Another slow cooker recipe for you! Barbacoa is a slow roasted lamb dish that we had in Mexico and we fell in love with the flavors and textures of the lamb, which is traditionally served in tacos. I did some research and found that pits are dug and the lamb is roasted with lots of chiles and spices for several hours. Of course, that’s not practical for most of us, so I did some more research and gleaned methods and ingredients from several different websites to make this Fox Trot Farm Barbacoa dish yesterday, and Farmer Bob pronounced it a winner! 

Our lamb is perfect for our traditional American dishes, and I’ve used our lamb stew meat to make traditional Southern “stew beef over rice.” This is a combination of that method and barbacoa flavors. I think you’ll like it as much as we did!

Fox Trot Farm Barbacoa

2 lbs. Fox Trot Farm lamb stew meat, thawed
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tablespoon minced garlic
S&P
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 medium onion, sliced or chopped
1 (or 2) pieces of chiles in adobo chopped (I used more…we like the heat.)
1/2 bottle of beer (I used Yuengling because that’s what we keep in the fridge.)
Sliced green onions for garnish

Place meat in bottom of slow cooker. Sprinkle with next 7 ingredients and spread onions over top. Tuck pieces of chiles in the adobo sauce throughout, as many as you want. (The smoked jalapenos and sauce add great flavor, but you can omit this ingredient if you like.)
Pour the beer around the meat so you don’t rinse off all the good spices and herbs. This is how it will look.

Cover and cook on high till hot, then reduce to medium for 3-4 hours or so till the meat is tender.
Make a slurry of 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with enough water to make a paste and stir it into your stew, a bit at a time, and simmer, stirring, till the sauce is thickened and clear.
Serve over rice and garnish with the chopped green onion.
I added a side of a delicious garden tomato topped with a dollop of sour cream and fresh shopped cilantro, which was perfect!

NOTE: To make tacos, drain the meat off the broth (before thickening the sauce) and shred the meat with two forks. Fry in a little oil in a nonstick pan till it’s hot and serve in warmed corn tacos. Top with diced onions and sliced radishes, minced cilantro and a squeeze of lime, or toppings of your choice. Reserve the broth for another use. (It’s so good you might want to just fill a mug and drink it hot!)

We have only 8 one-pound packages of our Fox Trot Farm lamb stew meat remaining till the next processing, so give me a call and come get some to try my recipe for Barbacoa this week or visit us on Sunday from 1:00-5:00 during our regular farm market hours. Our lamb stew meat is from the shoulder and is lean and free of bones, so all you get is meat. I don’t think you can get lamb stew meat anywhere else and, at $7.99 a pound, it’s a great value for our pasture raised, grass fed American lamb, and you get to meet the farmers, too! 🙂

EIEIO!
Debbie