Chipotle Barbacoa Recipe, and Where the Cloves Claim Comes From
Every barbacoa recipe worth reading includes a quarter teaspoon of ground cloves, and several of them imply Chipotle uses it. Chipotle has never said that. What Chipotle does publish is more useful than the rumour: its barbacoa chilli paste is specified differently from its everyday adobo, with roasted cumin and cracked black pepper rather than the plain ground versions, and there is vinegar in it. Here is the recipe built on what is documented, with the cloves clearly labelled as the one thing that is not.
⬇️ Jump straight to the recipe
Chipotle lists its barbacoa as beef, water, a chilli paste of morita chilli, sunflower oil, garlic, roasted ground cumin, cracked black pepper and oregano, plus seasoning (spices, herbs), salt, vinegar and garlic. Braise beef chuck in that for 3 1/2 to 4 hours at 300F, shred it, and return it to its liquid. The famous ground cloves are a cook consensus, not a Chipotle statement.
- Roasted cumin and cracked pepper — Chipotle specifies both.
- Vinegar is on the list. Documented, unlike on the steak.
- The cloves claim is not Chipotle. It is a cook consensus.
- Beef chuck, seared first, braised for hours, then shredded.
- Return the shredded meat to its liquid. Non-negotiable.
- 530mg of sodium per 4 oz — the saltiest Chipotle protein.
Chipotle Published List
Chipotle menu says: responsibly raised beef. Braised for hours, then shredded. Its ingredient list says rather more.
| Order | Component | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beef | Chipotle states 89 per cent |
| 2 | Water | It is a braise, so this is the liquid |
| 3 | Chilli paste | Water, morita chilli, sunflower oil, garlic puree, roasted ground cumin, cracked black pepper, oregano |
| 4 | Seasoning (spices, herbs) | The unnamed part — see the cloves section |
| 5 | Salt | |
| 6 | Vinegar | Listed as an acidity regulator, buffered vinegar |
| 7 | Garlic puree | Again, separately from the paste |
Note what is absent: no tomato, no beer, no cinnamon, no sugar, no agave, no lime, no beef stock. Several established recipes include some or all of those.
Ingredients
The beef
- 3 lb (1.35 kg) boneless beef chuck, cut into 4 inch pieces
- 2 tsp fine salt
- 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
The braise
- 1/2 cup adobo paste, made with roasted ground cumin
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 3 bay leaves
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves (see the note – this one is not Chipotle)
Instructions
- Season and sear. Salt and pepper the beef. Sunflower oil in a heavy casserole over a high heat, and sear the pieces in batches, 4 to 5 minutes a side, until properly browned. Crowding the pan steams the meat instead, which costs you most of the flavour.
- Build the braise. Pour off any excess fat. Add the adobo paste, water, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves and cloves, and scrape the base of the pan to lift everything stuck to it.
- Braise at 300F / 150C for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Lid on, in the oven. The beef is ready when a fork twists through it with no resistance at all – not when it is merely tender.
- Rest it in its liquid, 20 minutes. Off the heat, lid on. Shredding straight away loses juice that the meat will otherwise pull back in.
- Shred with two forks. In the pot. Chipotle word is shredded, and the pieces should be irregular rather than uniform.
- Return the meat to its liquid. Strain the braising liquid if it looks fatty, then pour it back over the shredded beef. The meat should sit in liquid, not drain on a board. Every reliable version of this recipe agrees on that.
Recipe Notes
- Chipotle chilli paste for barbacoa is subtly different from its plain adobo: it specifies ROASTED ground cumin and CRACKED black pepper where the adobo says cumin powder and black pepper. Toast your cumin in a dry pan for a minute and crack the pepper coarsely.
- THE CLOVES ARE NOT A CHIPOTLE FACT. Four of the six most visible barbacoa recipes use a quarter teaspoon of ground cloves and it does taste right. Chipotle keeps an official ingredient page for cloves, so cloves are in its pantry – but Chipotle has never said cloves are in its barbacoa. Its list says only “seasoning (spices, herbs)”. We include it and label it.
- Vinegar IS on Chipotle barbacoa list, as an acidity regulator. So the acid is documented here even though it is not on the steak list.
- Chipotle says only “braised for hours”. It publishes no time, no temperature and no vessel.
