Machaca is my all-time favorite, shredded beef. It is juicy, flavorful and perfectly chewy. Similar to carnitas, Machaca takes awhile to cook but most of it is hands off and the results are so worth it!

I bought a 4.5 lb. package of stew meat at Costco and froze it for a rainy day! That day arrived, yesterday, along with a mountain of homework for my kids, which meant hanging around the house all day!

You can also make this in the crock pot – on high for 6-8 hours. You are going to want to redistribute the meat every few hours, stirring, to make sure it stays moist and cooks evenly.

Ingredients (in order of use):

Machaca Shredded Beef – 20 minutes active, 4 hrs. inactive

4.5 lbs. stew meat

½ onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1 beer, any kind

salt and pepper (to taste – I used 1 tsp. salt and ½ tsp. pepper)

1 tsp. hot chile powder

1 tsp. Mexican oregano

½ cup of salsa

salt and pepper (to taste – I used 1 tsp. salt and ½ tsp. pepper) AGAIN!

Preheat your oven to 325°. Throw the frozen meat in a dish with a lid (if you have one or use a glass pyrex with foil.) Sprinkle it with the onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Pour in the beer, cover and cook for 4 hours. I stirred mine every hour to break up the chunks of frozen meat and moisten the top layer.

After 4 hours, you have achieved fork tender meat that shreds easily and has a base of flavor that you can build upon to make lots of other dishes. Divide meat in half (I am going to use the other half for a different dinner.)

Add chile powder, oregano, salsa, salt and pepper. Mix up and put on a cookie sheet (I recommend lining it with foil as my parchment paper almost ignited!) Broil for 2-4 minutes until some of the pieces are crispy! It is ready to enjoy on nachos, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, etc… Let me know what you come up with!