Barbacoa

Barbacoa

This is a family recipe that has been adapted and scaled down from the original. It’s a barbacoa recipe, the perfect slow cooked meat for gatherings. For those feeling their oats, the original has the same format as below except you use a full cow buried in a pit and custom sealed barrels that can hold up to 200 lbs of beef each, cooked overnight using a cord of mesquite wood, 50 lbs of onions, 3 gallons of wine, 6 gallons of jalapeno and whiskey to keep the guys warm who tend to it overnight. My parents donated a cow each year to the big church fund raiser. My dad and his cohorts would go out cut a cord of wood then go find a suitable cow in the herd, bring it around, shoot it, butcher it, cut it up and cook it down. Here now is a version for feeding less people that just takes a trip to the grocery store and a full morning. This is a very simple process but it does take two days.

You need to cook this in one of those big electric cooking dealies you can get at walmart as pictured below

Ingredients:

· 24 lbs lean Chuck

· 4 medium cans of pickled whole jalapenos (28 oz each) drained. They must be whole or the jalapenos will dissolve and your acid and heat will be too high. And they must be drained

· 4 large white onions

· 3/4+ bottle of Merlot

· Salt to taste

2 cups water

 

Process:

1. Cut the chuck into tennis ball size, all same size

2. Cut onions into quarters

3. You will create layers in the roaster. (see photo below)

1. lay down a bed of tennis balls
2. lay down a portion of your onions
3. lay down a can of whole jalapenos across the bed
4. splash your merlot across the bed of love
5. add a cup of water
6. liberally salt the layer
7. Do this two or three times, your roaster will be full. Add another cup of water along the way
8. Roast at 350 until it simmers/boils..
9. Once it simmers/boils go for 30 minutes at the 350.
10. After that go another 3 hrs at 250 for the slow braise
11. If necessary, push exposed meat down every now and then to make sure none dries out
12. Go that 4 total hours ish or until it can be taken apart easily with fork.
13. Once cooked separate meat, shred meat by hand, discarding fat. Do the shredding while it’s hot with those wolverine shredder dealies. This shredding is the only real work and you must be diligent about it.
14. Separately strain the liquid (separated from flotsam) and set aside to cool overnight in a refrigerator
15. The next morning skim off the layer of fat, it will be quite a massive chunk of fat. Toss it. You will likely get close to 2 lbs of fat
16. Recombine the liquid and the meat in the roaster. Heat up low and slow for a while and you are done.

Serve with salsa, lardy tortillas, rice and refried beans.