Barbecue Shredded Beef
Roche Brothers had one of their $1.99/lb sales on London broil, not to be confused with $5.29 for 90% hamburger, so I bought three of them. The only problem was, we had poor results freezing them last time, and we rapidly needed to use the two that were left after we made steak burritos with the first.
I found a recipe for shredded beef and adapted it for the amount I had, and for not having an onion and cloves of garlic. The source recipe called for 5 lbs of chuck cut into about 4 inch cubes. Here is what I did:
Start with:
Beef, in this case steak, just under 2.5 lbs
About a cup of water
More than 1/8 but less than 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
(Original called for 1/4 cup for 5 lbs meat; I went heavier than halving it for the reduced portion.)
1/4 cup or so brown sugar
Cut the beef into chunks. Mine were a bit more than an inch in two dimensions and a couple inches in the third.
Put it, water, vinegar and brown sugar in crock pot on high. This was barely enough for that to work with our big crock pot. I’m not sure how it would work in a pan on a stove. I suspect something like it could be done, adapting appropriately. I left it in there something like five hours. Basically you get it cooked to where it shreds easily. It can be turned low part way through. I did the last part on low.
Once you have cooked the crap out of the beef, remove it from the pot, and pour off much of the liquid, saving it to add back as much as needed. In my case, that was all of it. Shred the beef with a knife or fork. Toss it back in. Add to it:
A cup or so of ketchup. Original was 2 3/4 cups for 5 lbs but I was low so used just over a cup and it worked well.
1/2 tablespoon dry mustard
Dash or so garlic powder or to taste (garlic in original)
Dash or so of onion powder or to taste (onion in original)
Slight dash of red pepper or to taste (not in original)
All of this is very customizable. It could be more tomato or less, more vinegar or less, sweeter or less, spicier or less (the amount I used barely registered as there except the mustard, which was a direct adaptation from the original 5 lb recipe).
Add in enough of the original liquid to give it a nice consistency. Stir it up and cook on low until ready to serve.
We served it on bulky and torpedo rolls, and added some cheddar cheese. It made six ample sandwiches, and garnered possibly the biggest raves from Deb of anything I have ever made. It’s going to become a regular thing for us, and a good excuse to buy cheap beef when available.
Oh man I’m drooling here! lol I get cheap beef, toss it in the crockpot with 1/2 a jar of sliced pepperoncinis, chopped roasted red peppers, and italian salad dressing. When it’s cooked and shredded we put it on sub rolls, top it with provolone cheese and broil it till the cheese melts. One of my husbands favs. I couldn’t live without my crockpot! hehe Definitely saving your recipe to try.
Posted by Techievampire on 03/28 at 01:06 PM
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