Any one have a good recipe? I'm in the mood for Barbacoa tacos.

My boss said just put the cheek meat in the crok-pot with salt and pepper before you go to bed. Wake up and make you a taco. Add your onions and cilantro.

If you can find it at the store, the Frontera Barbacoa sauce marinade is really good.

Here is my go-to recipe- delicious!

Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef via thekitchn

Makes enough meat to stuff 30 tacos
4 chipotle peppers (from a can) plus all the adobo sauce it sits in
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 red onion, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 head garlic, peeled and cloves smashed
5 dry bay leaves
1.5 teaspoons ground cloves (I use .5 teaspoon)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Juice of 4 limes
1/2 cup cider vinegar
5 to 7 pounds beef brisket
4 to 6 cups beef or chicken stock (I use 1 chicken & 1 beef Central Market)

Stir together chipotle peppers and sauce, cilantro, red onion, garlic, clove, salt, lime juice, and cider vinegar in the insert of a slow cooker (if you have a food processor, pulse till combined first before adding). Place the brisket on top of this mixture. (I like to cut my brisket in two pieces so it fits better in the slow cooker.) Add stock to cover the meat and place bay leaves on top. Use tongs to move the meat around gently to combine everything and put the lid on.

Cook on HIGH for 4 hours. Once finished, turn crock pot to WARM and let sit for 6 to 8 hours.
I like to make mine before bed and then let it sit on WARM overnight. This allows the meat to cook fully and then come to a point where it can be shredded easily and will essentially fall apart when pulled with a fork. If you don't have overnight to accomplish this, another hour of cooking on HIGH will get the job done. The meat will not be as tender, but will still be tasty.

Remove meat from slow cooker and place on rimmed baking sheet. Use two forks to pull the meat apart. Discard the fat, if desired. If you plan on frying it again before use, the small fat bits are extra tasty and should be kept! Place shredded beef in large bowl and ladle cooking liquid over the top a few scoops at a time. You want the meat to hold the liquid but not swim in it.

To keep it warm for guests you can return it to your slow cooker after you have removed the remaining liquid. That liquid is extra tasty and can be frozen into ice cube-sized portions to be used in other dishes later, if you so desire. Serve with fresh tortillas, onion, cilantro, and salsa.

Note: This recipe makes roughly 30 tacos, give or take. You can make two recipes back to back in your slow cooker for the initial 4 hour cooking time (or two slow cookers at the same time) and then add the meat to the same slow cooker to sit overnight since the meat will have reduced in size. This will allow 60 tacos of meat to be finished up at the same time.

I am making that this weekend. Yum!

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Here is my go-to recipe- delicious!

Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef via thekitchn

Makes enough meat to stuff 30 tacos
4 chipotle peppers (from a can) plus all the adobo sauce it sits in
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 red onion, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 head garlic, peeled and cloves smashed
5 dry bay leaves
1.5 teaspoons ground cloves (I use .5 teaspoon)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Juice of 4 limes
1/2 cup cider vinegar
5 to 7 pounds beef brisket
4 to 6 cups beef or chicken stock (I use 1 chicken & 1 beef Central Market)

Stir together chipotle peppers and sauce, cilantro, red onion, garlic, clove, salt, lime juice, and cider vinegar in the insert of a slow cooker (if you have a food processor, pulse till combined first before adding). Place the brisket on top of this mixture. (I like to cut my brisket in two pieces so it fits better in the slow cooker.) Add stock to cover the meat and place bay leaves on top. Use tongs to move the meat around gently to combine everything and put the lid on.

Cook on HIGH for 4 hours. Once finished, turn crock pot to WARM and let sit for 6 to 8 hours.
I like to make mine before bed and then let it sit on WARM overnight. This allows the meat to cook fully and then come to a point where it can be shredded easily and will essentially fall apart when pulled with a fork. If you don't have overnight to accomplish this, another hour of cooking on HIGH will get the job done. The meat will not be as tender, but will still be tasty.

