Slow cooker carne picada is a delicious and easy way to make a fabulous weeknight meal. Juicy and tender diced beef slow cooked with roasted tomatoes and chili peppers. A tender and flavorful treat that can be served tons of ways.
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This delicious slow cooker recipe is easy, tasty, and flexible. Add it to your regular rotation and watch it quickly become one of your favorite weeknight meals.
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📃Shopping list
To make this easy recipe you will need:
- Stew meat - cut into 2-inch cubes
- Onion
- Diced tomatoes - canned
- Green chilies - canned, diced
- Flour - all purpose flour works here
- Ground cumin
- Paprika
- Garlic - powder
- Cotija cheese and fresh cilantro - for serving
- Non-stick spray
This recipe's longer cooking time makes it one of the best beef recipes for super busy days away from home. Whether you are working, driving kids, or golfing, have this delicious meal ready and waiting for your return!
This easy carne picada recipe is so versatile the whole family will love it. Use it for tacos, wraps, burrito bowls, and more. Just add your favorite topping and enjoy!
🔪How to make this carne picada beef recipe
Before starting your slow cooker carne picada recipe, spray your slow cooker with a non-stick spray. This will make clean-up much easier. Next, add meat cubes to the bottom of your slow cooker. Sprinkle flour, cumin, garlic, and paprika over the meat and stir until the beef is fully coated.
Add onions, tomatoes, and chili peppers into your slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for about 8 hours. Your beef is ready to serve when it is falling apart tender.
Top Tip
Your finished dish will have a stew-like consistency. If you want to reduce it a bit, cook with the lid of your slow cooker slightly ajar for the last hour or so.
🍽Serving suggestions
This is one of my favorite meals because it can be served in so many different ways. It is great served in a taco bowl with all of your favorite taco toppings.
It is similarly wonderful over a bed of white rice, in rice bowls, or wrapped in corn tortillas. Taco shells and burrito wraps are also great serving options. Crumbled cotija cheese, sour cream, and freshly chopped cilantro are among our favorite toppings. Refried beans and avocado salsa make great go-withs.
Serving your cooked meat "make-your-own style" is a fun, stress-free option. Tacos and burritos served this way make for super easy weeknight dinners. Bell peppers sliced into strips and caramelized onions are great additions.
Topping Mexican pizza with carne picada meat is also a great way to serve this recipe. Squeeze some fresh lime juice on top of your finished creation for some added zing.
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↔Substitutions
- This recipe works with different cuts of meat. Pre-cut stew meat is easiest. Chuck roast, flank steak, and skirt steak are also great options. I suggest going with whatever cut of beef makes the most sense economically.
- Looking to spice this dish up? Just use a can of hot diced green chilies. You can also add some black pepper and chili powder to the flour mixture at the beginning of cooking. Topping with diced, fresh jalapeno peppers is another perfect way to add some heat.
- Minced meat (finely chopped meat, not ground beef) also works well with this recipe.
Storing leftovers
Leftovers of this delicious beef can be refrigerated or frozen. It will last 3-4 days in the fridge and 3-4 months in the freezer. Store leftovers in an airtight container or zip-top gallon size freezer bag.
If you love this recipe...
Please let me know in the comment section below!
😉Hints & hacks
- Freezing leftovers in meal-sized portions makes for easy subsequent reheat-and-eat meals
- I always recommend the use of a slow cooker liner. Of course, this is an optional step. I like to purchase my liners in bulk for a less expensive per-piece price.
- In the market for a new slow cooker? I love mine!
- Always double check to make sure your slow cooker is on and plugged in!!! There is nothing worse than coming home to a slow cooker that was never properly turned on!
❓Frequently asked questions
Carne picada is cut-up beef cooked in liquid. Carne asada is a whole piece of beef cooked on a grill.
Confirm that beef is fully cooked using a meat thermometer. Place thermometer deep into the largest chunk of beef to take the internal temperature of the carne picada. Once it reaches 145°F, beef is safe to eat.
