Slow-Cooker Barbecue Pulled Beef
by Katie Webster
September 8, 2017 (updated 2/15/23) Jump To Recipe
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.
Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. 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
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon coarse grain or brown mustard
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
- ½ 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
Keywords: Slow Cooker BBQ Beef,Slow Cooker pulled beef,slow cooker barbecue beef chuck
Katie Webster
Katie Webster studied art and photography at Skidmore College and is a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute. She has been a professional recipe developer since 2001 when she first started working in the test kitchen at EatingWell magazine. Her recipes have been featured in numerous magazines including Shape, Fitness, Parents and several Edible Communities publications among others. Her cookbook, Maple {Quirk Books} was published in 2015. She launched Healthy Seasonal Recipes in 2009. She lives in Vermont with her husband, two teenage daughters and two yellow labs. In her free time, you can find her at the gym, cooking, stacking firewood, making maple syrup, and tending to her overgrown perennial garden.
I made this on a work day when company was coming in — and it was perfect!! I loved that it took almost no time to put in the crockpot – and it was so good. Everyone loved it. Leftovers were great – also froze some and it was great reheated. Not sure if you mentioned it above, but I liked it with toasted buns. This is a keeper!
I make your chicken cacciatore recipe regularly since it is also fast and yummy … and will check out your site for other fast crockpot recipes!
★★★★★
I am happy that this one was a success for you, Colleen! That’s awesome!
Great recipe! My wife and I love this dish. Thank you for sharing!
★★★★★
Thanks Brian. So glad you liked it!
Katie, I’m wondering if you have tried this recipe in the Instant Pot. I know there’s not enough liquid in the slow cooker recipe. What liquid would you suggest adding?
Can you use another type of meat? We don’t eat beef.
The only kind that I can think of would be pork shoulder or pork butt. If you like chicken I have a chicken recipe that is very similar. Here’s the link: https://www.healthyseasonalrecipes.com/slow-cooker-maple-chipotle-pulled-chicken/ Thanks for coming by Indoo! Happy Cooking!
Looks incredible do you happen to have a receipe for the slaw on the side?
Thank you. Oh man, now I know I need to fully flesh that slaw out and make it an official recipe. During the shoot we discussed how great it was, and that it should be a separate recipe.
This recipe sounds delicious. But it is not even looking like fall here. The main difference is that the temperatures have mitigated somewhat. But we probably have 8-9 months of summer here in the desert in far west Texas… I have nothing on my counters to show what season it is. Since we pretty much don’t have farmers markets, because we don’t have farmers (except pecan and cotton growers), I really don’t see much seasonal change at the grocery store. Sometimes I miss being able to have farmers markets and seasonal produce, but I wouldn’t trade our weather for serious cold, snow, ice, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.
That’s so funny you say west Texas, my mom’s side of the family is from Midland. Are you near there? My uncle has a “farm” where he bucks the desert and grows all sorts of produce. He goes to the Midland Farmers Market. Here’s their website: http://www.dragonflyfarms.biz/ But, having visited West Texas a fair amount, I totally get you about not really feeling the seasons. It can be so dang hot there! I know my uncle is the exception for sure. Good thing you can always get good beef in Texas (so you can at least make this BBQ beef! Ha ha!) Thanks so much for coming by Susan. And let me know if you’re near Midland. That would be such a coincidence.
Katie, we are actually in El Paso – you can’t get much further west than that. When we go back to North Carolina in the summer, we have been going through Midland. I think they have more water than we do, but it has never seemed like a place where one would expect farming. I know I see the same Mesquite trees and Creosote bushes that we have here. Apparently it is still part of the Chihuahuan desert. Didn’t realize that until I just looked it up. Midland is about half a day’s drive from El Paso. I already have a chipotle beef recipe that I like, but I’ll have to try yours and see if I like it better – always a possibility. 🙂
I haven’t done that drive from Midland to El Paso in so many years, but you’re right about the similarity of the landscape. I hope you like the new recipe! Have a great day.
Wow oh wow! I’m getting the feels for dinnertime. This beef burger looks yummy. I usually just make the same beef stew in my slow cooker, but I think I should’ve been making this all along. The change of fruit on my kitchen counter really shows which season we’re in and I hate September because not only it’s the start of colder months, it’s the start of school. 🙁
The seasonality of a countertop… I see a post title in the making. Ha ha. I know what you mean about the start of school making me sad too. I miss my girls so much already!
I know it’s early fall here in southern CT when my island has a mountain of garden tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers & beans. My favorite time of year! And this recipe looks amazing! Trying it this coming week as an easy weeknight dinner.
Oh I am jealous of your garden bounty. My garden really slowed down in the last couple weeks. And my lab has been eating every tomato that ripens. Ha! What kind of peppers did you grow. I ended up planting 4 jalapeno plants by mistake. Serves me right for shopping for seedlings while being distracted by my misbehaving children. I meant to buy some sweet peppers too. Oh well. Good thing for this canning cookbook. {Canner is still on the counter by the way. Lol.}
They look droolworthy, Katie, and I am not even a red meat fan. The red cabbage slaw looks amazing!
Thank you! I think I need to develop out that slaw. You’re not the only one who has asked about it. 🙂 Thanks for visiting today Angie.
There is nothing better than a slow-cooked recipe. This zingy tender brisket is one of my favorite comfort food. Yum!!
I sure rely on my slow-cooker to make dinner time easier.
Your description of this slow cooked burger is absolutely mouthwatering and the pictures deliciously enticing! What a treat this will be. I love the spices and flavors you’ve combined.
Thanks Debra. Have a great day.
This is my perfect meal! The photos are stunning as well
Thanks so much Amy!
What a beautiful meal to kick off Fall~ I love maple, especially in savory dishes like this one. Love that gorgeous slaw, too!
It has been hitting the spot for us. And the smell of it simmering on the counter is so cozy! Thanks about the slaw Sue- funny story, we just whipped that up for the photo, but both Stephanie and I loved it so much, I decided I need to make it into an official recipe soon too. It was too yummy not to share! Lol.
Unless I’d read your post, I’d have never believed that something so delicious as this could be made in 15 minutes! I’ve got guests coming round for a mini party this weekend and these are definitely doing to be making an appearance!
Well, that is 15 minutes of prep, then let the slow cooker do the work. Have a great time this weekend!