Easy Slow Cooker Chile Colorado

Easy Slow Cooker Chile Colorado is a wonderful Mexican dish made of chunks of beef that have simmered in a delectable red chile sauce until fall-apart tender. You can use the flavorful meat in tacos, burritos, or any of your favorite Mexican foods!

I started eating Chile Colorado as a kid in San Diego at my favorite Mexican restaurant. The meat was so tender, you could poke it with your fork and it would fall apart!

Take some of that meat and the savory red chile sauce that the meat had been stewing in for hours and put it in a tortilla with some chopped cilantro, sliced onions, maybe a little rice and beans, and I’m sure you can imagine how tasty this meal was. I’m salivating just thinking about it.

It’s not always easy to find Chile Colorado in restaurants, so to get my fix, I usually have to make it myself.

I make Chile Colorado two different ways depending on how much time I have.

There’s method #1, the authentic way, which is re-hydrating dried chile peppers in water, putting them in a blender, then smashing the “pulp” through a mesh strainer to remove all the seeds and chunky pieces. You then create the Chile Colorado sauce that the meat will stew in on the stove.

Then there’s method #2. It uses a shortcut ingredient to create an almost equally delicious meal. Just add beef, onions, garlic, and seasonings in a slow cooker with a large can of red enchilada sauce. This method requires no hydrating, blending, smashing, and straining of chile peppers, which saves a TON of time.

Ingredients needed for this recipe (scroll down to recipe card for complete recipe):

Chuck roast
Onion
Garlic
Red enchilada sauce
Cumin
Oregano
Bay leaf
Salt & pepper

What kind of meat is best for Chile Colorado?

I always buy chuck roast when making this. It’s a tough, inexpensive cut of meat that transforms into tender, super flavorful meat.

Beef stew meat can also be used. It’s basically chuck roast that has already been cut into chunks.

These cuts of beef are easy to shred and add back to the slow cooker with the scrumptious sauce.

How to use Chile Colorado

You can make tacos, burritos, quesadillas, put it in a taco salad, put it on nachos.

Serve it saucy with tortillas on the side or over Mexican rice.

How long is the meat good for?

Once cooled, store leftover meat in an air-tight container and use within 3-4 days.

I have not tested freezing this meat as I never have any leftovers!

Looking for more Mexican recipes to complete your meal? Here are some favorites:

I will eventually post my recipe for traditional Chile Colorado, but in the meantime, I think you will love Easy Slow Cooker Chile Colorado.

You’ll get the same super flavorful, tender meat in a wonderful red chile sauce, but without all the effort.

NOTES:

If you can’t get a chuck roast, you could use beef stew meat instead.
To make your Chile Colorado spicy, feel free to add some cayenne to the seasonings or add a chipotle pepper from a can of chipotles in adobo.