Slow Cooker Carne Asada - Review

So last night I made the "Slow Cooker Carne Asada" from $5 Dollar Dinners. The reviews were favorable and I'm always fond of slow cooked beef and especially of carne asade.

The results were mixed. The beef was perfect especially if you're a pot roast fan.  I picked up 1 1/2lbs of thin inexpensive flank steak, slathered it with the recipe's paste and dropped it in the crockpot on low for about 10 hours. The meat was perfect. Super tender, all the fat rendered down. I shredded it and made this delightful pile of slow-roasted beef. I couldn't stop drooling.

I served the meat with some shredded fontina cheese, arugula, and a dollop of yogurt in a soft taco. Not bad, the yogurt was a great touch, the classier fontina could just as easily been montery jack.

Carne Asada, it ain't. It missed the zing that I associate with the lime-y sauce I put on my seared steak.  Although the original paste included a jalepeno hot enough to burn my skin, the resulting meat was quite mild.  It needed citrus and vinegar.

Next Time: It was so incredibly easy and inexpensive to cook this traditionally tough cut of meat. I would absolutely do this again in a crock pot. But I would probably use a different sauce, maybe adapt one of my favorite carne asada recipes, Tyler Florence's Mojo Marinade.

Mojo:
4 garlic cloves
minced 1 jalapeno
minced 1 large handful fresh cilantro leaves
finely chopped Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 limes, juiced
1 orange, juiced
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil