Barbeque Beef (Slow Cooker)

Summer time is perfect for barbeque beef. What’s not to love about Alberta beef! This Barbeque Beef is great with buns or on a piece of toasted sourdough bread. Other ways to serve up this prairie favourite is with potato salad, or fresh cooked new potatoes, or mashed potatoes. Barbeque beef is also a great choice for harvest time meals in the field.

My love affair with barbeque beef began back in the 1970’s when a local butcher cooked large amounts of barbeque beef underground for the annual Barbeque Supper in conjunction with the agricultural fair. Large roasts were covered in barbeque sauce and wrapped in tin foil and slow roasted in the ground over a bed of coals. It was always a well-attended community event. A neighbouring farmer was famous for his creamed onions, and he made large pots full of them to feed the hundreds of people that showed up. Other sides were hot baked beans and baked potatoes with all the fixings.

My aunt worked at the butcher shop, and graciously answered my questions as to how the barbequed beef was made. I decided to try replicating it with a beef roast, barbeque sauce and a slow cooker, and to my delight it worked out really great. It became one of my company meals, and soon others in the area were doing the same. While that is a very easy way to make Barbeque Beef, I decided I wanted to make it without the additives and preservative that are found in barbeque sauce, and Ta-Da, here is my all-natural recipe. The love affair continues.

Barbeque Beef (Slow Cooker)

1 beef roast, 4 – 5 pounds

2 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

3 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon mustard

2tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 onion, chopped

Cook the roast in the slow cooker on high for 6-7 hours. Remove the roast and cut into four sections. Mix the remaining ingredients in a small bowl, and stir the contents into the juices and meat in the slow cooker. Continue to cook for 1 hour on high. Take the meat out and shred on a cutting board with two forks, return to the slow cooker and the juices, stir and cook for another hour. Stir and serve.