Spicy Chipotle Pot Roast

Ever since scoring a secondhand, priced-to-move slow cooker from a local seller, I’ve been hooked. Even when it feels summery outside, I can’t resist making stews and turning meat criminally tender.

This recipe is great when you want hearty, tender beef with a strong backbone and plenty of spice.

Even better, it uses only part of a beer, which means you get a well-deserved treat after you pop the lid on the slow cooker — even if it’s 9am! It’s not like a half-finished beer is gonna keep in the fridge. 🍻

Prepare the ingredients

This is a basic template to follow, but as always, feel free to experiment. Ingredients with a 🔥 should be treated with caution as they can get you into hot water soup. If you’re more of mild salsa fan, consider using a smaller portion of these hot ones.

Seriously, if you’re not careful, this can end painfully.

Whole ingredients

• Beef — whatever cut you like
• 1 chopped onion
• 4-6 smashed garlic cloves
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 1 can of diced or crushed tomatoes
• 🔥 1 can of chipotle en adobo
• 🔥 1 can of pickled jalapeños or 1 sliced fresh jalapeño

Spices and sauces

• Lots of cumin
• A little chili powder
• 3-4 bay leaves
• About ⅓ beer — light cerveza like Modelo is ideal, but all I had this time was an IPA, and it worked!
• 1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

First, sear the meat

Cover your meat with salt & pepper and sear it at high heat in olive oil. It should only be on the heat for a couple minutes per side - we are just browning the meat to lock in some flavor.

Depending on how you want the stew to come out, you could let it rest for a bit, then slice into chunks for a more traditional pot roast feel. You can also just pop the whole thing in. Either way, this is going to be so tender it falls apart by the end of the cook.

Load up the slow cooker

• Place the meat in the bottom and drizzle in the remaining olive oil. No reason to leave that flavor juice out!
• Add the solid ingredients
• Next, add the spices and bay leaves. This helps submerge them so their flavors can be extracted as much as possible!
• Finish with the liquid ingredients, ending with the beer.

Putting the “slow” in “slow cooking”

It’s time to say goodbye for 8-10 hours, depending on how long you can wait and how early you got up. Cover and cook on low for at least 8 hours, stirring every couple of hours so everything gets a turn in the flavor bath. In the last hour or so, you can add green beans if you like ‘em.

Set a timer and take a sip of that beer — you’ve earned it!

We served this on a bed of quinoa. Rice and/or beans would be great too. In my experience, it’s going to be very intense without something to soak up the sauce and moderate the spice, but do whatever you want!