Slow Cooker Balsamic Shredded Beef
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Slow Cooker Shredded Balsamic Beef might be the easiest and very best slow cooker meal I’ve ever made for my family. You simply can’t beat the aroma of slow cooked chuck roast. It’s one of the best dump-and-go meals you’ll find!
Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe
- Everyone, from preschoolers to adults, devours this tender, flavorful dinner at our house.
- Impressive enough to serve for Christmas dinner or birthday dinner.
- Like our Slow Cooker Short Ribs recipe, it’s a dump and go slow cooker meal. Perfect to put in the Crock Pot at the beginning of the day!
- It’s freezer friendly. Double and freeze one for your future self!
- It’s high in protein with 21 grams per serving. We explain how important protein is in our Round up of High Protein Slow Cooker recipes.
- Serve it over Boursin Mashed Potatoes, Healthy Mashed Potatoes, or polenta (pictured) which are perfect for all that extra sauce left in the crockpot.
- Use the leftover shredded beef on Bread Machine Wheat Rolls as “french dip” sandwiches the next night. Again, a huge win!
Ingredients You’ll Need
These are the flavor-enhancing ingredients that you’ll need for this dump-and-go slow cooker meal…
- Beef broth – If you don’t have this on hand, chicken broth will work.
- Balsamic vinegar – This is a key ingredient that adds a slightly sweet, acidic note.
- Soy sauce – Use low sodium soy sauce, because you can also add salt at the end if needed (but you can’t take it out). Gluten-free option: Use coconut aminos or gluten-free Tamari Soy Sauce.
- Honey – Adds a little sweetness to balance out the salt and acid.
- Garlic – I just used minced garlic from the store to save time.
- Boneless roast beef – Look for a beef roast with some marbling throughout, which adds a lot of flavor. Chuck or round roast works well.
How to Make Balsamic Shredded Beef
Add Ingredients to Crock Pot
Put roast beef into slow cooker and season with Kosher salt and pepper on all sides. In a small bowl, mix together all remaining ingredients. Pour over roast beef.
Slow Cook the Beef
Place a lid on top and cook on LOW for at least 8 hours, until the beef easily shreds.
Shred and Serve
Use two forks to shred the roast. Stir into the sauce and serve warm.
How to Serve Balsamic Shredded Beef
Here are a few ideas of how to serve this savory-sweet Shredded Beef:
- Serve over Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes, Cream Cheesy Mashed Sweet Potatoes, or polenta (as pictured), and drizzle the juices from the cooker over it all.
- Use the meat for mini sandwiches on rolls. Put the au jus (leftover juices) from the cooker in small ramekins for dipping…like Crockpot French Dip!
- Serve with our Microwave Corn on the Cob or our Baby Boiled Potatoes.
How to Freeze Slow Cooker Shredded Beef
This recipe works great to prep ahead and freeze, so you may want to cook two roasts at once in a large crockpot. It should take about the same amount of time. Cook until they shred easily.
Here are two methods for turning this into a freezer meal:
Method 1: Uncooked
To Freeze: Place all ingredients together in a freezer-friendly plastic bag and freeze. To prepare, let bag thaw in refrigerator for 24 hours.
To Prepare: After thawed, cook as directed.
Method 2: Fully Cooked
To Freeze: Fully cook the meal (through Step #4). Let it cool completely. (Safety Note: Do not let the meat sit on the counter more than 2 hours.) Store meat and sauce in a freezer container or freezer bag after it’s cooled completely.
To Prepare: There are at least three safe ways to defrost and warm up this meal.
- Let meat thaw in the fridge for 24-48 hours and then warm gently on the stovetop or in the microwave. (This is the preferred method.)
- From frozen on stovetop: Place the frozen meat and sauce on the stovetop in a pot over medium-low heat. Dump 1 cup of water or beef broth over the top. Put a lid on and stir periodically until warmed through.
- From frozen in microwave: Place frozen meat and sauce in a microwave-safe bowl. Use the DEFROST setting to thaw, stirring occasionally. Then heat in the microwave on the COOK setting in 30-60 second increments until warmed through.
Recipe FAQs
Chuck roast is a popular choice because it turns out so tender when slow cooked. Brisket, rump roast, and short ribs would also work.
In our tests, we didn’t notice a significant enough difference in the end result to justify the time and mess it takes to sear the beef.