Remove meat from slow cooker and place on rimmed baking sheet. Use two forks to pull the meat apart. Discard the fat, if desired. If you plan on frying it again before use, the small fat bits are extra tasty and should be kept! Place shredded beef in large bowl and ladle cooking liquid over the top a few scoops at a time. You want the meat to hold the liquid but not swim in it.

To keep it warm for guests you can return it to your slow cooker after you have removed the remaining liquid. That liquid is extra tasty and can be frozen into ice cube-sized portions to be used in other dishes later, if you so desire. Serve with fresh tortillas, onion, cilantro, and salsa.

Note: This recipe makes roughly 30 tacos, give or take. You can make two recipes back to back in your slow cooker for the initial 4 hour cooking time (or two slow cookers at the same time) and then add the meat to the same slow cooker to sit overnight since the meat will have reduced in size. This will allow 60 tacos of meat to be finished up at the same time.

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Why vinegar? I'm one of those rare folks that tastes vinegar in any recipe.

Vinegar is a common ingredient in most barbacoa recipes. Adobo is generally made with vinegar.

That recipe sounds delicious but you realize it calls for brisket, not actual barbacoa, right? Not trying to be a smart @ss at all. Just never realized brisket was being called barbacoa in certain recipes.

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That recipe sounds delicious but you realize it calls for brisket, not actual barbacoa, right? Not trying to be a smart @ss at all. Just never realized brisket was being called barbacoa in certain recipes.

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Probably just a "cheat" meat instead of tracking down cheek meat.

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That recipe sounds delicious but you realize it calls for brisket, not actual barbacoa, right? Not trying to be a smart @ss at all. Just never realized brisket was being called barbacoa in certain recipes.

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I bet you run into non-cheek "barbacoa" much more often than you realize.

Nice recipe. Will try.

And yes you will find a lot of restaurants use brisket instead of cheek meat to cheat it.

I thought Barbacoa traditionaly speaking was the whole animal.

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I thought Barbacoa traditionaly speaking was the whole animal.

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More like the whole head

I think it depends on the animal. Goat or pig Barbacoa is whole and beef is just the head.

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That recipe sounds delicious but you realize it calls for brisket, not actual barbacoa, right? Not trying to be a smart @ss at all. Just never realized brisket was being called barbacoa in certain recipes.

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I bet you run into non-cheek "barbacoa" much more often than you realize.

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Truth be told, I reserve my barbacoa indulgence for opening weekend of dove season in SoTex with my buddies who live there. We season, wrap the head, dig a hole, get hot coals, cover up and eat like hell the next day. I was being serious when I questioned the brisket thing... I always thought it was the cow's head...

Of course, there's plenty of people who do it the traditional way when they're cooking for themselves. I'm talking about places that sell it. Hell, Chipotle uses chuck roast.

i get my barbacoa fix at a couple of trucks in my barrio.

None of my Hispanic coworkers had ever heard of using vinegar in barbacoa.

there must be more varieties of barbacoa than i'm aware of. the kind i eat for breakfast doesn't taste of much more than salt, pepper, beef, and maybe some sort of broth. sometimes it's dressed up a la mexicana but not too often. definitely not vinegar or adobo. brisket is used in a pinch. whole head is the way my gf's dad does it when he doesn't feel like using brisket and a slow cooker. the whole head tastes pretty good but the brisket isn't far behind.

Technically barbacoa is a method of cooking meat that originated in the Caribbean. It's the method of slow cooking over an open fire (origins of barbecue).

Only in Northern Mexico (eventually Texas) does is it referred to head or cheek meat. Other places it can be sheep, goat, etc. For instance in Central Mexico it's lamb and in the Yucatan it's pork.

Duh...

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Only in Northern Mexico (eventually Texas) does is it referred to head or cheek meat.

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Cool. Now take a look at the first three letters of this website's name.

07 is correct. Barbacoa is slow smoking. If you want "head" tacos (cheek and other parts of the head) ask for cabeza. Although most places sub other parts of beef. Both are good.