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This Slow Cooker Carne Asada is the perfect set it and forget it meal. It’s made with juicy steak, cooked low and slow in a flavorful marinade. Serve in tacos or burritos, on nachos, over salad, you name it!
Easy Crockpot Carne Asada
The slow cooker is my favorite kitchen tool. I mean, there really is no better way to cook than just tossing a bunch of ingredients in a slow cooker, then forgetting about it.
This Slow Cooker Carne Asada is one I will be making forever and ever. It’s perfect for weekly meal prep or for easy dinners or lunches when you don’t want to mess around with hands-on cooking.
Not to mention the fact that it’s deliciously juicy, loaded with tons of flavor, and can be served in a million different ways.
What is Carne Asada?
Carne asada aka “grilled beef” is a traditional Mexican dish that’s made with marinated steak that’s cooked at high heat on a grill. It’s typically sliced into thin pieces, then served as part of a main dish!
Since this carne asada is made in the slow cooker, it’s not technically prepared in the traditional way. But it does have the same delicious flavor and it sure is delicious!
Ingredients Needed
- Sauce: Our flavorful marinade/sauce is made with a combination of olive oil, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, orange and lime juice, fish sauce, garlic, cilantro, cumin, paprika, and salt.
- Steak: I use flank steak, but you could also use chuck or skirt steak if that’s what you have available to you.
How to Make Carne Asada
This crockpot carne asada recipe really is so simple! Just a couple steps of prep, then it all goes in the slow cooker!
- Make the marinade: Place all of the ingredients except the steak into your blender. Blend until smooth.
- Sear the meat: In a skillet over medium heat, sear the meat on both sides.
- Combine and cook: Place to seared meat into the slow cooker, pour the sauce on top, then cook on low for 8 hours. Once cooked, shred and serve as desired.
What Meat is Carne Asada?
Carne asada is beef—most commonly, steak.
For this slow cooker recipe, I like to use flank steak. It’s a tougher cut of beef, which responds really well to the low and slow cooking process of the crockpot!
Can You Put Marinated Meat in a Slow Cooker?
You can, but it isn’t necessary. The meat and marinade in this recipe are added to the slow cooker at the same time.
The long, slow cooking time gives the meat plenty of time to marinate while it cooks. It gets deliciously juicy, tender, and flavorful—no pre-marinating needed!
How to Make Meat Tender in the Slow Cooker?
The key to making the meat extra tender in the slow cooker is to cook it on low. While cooking it on high is also sufficient, the longer, slower cooking time with lower heat creates the most tender texture!
In this recipe…
KitchenAid ® 6-Qt. Slow Cooker
Easy-read LCD display lets you choose from low, medium, high and warm settings and program up to 24 hours in 30-minute increments.
Serving Suggestions
There are tons of delicious and creative ways you can enjoy this carne asada. Here are a few ideas:
- Over a salad. Try it instead of the ground beef in my homemade taco salad.
- On nachos. Layer it over a big platter of loaded nachos.
- In tacos, burritos, or taquitos. Keep it light with lettuce leaf tacos, use it in baked beef taquitos, or scoop it into corn tortillas loaded up with rice, cotija cheese, Pickled Onions, and Coleslaw, with a scoop of fresh avocado and corn salsa, Homemade Guacamole, or Quick Restaurant-Style Salsa.
- And, of course, you can’t go wrong with a side of Mexican rice and homemade refried beans.
How to Store
Leftover carne asada can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
To enjoy again, thaw the meat in the fridge if frozen, then warm in the oven, in a pan with a splash of broth, or in the microwave.
More Slow Cooker Recipes:
- Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
- Classic Chicken Soup
- Beef Barbacoa Recipe
- Pork Carnitas
- Slow Cooker Short Ribs
- Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken
Watch the Video:
Slow Cooker Carne Asada
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce see note
- 2 oranges juiced, about 1/2 cup
- 1 lime juiced
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 pounds flank steak or steak/beef of choice
Instructions
- Place all ingredients aside from the steak into your blender and blend until smooth.
- In a skillet over medium heat, sear the meat on both sides then place into the insert of your slow cooker.
- Pour the blended sauce mixture over the meat and set on low for 8 hours.
- Shred with two forks and serve over a salad, on top of nachos, or in lettuce leaf tacos.
Do you use 1 can or 2 cans of the chillies in abobo sauce ?
What is the net carbs on this recipe?
Hi Amanda! We’re working on getting nutritional information for our recipes, but in the meantime plugging this in to myfitnesspal or other nutritional counter will work!
I made this today with a flank steak, and it was simple and wonderful. Making lettuce tacos with guacamole. Couldn’t be simpler!
I made this AAAAAGAIN! This time Manual 12 minutes in my Instant Pot!!!
Hi Lexi,
I was also wanting to know the serving size for this? I’m putting everything in, to get the nutritional values, but need to know servings, if possible 🙂
About how many servings is in this recipe?
Do you happen to know the nutritional. Information on this dish?
Hi Lexi,
I’ve never used chipolte peppers in a abodo sauce before. It it super spicy? I just want to make sure it won’t be too spicy for my kids to eat too, thanks!
It is a little! Use less, and scrape out seeds!
This was excellent! Even my picky eater toddler ate it! This is going in the weekly rotation!
I made this today, but converted it for the Instant Pot. (20 mins with Natural release). My family LOVED it, including my husband who is not a fan of shredded beef dishes. I had hoped for leftovers to freeze for a second meal. Unfortunately, there were none.
I made this today and it was fantastic. My boyfriend’s comment sums it up pretty well: “Omg this is the best thing ever.” We served it over white rice, with tomatillo salsa and diced avocado.
I also wanted to say that I love your blog and appreciate SO MUCH that you have so many fabulous dairy-free recipes. Everything I’ve made of yours has been excellent but this carne asada really takes the cake!
Another HIT! Made lettuce wraps with the meat! AH-MAAAAAAAZING!!!!! Thank you, ma’am!
This is the answer to all of my crockpot dreams. It’s delicious!
Delicious! Made it for Super Bowl Sunday… And pretty much devoured the whole thing. Just ordered your cookbook too! I cannot wait until it’s delivered! Thank you for the tasty recipes!
So glad!!
This look stood, am trying it this week!
I will say, that this would technically be called machaca, since its shredded beef. Carne is grilled steak cut into cubes :). I live in the southwest and eat machaca and carne asada very very often because they are both so delicious!!!
Hi. Just finished making this recipe and I’m not sure that went according to plan. I have a multi-cooker with a slow cooker option and I think it doesnt heat up enough. It is not the first time it happens, but I had to leave it on 24 hours for the meat to become tender and similar to yours. Also, mine has considerably more liquid than your pictures. Never had carne asada before but it tastes a bit bitter, like it marinated in grapefruit instead of orange. Any ideas what went wrong? Followed the recipe to the letter otherwise…
That’s so odd. I want to say it’s probably your machine. Is it old? I’ve never heard of someone not having success with this recipe!
Is the fish sauce vital? where do you get it?
Any supermarket or online. I linked to it! You can omit!
Would you recommend doing this on high in a time crunch?
Sure! 4 hours on high.
Just came back to tell you I made this today…YUMMERS! Kiddo liked it too!
I’m so glad!!!
I LOVE slow cooker Sundays! I use mine weekly, and it’s especially nice in the summer to not turn the oven on and heat up the house. I can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
YAY!!! 🙂