Warm flour tortillas filled with tender slow cooker shredded beef and finished off with your favorite toppings. These green chili burritos are delicious, easy, and perfect for a weeknight dinner for busy families!
Table of Contents
Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Burritos
These green chili beef burritos are one of the easiest slow cooker recipes that I’ve tried. The shredded beef cooks low and slow all day and is ready to quickly assemble right before dinner. It’s the perfect meal to reach for when you have a busy day ahead.
Not only is the meat super tender like my beef barbacoa, but it has amazing flavor from the salsa verde, green chiles, and spices. It basically shreds itself and then goes back into the juices to soak up the flavor even more.
Then you’ll add the meat to a warm flour tortilla and fold it up into a burrito. Add some melted cheese or any of your other favorite toppings like lettuce, pico de Gallo, or sour cream. Serve with a side of cilantro lime rice or fajita veggies for the ultimate Mexican meal!
Easy Green Chili Burritos Ingredients
This is the best burrito recipe! It is filled with fresh ingredients, and marbled meat with all the flavor. Season the beef, place it in the slow cooker, and let the slow cooker do all the work! It is that simple!
Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements below.
- Chuck roast: This is a tender and juicy type of meat that is cut perfectly giving it that beautiful marbling.
- Onion: Slice and chop the onions into small pieces to be softened and add flavor.
- Salsa Verde: Make your own homemade salsa verde or buy your favorite kind.
- Green chiles: Grab your favorite brand and simply dump the chiles into the slow cooker over top of the meat.
- Cumin: An earthy seasoning that is fresh, rich, and full of citrusy flavors blended together.
- Tortillas: Homemade tortillas are delicious or save time and find medium-sized flour tortillas.
How to Make Classic Green Chili Burritos
Prepare the meat and place it in the slow cooker. Cook the meat, then shred it into small pieces. It is that simple! Get ready to have your home smelling an overwhelming amount of deliciousness throughout the house. Your tastebuds will be craving these green chili burritos!
- Prepare. Place the roast in the slow cooker and add the onion, salsa verde, green chiles, and cumin over top. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top (I used about 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper).
- Cook. Place the lid on top of the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.
- Shred. Remove any excess fat and about 1 cup of liquid. Once it is done cooking (you know it’s done when it falls apart easily), remove the meat and shred it with two forks. Then add the meat back into the crockpot and mix together. Add more salsa verde or green chiles if desired.
- Dinner time. Serve warm on tortillas with your favorite toppings.
Substitutions
Make your burrito just the way you like it with these tips, substitutions, or ideas on how to make the perfect green chili burrito! These options are just the beginning of making green chili burritos even easier. Change meat, how to cook, or adding in some spice are all great options, to begin with!
- Meat opinions. Swap the beef with a pork roast if you’d like. Both turn out super tender and delicious.
- Cooking process. For a quicker alternative, make Instant Pot shredded beef instead of using the slow cooker.
- Substitute. Instead of salsa verde, use green chile sauce.
- Spicy. Mix in some chopped jalapenos or chili powder if you like heat.
- Lighter. Swap the tortillas for lettuce wraps to keep them low-carb.
- Seasoning. For more flavor, you can always add a sprinkle of taco seasoning or fajita seasoning.
Burrito Toppings
Whether it’s more salsa verde, a spoonful of sour cream, or a sprinkle of shredded cheese, there are plenty of delicious toppings to pile onto these green chili burritos!
- Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Shredded cheese
- Cilantro lime crema
- Sour cream
- Cilantro
- Pico de gallo
- Sliced avocado or guacamole
Recipe FAQs
When making green chile is a combination of roasted hatch chiles, jalapenos, shredded pork or beef, chicken broth, onions, cumin, tomatoes, and flour to thicken. This recipe doesn’t include all the traditional ingredients since it is cooked in a crockpot. It still has the same rich flavoring and sweet and spicy tender meat!
Burrito means “little donkey” in Spanish. It is said that a burrito is stuffed full and layered with toppings carrying and holding several burdens compared to a donkey that can hold and carry large things as well.
Yes, you’ll want to make sure to add 1 extra cup of water or beef broth. Switch Instant Pot to high and cook for 65 minutes. If the meat is not completely thawed, add an additional 20 minutes. Make sure the vent is in a sealed position. Then do a natural release for 10 minutes.
Repurposing Leftovers
This recipe makes a lot, so we usually always have leftovers to use for lunch or dinner the next day. Any of the below recipes are great ways to easily transform the meat into a totally new dish!
5 star review
“It’s been too hot to turn on the oven so I was thrilled to find this delicious recipe. Easy to make and the family LOVED it!!”
-Liz
Freezing the Green Chili Burrito
This shredded beef also freezes wonderfully and makes an easy freezer meal to pull out on a busy weeknight. Once it has cooled down, place the meat in a freezer bag and squeeze out any excess air. Then place in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and reheat in the slow cooker on the low setting until warm. You may also reheat it in a pan on the stove over low heat.
More Easy Mexican Dinners
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Green Chili Burritos
Video
Ingredients
- 3 pound beef chuck roast , can also use pork
- 3/4 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup salsa verde , more if desired
- 4 ounce can chopped green chiles
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- salt and pepper
- 8 tortillas , for serving
Optional toppings: shredded lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheese, sour cream, cilantro
Instructions
- Place the roast in the slow cooker and add the onion, salsa verde, green chiles and cumin over top. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top (I used about 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper).
- Place lid on top of slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.
- Remove any excess fat and about 1 cup liquid. Once it is done cooking (you know it's done when it falls apart easily), remove the meat and shred with two forks. Then add meat back into the crockpot and mix together. Add more salsa verde or green chiles if desired.
- Serve warm on tortillas with your favorite toppings.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Categorized as: Beef, Cinco De Mayo, Crockpot, Crockpot, Dairy-Free, Dinner, Freezer-Friendly, Freezer-Friendly, Instant Pot, Instant Pot, Mexican, Nut-Free, One Pot, One Pot
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
This may be a silly question, but what type of onion works best so that it compliments the dish? Yellow? I plan to try this on Friday! Thank you!
I prefer to use yellow onions (white will work too).
Excellent! My family loved this recipe!
Thanks Sherry! I’m so happy you and your family loved the burritos!
This was so delicious! Easy to throw together, the hardest part was waiting for the beef to finish cooking! Everybody loved it, we’re having leftovers again for dinner tonight.
These are seriously the best!! We make them often! I love that they are so easy to make, too!!
holy cow these burritos are amazing! I cannot thank you enough for sharing this recipe
Can this be made in the Instapot?
Yes, you’ll want to make sure to add 1 extra cup of water or beef broth. Switch Instant Pot to high and cook for 65 minutes. If the meat is not completely thawed, add an additional 20 minutes. Make sure the vent is on the sealed position. Then do a natural release for 10 minutes.
Can this be made in a instapot/pressure cooker?
Yes, I added the instructions to the notes :)