Crockpot Cuban Ropa Vieja (Shredded Beef)
By: Jannese Torres-...
Published: Thursday, November 21, 2013 - 8:36am

Ingredients




2 1/2 - 3 lb roast, preferably a chuck roast, rump roast, flank steak or skirt steak
Goya Adobo seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped into large chunks
1 pepper, deseeded and chopped into large chunks
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 cube chicken bouillon, cut in half
1/2 cup of dry red wine (Bordeaux, Merlot, Cabernet)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 packet Sazon seasoning
1-8 ounce can tomato sauce
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons pimento-stuffed olives
salt and pepper

Preparation

1 Season the roast with a liberal sprinkle of Adobo seasoning and a 1/4 teaspoon of oregano. Heat up a pan on medium-high heat and drizzle in the olive oil.  Sear the roast on both sides for 2-3 minutes, until you have some crusty brown deliciousness. Take the roast out of the pan and set it aside. 2 Chop the onions, peppers, and garlic and toss them into the slow cooker's ceramic insert.  Measure out the wine (1/2 cup).  Pour tomato sauce into the wine. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of oregano, half of the chicken bouillon cube & the Sazon packet into the wine/tomato sauce mixture.  Stir it together. 3 Lay the roast on top of the chopped veggies in the crock pot.  Toss in the bay leaves and olives and pour in the wine/tomato sauce mixture. Cook the roast on low for 8 hours or high for 4.  When the roast is done, pull it out of the sauce and shred with a 2 forks.  Meanwhile, it's time to finish the sauce.  Remove the bay leaves. Using an emersion blender or regular blender, blend up the sauce until it's mostly smooth. Check for seasoning.  If it needs a bit more salt, add in the other half of the chicken bouillon cube or a pinch of salt and stir. Toss the shredded beef back into the blended sauce. 4 Finally, toss in the chopped cilantro and stir to combine.  Set the slow cooker to warm to keep this piping hot until you're ready to serve.

About

I'm a HUGE slow cooking fan, and this was one of the first recipes I made when I got my first slow cooker. Ropa vieja is Spanish for "old clothes".  The name for this dish comes from the shredded beef, which looks like old, tattered clothing.  This dish is traditionally braised for hours on the stove top, until the meat is tender enough to shred.  That makes it the kind of dish that needs a bit of planning.  My slow cooker version captures all the deliciousness of this traditional Cuban dish, and makes it weeknight friendly!  You need about 10-15 minutes to prep the slow cooker, and then you just set it and go about your day.  You can even do all this prep the night before and just pop the ceramic insert into the fridge (covered).  In the morning, pop the insert into the slow cooker, turn it on, and you're done! Come home to a fully cooked roast that's ready for shredding and serving in 15 minutes or less.