How many times have you been to Chipotle, saw their spread of burrito fillings and thought to yourself "man, homemade barbacoa would be so much better than this stuff," then ordered barbacoa anyway? It happens to me all the time, so I finally decided to make my own version of barbacoa--Mexican barbeque beef.

I'm sure there are countless ways to prepare it, depending on the region of Mexico and the availability of a slow cooker. I melded a few recipes together and used some stuff I had on hand. After slow cooking the beef for 10 hours, I served it taco-style in a warm tortilla with some pico de gallo, cheese, chopped cilantro and sour cream. I used simple garnishes so the chipotle and chili powder flavors could really shine through in the beef. Traditionally beef barbacoa is made with the entire cow's head, but for cooking-at-home purposes I used chuck. This is a perfect party recipe because it's easy to make, fairly inexpensive, yields more beef than you can probably handle and everyone loves it.

Slow Cooked Beef Barbacoa Tacos

Ingredients:

For the beef-