Easy Slow Cooker Beef Casserole

This Slow Cooker Beef Casserole is packed full of vegetables and beef flavour. An all in one meal just perfect for midweek or a lazy weekend. Winter comfort food at it's best and a real family favourite.

Jump to:

• Slow Cooker Beef Casserole Recipe
• Do You Have To Brown The Beef Before Putting In The Slow Cooker?
• What Is The Best Meat For A Casserole?
• Ingredients
• Method
•  Top Tips
• Some more great Slow Cooker Main Meals
• Slow Cooker Beef Casserole

Slow Cooker Beef Casserole Recipe

 Slow Cooker Beef Casserole is a real winter warmer of a dish. Packed full of vegetables and beefy flavours it brings effortless slow cooker love right to your plate.

I recommend using 800 grams/28 ozs of beef. This is a little more than needed but the standard stewing steak packets are 400 grams so I think it's better to use 2 whole packets and have some for left overs.

Do You Have To Brown The Beef Before Putting In The Slow Cooker?

Strictly speaking it does help the overall flavour if you sear the beef first but I usually don't simply because I'm lazy. I just throw everything in and flick the switch. A final couple of tbsps of beef dripping bought easily from a supermarket brings the extra deep beef flavour to the casserole party that the searing might otherwise give.

I do collect beef fat if I can when I cook my Slow Cooker Beef Joint or Roast Beef Brisket. I spoon the fat from the top of the juices that cooks out at the end of cooking and store it in the fridge. This is perfect for this recipe.

What Is The Best Meat For A Casserole?

The best beef stewing steak to use is really shin of beef. It thickens the sauce with all the natural gelatin contained within the meat.

However my local supermarket does not stock it on the shelves so unless I visit the butchers I use the best braising steak I can afford.

Brisket or chuck steak works well too.

The best tip though is to make sure they are big chunks of meat. Too small and they melt away.

*There is a full printable recipe card at the bottom of this post*

The ingredients for this beef casserole are simple.

Ingredients

• 800 grams (28.2 oz) stewing/braising/chuck steak
• 750mls boiling water
• 4 beef stock cubes or pots
• 2 medium carrots
• half a medium swede
• 500 grams (17.6 oz) new potatoes
• 5 tbsp corn flour
• 5 tbsp water
• 4 tbsp redcurrant jelly

Method

STEP 1 - Preparing the vegetables

• Peel the carrots and swede and cut into large chunks. About an inch/2.5 cm square. Place them in the slow cooker.
• Wash the potatoes and chop in half. 

STEP 2 - Preparing the rest of the ingredients

• Make the beef stock with all the stock pots/cubes and add the redcurrant jelly mix well and pour into the slow cooker bowl
• Add the meat and dripping. The dripping will melt through later.
• Add the potatoes
• Cover and cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 5.
• Either in the beginning or when you are nearly ready to serve mix the cornflour well with the cold water. Tip into the beef casserole and mix gently. Cover and allow to simmer for at least a few minutes.

This will thicken the beef gravy. If it is still too thin then repeat with a couple of tbsps more of cornflour and water until it is the right consistency.

Gravy is a very important matter.

 Top Tips

• Use large new potatoes so as not to overcook or leave the smaller ones whole. I find that new potatoes are a great choice because you don't have to peel them just chop them in half.
• Choose your vegetables carefully to marry well with the beef. You can add your own families' favourites.
• Use beef dripping to give a great beefy flavour
• I usually like to use the jelly stock pots instead of cubes. However I have recently tried the organic and gluten free beef stock cubes and they taste really good. They are somewhat less beefy flavoured though.
• I sometimes make this as a Sunday Lunch dish without the new potatoes and serve with roast potatoes or roasted new potatoes. Another low effort family meal.
• You could omit the new potatoes and serve with mashed potatoes or cheesy mash. A truly great comfort food partnership. Oh yes....
• This beef casserole or beef stew dish is totally makeable in a casserole dish in a standard oven. Simply bake in the oven covered at 160 C/325 F/Gas Mark 3 for 4 hours. Add the cornflour slurry at the beginning of the cooking and mix through
• Season carefully
• Store leftovers covered in the fridge once completely cooled. Reheat until piping hot.
•  Freeze leftovers in a airtight container for up to 3 months. You may need to rethicken the gravy with cornflour once thawed as corn flour can make the gravy split if frozen. Simply reheat till piping hot and add some more cornflour and water. Mix well.
• If you would rather some dumplings then have a look at this slow cooker beef and ale stew with dumplings recipe.

Some more great Slow Cooker Main Meals

• 10 Easy Sunday Lunch Recipes
• Easy Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon
• Slow Cooker Beef Joint
• Slow Cooker Chicken Casserole
• Slow Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese
• Slow Cooker Roast Chicken
• Slow Cooker Sausage Casserole
• Slow Cooker Moroccan Lamb
• Easy Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
• Slow Cooker Chicken Curry

Do let me know how you got on in the comments below or come on over and join me on social media. I love a good old hairy chinwag.