Barbacoa Beef for Burrito Bowls

As I mentioned in previous post, our past 10+ months have been…well…different.  They involved a lot of cross-country flights (mostly on CH’s part), lots of Facetime, emails and phone calls.   But the biggest downside for CH, was not eating home cooked meals. His survival rested on one particular restaurant chain – Chipotle.  Thankfully there is one 2 blocks from his office and I am fairly certain they know his name and order by heart.  As his wife, I am grateful he eats so healthy and I won’t complain about his frequent visits here.  However, now that I am home and back in action, I need to fend-off the competition.  Thankfully, I have this ace of a recipe up my sleeve – Chipotle, you are no competition for me.

I’ve been making this for a while now – we hosted a fun summer party last year and had a build-your-own-burrito-bowl party.  I’ve made this for my Dad, my girlfriend with a new baby, my Mom and many more.  Every time I make it, it comes out with rave reviews and barely any leftovers.  I remember I even made it when we went camping – it was perfect because all you needed to do was re-heat the beef and you had an instant, delicious, non-camping food dinner.  CH and I disagree about the ratio of lettuce to rice to meat, mine being more of a salad bowl, his being more of a meat bowl, but hey, it works.

I am actually wishing as I write this that a giant burrito salad bowl was in-front of me…alas it is not, but it will be again soon! Definitely add this to your recipe roster, you won’t be disappointed (and Chipotle, well, CH says it was great while it lasted!).

Barbacoa Beef 

Yield: 6-8 servings
Prep Time:  45 minutes
Cook Time:  5.5 hours (mostly hands-off time)

Ingredients 

• 3 lbs beef eye of round or bottom round roast, most of the fat trimmed*
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 medium onion, cut into chunks
• 1 lime, juiced
• 3-4 chipotles in adobo sauce (4 makes it quite spicy!)
• 1 TBSP ground cumin
• 1 TBSP ground oregano
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• salt and pepper  (generous amounts of both!)
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 TBSP oil
• 2 cups water

For Serving:

• lettuce
• cilantro-lime rice
• black beans
• pico de gallo
• cheese
• guacamole
• sour cream
• fresh cilantro
• tortilla chips
• lime wedges

*Skinny Taste called for removing all of the fat – but I followed Sunny Side Up’s recommendation and left a little of the fat, as I agree it maintains the moisture in the beef better. 

Directions 

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

Add garlic, onion, lime juice, chipotles, cumin, oregano, cloves and water to the bowl of a food processor or blender. Process until liquified.

Heat oil in a dutch oven over high-heat. Cut beef into 4 large chunks and season generously with salt and pepper. Add the beef to the dutch oven and brown each side.

Add the liquified seasonings and bay leaves. Put a lid on the dutch oven and cook in the oven for 4-5 hours, or until the meat easily shreds.

Discard the bay leaf and shred the beef in the dutch oven. Taste and add additional seasoning if necessary.

Place the dutch oven over medium heat and cook at a low simmer for 10 minutes.

As stated above, serve with lettuce, cilantro-lime rice, black beans, pico de gallo, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, tortilla chips and lime wedges.

Recipe slightly adapted from SunnySideUp, originally from SkinnyTaste.