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Do you love serving your family a delicious, restaurant quality meal, but don’t like spending hours in the kitchen? This slow cooker bbq beef recipe is exactly what you’ve been looking for.
I’ve actually made this recipe with a few different cuts of beef. I love how versatile it is! We’ve tried brisket (pot roast), chuck roast and most recently, London broil. I say, go with the biggest cut of beef that is on sale.
While it’s a regular in our home (I make it at least 2-3 times a month), this is also my go-to recipe when we have company over. Just 10-15 minutes of prep in the morning. Let it sit all day and enjoy your company. You just have to worry about side dishes. We love it with mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. Don’t forget to serve some bread with it, it’s perfect to clean your plate with! Yum!
There are so many things we love about this recipe, but the best part of this slow cooker bbq beef might just be the leftovers. We always have enough for lunch the following day and serve it on a plate with french fries and salad or on a roll with a side of chips. It tastes even yummier the next day (if that’s possible).
The trick to the perfect slow cooker bbq beef, is the spice rub and browning the meat before it goes into the slow cooker. It makes a huge difference! I’ve provided photos of both steps above so that you can see how it should look. The rub should go on every single inch of meat.
When you brown it, brown it on each side (even on the sides if you can). It is a game changer. You don’t HAVE to brown it, but if you have the extra 5 minutes, I highly recommend it.
For the barbecue sauce, you’ll just dump all of the ingredients into the slow cooker and mix. It’s so quick and leaves you with very little to clean up, which is always a plus for me! Once it’s mixed completely, set your browned beef on top and then spoon the sauce over the top so that it’s completely covered. You can also pierce the beef with a fork a number of times so that the sauce soaks in, but that’s completely optional.
If you prefer not to serve your slow cooker bbq beef shredded, you can skip that step. I do find that shredding and mixing it into the sauce again grabs all of the flavor. If you choose to slice and serve, you will need to serve the sauce on the side for your family (or guests) to pour over their beef. Either way, it’s delicious and it’ll become a favorite in your home, just like it has in mine.
Slow Cooker BBQ Beef
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Easy Slow Cooker BBQ Beef
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 4-8 hours
- Total Time: 0 minute
Description
Just 10-15 minutes of prep for this slow cooker main dish. It’s the most delicious bbq beef you’ll ever eat.
Ingredients
- 3–4 lbs of brisket (or any cut of beef)
- olive oil (for browning)
Rub:
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cumin
BBQ Sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups ketchup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Mix together all of the rub spices and rub all over the beef.
- Heat olive oil in a pan on medium high heat and brown meat, approx 1-2 minutes on each side.
- Mix all bbq sauce ingredients in the slow cooker until combined.
- Move beef into slow cooker and cover with sauce.
- Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.
- Using two forks, shred the beef in the slow cooker and make sure the sauce is covering each piece.
- Cover and heat on low for an additional 15-20 minutes.
- Switch to warm and uncover. The sauce will thicken as it sits. Serve sauce on the side or put it in a jar and refrigerate for later.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Slow Cooker
Keywords: beef, slow cooker, bbq, barbecue, brisket

Chocoviv
August 7, 2020This looks absolutely delicious 😋
Elizabeth O
June 1, 2020Just wow! this makes me hungry huh! The beef looks really tender and delicious. Gonna try this for our family gathering. For sure they will love it.
Bill
May 31, 2020Aww yeah. I could eat my weight in that! The only thing I love more than beef is barbecue beef. I have to give this a try.
★★★★★
Arris
May 31, 2020Wow! This is such an amazing recipe! I totally loved it! I must give this a try.
blair villanueva
May 30, 2020This recipe looks very tasty. I didn’t you can do BBQ in slow cooker, impressive!
★★★★★
Lavern Moore
May 30, 2020Every time I visit your blog, I learn something new and this is no exception. This time bbq beef. I can’t wait to read more!
Shannon Gurnee
May 30, 2020This looks like a yummy recipe! I would love to make this sometime for my family.
Romy Schorr
May 29, 2020Yummmm! I am totally making this recipe this weekend
★★★★★
Marysa
May 29, 2020This sounds like such a convenient way to cook beef. I will have to make this for Father’s Day!
Brianna
May 29, 2020You have my mouth watering with these pictures! I am going to make this tomorrow!
Joy
May 29, 2020OH MY GOSH. your beef looks sooooo amazing. i will definitely want to try using apple cider vinegar next time.
Ivana Mearns
May 29, 2020This sounds yummy. I like the idea of the combination of cumin and paprika. I tried paprika and caraway before, this must be even more delicious.
★★★★★
Sarah | Boo Roo and Tigger Too
May 29, 2020I often make pulled pork in the slow cooker but I’ve not tried beef, thinking it would turn out tough – I’ll have to give this a try.
Heather
May 29, 2020Hi Sarah! Beef is definitely not tough. It falls apart, just like pork does.
Lisa Favre
May 29, 2020Well this just looks absolutely mouthwatering! We just bought a slow cooker so now I definitely have to try this recipe.
★★★★★
Stacy
May 29, 2020I love this recipe. Thanks for sharing. Hope to cook this one day and surprise my family. They will surely love it.
★★★★★
Helen Little
May 29, 2020This is making my mouth water and tummy rumble! What a delicious looking meal. My family loves slow cooked beef and I love all the spices here. Will definitely try!
Ashley Cairns
May 29, 2020OMG I will be making this in the near future, I can tell! Yummy recipe!!
Stephanie Stebbins
May 28, 2020This looks so yummy! Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
Idalmis
May 28, 2020This will be a great recipe to try out this summer! In fact, I was just walking through the store today thinking that I could try to make my own barbeque sauce, so I’m very excited to try out the sauce recipe too!
Nicole Anderson | Camping for Women
May 28, 2020Anything that looks this good will be a winner in our home. The recipe looks really easy to follow and the fact that you can leave it alone all day means this is something we can easily enjoy at nights during the week. Using the slow cooker here is great for a tender result and one that saves your time as a real bonus!
★★★★★
Ashley
May 28, 2020This looks so yummy. I actually seen the post on Instagram today and thought, delish! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Matt Taylor
May 28, 2020Yummy!! I love slow cooker bbq beef. This recipe looks super easy to make and super tasty.
★★★★★
Yeah Lifestyle
May 28, 2020This looks absolutely delicious and I can’t wait to try your recipe in my slow cooker
★★★★★
Charlene Maugeri
May 28, 2020Mmm this looks delicious! I’ve been making a lot of slow-cooker BBQ chicken during this quarantine. I need to switch it up with some beef sometime.
Rog Willis
May 28, 2020Oh this is my jam! With Father’s Day coming soon, this will be an excellent main dish for dinner to celebrate all of the dads in my family. Hopefully, we’ll be in our house to celebrate!
★★★★★
Amber Myers
May 28, 2020You have made me drool. This looks SO amazing. I love when I can use my slow cooker! It makes the house smell incredible.
★★★★★
Tara Pittman
May 28, 2020My family would love this for dinner. They do like BBQ meat so they will like this
Melissa Cushing
May 28, 2020This recipe looks super delicious and it also looks perfect for some yummy tacos! Definitely making this one so thank you for sharing! Heading to pin this recipe to my Pinterest Slow Cooker Board 🙂
★★★★★
Lisa
May 28, 2020This bbq slow cooker beef looks so good! Definitely going to try this.
paolo
May 28, 2020This looks so heavenly omg! This recipe is perfect for our Sunday lunch! Thank you