Usually when I make tacos I use ground beef but I wanted to change it up this week. I already attempted carnitas, you can get that recipe HERE, and I've been wanting to try and cook short ribs so I looked for slow cooker recipes. I figured my first attempt should be with a slow cooker so there was less of a chance of screwing it up!
There are so many different "short rib taco" recipes. Some that use barbecue sauce, beer, others that use spices only and even a version that uses chocolate! I decided to go with one where I had most of the ingredients already at home.
This recipe also uses dark beer but we only had light beer, and the supermarket only had 6 packs of dark beer (I don't drink beer and had no idea if my husband would want the dark beer! That's how often we drink lol) so I changed it up and used Coke. I read in a few blogs that Coke is another great substitution if you don't want to use beer (or in my case don't have dark beer). I probably could have used the light beer but I opted for the Coke since a few recipes listed that as an ingredient.
I also used less chipotle peppers and adobo sauce because I am not a huge fan of spicy food. It ended up not tasting spicy at all so if you want the spice, follow the recipe as written!
Also, the recipe has you put the shredded beef back into the slow cooker so it's immersed in the sauce. I prefer crispy beef so I put it on a pan and under the broiler for about 5 minutes. When I served it, I spooned the sauce and onions onto the beef instead.
As for the add-ons the short ribs recipe has a suggested a coleslaw side dish but I made my own (my recipe is below) that does not use mayonnaise. I also made an avocado crema and added corn with a side of yellow rice. The yellow rice is just the Instant Goya rice. I prefer buying instant rice because I am so focused on the main dish, the less time and effort it takes to make the sides the better!
You can really do any add-ons, and sides, or just put the short ribs on top of rice if you prefer to not have a taco! And if you want a taco, but without the mess, try Old El Paso taco bowls. This is the first time I used them and they were great! I held it like a taco but because it's in an oval bowl shape all the ingredients stayed in place! I may use the taco bowls moving forward for all taco nights!
However you choose to eat these short ribs, they are amazing! They were so good we barely had any leftovers (but this can easily feed 4-6 people if you aren't going for thirds/fourths like we did)!
- I only used 1 chipotle pepper and 1 tbsp of adobo sauce to not make it as spicy
- I didn't have dark beer so I used a can of Coke
- If you want crispy shredded beef, put it under the broiler for about 5 minutes
-I halved the recipe and had plenty of sauce to serve 4-6 people.
-Even though I halved the recipe, I kept the cilantro as 1/4 cup since I am a big fan of cilantro
-I would recommend only using 1/2 of the amount of lime. I used 1 lime and it was a little too citrusy for me, and that's saying a lot because I love citrus flavors!
Mexican Coleslaw
1 cup coleslaw
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
olive oil (drizzle)
1/4 lime
salt and pepper (to taste)
Mix the coleslaw and cilantro then drizzle with olive oil. Squeeze in lime juice, add salt and pepper to taste. Mix altogether then serve.
This is before I shredded the beef.
I forgot to take a picture of the finished sauce so here is a photo of the leftovers so you can see the consistency.
The final dish! The taco bowls were a great hit! Same taste as a taco but less messy!
ENJOY!
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