Sundays are my favorite day of the week. Yes, I know it’s Thursday, but this gives you plenty of time to prepare for these Shredded Beef Tacos for Sunday’s dinner. I love the relaxed feel of the day. No rushing around, plenty of time to prepare a slow cooked delicious dinner. <–My favorite meals!
Every Saturday morning I watch all my recorded cooking shows, Giada at Home, The Pioneer Woman and America’s Test Kitchen. It really gets my creative juices flowing in the kitchen. I knew immediately when I saw this recipe on America’s Test Kitchen, that it belonged in my house. You see, we are big taco eaters. There’s just something about a good taco you can’t not love. So many varieties, it’s hard to get bored of them.
The slow cooked short ribs and flavorful slaw on these tacos caught my eye. It seemed like a beautiful combination of flavors, and boy was I right. When we finally dug in, the flavor almost surprises you. It’s not spicy at all and has a wonderfully sweet and rich beef flavor. The meat was so moist and tender from the low and gentle cooking process. You prop the meat on a bed of onions so that more beef is exposed to the heat which in turn produces more browning.
More browning=More meaty flavor.
The shredded beef also makes a great filling for empanadas, tamales, and chiles rellenos…oh my!
Whether you make these this Sunday, or any other day, everyone will love them and never want to leave your house.
Start off by shredding a head of cabbage.
In a separate bowl, whisk together vinegar, water, sugar and salt.
Add in the cabbage, shredded carrots…
…and jalapenos.
Thinly slice an onion and throw that on top too. I highly recommend a mandoline for this job. One minute and done!
Sprinkle on some dried oregano…
….and mix together. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
Next get out your Ancho Chiles. I found mine at the local grocery store, but if you have a hard time finding them, you can order them at Amazon.
You want to pull the stem off, open it up and remove the seeds. Tear into 1 inch pieces.
In a dutch oven, combine beer, vinegar, ancho chile pieces, tomato paste, garlic, bay leaves, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, cloves, and cinnamon.
Cut an onion, or two (depending on size) into 1/2 inch rounds and place on the bottom of the dutch oven.
Cut up the boneless short ribs into 2 inch pieces and place them over the onions in one layer. Cover and cook meat in the oven.
After 2 1/2 to 3 hours it should look like this, nice and browned.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a bowl. Cover with aluminum foil and set aside.
Discard bigger onion round pieces and bay leaves.
Strain liquid with a fine mesh strainer. Let strained liquid sit in bowl for 5 minutes and then skim off some of the fat.
Place the solids into a blender. Add in the skimmed liquid and blend until smooth.
Shred all the short ribs and put back in dutch oven. Don’t worry about cleaning it, there’s still good flavor in there.
Add in the pureed sauce and mix together. Turn burner on medium heat, and cook for 3-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Strain out the slaw and add in chopped cilantro. Warm up corn tortillas and layer shredded beef, slaw, queso fresco, fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice right on top.
Dig in!
- SHREDDED BEEF
- 12 oz. Beer (I used Dos Equis)
- ½ cup cider vinegar
- 2 ounces dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded, and torn into 1-inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 6 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 large onion, sliced into ½-inch-thick rounds
- 3 pounds boneless beef short ribs, trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes
- 18 (6-inch) corn tortillas, warmed
- 4 ounces queso fresco, crumbled (1 cup)
- Lime wedges
- CABBAGE-CARROT SLAW
- 1 cup cider vinegar
- ½ cup water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1 head green cabbage, cored and sliced thin (6 cups)
- 1 onion, sliced thin
- 1 large carrot, peeled and shredded
- 1 jalapeño chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- FOR THE CABBAGE-CARROT SLAW: Whisk vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in bowl until sugar and salt have dissolved. Add in cabbage, onion, carrot, jalapeño, and oregano and mix together. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours. Drain slaw and stir in cilantro right before serving.
- FOR THE SHREDDED BEEF: Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a dutch oven, combine beer, vinegar, ancho chile pieces, tomato paste, garlic, bay leaves, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, cloves, and cinnamon. Place onion rounds on the bottom of the dutch oven. Cover and cook until meat is well browned and tender, 2½ to 3 hours.
