Mexican Meat- Crock It

Do you own a crockpot? You should! I've owned one for at least 15 years and can't even count how many times I have used it. It's such a wonderful feeling to have your dinner cooking for you while you're at work or tooling around the house! Our standards are typically chili, pulled pork, and I often will cook bone-in chicken breasts to get shredded chicken for recipes. The leftover stock can keep in the fridge for various uses, too. Love it!

When I first bought my crockpot I purchased two cook books, one of which was "Crock-It". It's a great book- filled with simple recipes and hand written with one recipe per page, which makes it easy to read. One of my favorite chicken recipes came from here and I've always been intrigued by this Mexican Meat recipe because of two things. One, it is simple as anything and two- she states that it's the recipe that started the book. If that's not an incentive to make something I don't know what is! I really can't believe it's taken me this long to actually make this. Shawn picked up a rump roast and I decided that cooking it in the crockpot would be the best bet. It's summertime and stews seem just too hot and heavy for this time of year. I was so excited when I remembered this recipe because I had all the ingredients in the pantry!!

To make it, there's really not much that is simpler. I opened a can of cream of celery soup. I opened a can of diced green chilis. Combined them in my crockpot with the beef, turned it on, and walked away. OK- I lied. I'm me and despite the fact that I shouldn't be futzing around with the crockpot (something I have nagged roommates and husbands incessantly about); I couldn't help but mess with the meat after 5 or 6 hours. It is inevitably supposed to shred, so I eventually went and sliced the meat into a few pieces to keep them in the liquid and aid in the shredding process. It took quite a bit longer to shred than stated in the recipe. I don't know if it was because I didn't cut the meat up right away or because I opened the pot to play with it. Probably a combination of the two.

This came out good, not great. I feel like I may have not been the best judge because I have a bit of a head cold, but I needed to add some hot sauce to mine. I tried this two ways- the first was rolled in some corn tortillas with cheese. This was kind of boring, so I then scooped it up with some Tostitos which was much tastier. I think I might try a casserole with the leftovers- mix it with tomatoes, black beans, and corn and top with corn bread... I think that would be a much better version than what I had! I did put some of the leftover meat in the freezer to doctor up on another occasion and I will let you know when I try my new variation!

UPDATE!
I made burritos last night with the leftover meat by putting about 1/2 cup of the mixture in a whole wheat tortilla with some sauteed onion and shredded cheddar cheese. I drizzled them with Trader Joe's enchilada sauce (I love this stuff- it's a must have in my pantry), some cheese, and baked them for 20 minutes at 350. I topped them with some sliced green onions and served it with sauteed vegetables and a corn & tomato salad. Unbelieveable!! The meat was so much tastier when featured in a recipe like this.

Mexican Meat- Crock-It

3lbs stew meat
1 (10oz) can cream of celery soup
1 (4oz) can chopped green chilis

Combine all ingredients in crockery, stir well to coat meat. Cook on high 6-8 hours. Use a potato masher to blend liquid and shred meat. It should just fall apart when done.

Use this recipe for Burritos, Soft Tacos, Tostatos, Bean Dip or serve over rice.