Slow-Cooker Barbecue Pulled Beef
Slow Cooker Pulled Beef with maple chipotle barbecue sauce is a delicious, kid-friendly weeknight dinner with only 15 minutes of prep. Serve it on top of buns with coleslaw for a yummy easy meal.
Table of contents
Why Make This Recipe
I love this Slow Cooker Pulled Beef recipe because it is a combo of barbecue food- that which we associate with outdoor summer ease– buns dripping with slow cooked and smoky meat– married with the time-saving necessity of using a slow cooker for busy weeknight dinners.
This Slow Cooker Barbecue Pulled Chicken is a sister from another mother to this BBQ Pulled Beef recipe, except I am the same mother. Wink! I developed this beef variation because we love the pulled chicken so much and wanted to try it with beef. Sure enough, everyone loves this one too!
Reasons to love this recipe
- It is made in a crockpot, and has very little hands-on time.
- You can set the slow cooker up the night before so all you have to do is turn it on before work in the morning.
- There is no searing, but there is plenty of rich flavor from the homemade Maple Chipotle barbecue sauce!
- It goes with all sorts of side dishes like Coleslaw and Cornbread and can feed a crowd.
- It is great for tailgating or sports nights because it can be kept warm in the crockpot for hours.
Ingredients For Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Beef
Beef Chuck Roast
Beef chuck is a great cut of meat to use for pulled beef because it is a tough and inexpensive cut of meat from the shoulder area of the steer. It has a lot of connective tissue that breaks down when slowly simmered in the slow cooker. I use it in this Slow Cooker Beef Chuck and Porcini Mushroom Pasta too for the same reasons. It needs to braise for four hours to become tender.
Sweet Onion
To improve the level of sweetness in the barbecue sauce, I used a sweet onion. To learn how to dice an onion check out my tips.
Crushed Tomatoes
The body of the barbecue sauce/braising liquid is canned crushed tomatoes. If you can find them, I prefer the fire roasted variety because it adds smoky flavor to the recipe.
Maple Syrup
I like to use maple syrup in place of refined sugars whenever possible. My family makes and sells maple syrup and I even wrote a cookbook about it (published in 2015.) Look for amber rich or dark robust grade A pure maple syrup. You can buy our syrup when available here.
Tomato Paste
To thicken the braising liquid I used a quarter cup of tomato paste.
Coarse Grain or Brown Mustard
For added flavor and a savory taste I added in mustard. I like coarse grain if you can find it, but brown deli style mustard also works really well.
Chili powder, Salt, Pepper and Chipotle chili powder
The seasonings are chili powder, chipotle powder and salt and pepper. If you do not like spicy food, use 2 teaspoons smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon chili powder and the salt and pepper instead of the ratio in the recipe card below.
How To Make Barbecue Shredded Beef in the Crock Pot
- Place beef chuck roast in the insert of a large slow cooker. Top with onion.
- Whisk crushed tomatoes, maple syrup, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, chili powder, salt, chipotle chili powder and pepper in a medium bowl. Pour over the beef.
- Cover the slow cooker, and set to low heat for 8 hours.
- When timer is up, remove beef to a cutting board, and remove any visible pieces of fat. Shred the meat with forks. Skim any fat off of the sauce. Return the meat to the sauce and stir to combine. Serve with the barbecue sauce.
Expert Tips For This Recipe
To Make Ahead:
Fridge: Cook and cool the beef. Store in a resealable glass container for up to 4 days. Reheat until steaming hot in the microwave or on the stovetop.
Freezer: This beef can also be frozen and thawed as well. Freeze portions up to three months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat until steaming hot.
What Goes With Barbecue Beef?
I love piling the shredded barbecue beef on soft buns and spoon on just enough sauce to moisten the sandwiches. Here are some side dishes to pair with it.
- You can also serve it with soft slice bread like they do at Texas barbecue restaurants. My Whole Wheat bread is really soft and ready in just over an hour.
- If you are looking for coleslaw to go with this recipe I have several. For a fresh twist, this cilantro and lime spiked Mexican Coleslaw would pair well with these flavors too. This Festive Kale Slaw with Raspberries is the one we shot these photos with. We skipped the almonds today, but they would also be great too.
- My gluten-free cornbread is a great alternative for GF folks.
- We had corn on the cob too. Try grilled corn with chipotle lime butter!
- Classic Cookout side dishes are also good options with this recipe. This German Potato Salad, or if the weather is nice enough to grill these grilled potatoes are nice slightly sweet accompaniments.
Other Recipes You’ll LOVE
- You can use your instant pot or your slow cooker to make this Beef Barbacoa for taco Tuesday!
- If you are swimming in fall veggies make my Vegan Vegetable Soup
- Probably one of my favorite soups ever: Potato Kale Andouille Soup
- Slow Cooker Chinese Five Spice Beef Stew, So much flavor so easy!
- Maple Chipotle Flank Steak Tacos If you love maple and chipotle, you’ll love these for Taco Tuesday!
- Healthy Sloppy Joes, because messy stuff is always more yummy!
- One Pan Roasted Squash Sausage and Apple Bake because extra dishes are lame!
- This Instant Pot BBQ Pulled Pork recipe has my name all over it.
At Healthy Seasonal Recipes, we specialize in cooking with fresh veggies and creating weeknight meals. Sign up HERE to get more produce-forward dinner ideas for FREE! If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought! Happy Cooking! ~Katie
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Slow-Cooker Barbecue Pulled Beef
- Total Time: 8 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
Slow-cooker barbecue pulled beef with maple chipotle BBQ sauce is a delicious, kid-friendly weeknight dinner with only 15 minutes of prep. Serve it on buns with coleslaw for an easy meal.
Ingredients
- 3 to 3.5 pounds beef chuck roast, preferably grass-fed
- 1 large sweet onion, finely diced
- 1 14–ounce can crushed tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup, dark or amber
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon coarse grain or brown mustard
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Place beef chuck roast in the insert of a large slow cooker. Top with onion.
- Whisk crushed tomatoes, maple syrup, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, chili powder, salt, chipotle chili powder and pepper in a medium bowl. Pour over the beef.
- Cover the slow cooker, and set to low heat for 8 hours.
- When timer is up, remove beef to a cutting board, and remove any visible pieces of fat. Shred the meat with forks. Skim any fat off of the sauce. Return the meat to the sauce and stir to combine. Serve with the barbecue sauce.
Notes
To make ahead:
Cook and cool the beef. Store in a resealable glass container for up to 4 days. Reheat until steaming hot in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 hours
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 3.5 ounces meat
- Calories: 262
- Sugar: 13 g
- Sodium: 427 mg
- Fat: 13 g
- Saturated Fat: 6 g
- Trans Fat: 1 g
- Carbohydrates: 16 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 20 g
- Cholesterol: 66 mg
Hello,
I am giving this 4 stars for the ease of making this dish. I will give another review after this BBQ Beef is devoured at my sister’s birthday party tomorrow.
It smells wonderful, and I’m eager to take a small sample.