A stew like appearance after cooking is just right! If you plan to serve this dish over rice or the like, the cooking sauce will be deliciously soaked up. To serve in tacos or other dishes requiring less sauce use a slotted spoon to remove meat. 
📖 Recipe
Slow Cooker Carne Picada
All nutrition information shown here is automatically generated and should be considered an estimate. If you follow a specific diet, please calculate your own values to ensure accuracy.
Equipment
- Mixing Spoon
Ingredients
- 2 lbs stew meat
- 2 14 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 7 oz can diced chili peppers mild or spicy depending on your preference
- ¼ cup flour
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- cotija cheese, lime, fresh cilantro optional for serving
- non-stick cooking spray
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- spray slow cooker with a non-stick spray or add in a slow cooker linernon-stick cooking spray
- place beef into bottom of slow cooker2 lbs stew meat
- add in all dry ingredients and toss to fully coat beef¼ cup flour, ½ teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon paprika
- add in all remaining ingredients and cover2 14 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes, 1 cup onion, 7 oz can diced chili peppers
- cook on low for 6-8 hours
- once fully cooked, stir and taste. salt and pepper to taste. top as desiredcotija cheese, lime, fresh cilantro, salt and pepper to taste
- serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
All nutrition information shown here is automatically generated and should be considered an estimate. If you follow a specific diet, please calculate your own values to ensure accuracy.
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Doug says
Susan, This looks so good and my wife and I are planning on making this this next week. We are intrigued with your taco bowl you used in the photo shoot. We know it’s a corn tortilla but what did you use or how did you make it. We have looked everywhere for commercial made bowls. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. Sincerely Doug Blu
The Lazy Slow Cooker says
Hi Doug,
I wish I could take credit for the bowl. I just bought it premade at my local grocery store (I am the LAZY slow cooker for a reason 😉)! Here is an Amazon affiliate link to the brand I buy https://amzn.to/3eJ8vQf (they are sold in bulk on Amazon, though, so it may be more than you need and they are a little more expensive than they are in my market. If you want to make them yourself, Amazon also sells tortilla bowl pans: https://amzn.to/3eMHdYU
I would love to hear how it turns out. Hope you enjoy the recipe!!
Susan
Eliza Cross says
A fantastic recipe! We made this with Hatch green chiles and it was to die for. Used the leftovers for nachos the next day and they were amazing, too!
The Lazy Slow Cooker says
Hi Eliza! Thank you so much for sharing this! What a great idea to use the leftovers for nachos!
Susan
Kelly says
I didn't know how best to cook my non-cubed "Aldi beef for Carne Picada" so I was looking up recipes this morning.
I'm so glad I found this! Spice measurements were spot on and great tip about using the flour!
Came out so flavorful and tender for our soft tacos.
The Lazy Slow Cooker says
Hi Kelly, I am so glad to hear that it came out great. Thank you so much for sharing!!
Kayla says
could you cook on high for 3-4 hours instead of low for 6-8?
The Lazy Slow Cooker says
Yes! You can.
Jennifer says
It would be helpful to add in the recipe to drain the cans of tomatoes and chilis, when using cans. All the liquid in ours did not cook off and we were left with a giant cooker of stew-like substance that could not be used for taco meat (like we had hoped) and did not look like your pictures. An expensive mistake on our part and easily rectified for more beginner readers (if this is something we should have known to do).
The Lazy Slow Cooker says
Hi Jennifer, I do not drain the tomatoes or the chilis when cooking this dish. The extra liquid adds flavor during the cooking process and helps to keep the meat moist and tender. When I use the beef from this recipe in tacos or the like, I remove it from the slow cooker with a slotted spoon. The remaining sauce is delicious served over rice. Thank you for pointing out that you felt these instructions weren't clear. I will add some information in the write-up to address this.