Tag Archives: beef

Crock Pot BBQ Beef Sliders

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Sometimes, you just want wee sandwiches filled with shredded meat. I can’t say why; I just know that it IS a thing that sometimes people, like me, just WANT AND NEED TO HAVE RIGHT NAO.

And thus, when I was planning for a fellow crock potter to come over for dinner, I figured that I’d throw stuff in the crock in her honor. She wasn’t able to make it to dinner after all, but we managed to get through dinner anyway. The biggest challenge: not going back for seconds. And thirds.

This one is easy as all-get out, since it doesn’t require either A) a ton of ingredients, or B) a ton of time to prepare. Easy crocks are always full of win, in my book, and when they’re tasty, that’s serious bonus time. I will say that this sauce comes out a bit tangy, so we used potato dinner rolls as the slider buns. This ended up being a perfect combination, since the tang of the sauce was a natural accompaniment for the sweetness of the roll (and vice versa).

Crock Pot BBQ Beef Sliders

So very tasty…

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 8-12hrs on LOW, 4-6hrs on HIGH

Serves: 6

Ingredients

two 8oz cans of tomato sauce (or one 15oz can)

3 Tb honey

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 Tb Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tsp ground mustard

1-3/4 to 2lbs top round steak

12 potato dinner rolls or (sweet) slider buns

Make it Happen

1. Place the first six items in a bowl and stir well.

2. Coat the inside of a 4qt crock pot with non-stick cooking spray. Spoon a small amount of the mixture from the bowl into the bottom of the crock and swirl it around to create a thin coat.

3. Cut the steak, as needed, to make it fit in the crock. (I had to cut mine into thirds.) If you have multiple pieces and they can’t all fit side-by-side, place one layer of steak in the crock, then cover it with some of the sauce mixture, then add another layer of steak and repeat this process until all steak and sauce is in the crock pot.

4. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-12hrs or HIGH for 4-6hrs.

5. Remove the steak from the crock and shred the meat with two forks. Put the shredded beef back in the crock and stir it back into the sauce to combine them well.

6. Spoon your desired serving onto a potato dinner roll or other slider bun. One serving = 2 sliders.

Crock Pot Cheesy Beefy Chili

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Sometimes, you want the same old comfort food…but not quite the same. With that in mind, I present a twist on a recipe I posted previously: Cheesy Chicken Chili. This redo came out of dh’s desire for some BEEF UP IN THIS JOINT, which made for a rare “beef twice in one week” for me. I’m not anti-beef, but I just don’t eat a ton of it. I could give up red meat entirely and not mind, but chicken and fish…well, that’s a whole other story.

Anyhoo…dh wanted beef, and I wanted something that was in the “stick to your ribs” category, so I suggested that we take Ye Olde Cheesy Chicken Chili recipe and beefify it. The good news is that it worked brilliantly. It had a nice flavor, the beef was insanely easy to shred (far easier than the chicken breasts, as a matter of fact), and it’s one of those recipes that takes no time to set up and no time to deal with. This is ALWAYS a win in my book, since I’m a big believer in not getting so fancypants with the crock pot recipes that you essentially nullify the convenience of using it during the work-week.

Do you have to use the specific beans I list below? Nope. The issue is that the great northern beans from the chicken recipe won’t stand up to the beef, so you need beans with a little more oomph and flavor of their own. You may also be able to dial back the salsa a little, but I wouldn’t go less than about 16-20oz of salsa. Given the heft of this particular meal, it can go fine in a bowl of its own, or it can go on a plate (as seen below), with chips, a soft tortilla, rice or whatever you choose to use as an accompaniment. Also note that I didn’t add the corn that’s used in the original chicken recipe, either; it seemed like that would get completely lost with the beef, so I put the corn on the side (in this case, it’s Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Scene).

 

Cheesy Beefy Chili

It’s beeftastic!

 

Prep: 5 mins

Cooking Time: 8-10 hrs on LOW or 4-5hrs on HIGH, plus 20 mins on HIGH

Serves: 6-8

 

Ingredients

1-1/2 lbs top round steak (or other boneless beef that’s not just a complete layer of fat)

24 oz salsa

15 oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

15 oz can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

8 oz shredded cheddar (or cheddar/jack) cheese

 

Make it Happen

1. Spray the inside of a 4qt crock pot with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Add a small amount of salsa to the pot, to coat the bottom, then add the steak and the remainder of the salsa.

3. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10hrs or on HIGH for 4-5hrs.

4. When the initial cooking time is up, remove the beef from the pot and place on a plate for shredding.

5. Add the drained and rinsed beans to the crock pot, then stir well to combine. Re-cover the crock while you shred the beef with two forks.

6. Add the shredded beef and the cheese to the crock pot, then stir well to combine.

7. Cover and cook on HIGH for 20 mins, then serve!

Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff

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This is a really simple and fairly saucy dish that takes virtually no prep time and makes for a great winter meal. I’ve seen other stroganoff recipes before, but most of them are heavy on the beef. A trick I learned from being on Weight Watchers years ago is to substitute mushrooms for beef, for example: having a portobello mushroom on a burger bun instead of a beef (or even turkey) burger. I also like mushrooms in my stroganoff, so I laugh LOUDLY AND HEARTILY at the recipes that suggest a simple 4oz can of mushroom stems and caps. Really, folks?

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of this before it left the dinner table, so this is actually a shot of what went into the fridge. Depending upon how hungry you are, this can serve six people easily enough; we get two nights of meals out of this dish, sometimes with a little to spare. This is a fairly saucy one, but since we serve it over butter noodles (or occasionally with rice), the sauce finds a home. You could even try a crusty bread as a side, to help sop up some of the extra sauce. Save yourself on the prep time by buying washed and sliced mushrooms in your produce section (or by prepping them the night before and just shoving them in the fridge). We also buy our stew beef already cubed; again, it saves time. The beef costs the same whether whole or pre-cut; the mushrooms tend to be a little more expensive if pre-sliced/washed, but I’m willing to pay that price to save on the time of doing it myself. Some call it lazy; I consider it being efficient and knowing when to outsource.

 

Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff

Just because it's out of focus doesn't mean it's not delicious!

 

Prep Time: 5 mins before cooking; 5 mins before serving

Cooking Time: 8-10 hrs on LOW

Serves: 4-6

 

Ingredients

2 cans golden mushroom soup

1-1/2 lbs stew beef, cubed

1-1/2 lbs white mushrooms, washed and sliced

8oz french onion sour cream dip

 

Make it Happen

1. Coat the inside of a 4qt crock pot with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Add the soup, beef and mushrooms to the crock pot; stir well to combine.

3. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10hrs.

4. When the cook time is over, turn off the crock pot. Add the dip and stir well to combine before serving.