Machaca Inspired Beef

I love machaca, beef or chicken, it is one of my favorite dishes. I have never made it, or had a recipe for it, but have always wanted to re-create it on my own in some way. I found THIS RECIPE on Epicurious. I was making it for a party, so in order not to have as much work to do I adapted this into a slow-cooker recipe for a group and it did not end up coming out exactly like machaca because I pulled it out a little early (so I sliced it instead of shredding in, but the good news is came out fantastic. We served this sliced beef with tortillas, salsa & guacamole for little soft tacos.

The flavor of this dish is amazing. The meat marinates in lime juice, spices and oil overnight and then slowly simmered for hours with peppers, onions, tomatoes and chiles. I can not wait to make this again!! I think I would try it with chicken to switch it up too.



Machaca-Inspired Beef
Adapted from Epicurious
Original recipes serves 6 for dinner, see original recipe HERE
This served 25 people for an appetizer buffet, cooked in a slow cooker.

Marinade
3/4 C. Worcestershire sauce
Juice of 6 Limes
1 T. garlic powder
2 T. ground cumin
1 1/2 T. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 C. vegetable or olive oil

Beef:
6 lbs chuck roast trimmed and cut into 1/4 lb portions
2 large sweet white onions
1 large green bell pepper, diced
1 head of garlic, minced
3 fresh jalapeno peppers, minced
2 14oz cans tomatoes with green chilies, drained
1 16oz can of beef broth
2 T. dried oregano
2 T. dried cumin
2 T. hot sauce such as Chalula or Tapitio

First, prepare the marinade ***(you will be marinating the beef OVERNIGHT!!!)***
Combine all marinade ingredients in a LARGE bowl and whisk until well combined ("to form an emulsion"). Place beef in a LARGE freezer bag and pour marinade over beef, seal the bag and mush it around a bit to make sure all pieces of beef get covered & submerged. Use two bags and divide the meat and marinade in half if necessary.
****REFRIGERATE OVERNIGHT****
Remove meat from marinade and place in a very large, clean bowl. Toss the marinade (aka, throw it away, no mas). Add the onion, bell pepper, jalapeno, cans of tomatoes, beef broth, spices and hot sauce to the bowl with the meat and stir until all ingredients are mixed together. Slowly transfer (by pouring or using a ladle and tongs) the beef mixture into the slow cooker. Cook on HIGH four hours or until meat is cooked to your liking and tender....*

*Note on cooking time: Next time we make this I will cook 4 hours on High or 7-8 hours on Low, and then it will be more "shredded" and come apart with forks. THIS time I thought the slow cooker was on high, but, alas I had it on high for 1 hour, then on low for 3 hours (duh!, how do I manage sometimes!?!) So, as guests were arriving for our fiesta, I shut it off and sliced the meat (vs. forking it apart).
We still got rave reviews, it was REALLY pretty delicious! I loved the combination of spices and flavors and CAN NOT WAIT to make this dish again! (maybe in smaller scale this time for a summer dinner!)