Addicted to Pot Roast Taco's.....

Apologies for the "yellowish" pictures.  We were cooking at night with zero natural light.

My friend Deanna and I love to cook together.  She is addicted to yummy foodilicious recipes like me.  We are especially fond of the recipes most people shy away from due to a million steps or ingredients.  This recipe is NOT one of those.  This is closer to a "throw it in a pot and ignore it for a couple hours" sort of recipe and let me tell you....You will not be cooking again for a couple days because the left overs are better and better the longer they sit in the fridge (if you don't eat it all in one sitting!)

The recipe is an adaptation of Tyler Florence's Mexican Pot Roast Taco's or his Rock-n-Roll Taco's...pending on where you are looking.  The one thing we did notice is all of the recipes (based on where you are looking) are slightly different.  They all have one thing "wrong."  He never mentions reducing the sauciness after simmering...If you did not do this, you would be serving soup.  So, our adaptation begins....

Pot Roast Taco's
Adapted from Tyler Florence's Mexican Pot Roast Taco's because everywhere you look there is different ingredient measurements.

2 pounds beef shoulder or chuck roast (we used Chuck roast because it was all they had)
Salt/Pepper
Evoo
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 large onion, sliced (not too thin)
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes- we used diced tomatoes (recommended: San Marzano)
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1 T cayenne (we used 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes but it definitely needed more)
1 T ground cumin
1 bunch of cilantro, divided in half.
water
2 T red wine vinegar

Salt and Pepper both sides of your roast/shoulder.  Heat 2-3 T of EVOO in the bottom of a heavy pot or dutch oven until shimmering.  Add roast/shoulder browning all sides well.  Add onion and scoot meat around so that it picks up some of the color (aka caramelizes.)  Add garlic and do the same (be careful not to burn garlic- it will get very bitter in flavor.)

Add can of tomatoes (with all juice), cayenne, cumin and cilantro. Do your best to stir it up a bit.  Add water to the pot, just enough to cover the roast.  Bring to a boil.  Cover with lid and turn heat down to low (or whatever your stove needs to be on to maintain a simmer) and simmer for 2 - 2.5 hours until meat falls apart when poked with a fork.

Add enough water to just cover roast

Reduced for approx. 30-40 min

Once meat is at the falling apart stage. Remove cover, add 2 T of vinegar and turn heat up to a slight boil to reduce the sauce.  This will also allow time for the meat to flake apart so you do not need to remove it and pull apart separately.   This will take approx. 30 min- 45 min (time depends on a lot of factors, heaviness of pan, how much water originally put in, how close to 2 lbs your roast actually is, whether your cover fit properly or if some water was able to cook off during roasting, etc....) Once it looks thick and yummy enough to put into a taco shell...DO SO IMMEDIATELY!! hahaha this is SO good! Add your favorite taco toppings and Enjoy.