Abstract:

It seems like anytime you get shredded beef in a taco anymore, folks wanna call it "barbacoa". It tastes great and all, but so often we're talking about something braised or simmered that is totally devoid of those smoky, charred nuances that are synonymous with slow-cooking beef over a bed of coals. I happen to think it's possible to have the best of both worlds, and this hybrid barbeque/braise method elevates the lowly and economical beef chuck roast past the pedestrian Sunday pot roast.

Purpose:

If you've got a little time, a beef chuck roast is a fantastically frugal cut of critter that doesn't really mind being cooked into oblivion. Plenty of fat and connective tissue help to ensure that your pot roast will never need a knife to cut, and when served with a bit of jus or gravy, those eating will always be treated to the illusion of moist and juicy. Truly, I don't mind pot roast in the least, but when I get into my freezer and see a half dozen frozen slabs of chuck, my need to mix things up a bit simply won't let me jump to the assumption that they all gotta be tossed in the Crock Pot. Not to discredit taco night, but if I'm eating out at any number of Mexican food joints, I will take the shredded beef over the ground stuff any day of the week. More than just texture, you're getting eats from whole cuts, which in my mind means that someone cares more about their food than to stop at simply dumping seasoning and filler into a pan of ground beast. Specifically, burrito boutiques like Chipotle do a shredded beef that they call "barbacoa". As far as restaurant fare goes, I happen to think it's pretty good; and I also happen to think that the chuck roast makes for the right candidate to do something similar.



I started doing searches for "Beef Barbacoa" to see what else has been done. Turns out, if you want to keep it real, you're going to be giving some critter's cabeza the slow and low treatment, and lets be real here: Even if that was something you wanted to serve to family and guests (just thinking about the presentation makes me lol) it's certainly not something that's practical to do quite often. The further you dig, the more you realize that no one really gives a crap about authenticity anymore, and you could just about shred any cut of slow cooked beef that's been seasoned with cumin, salt, and pepper and call it barbacoa. In situations like that, I figure that gives me license to do whatever the hell I want as long as I stay true to the etymology of said dish. In the case of barbacoa, our good friend Wikipedia tells us that the word itself is likely the origin of the word "barbeque" and eponymously means that we're talking about meat that's slow-cooked over an open fire. Bingo! I've been looking for an excuse to do a chuck roast over the coals, and I figured that as long as I pay attention to temperature and postmortem physiology, I'd be filling tacos and quesadillas with succulent, smoky, seasoned shredded beef by dinner time.