- Better on day two. Keeps 4 days refrigerated and 3 months frozen, and it freezes better than any other protein here because it is already sitting in liquid.
Estimated Nutrition
Calculated estimate for one serving of this home recipe, not a Chipotle figure. It will shift with your brands, cuts and portioning.
As on every page in this silo: Chipotle publishes per-item ingredient lists on its UK site, because UK labelling law requires the disclosure. Its US site publishes no equivalent list, so UK and US formulations may differ.
The Paste Is Specified Differently
This is a small detail that tells you Chipotle is precise about its own documentation, and it is worth copying.
Chipotle plain adobo paste, the one behind its chicken and steak, lists cumin powder and black pepper. The chilli paste inside its barbacoa lists roasted ground cumin and cracked black pepper.
| Everyday adobo paste | Barbacoa chilli paste | |
|---|---|---|
| Cumin | Cumin powder | Roasted ground cumin |
| Black pepper | Black pepper | Cracked black pepper |
| Everything else | Water, morita chilli, sunflower oil, garlic puree, oregano — the same | |
Two practical changes follow:
- Toast your cumin. A minute in a dry pan over a medium heat, until it smells markedly stronger, then grind or use pre-ground. Roasted cumin is deeper and less dusty.
- Crack the pepper coarsely rather than using fine ground. In a four-hour braise, coarse pepper gives pockets of flavour instead of a uniform background.
Neither is dramatic on its own. Together they are the difference between a barbacoa that tastes generic and one that tastes specific.
Where the Cloves Claim Comes From
You will read that ground cloves are the secret to Chipotle barbacoa, often phrased as something most copycats skip. Here is the actual provenance, stated properly.
| Claim | Status |
|---|---|
| Ground cloves taste right in barbacoa | Well supported. Four of the six established recipes use it, consistently at 1/4 tsp |
| Cloves are a Chipotle ingredient | True. Chipotle keeps an official ingredient page for cloves |
| Chipotle barbacoa contains cloves | Never stated by Chipotle. Its list says only seasoning (spices, herbs) |
| Cloves are “the secret” | A blogger construction. Chipotle has never called anything a secret |
Chipotle also keeps an official ingredient page for juniper berries, which never appears on any published Chipotle list either — and which is widely attributed to its carnitas. The same reasoning applies there, and we handle it the same way.
Four Methods, All Timed
Published barbacoa recipes span from 60 minutes to 10 hours for essentially the same dish, and not one of them explains how those can both be right. They can, because the vessel changes everything. Here is the whole picture in one place.
| Method | Time | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Oven, 300F / 150C, covered | 3 1/2 to 4 hr | Our pick. Best balance — the liquid reduces and concentrates |
| Slow cooker, low | 8 to 10 hr | Very tender. Liquid does not reduce, so the sauce stays thin |
| Slow cooker, high | 5 to 6 hr | As above, faster |
| Pressure cooker, high | 60 min + natural release | Tender quickly. Flavour is noticeably flatter — less time for the chilli to develop |
| Stovetop, bare simmer | 3 hr | Works, but needs watching and the base can catch |
Whichever you use, sear the beef on the stove first. Every established recipe includes the sear and the single one that calls it optional is the weakest in the set. A slow cooker and a pressure cooker cannot brown meat, and browning is where a large part of the flavour of this dish comes from.
One honest note on the pressure cooker: it produces tender beef in an hour and it is a perfectly good weeknight route. It does not produce the same depth. Four hours is doing something an hour cannot.
Why It Goes Back in the Liquid
Every reliable version of this recipe shreds the beef and returns it to its cooking liquid, and it matters more here than for any other protein in this silo.
The reason is surface area. A whole piece of chuck has very little; shredded beef has an enormous amount. Left on a board, it dries out within minutes. Sitting in liquid, it reabsorbs seasoned juice and gelatin, and it keeps doing so as it cools.
This is also exactly how Chipotle holds it — in a pan, in its own liquid, through service. Which has a useful corollary: barbacoa is better on day two, and it is the one protein here where a made-ahead batch beats a fresh one. It also freezes better than the others, because it is already surrounded by liquid that protects it.
