Texas Slow Cooker Beef Shoulder Roast

Slow cooker beef shoulder roast is the perfect option for pulled beef to make tacos, sandwiches, loaded fries or mac ‘n’ cheese, and more. Shoulder roast is a bit leaner than chuck roast but still works great for slow cooking and shredding.

With only five ingredients, this is one of the easier slow cooker pulled beef recipes you’ll come across. I’ve also included my favorite ways to serve it in the post below. But let’s take a look at how to make it first.

How to Make Beef Shoulder Roast in a Slow Cooker

To make this Texas-style pulled beef, you’ll need beef fajita seasoning, ranch seasoning, pickled jalapeño peppers, and a large white onion. You can also add some butter or beef tallow, but that’s optional.

You’ll also need a beef shoulder roast or chuck roast. If you’re looking for even leaner options, go for eye of round or bottom round roast. My low fat pot roast and barbacoa beef both use these to make surprisingly moist and tender shredded beef with very little fat.

I’ve also used big, two-pound top round steaks to make a slow cooker beef enchilada casserole if you want to check out another alternative.

For the beef fajita seasoning, I used the same H-E-B blend from my Mexican shredded beef and grilled beef fajitas recipes. It includes a meat tenderizer in addition to salt and spices. So if you’re using another seasoning, look for something similar on the ingredient list.

The seasoned beef goes in the slow cooker on top of a bed of sliced white onion. The onion and beef shoulder roast will release enough liquid and fat during slow cooking to prevent the need for any additional broth or cooking liquid.

Top everything off with some Hidden Valley ranch seasoning (or homemade ranch seasoning) and pickled jalapeño peppers before covering and slow cooking for eight to ten hours. I like to add some small slices of butter for good measure, but the beef turns out just fine without it.

The beef should be fall apart tender when you remove it to shred. Check out the video from my chuck roast tacos recipe for a visual example.

Once the beef is pulled, I like to let it hang out with the onions and remaining juices for about 30 minutes before serving. The slow cooked beef shoulder roast will absorb most of the juices while resting.

You can also add brightness to the dish at this point with some fresh herbs and acidity via lime juice or your favorite vinegar. Though if you plan to serve this in a variety of ways, it might be best to play it safe with added flavors.

Ways to Serve Texas Pulled Beef

This easiest solution is to toss your slow cooker shoulder roast in some tortillas for awesome pulled beef tacos. It also makes great enchiladas, burritos, taquitos, and just about any other Tex-Mex and Mexican dishes you can think of.

With the onion-heavy flavor of this pulled beef, it also works great for dishes like beefy mac and cheese, loaded fries or baked potatoes, sandwiches, and other meat-filled dishes.

Check out my BBQ chicken mac and cheese and cheeseburger fries recipes to learn how to make high protein mac and cheese or loaded baked/air fried fries with this slow cooked shoulder roast.

It’s hard to go wrong! I’m curious to see how you put your slow cooker beef shoulder roast to use. Let me know in a comment or recipe review below.