As soon as school is back in session, I turn my sights on my slow cooker to help keep the weeknight dinner routine manageable. Some of our family favorites are Spicy Pumpkin Chicken Corn Chowder, Root Beer Baby Back Ribs, Shredded Pork Breakfast Tostadas, and Light Almond Milk Tapioca Pudding . Honestly? It’s impossible to choose favorites. We’ve loved all the recipes for the slow cooker shared on Boulder Locavore, and candidly from the attention to those posts, readers have too! Though weather is getting chillier in the morning, and the mercury is bounding back to the 90’s by midafternoon, there still are great slow cooker recipes to make without waiting until the deep of winter.
One of the first slow cooker recipes I ever posted on Boulder Locavore remains a favorite: Crock Pot Pulled Pork Sandwiches. I wanted to come up with a Shredded Barbecue Beef recipe both for some fun sandwiches and also to feature in a recipe inspired by our recent trip to the Canadian Maritimes. The latter will be coming your way soon, but in the meantime this Shredded Barbecue Beef recipe will become a favorite. The preparation takes mere minutes and shredding the beef only takes a few minutes when it has finished cooking. You can literally pop it into your slow cooker first thing in the morning and it will be ready at dinner time.
In addition to making weeknights easy, this makes a perfect meal for football season. The finished recipes yield 5 to 6 cups of shredded barbecued beef that can easily make a full platter of slider sandwiches using dinner rolls or slider buns. The prepared beef can be frozen in 1 cup serving sizes for future meals too!
Slow Cooker Shredded Barbecue Beef Sandwiches
These easy to make sandwiches are packed with flavor!
Ingredients
Ingredients for the BBQ sauce
- ½ cup Ketchup
- ½ cup Chile Sauce
- ¼ cup Brown Sugar (light or dark)
- 1/3 cup Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke
- ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper , freshly ground
- 1/3 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Ground Mustard
- ½ teaspoon Smoked Paprika
- Dash of Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (or more if you want it spicy; taste first then add more if desired)
- 3 pound Boneless Beef Chuck Roast
- Hamburger buns or rolls
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients except for the beef roast; whisk to fully combine.
- Add the beef roast to a 6-7 quart oval slow cooker (it can also be cut in half and placed in a round slow cooker). Pour the sauce over the roast and turn the roast to coat fully.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 8 hours on LOW. When the meat is cooked, skim any fat from the surface of the liquid and discard. Using two forks, scrape the roast to shred it. Serve on buns or rolls. Extra portions can be combined with the sauce and stored in the refrigerator or frozen.
Sarah says
I love using my slow cooker for recipes like this. So great for a crowd.
Dana M says
This sounds delish! Would I be able to use a bone-in chuck roast? We have some in the freezer that I’d like to use. Thanks for sharing!
Toni Dash says
I have only made the recipe with the Boneless Beef Chuck Roast, Dana. Chuck can be made of many different cuts from the same area of the steer so I’m not sure if your roast is the same as what I used just with a bone, or from another area. Normally bone-in cuts need to cook longer in the oven however with slow cooking often those traits even out over the hours it cooks. A long way to say it probably would be fine but I don’t know for sure and might suggest consulting your butcher on the swap out. I was not able to find an answer to that question myself.
maria s. says
I am a real beef lover so these look amazing to me. I love adding slaw to my sandwich and I feel like beef is the best way to enjoy shredded barbecue. It’s so savory!