No, the USDA says it’s not safe to cook a frozen roast in a slow cooker. It will sit in the “danger zone” temperature where bacteria grows at a rapid pace for too long. It’s important to thaw the roast in the refrigerator for about 2 days ahead of time first.
Can You Make Shredded Beef in the Instant Pot?
You bet! Just follow the instructions in the recipe below but make the following changes:
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- Cut the beef into 2×2 pieces.
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- Place the beef and the sauce in a 6-quart Instant Pot. Lock and seal the lid. Cook at high pressure for 30 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally for 10+ minutes.
If you want to know how to convert other recipes to the Instant Pot, be sure to download our Instant Pot Cooking Times Chart.
We also have a cookbook that gives slow cooker AND Instant Pot instructions for EVERY recipe. You can check out From Freezer to Cooker here.
More Dump-and-Go Recipes
If you like this easy crockpot recipe, be sure to try a few of these favorites.
Did you make this? Snap a photo and tag us on Instagram at @thrivinghome so we can see your creations and cheer you on!
Slow Cooker Balsamic Shredded Beef
Slow cooker balsamic shredded beef is packed full of flavor and oh-so-easy to savor. So. Good.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 – 3 pound boneless beef chuck roast
- Kosher salt and pepper
- 1 cup beef broth (or sub chicken stock)
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce (Gluten-free option: Use coconut aminos or gluten-free Tamari Soy Sauce)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (increase if you want more heat)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
Make It Now:
- Put roast beef into slow cooker and season with Kosher salt and pepper on all sides.
- In a small bowl, mix together all remaining ingredients. Pour over roast beef.
- Slow cook on LOW for about 8 hours, or until meat easily shreds apart.
- Using two large forks, shred the meat apart in the slow cooker.
- Serve meat warm on top of mashed potatoes or polenta (pictured). Alternatively, serve on a bun or ciabatta roll with sauce on the side for dipping, like French Dip Sandwiches.
Freeze For Later:
Method 1: Uncooked
To Freeze: Place all ingredients together in a freezer-friendly plastic bag and freeze. To prepare, let bag thaw in refrigerator for 24 hours.
To Prepare: Thaw in the fridge overnight and then cook as directed.
Method 2: Fully Cooked
To freeze: Fully cook the meal (through Step #4). Let it cool completely. (Safety Note: Do not let the meat sit on the counter for more than 2 hours.) Store meat and sauce in a freezer-safe container after it’s cooled completely.
To thaw: Use one of these safe thawing methods and then warm on the stove over low heat or in the microwave.
Notes/Tips
- Instant Pot Instructions: Cut the beef into 2×2 pieces, and place the beef and sauce in a 6-quart Instant Pot. Lock and seal the lid. Cook at high pressure for 30 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally for 10+ minutes.
- To Thicken the Sauce: If you’d like to thicken up the sauce at the end, here’s how. After removing the cooked roast to shred it, turn the slow cooker to HIGH. In a small bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water until smooth. Whisk that into the sauce in the slow cooker, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes or until thickened. (For the instant pot, turn on the Saute function after removing the cooked roast and whisk in the cornstarch slurry. It should thicken up in 1-2 minutes.)
- Gluten-Free Version: Replace the soy sauce with coconut aminos or gluten-free Tamari soy sauce.
- Storage Tip: A great way to store this freezer meal or leftovers is in our favorite freezer meal containers. Either store in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for 3 months.
- Where We Get Our Beef: We get our beef from ButcherBox. The beef is grass-fed and curated from trusted farms. We highly recommend this service to source healthy meat–like uncured bacon, chicken, and wild salmon–and have used it for years ourselves.
- We also have a similar recipes for Slow Cooker Short Ribs and Crock Pot Beef Bourguignon.
Can you cook it for 4 hours in high??
It may take more like 5 hours, depending on the size of your roast.
Tips on cooking this in the Instant Pot instead of slow cooker?
Yep! Just cut the beef into 2×2 inch cubes and cook with the sauce for 30 minutes with a 10 minute natural release. Shred and you’re good to go! Check out our Instant Pot Cooking Times Chart here for more help: https://thrivinghomeblog.com/instant-pot-cooking-times-chart/
This recipe is delicious! We just cooked and served it to about 100 people for a Lenten dinner at our church and it was a big hit, with adults and kids alike! Many people asked for the recipe. Thanks for sharing it!
This makes my heart so happy, Amy. Wow, so cool to see our recipes used to benefit a community like yours. Thanks for leaving a comment.
