Hello weekend. I see you. You’re almost here. And you’re one of those special three-day ones.
Really special for us Queenslanders. We’ve never had one in the second half of the year before. It’s like a little pregnant pause before the madness of Christmas, isn’t it?
I will not let the fact that there is not one but two football finals occurring across this weekend deter me from any kind of enjoyment.
No, I will embrace it and use the opportunity to escape from Mr SY being all shouty at the TV.
If you are a footy family … or just a family who loves tasty food served up with a minimum of effort, then perhaps you might like to add this little recipe to your menu this weekend.
Taco night is one of the few nights of the week where all members of my family are happy with the dining choice on offer.
I’ve been making tacos for longer than I can remember but I’ve never really had the hang of re-creating the shredded beef you get at Mexican restaurants.
Until I visited my brother and his family in LA last month.
See, my sister-in-law knows her way around proper Mexican. I knew this in advance of our visit and was beside myself when she announced a Mexican feast was in order for one of our nights there. So beside myself, I had to buy margarita ingredients from Walmart.
Anyhoo, my SIL even makes her own tortillas (yep, talented) but it was the secret to her shredded beef that I really wanted in on.
Turns out it’s not so secret and involves slow cooking a hunk of beef, shredding it with a fork and letting it marinate for at least an hour in a good chilpotle (smoked jalapeño) sauce.
So, what did I do when I returned home? I experimented a bit and think I’ve come close.
Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos
Ingredients
1kg blade roast beef
200g chilpotle sauce (I found the La Morena brand at my local deli, fruit and veg store, Get Fresh)
Diced tomato
Shredded lettuce
Shredded cheese
Avocado (I mix mine with a little sweet chilli sauce for a quick guacamole)
Sour cream
Chilli sauce
Tortillas
1. Wrap roast meat in alfoil, place in slow cooker.
2. Set to low and walk away for the whole day (I like this part best because it involves no effort on my part).
3. About an hour before you’re wanting to eat, remove cooked roast from slow cooker, drain off juices. Return meat to dry slow cooker and shred with a fork. The meat will already have fallen apart. You will just be scraping the fork in a downwards motion on the meat to create that shredded texture.
4. Add tin of chilpotle sauce and mix.
5. Return slow cooker to low and let marinate for a hour. The sauce will be soaked up by the meat, infusing it with a smokey chilli flavour. It’s not too spicy, just really flavoursome. While that’s doing its stuff, prepare your other taco ingredients for self-serve at the table.
6. Tuck in! Oh, and instead of flour tortillas, I use the big outside leaves of an iceberg lettuce as a gluten-free alternative. Any other GF wraps or hard-shell tacos pale in significance to my SIL’s homemade variety.
Do you have Taco Night at your house? What do you usually put in yours?
