Mexican Pot Roast

The goal of this recipe is not to serve a Mexican pot roast. The goal of this recipe to provide exquisitely flavored, shredded beef for your tacos or fajitas. The best part of the recipe, besides the taste, is that it is ridiculously easy....just dump everything into a slow cooker and walk away.

Now this will shock my readers, but I buy my pot roast at Costco. Costco sells it for $3.99 a pound. The roasts are chuck, come two to a package and they usually weigh in at 6-8 pounds (3 to 4 pounds per roast). I cook with one and freeze the other. I created a special way to freeze these large pot roasts as they are just too big to fit in my vacuum food saver bags.

Air is the enemy when freezing...it causes freezer burn, which ruins the meat. So first I wrap the meat tightly in cling wrap. I do it twice by laying two large sheets of cling wrap in a cross pattern, enabling me to wrap it around the roast and then end to end. Then I do the same with heavy duty foil. Then I slide the whole thing into a freezer bag in which I have squeezed out all of the air. Works like a charm every time.

At the end of the recipe, you are going to shred the meat. You'll then remove the fat from the sauce and add the meat back to the sauce. While you can easily skim the fat off of the sauce (because fat rises to the top), I like to use a fat separator. Just pour all of the sauce into the separator and the fat will rise to the top. Because the spout exits the at the bottom of the separator, you can pour out all of the good sauce and leave the fat behind.


Ingredients
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 boneless beef chuck roast (3 pounds)
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup beef broth


Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Cut roast in half; rub spice mixture over meat. Transfer to a slow cooker. Top with onion and garlic. Pour broth over meat. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
2. Remove meat from slow cooker; shred with two forks. Skim fat from cooking juices. Return meat to slow cooker; heat through. Using a slotted spoon, place 1/2 cup meat mixture on each taco shell or tortilla. Top with your favorite ingredients.

Pairing: Pacifico Mexican Beer.