Slowly cooked in barbecue sauce and shredded, pulled beef is wonderfully flavorful. While often served in a hamburger bun, it's just as good in lettuce wraps!
This pulled beef is amazing - rich, flavorful, filling, and comforting. In the winter, it's perfect over hot mashed cauliflower. In the summer, I serve it in lettuce wraps. It's the same concept as pulled pork and pulled chicken - meat slowly cooked in homemade BBQ sauce. Easy, delicious, and perfect for meal prep!
Ingredients
See the recipe card for exact measurements. Here are my comments on the ingredients.
BBQ sauce: I use my tried-and-tested homemade sugar-free BBQ sauce. It's easy to make and requires no cooking. It's made with tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, garlic and onion powders, smoked paprika, and a sweetener. You can use store-bought BBQ sauce instead of making the homemade version.
Beef chuck roast: Chuck roast is a good choice for any recipe that requires slow cooking and shredding beef. Slow cooking makes it beautifully tender, and since it's a fatty cut, it won't dry out during prolonged cooking. I also use this cut to make pot roast and slow cooker goulash.
Instructions
The detailed instructions and step-by-step photos are included in the recipe card. Here's a quick overview.
Mix the BBQ sauce in a bowl or a jar.
Place the chuck roast in your slow cooker pan. Pour the BBQ sauce on top and use your hands to ensure the meat is well coated.
Cook the meat for 8 hours on LOW or 5 hours on HIGH, until it's very tender. Carefully remove the lid - hot steam will escape - and use two forks to shred the meat and mix it with the cooking juices. Serve immediately.
Recipe Tips
- For the best and most tender results, cook the meat on LOW for 8 hours. If you need to cook it for a shorter time, 5 hours on HIGH is acceptable, though not as good. I tried cooking it on HIGH for 4 hours, and it wasn't tender enough to shred, so I do recommend 5 hours.
- When buying the meat, try to select a well-trimmed piece, or ask the butcher to trim it for you. I've got nothing against fat (it's delicious), but when making shredded meat, you don't want large pieces of fat in there.
- Fun fact: "Pulled" means shredded beef. You pull two forks away from each other, slowly and methodically shredding a cut of tender, slow-cooked meat. So, the term "pulled" refers to the technique used to shred the meat.
- Storage: You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Gently reheat them covered in the microwave at 50% power. You can also freeze the leftovers for up to three months. Thaw them overnight in the fridge and reheat them covered in the microwave.
Serving Suggestions
I like to serve pulled beef on a bed of cauliflower rice with a side of microwave broccoli. The cauliflower rice works well to soak up the yummy sauce.
Another great bed for this dish is mashed cauliflower. And you can also serve it on top of raw young spinach leaves. The warm sauce will wilt the spinach just enough to lightly cook it.
In the summer, I prefer to serve this dish in lettuce wraps, as shown in the photos on this page.
Recipe Card
Slow Cooker Pulled Beef
Video
Ingredients
- 3 pounds beef chuck roast - well-trimmed
Barbecue sauce:
- 7 ounces tomato paste - ¾ cup
- ¾ cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt - or ½ teaspoon of any other salt, including Morton kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoons sweetener of choice - I use ½ teaspoon stevia glycerite
Instructions
- Place the meat in a 6-quart slow cooker pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the barbecue sauce ingredients.
- Pour the BBQ sauce over the meat. Use your hands to ensure the meat is well-coated.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours or on HIGH for 5 hours.
- Carefully remove the lid (hot steam will escape). Use two forks to shred the meat and mix it with the cooking juices.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- For the best and most tender results, cook the meat on LOW for 8 hours. If you need to cook it for a shorter time, 5 hours on HIGH is acceptable. I tried cooking it on HIGH for 4 hours and it wasn't tender enough to shred, so I do recommend 5 hours.
- When buying the meat, try to select a well-trimmed piece or ask the butcher to trim it for you. I've got nothing against fat (it's delicious!), but when making shredded meat, you don't want large pieces of fat in there.
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Gently reheat them in the microwave at 50% power. Reheat them covered to prevent splatters and to prevent the meat from drying out.
- You can also freeze the leftovers for up to three months. Thaw them overnight in the fridge and reheat them covered in the microwave.
Nutrition per Serving
Save this Recipe!
We'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
We will also add you to our weekly newsletter. Unsubscribe anytime. See healthyrecipesblogs.com/privacy/ to learn how we use your email.
Disclaimers
Most recipes are low-carb and gluten-free, but some are not. Recommended and linked products are not guaranteed to be gluten-free. Nutrition info is approximate. Please verify it independently. The carb count excludes non-nutritive sweeteners. Please read these Terms of Use before using any of my recipes.
