Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef is what you make when you want a big batch of crowd-pleasing food with relatively little effort. The succulent pulled beef is smothered in an incredible homemade barbecue sauce, and there’s so many ways to serve it – pile into slider s, heap onto plates or stuff into baked potatoes! 1

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Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef is what you make when you want a big batch of crowd-pleasing food with relatively little effort. The succulent pulled beef is smothered in an incredible homemade barbecue sauce, and there’s so many ways to serve it – pile into slider s, heap onto plates or stuff into baked potatoes! 1
Easy Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef
Easy Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef

 

Easy Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef

Ingredients in Easy Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef

I know there are plenty of slow cooker pulled beef recipes out there that involve tipping a bottle of barbecue sauce over a piece of beef and calling it a day. Nothing wrong with that! But if you’re willing to spend an extra 10 minutes to gather what you need to make your own, I promise you’ll be rewarded with something that tastes even better!

So here’s what you need to make this:

1. For the beef

  • Chuck beef – This is a cut of beef that needs to be cooked long and slow to break down the tough meat. It’s ideal for shredding because the meat is marbled with fat so the beef stays succulent, and the meat fibres are suitable for making pulled beef.

    Alternatives – Brisket can be used as it shreds very well but I find the meat is much leaner so it’s not my favourite for shredding. I’d rather slow cook it whole and slice (see Slow Cooked BBQ Brisket). Gravy beef is another slow cooking cut that will work here but it is leaner than chuck, so not my favourite.
    Not suitable – Beef cheek and shank don’t shred well (they tend to crumble and collapse into tiny pieces instead of shredding). Beef ribs are too fatty. Slow cooking larger cuts like blade, topside and silverside are too lean.

  • Spices – The spices listed above make up my go-to BBQ rub. Everyday pantry spices!
  • Brown sugar – A smidge of sugar in the rub helps the surface of the beef caramelise beautifully when we sear it.

2. for the homemade bbq sauce

Slow cooking the beef in a homemade BBQ sauce really is what takes this from pretty good to a great shredded beef. It’s got a depth of flavour you’ll never find in a bottle because the sauce is enriched with all the juices released by the beef as it slow cooks. Pure beef stock!

  • Ketchup is the primary flavour base for homemade barbecue sauce. You’ll find it in all my barbecue sauce flavoured recipes, including this midweek Baked BBQ Chicken, BBQ Pork Ribs, Pulled Pork with BBQ Sauce and slow cooked brisket with BBQ Sauce. Substitute with Aussie Tomato Sauce – it’s almost as good.
  • Cider vinegar – the tang in homemade barbecue sauce. Substitute with white wine vinegar, sherry or champagne vinegar OR 2/3 cup normal white vinegar.
  • Brown sugar – Some people might balk when they see the amount of sugar in this. But, it is what it is. Barbecue sauce is sweet! Some recipes use considerably more. 🙂 But, if you don’t like sweet, you can cut it back.
  • Molasses – Adds a bit of sweetness but more importantly, a bit of extra richness and also makes the sauce brown (without, it’s much more red, from all the ketchup).
  • Garlic and mustard powder – These add some earthy savoury flavour into the sauce.
  • Worcestershire Sauce – Savoury element. Soy sauce (all purpose or light) is an acceptable substitute (don’t worry, it won’t make it Asiany, don’t need much!);
  • Tabasco – for a faint hum of warmth and a touch of acidity. This is not spicy at all. If you like it hot, start with the recipe amount then add more at the end when reducing the sauce.
  • Beer – I like to use beer to deglaze the pan after searing the beef because it gives the sauce a little extra depth and complexity. It’s massively reduced and with the slow cooking time the alcohol will be well and truly cooked out and you can’t taste beer. But if you prefer an alcohol free option, use non-alcoholic beer or beef stock/broth instead.

    Type of beer – Use any beer except very dark ones like Guinness, stout or porter. Their stronger flavours can overpower the sauce. A lager, pale ale or similar lighter-style beer works well.

   PART2

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