- With a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a bowl. Cover with aluminum foil and set aside. Discard bigger onion round pieces and bay leaves. Strain liquid with a fine mesh strainer. Let strained liquid sit in bowl for 5 minutes and then skim off some of the fat. Place the solids into a blender. Add in the skimmed liquid and blend until smooth.
- Using 2 forks, shred all the short ribs and put back in dutch oven. Add in the pureed sauce, mix together. Turn burner on medium heat, and cook for about 3-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (Beef can be refrigerated for up to 2 days; gently reheat before serving.)
- Warm up corn tortillas and layer shredded beef, slaw, queso fresco, fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice right on top.
I love everything from cake to kale. Life is all about balance. I like to live, laugh and love to the fullest! Our time is too short not to enjoy ourselves.
WOW, this looks amazing Sarah!! I’ve never cooked short ribs before but you’re making me want to try them. I love your step-by-step tutorial w/pics to help us along as we go. Pinned!
Thanks Senika! I’m always a fan of the step-by-step tutorials and seeing the recipe come together visually.
You had me from shredded beef, but when I saw the ancho chiles, WOW! This looks amazing!
Thanks Debbie! It really is delicious and totally worth the 3 hour wait.
Hi Sarah, I just love soft taco’s, beef, chicken you name it! Nice Job my friend!!! Your BB in Florida, Cheryl.
Me too! Thanks so much Cheryl!
America’s Test Kitchen frequently has great recipes and I must have missed this one. Tacos with all of the goodies – yes! Thanks for bringing these to Angie’s party at Fiesta Friday #56 🙂 I too try to watch the food channel on Sat. mornings but miss America’s Test Kitchen because it comes on in the afternoon.
Happy FF! I have to record America’s Test Kitchen and watch it the following week. It’s such a wonderful show 🙂
i hope those friends of yours know what a caring, emotional, and generous friend they have in you. u r a spcail person to take on their pain also. i hope they find comfort in that and that things get better for them soon!
I love shredded beef. Or I think I do as I never had it. But it always looks like I would love it. I will have to get my Mum’s le creuset pot and be making this soon. Especially as I love tacos as well. Yum, so good!
Thank you so much for bringing this to Fiesta Friday. 🙂
Oh you must try it! I so wish I had a Le Creuset of my own 🙂 Happy FF!
I’ve totally “borrowed” my mom’s Le Creuset pot as well, while dreaming of having my own. This recipe looks like a very worthy reason to once again steal…I mean…once again “borrow” it.
Haha! Glad I’m not the only one 🙂 Thanks for the kind words!
Just look at those tacos. I am in love Sarah.. I am in love. I can’t wait to try my hand at making this. Great recipe
They’re so flavorful, you won’t regret it!
Oooooh I think I just found the next taco for us to try! Those look SO GOOD!!
Thank you! Let me know if you do try them!
Wow these tacos look to die for! You can’t beat slow cooked meat!
Thanks Michelle! Slow cooked is the way to go 🙂
These look absolutely delicious!
Thank you 🙂
This looks amazing Sara! Im sure it will taste delicious by just looking at the ingredients.
Thanks! I promise it tastes as good at is looks 🙂
Wow, these look amazing. We are big taco eaters in our house too. I’m going to try this out on Sunday!
Thanks! Let me know how you guys like them 🙂
I just made these and the sauce seems really bitter. I haven’t combined it with the meat yet because I wonder if I screwed something up. Thoughts? Did you taste bitterness in the final dish?
I’m so sorry that happened . I didn’t experience any bitter taste in the dish. Perhaps it could have been the beer?
I don’t think so…I used Sierra Nevada which is pretty mild in taste. I’m thinking maybe it was the ground clove or maybe our anchos since the ones we used were pretty big. In the end we combined it with the beef and it was good with the slaw – just a bit of a bitter undertone that was disappointing. Not your fault of course, just expected better from ATK. 🙂
Glad it was just an undertone, thanks for letting me know 🙂