Winter is approaching and the weather is getting cooler. All you want, is a warm, hearty comforting meal. But that food isn’t going to cook itself. This is where slow cooker beef stroganoff comes in.
It is easy to prepare, simply delicious and the cooking comes with less hassle. No more worries about checking on the food as it cooks or so many pans or dishes to wash after. Nothing of the sort really.
This meal is a variation of the classic beef stroganoff. A hearty dish, this meal will definitely warm you up (especially during winter and the cold months) as well as go slow on your wallet.
Budget-wise, cooking beef stroganoff in a slow cooker is your best bet at coming up with a meal that tastes priceless while still being economical.
1. Beef stroganoff in a slow cooker recipe.
Procedure
- Begin by first browning the beef. To do this you’ll need to heat a fairly sized skillet.
- As the skillet heats up, season your beef using salt, pepper or garlic powder. You can use any other spice you may want to season the beef with.
- Once the skillet is well heated, add oil to the skillet. You can also melt butter on the skillet.
- Swirl the skillet, ensuring the oil spreads evenly in the skillet. Add the beef pieces or strips to the skillet and let it cook for about 7-10 minutes or until the beef is browned. As the beef browns, after 3 or 4 minutes, use a spoon to break up the beef pieces to ensure the beef browns completely through.
- You can add more oil if the beef starts to stick to the pan.
- Halfway before the beef is properly browned, sauté onion and garlic in the skillet. Add all-purpose flour about 7 tablespoons. You can however skip this, if you don’t want it to thicken further. You can sauté the onion and garlic in the same skillet as the one used to cook the beef, or you can use a different skillet altogether.
- Add beef stock to the mixture, ensuring you stir well.
- Let the food simmer.
- Transfer the beef mixture to a slow cooker.
- Let it cook for at least 5 hours on high heat, or 8 hours on low heat.
2. Creamy beef stroganoff slow cooker.
Your slow cooker beef stroganoff isn’t creamy enough?
This amazing recipe will turn your beef stroganoff from simply amazing to all kinds of delicious (and very creamy).
Procedure
- Start of by first greasing your slow cooker. Do this conservatively. You can use a little cooking spray or even coat with some oil.
- Season your beef with salt, pepper or Italian seasoning if you have some. Do this with moderation; at most a half teaspoon black pepper and maybe one teaspoon salt should do the trick.
- Put your beef/stew meat in the slow cooker.
- Add in the beef broth (preferably low sodium), garlic, Dijon mustard, the mushrooms and if you have some, Worcestershire sauce.
- Cover the slow cooker and let the food cook for 7-9 hours. The heat should be set low.
- 30 minutes before the food is properly cooked, take out about ½ a cup beef broth. Add cornstarch or all purpose flour to the broth.
- Stir well.
- Add sour cream and cream cheese to the slow cooker. Stir well.
- Add into the slow cooker the beef broth mixture as you stir in.
- Let the food cook for 30 more minutes as you stir frequently.
- You can add more salt or pepper to your desired taste.
If you like, you can also brown the beef pieces using a skillet before adding them to the slow cooker. This is best especially if you are using ground beef.
However, if precooking is not your thing or you just don’t have the time, you can easily use stew meat and have the same best results.
If you want to store the creamy beef stroganoff, put it in an airtight container before placing it in a refrigerator or freezer. Refrigerated, the food can be good for about 3 days, while in a freezer it can be stored for up to 3 months.
Can you cook deer meat? Read it here.
3. Slow cooker ground beef stroganoff.
An ambrosial meal definitely comes with quite a hefty price tag. However, that is not the case with this meal. It is very economical and easy to prepare.
Procedure.
- Start off by first seasoning your ground beef using salt, pepper and garlic powder if you like.
- Coat a fairly sized skillet in oil or using cooking spray.
- Add the beef to the skillet and brown it for about 7 minutes, breaking up the ground beef in the process.
- Remove the beef from the skillet and put it in the slow cooker.
- Add butter to the skillet. Turn the heat to medium.
- Sauté onions and mushrooms. Once the onions become tender add the minced garlic to the skillet. Let it cook for 2 more minutes. You can then transfer the onions and mushrooms to the slow cooker.
- In another bowl, mix 1 can condensed beef consommé, 1/3 a cup of all-purpose flour and 2 tablespoons tomato paste. Stir until the mixture is uniform.
- Add this mixture to the slow cooker.
- Cover the slow cooker and set the heat on low for 5-6 hours.
- Add sour cream to the slow cooker and stir. Cook for 30 more minutes.
If you don’t have onions, you can slice shallots and use them instead.
If you don’t like mushrooms, you can use any other condensed soup.
Conclusion.
And that sums it up for beef stroganoff in slow cooker recipes.
There are many other ways to cook beef stroganoff in a slow cooker. The best thing about recipes is, you are free to get creative. However much this article may be comprehensive, you can always shake up things a bit. Try your own angle, try some other spices. Who knows? You might just come up with a new amazing flavor.
Read my other article on how to cook stew meat.