I made this last night for dinner. I put the meat in around 10 in the morning and everything was cooked by 6:30. I did turn the temp up to high around 3:30 to make sure the meat was cooked all the way through. The meat easily shredded, and I threw it back into the crock pot juices until my husband got home from work. I served it with roasted root veggies. My husband ate it on a muffin like a french-dip sandwich. We both loved it. I mostly made this to freeze the leftovers to eat once baby arrives (I’m 38 weeks pregnant), and I am excited to have a delicious dinner to thaw when we’re too busy to cook dinner. Thank you for such an easy and delicious meal!
We eat it like french dip sandwiches, too. So glad you liked it. Definitely the longer it cooks, the more easily those tough cuts of beef will shred apart.
Wondering if I can prep the roast with marinade, freeze, then pop in the slow cooker and cook from frozen? Might take a little longer, but that would be ok. Any experience with this or hang-ups to think about?
Hi Tara. We don’t recommend cooking a frozen meal in the slow cooker. From the research we have done, it sounds like there is a chance it can sit at the unsafe temp for food too long. I’ve done it, but it’s just not worth the risk to me in the future.
Has anyone tried substituting the beef for chicken in this recipe?
Chicken might work, but you’d need to adjust the cook time depending on what cut you are using. Chicken breasts cook quickly in the slow cooker, like in 2-3 hours.
i read the comment about the nesco roaster. You need this roaster! its like a crockpot but it cooks the same temperatures as a oven.You will not be sorry!! It cooks the best lasagna ive ever had!!My grandmothers secret recipe.
If I put carrots and chopped red potatoes in the crockpot under the meat, would it all cook together ok? I need something I can put on in the morning before I leave for the office and it’ll be ready when I get home in the evening with no maintenance during the day.
Jamie, I’ve made veggies all day like that and they get completely mushy, especially with the sauce. You can try it, but it’s not my favorite. You’d be better off just throwing the veggies in some boiling water when you get home, boiling them for 8 minutes or so, and tossing with butter, salt, and pepper to taste. Here’s an easy recipe: https://thrivinghomeblog.com/2016/11/simple-and-delicious-boiled-baby-potatoes/
I am thinking of making this ahead of time and reheating for a family reunion in the crockpot, any suggestions?
It will work great! Just thaw overnight and re-warm over low in the crockpot when ready to serve.
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I put carrots and new potatoes in the bottom and let them cook all day with the roast and they turned out great. Not too mushy! Everyone loved it and said this is a keeper!
Thanks for the feedback and for letting us know about the veggies. I’m totally trying that next time. Thanks!
This is fantastic! I’m happy to report every member of my family enjoyed it, including me, and I’m not really into beef. Thanks, ladies!
Woo hoo! Great to hear this, Ashley.
This looks so good! Do you know if it could be doubled and still fit in a standard 6-quart crockpot?
I haven’t tried doubling this recipe. It would certainly fit, but may take longer to cook.
Do you think this would work in a large Nesco type roaster? I need to feed large crowd and would double possibly triple recipe. If so what temperature would you recommend and how long?
I’m sorry but I’m not familiar with that appliance.
Is it spicy with the red pepper flakes? Just want to make sure my kids will like it!
It doesn’t have too much heat. But, feel free to pull back on the red pepper the first time you make it.
We enjoyed this Balsamic Shredded Beef tonight. I had a cheap cut of beef in the freezer and threw it in the crockpot this morning along with the other ingredients. It turned out sooooooo good. This recipe is a keeper!
Awesome! I’m making it tomorrow for my fam!
If I wanted to make this without honey so my almost one year old could enjoy it with us, should I substitute something else, or just leave out the honey?
I think the concern with honey for babies is that it might be contaminated in the bottle it comes in. Once it’s cooked (for 8 hours, no less), wouldn’t it be fine? You might Google to find out. But, if you want to substitute it, just add 1-2 tablespoons of brown sugar. That would be tasty.
Just found your site, these recipes look delicious! I think what Meredith meant was that honey has botulism toxins in it and is not safe for children under the age of 1.
“Don’t give your baby any honey before she’s a year old, even if it’s to treat a cough. This is because honey can, very occasionally, contain a spore of a bacterium called clostridium botulinum. This can cause a rare form of food poisoning (botulism) in babies.”
Yum yum yum! So easy and such a good twist on my basic slow cooker chicken! Would be so yummy on salads too.
Yum! We don’t eat a lot of beef in our house but I might have to make an exception and give this a try!