Slow Cooker Steak with Gravy - Recipes That Crock! (2024)

FAQs

What is the best steak for a slow cooker? ›

Yes, you can add raw steak to a slow cooker to cook it to your desired doneness level. Slow cooking steak is a convenient way to cook steak over several hours, tenderizing it and adding exceptional flavor along the way.

It is possible to overcook beef stew in a slow cooker. If you cook it on high for too long, the beef can become tough and dry.

Chuck steak was practically designed for slow cooking. It comes from the shoulder and upper arm of the cow, so it's done a lot of work over the life of the animal — with its abundant collagen, it's the type of cut that gets tough when grilled quickly, but becomes tender and juicier the longer you cook it.

A beef joint in a crock-pot also needs about a ½ cup of liquid – beef broth is usually an excellent choice – to keep it tender and flavorful as it cooks. Place it on the lowest setting and only open it to add a small amount of liquid, if needed, and to stir your veggies.

Cut down your prep time

It can be nice to cook the onions beforehand, as the flavour is different to when you put them in raw, but experiment both ways as you may find you prefer one. It can also be good to brown meat to give it some colour, but again, this is not essential.

If you cook meat at too high of a temperature in your slow cooker, you're likely to overcook it. When you cook your food slowly at a lower temperature, you unlock the magic of slow cooking.

The most likely cause of this is overcooking. As meat cooks, its muscle fibers shorten in both length and width and eventually squeeze out the juices they normally hold. As you can imagine, this leaves meat dry, and often stringy in texture. To avoid this problem, choose less-tender cuts of meat.

Should I Flip My Roast In The Slow Cooker?: There is no need to flip meat in a crock pot. In fact, I don't recommend trying it because it will be more hassle than it's worth.

The meat was overcooked: Slow cookers are known for their ability to tenderize meat, but if the meat is cooked for too long, it can become overcooked and tough. It's important to follow the recommended cooking time for your recipe to ensure that the meat is cooked to the correct doneness.

Is 4 hours on high the same as 8 hours on low? ›

A general rule of thumb from Luis Sanchez, senior category manager for the appliance manufacturer Breville: To go from "High" to "Low" (or vice versa), multiply (or divide) the original time by 1.5 to 2.5 hours. And as with the cooking times for specific ingredients, these times are approximate.

Gravy beef is a relatively lean cut of meat, which means it can be tough if overcooked. It is typically cooked low and slow for several hours until it becomes tender and flavorful.

Gravy Beef (and stewing steak)

Gravy beef comes from the shin area. It is a cheaper cut that will cook well in a shorter period of time (1.5 hours). When the bone is left in, Gravy beef is called Osso Bucco, which you might have seen in some Italian dishes.

The most common beef used for stew is chuck steak, also known as gravy beef or braising steak. Beef chuck comes from the forequarter of the animal consisting of parts of the neck, shoulder blade and upper arm. It is easy to find and it's affordable, making it a great choice for your stew.

This moist environment allows you to leave food to cook for hours without risking it drying out. But because there is no evaporation, the liquid isn't able to reduce and thicken naturally in a slow cooker, often resulting in watery sauces and loose gravies. The common solution? Using a thickener.

Chuck roast and top round roast are good choices for the slow cooker, which allows them to tenderize over time.

Some of the best cuts for a fall-apart roast beef in the slow cooker include: Chuck Roast:Chuck roast is a popular choice for slow cooking due to its rich marbling and connective tissue. When cooked low and slow, it becomes tender and flavorful. It's well-suited for pot roast recipes.

Under blade steak maintains its shape even when slow-cooked

But unlike most steak cuts, the under blade takes just as well to slow-cooking — this cut will maintain its integrity through the low and slow cooking process, per The Spruce Eats. Also known as a chuck flat, according to Beef.