.
Therefore, the notion of making barbacoa beef in a slow cooker is simultaneously radical and obvious. And the resulting meat is flavorful and tender, begging to be stuffed in a soft taco with toppings, used in a burrito bowl, or piled on some hot white rice, maybe served with Stewed Chayote with Tomatoes.
Ingredients
- Eye of round beef roast
- Chipotle in adobe puree
- Onion
- Minced garlic
- Chili powder
- Ground cloves
- Fresh lime juice – Save a few limes to cut into wedges to serve alongside the tacos.
- Cider vinegar
- Beef or chicken stock
- Bay leaves
- Tortillas – Use either corn or flour, but be sure to warm the tortillas before building the tacos.
- Toppings – Add any of your favorite toppings, such as salsa, sour cream, cheese (cheddar or crumbled queso fresco, goat cheese, or feta), avocado, or red onion.
How to Make Barbacoa Beef in the Crock Pot
- Brown the beef: In a large, heavy skillet over high heat, heat the oil. Sear the beef on all sides until browned.
- Make the sauce: Meanwhile, combine the chipotle puree, onions, garlic, chili powder, cloves, salt, lime juice, and vinegar in a slow cooker. Add the broth and the bay leaves.
- Cook: Add the beef to the slow cooker and cook on low for 10 hours, until the meat is falling apart tender.
- Shred and serve: Remove the meat from the slow cooker, let it sit for about 20 to 30 minutes, then pull it apart using two forks. Drizzle the shredded meat with some of the cooking liquid until nicely moistened but not dripping. Serve with warm tortillas and your favorite toppings.
Barbacoa Beef Tacos
Tacos are our favorite way to serve and eat barbacoa beef, though we certainly enjoy the beef in other dishes. Simply warm some tortillas (we like flour tortillas for these, but use corn if you like) and get those toppings ready. You could use hard-shell tacos if you prefer.
Toppings are anything you like on a taco, such as sour cream or crema, salsa, chopped tomatoes, diced avocados or guacamole, shredded cheese, sliced scallions or chopped onions, and fresh cilantro leaves.
How to Use Leftover Shredded Barbacoa Beef
Leftovers might be used in chili, stews, enchiladas, burritos, or quesadillas; a couple of cups of shredded, cooked beef in the fridge are a springboard for any number of dinners later in the week. Serve some up as part of a nacho bar for a serious treat. This type of one-two-punch cooking is very rewarding.
And there will be a lot of liquid left over from cooking the meat. Drain it into a container, put it in the fridge, and then, when it is chilled, remove the fat that will have congealed on the top. The remaining flavorful broth is a great springboard for a beef stew or soup. Note the seasonings you’ve already added as you plot out your soup. There is a bit of tartness from the vinegar and the lime juice, which is quite pleasing.
What to Serve With Barbacoa Beef
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Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 3-pound eye round of beef
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon chipotle in adobo puree
- 1 onion (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- Juice of 2 limes
- ¼ cup cider vinegar
- 3 cups beef or chicken stock
- 3 bay leaves
- Warmed corn or flour tortillas (to serve; see Notes)
Optional Toppings
- Salsa (tomato or tomatillo)
- Sour cream
- Shredded cheddar (or crumbled queso fresco, goat cheese, or feta)
- Sliced avocado
- Slivered red onion
- Lime wedges
Instructions
- In a large, heavy skillet over high heat, heat the oil. Sear the beef on all sides until browned.
- Meanwhile, combine the chipotle puree, onions, garlic, chili powder, cloves, salt, lime juice, and vinegar in a slow cooker. Add the broth and the bay leaves.
- Add the beef to the slow cooker and cook on low for 10 hours, until the meat is falling apart tender.
- Remove the meat, let it rest for about 20 to 30 minutes, then pull it apart using two forks. Drizzle the shredded meat with some of the cooking liquid until nicely moistened but not dripping.
- Serve with warm tortillas and whatever toppings you like.
This was so delicious! So much flavor. My whole family loved it. It was so good last week, that I’m making it this week, too.
Barbacoa is made with cheek meat, that’s all, not chuck roast…you’re giving it a bad name!!!
oh, well, I wasn’t aware, so thanks (and now will have to search out cheek meat!)
In the ingredient list the directions say: (see Warming tortillas sidebar)…where is the sidebar?
In step 3 the directions say: Drizzle the shredded meat with some of the cooking liquid, until nicely moistened but not dripping (see Note)….where is the note?
6 hour left in the slow cooker…
Hi, and sorry this took so long! In some posts, links and sidebars went missing, so apologies for that. The part about the extra liquid is in the recipes into, and now the warming tortillas sidebar is back! That’s for noting all of this.