I just love it when dinner cooks itself!! This is the best, best kind of crockpot meal – absolutely minimal prep, and at the end you have a pot of saucy, tender shredded bbq beef that makes a deliciously messy sandwich (or the perfect topping to a baked potato or rice – anything that will soak up all that flavor)!
So: you need a chuck roast. I love this cut of beef for pot roast, too – it gets really tender if you cook it long and slow.
Season it up with salt and pepper, and paprika and garlic powder if you have an extra minute. The roast goes right into the pot – then you pour on a bottle of bbq sauce!
…Or you would, if you actually had a bottle in the pantry like you thought you did. This is what I could come up with:
The bottle on the right is a sweet ketchup-based sauce, which is the type I recommend for this recipe. The jar on the left had some homemade sauce (I basically use this recipe from Annie’s Eats). In my desperation I poured in what was left of both of these, and the ingredients for a batch of the homemade sauce and hoped for the best. It worked out fine! (And don’t worry, I found my brand-new bottle in the pantry a few days later. *facepalm*)
Then you pour a beer right over the top, and a few hours later you have perfectly tender beef that is falling apart and ready to be shredded up.
Pour the cooking liquid into a large measuring cup and skim off the fat. I like to mix a cup or so back into the beef so it’s super saucy but not soupy, but you can use all of it or none of it! You can also reserve some of the bbq sauce at the beginning and mix straight sauce in at the end rather than the cooking liquid if you prefer.
There’s no wrong way to eat this stuff – but I love it as a drippy, saucy sandwich!
It’s like bbq beef candy, for real. If you’re lucky enough to be the one shredding it up, it’s hard to stop tasting it! And if the serving dish sits on the table too long, you might not have leftovers. Yum.
PrintCrockpot BBQ Beef.
-
-
-
-
Ingredients
- 3 lbs beef chuck roast (or larger, if your crockpot is big and you’re feeding a lot of people!)
- seasoned salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder to taste
- 1 (16-18 oz) bottle of your favorite bbq sauce (I recommend a sweet, ketchup-based sauce)
- 1 (12-oz) beer (any beer is fine – a stout was recommended, but I don’t even know what that is)
Instructions
- Sprinkle both sides of the roast with seasoned salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder. It’s a large cut of meat so you can be generous. Put the roast in your crockpot (depending on the shape of your roast, you may need to cut it into a couple of pieces so it will fit in the bottom of the cooker). Pour on the bbq sauce (reserve a couple of ounces to mix in at the end if you want). Pour the beer over the top and cook on high for 6-7 hours.
- Remove the meat and shred – it should be really tender and falling apart – and discard any fat. Pour the cooking liquid into a large measuring cup and skim off the fat. Mix as much of the liquid back into the meat as you want – I usually use 1-1.5 cups, but you can use all or none! (If you prefer, you can mix it with straight bbq sauce if you reserved some at the beginning.) Serve immediately, or place beef back in the crockpot on warm until ready to serve.
- Delicious on a soft toasted bun, in a pita, over a baked potato, or over rice!
Notes
If you don’t have a crockpot, you can cook this on the stovetop! Add all the ingredients to a large pot and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook at a low simmer, covered, until the meat is tender and easily falls apart, about 2-3 hours.
The cooked, shredded, sauced meat freezes well! It’s so nice to be able to pull out a container for a quick meal on a busy night.
If you prefer not to cook with alcohol, I’ve seen a similar recipe that uses root beer. I’ve never tried it, but let me know if you do!
This recipe was passed on to me by my sister, Laurie!
View Comments (8)
This is seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten. You have to serve it and then put away tomorrow's or you really will "just-a-tiny-bit-more" it all into your belly the first night!
I was planning to freeze some for a future meal, and had actually put some in a separate container ahead of time to make it possible...but then we still just ate it the next day. ;o)
Tried this last night, it was a hit! Alex (8) gave it a "A+"
Yaaay! Love having a kid thumbs-up! :o)
Hey Bet!
How does this convert to the instapot? Have you done it in there? Xoxo
Hi Emily! I haven't tried it but another reader did - manual setting (so high pressure) for 70 minutes! The recipe stays the same! Let me know if you try it! ????
We found this recipe a little bland. It doesn't need the beer as it did not add to the flavor. We ended up making our own bbq sauce and adding it to the beef. It wss much better. My suggestion is to buy 2 bottles of bbq and keeping one for after the meet is cooked and add it in then.
Hi Janet! I’m not a beer connoisseur, but I do think that the flavor contribution of the beer would definitely depend on the type you choose! I can see how some types wouldn’t add much in the way of flavor. I would also recommend using a bbq sauce you really love because that’s where the majority of the flavor comes from! You can always go heavy on any seasonings you sprinkle on the meat at the beginning if you find the flavor lacking. I like the flavor of the cooking liquid, but mixing the shredded meat with straight sauce works too. 😀