Mexican Barbacoa In A Crock-Pot - - cooking recipe

Ingredients

4 lbs beef cheeks
1 large head garlic
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 oranges, the juice
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorn
salt, to taste
FOR SERVING
tortillas, Flour or corn
cilantro, chopped
lime, quartered
OPTIONAL
onion, finely diced
tomatoes, diced
iceberg lettuce, shredded
cheese, shredded (Cheddar or Jack)
salsa
hot sauce
chopped jalapeno pepper (if like them spicy)

Preparation

Rinse the cheeks and place them in a good size crock pot, discarding any chunks that are just fat.
Add garlic cloves, onion, bay leaves, oregano, black pepper, salt, and squeeze the orange juice from the two oranges over the meat.
Set the crock pot on high and cook for two hours, then stir the contents with a big spoon.
Stir every hour after that. In six hours it should be starting to fall apart.
Cook for an extra hour if needed and then remove from the crock pot to a large bowl with a slotted spoon, draining the meat from juices and removing the bay leaves and all the fat. (It retains too much fat.)
Shred the meat with two forks and serve on tacos with the tortillas and the extras.
The best is to place some meat on a warm tortilla, top with cilantro, squirt on some lime juice and hot salsa, sauce or chopped jalapeno, roll up and enjoy with some Charro Beans as a side. Mmmmmm -- it is so good.