Cowboy Slow Cooker Sandwiches

Slow cooker shredded beef with bacon and green chilies, piled on toasted buns with sharp cheddar. The crispy fried onions on top are non-negotiable.

What You’ll Need

• 1 pound bacon, cooked and divided. Half goes in the slow cooker with the beef, and save the rest for topping!
• 2½ pounds chuck roast. Top round or boneless pork shoulder works great, too.
• 1 cup BBQ sauce
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cans (7 ounces each) diced green chilies
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• 1 cup crispy fried onions. The French’s kind in the can. Toast them in a dry pan first, which makes them SO much better!
• 8 hamburger buns
• 8 slices Cheddar cheese. Pepper Jack for a spicy version, or Provolone or Monterey Jack if you want it milder.

Equipment You’ll Need

• 6-quart slow cooker
• Two forks. For shredding the beef right in the pot. There’s no need to transfer it out.

Instructions

Load up the slow cooker

Set the chuck roast in the bottom of your slow cooker and pile everything on top — the BBQ sauce, sliced onion, garlic, Worcestershire, both cans of green chilies, brown sugar, and half of your cooked bacon. Save the other half of the bacon for later. It goes on the sandwiches at the end, and if you dump it all in now, you’ll lose that crispy texture.

Give it all a good stir so the roast is coated in the sauce. Don’t worry about being neat, you’re going to shred this into oblivion in eight hours anyway.

Cook low and slow

Put the lid on and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours, or on high for 5 to 6. I always go low if I have the time. High works, but low is SO much better for that fall-apart texture.

Watch the meat, not the clock. It’s done when a fork slides in and pulls the beef apart with zero resistance. If it’s still tough at the 8-hour mark, give it another hour. Chuck roasts vary, and rushing this step is the #1 reason slow-cooker beef ends up chewy.

Shred

Once the beef is tender, grab two forks and shred it right in the slow cooker. Don’t drain any liquid. The sauce makes the dish!

Mix it all together thoroughly so every strand of beef gets coated. It’ll look a little soupy at first, and then the meat drinks it up. Give it 10 minutes on warm if you want it to soak in even more.

Toast the crispy onions

Heat a dry frying pan over medium heat and add the crispy fried onions. Toast them for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring often, until they’re a shade darker and smell nutty.

I know it seems silly to toast something that’s already crispy, but straight from the can, they taste like packaging. Give them three minutes in a hot pan, and they taste like food.

Build the sandwiches

Split your hamburger buns and toast them lightly face-up on a sheet pan at 350°F for 5 minutes, if you want. I usually do, because a soggy bun under all that saucy beef is sad.

Pile a generous amount of shredded beef on the bottom half of each bun. Top with a slice of Cheddar, then the reserved bacon, then a good handful of those toasted onions. Put the top bun on face down and serve right away so the cheese melts from the heat of the beef.

Storage Instructions

Store the shredded beef (without the buns, cheese, or crispy onions) in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Reheat in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, or microwave single portions for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring halfway through.

You can also freeze it! Just cool the beef completely, pack it into a freezer bag with the air pressed out, and it’ll keep for up to 3 months. I like to freeze it in single-sandwich portions so I can pull out exactly what I need. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.

Keep the crispy fried onions in their original bag or an airtight container at room temperature. They go limp fast if they hit any moisture, so don’t store them with the beef.

Variations

• Swap the chuck roast for a top round roast or a boneless pork shoulder. Same measurements, same cook times.
• Use Pepper Jack instead of Cheddar for a spicy version, or Provolone or Monterey Jack if you want it mild.
• Add pickled jalapeños on top of the cheese for heat.
• Add dill pickle chips on top of the cheese. Sounds weird, tastes great with the sweet BBQ sauce.
• Skip the buns and pile the shredded beef over baked potatoes or rice instead.

Best Ways to Use It

• Piled on toasted buns with all the toppings, just like the recipe says.
• Over baked potatoes with extra cheese and bacon on top.
• On top of nachos with the fried onions as a garnish.
• Stuffed into quesadillas with extra Cheddar.
• Spooned over rice with some of the sauce for a quick weeknight bowl.
• On a baked sweet potato, the sweet-and-smoky combo is really good.
• Tossed with pasta and a little extra BBQ sauce for a weird-but-delicious BBQ beef pasta.

Questions and Troubleshooting

Do I really need to cook the bacon first?

Yes. Raw bacon in the slow cooker just turns rubbery and limp. Cook it crisp first.

Can I skip toasting the fried onions?

You can, but don’t! Just three minutes in a dry pan makes a huge difference, and they stay crunchy longer on the sandwich, too.

My sauce is really thin after cooking. What happened?

Chuck roast releases a lot of liquid as it cooks, which is normal. After shredding, let it sit uncovered on warm for 15-20 minutes, and it’ll thicken right up. You can also lift the meat out with a slotted spoon if you want a drier sandwich.

Can I make this on the stovetop or in an Instant Pot instead?

Instant Pot, yes — 60 minutes on high pressure with a natural release. Stovetop, I wouldn’t bother with; the whole point is to dump everything in and walk away.

What kind of BBQ sauce should I use?

Whatever you like eating straight from the bottle. This isn’t the place for a fancy sauce. A standard sweet-and-tangy grocery store BBQ sauce is perfect, since the green chilies, brown sugar, and Worcestershire already do much of the flavor work.

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