top taco - best shredded beef taco ever.

picture via gimmesomeoven.com
i forgot to take one myself, but this is pretty close to what they looked like.

last weekend, my roommates and i hosted "top taco".  we got together with a group of our guys friends that live together to stage the ultimate cooking showdown with a mexican fiesta. the rules were simple - each team had to cook three dishes - queso, guacamole and tacos - and each round would be judged individually.  the boys ended up with the winning queso and the girls with the winning guacamole. that meant it was up to the taco round to decide our fate. inspiration came after my visit to salt lake city last month. we had stopped by a diners, drive-ins and dives favorite - red iguana - where we sampled a little taste of heaven in their shredded beef tacos. i tried googling to find the recipe but came up with no luck. i even called red iguana and asked for the recipe where a little mexican man simply laughed on the other end. so i ended up watching the ddd segment on youtube and wrote down all the spices they used to marinate their meat and came up with my own recipe.  the meat turned out absolutely delicious - it was moist, juicy, packed with tons of mexican flavor and just a little bit spicy. in the end, we won the taco round and became the champions of top taco!

ingredients:
2 tablespoons cumin
2 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
4 lbs boneless chuck roast
3 bay leaves
28 oz can of tomatoes
2 cups low sodium beef stock
3 chipotles in adobo sauce
1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
toppings: flour tortillas, monterrey jack cheese, sour cream

directions:
in a small bowl, combine cumin, chili powder, oregano, thyme, paprika, marjoram, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. trim fat from beef. using your hands, rub spice mix over all sides of meat and set aside. meanwhile, add can of tomatoes, bay leaves, onion, garlic, chipotles in adobo, more salt, and beef stock to slow cooker. add beef to slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.

remove the beef from the slow cooker and shred with two forks. add back to slow cooker and keep on warm until ready to serve.

to assemble, heat small skillet with a little evoo. take a flour tortilla and smother it with sour cream. add a good about of cheese and beef (make sure to get some of the juices that the beef was cooking in). fold in half and sear for 1 minute on each side in the skillet until tortilla is a little bit crispy. eat it up immediately before someone else does. repeat for the rest of the tacos.

feel free to use your own favorite mexican toppings - we just went with something traditional!