The Nutrition Numbers
| Per 4 oz, Chipotle published | Calories | Fat | Sodium | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 180 | 7 g | 310 mg | 32 g |
| Steak | 150 | 6 g | 330 mg | 21 g |
| Barbacoa | 170 | 7 g | 530 mg | 24 g |
| Carnitas | 210 | 12 g | 450 mg | 23 g |
| Sofritas | 150 | 10 g | 560 mg | 8 g |
Barbacoa is the saltiest protein on the Chipotle menu at 530mg per 4 oz — above carnitas, and well above chicken at 310mg. In a bowl with white rice at 350mg and fresh tomato salsa at 550mg, the salt adds up quickly. Our sodium guide has the whole picture.
Our version runs a little higher on calories and fat than Chipotle figure, which is what happens with home-trimmed chuck, and it comes out lower on sodium. Cut the salt to a teaspoon and a half if you want it lower still — a four-hour braise distributes salt very efficiently, so you need less than you would think.
Compare with the other proteins on our barbacoa explainer and meat options guide, and build the full thing with our bowl at home guide. All components are on the copycat recipes page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in Chipotle barbacoa?
Chipotle published list is beef at 89 per cent, water, a chilli paste made of water, morita chilli, sunflower oil, garlic puree, roasted ground cumin, cracked black pepper and oregano, then seasoning described only as spices and herbs, salt, an acidity regulator which is buffered vinegar, and more garlic puree. Its menu adds that the beef is responsibly raised, braised for hours, then shredded.
Does Chipotle barbacoa have cloves in it?
Chipotle has never said so. Cloves appear in four of the six most established barbacoa recipes, usually at a quarter teaspoon, and the flavour is convincing. Chipotle does maintain an official ingredient page for cloves, so cloves are somewhere in its pantry, and its barbacoa list includes an unnamed seasoning of spices and herbs that could contain them. But that is inference, not a Chipotle statement, and we label it that way.
What cut of beef is Chipotle barbacoa?
Chipotle does not publish the cut — its list says only beef. Boneless chuck is the right choice and it is what five of the six established recipes use: enough connective tissue to turn gelatinous over several hours, and enough marbling that it does not dry out. Brisket and beef shoulder also work. Lean cuts like round do not.
How long does Chipotle barbacoa take to cook?
Our oven method is three and a half to four hours at 300F, but the honest answer is that it depends entirely on the vessel, and published recipes span from 60 minutes in a pressure cooker to ten hours in a slow cooker. The table on this page gives all four timings. Chipotle itself says only that its beef is braised for hours.
Is Chipotle barbacoa spicy?
Moderately, and more than its other everyday proteins. The chilli paste is built on morita, which is a smoke-dried red jalapeno, and barbacoa carries more of it relative to the meat than the chicken or steak marinades do. It reads as deep and smoky with real warmth behind it rather than as sharp heat.
Why do you put shredded barbacoa back in the liquid?
Because that is what keeps it from drying out, and it is what Chipotle does. Shredded beef has enormously more surface area than whole pieces, so it loses moisture fast on a board. Returning it to the strained braising liquid lets it reabsorb seasoned juice, and it is the single biggest difference between barbacoa that tastes like the restaurant and barbacoa that tastes dry.
Can I make Chipotle barbacoa in a slow cooker?
Yes — eight to ten hours on low, or five to six on high, after searing the beef on the stove first. Do not skip the sear: every established recipe includes it and the one that calls it optional is the weakest of them. Searing is where the browned flavour comes from and a slow cooker cannot produce it.
How many calories are in Chipotle barbacoa?
Chipotle publishes 170 calories per 4 oz portion, with 7g of fat, 24 grams of protein and 530mg of sodium. That sodium figure is the highest of any Chipotle protein — above carnitas at 450mg and chicken at 310mg — which is worth knowing if you are watching salt rather than calories.
Methodology
The ingredient list on this page is Chipotle own, from its published ingredient statement, which lists ingredients in descending order of weight; it appears on Chipotle UK site as UK labelling law requires and the US site publishes no equivalent list. The menu description and nutrition figures are from Chipotle US nutrition facts menu. Chipotle has never published a recipe, a braising time, a temperature, a vessel or a cut for its barbacoa – its most specific public statement is the phrase braised for hours – so every quantity and time here is our own development work, informed by where established published recipes agree. The ground cloves are included on the strength of agreement between other cooks and are explicitly identified on the page as not being a Chipotle-stated ingredient, because Chipotle list names only seasoning (spices, herbs).
