It’s been a year since we did a food-related post on here, so here is your annual fix. This recipe was inspired by the Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos by GimmeSomeOven. They are absolutely delicious and surprisingly easy too. We made a few tweaks to the original recipe and have found ourselves already making it twice in the same week, it is really that good. We used Iron Horse Mocha Death, but feel any dark beer would work well. Our original idea was to find Stone’s Smoked Chipotle so if you see that it would go great, or any other smoked beer.

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Beer Tacos:

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 pounds boneless chuck roast (if you make more double check that all ingredients will fit in your slow cooker!)

1/2 tsp. cayenne

1- 1/2 tsp. cumin

2 tsp. smoked paprika

1/4-1/2 tsp finely ground coffee (we used espresso, you can omit this if you wish)

1/3 cup beef stock (we only had turkey stock and it worked just fine)

2/3 cup dark beer (we used Iron Horse’s Mocha Death, any dark or smoked beer would be good)

2 Tbsp. tomato paste

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced (We like the burn so we used 1 1/2 chipotles plus some sauce)

1 medium sweet onion, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

Corn tortillas

Mix together the paprika, cayenne, cumin, and coffee. Rub the spice mixture evenly all over the beef.

Heat the oil in a large skillet and then sear each side of the beef until brown, not looking to cook it just sear the outsides. Once browned, place beef in to the bottom of your slow cooker. Leave the skillet on the heat and save drippings. Top beef with the diced onion and garlic.

Add beef/turkey stock and beer to skillet drippings and deglaze, make sure to scrape up any browned or black bits. Add in tomato paste and minced chipotles, whisk. Let the sauce come to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer for about 4-5 minutes. Once thickened, pour sauce over beef and onion/garlic mixture in slow cooker.

Cover and cook on Low for 6-8 hours, we had ours cook for the full 8 hours and then was on the Warm setting for about an extra hour. Once cooked, shred beef with forks, and pour remaining liquid from slow cooker into a medium-sized pot that will fit all the beef. Cook the liquid until it starts to boil, add in shredded beef and any extra flavorings (salt, pepper, more beer). We simmered this for an extra 5-7 minutes. This step is not necessary, you can shred the beef straight out of your slow cooker and serve immediately.

Serve and top with your desired toppings. We used fresh cilantro and a jalapeno-yogurt dip you can find at Costco.

We fried our corn tortillas in a skillet with come vegetable oil and fried until golden brown and delicious on both sides. Totally not required, but totally worth the effort. I don’t recommend using olive oil in this part as olive oil has a lower smoke point than vegetable.

Serving size is hard to determine, we probably got roughly 18 tacos that were made with small 4″ corn tortillas. The beef mixture reheats very nicely and lasted a few days after the initial day.

Enjoy!

Edit: If you wish to make this recipe but NOT use beer it is totally possible! Simply omit the beer and increase the stock to 1 cup.