Slow Cooker Roast Beef Joint with Gravy

slow cooker roast beef joint sliced on a white plate with gravy poured over it

Slow Cooker Roast Beef Joint with Gravy

This easy recipe for Slow Cooker Roast Beef Joint with gravy just always delivers. My Sunday favourite, tender beef with the best gravy and super easy on the washing up.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Universal

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 6

Total Time 8 40

Servings people

Calories 503kcal

Author Apply To Face Blog

Ingredients

1.5 kgs joint of beef at room temp
500 mls double strength beef stock 2 x stock pot jelly/cube
2 heaped tsps corn flour
2 tbsps olive oil

Metric - U S Customary

Instructions

Firstly get the joint out of the fridge for an hour as it requires a jolly good salt and peppering on all sides and to come up to room temperature however if you are searing this in the oven rather than a frying pan you don't have to worry it will heat up in the oven enough but still salt all over.
Put a large frying pan on a high heat and add the olive oil. Standing in the braced position and using some serious tongs, sear the bejesus out of your joint. It will hiss and spit. Don't do it in a bikini or speedos.
You can also cook for 20 minutes in a really hot oven 220 °C/425 F/Gas Mark 7 to brown it instead.
Place the browned joint in the slow cooker. Pour over the 500 mls stock and put on the lid. Cook for 4-5 hours on High or Low 6/8 hours (maybe 9 hours on Low for Brisket).
If cooking on Low I rely on a carving fork plunged into it to tell me how ready it is around the 6 hour mark. If it isn't ready I will keep cooking and checking another hour at a time until it becomes soft enough.
The internal temperature should reach 71°C especially if you're reheating it.
Remove the beef and set aside to rest for 30 mins covered with foil. Remove the left behind stock and decant into a saucepan.
Carve the beef when you are ready for it. If you are serving the beef at a later date allow to cool before putting in the fridge covered.
To make the gravy put the cornflour in a mug and add a couple of inches of cold water. Stir well to dissolve.
Put the saucepan on the heat and making sure the stock in the saucepan is bubbling a bit add the cornflour mixture.
Using a whisk keep whisking as the stock bubbles. It should be nicely thickened, if it isn't then repeat with another couple of tsps of cornflour and water.
You can use Bisto gravy granules to thicken the gravy too. I scatter a couple of tbsps in at a time until I get the thickness and flavour I want.
Use the joint in whatever way you want. If you are just using the beef without gravy then cover gravy when cool and put in the fridge for sausages and mash or a cottage pie. Having homemade gravy in the fridge always makes me feel like Delia.
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Notes

This feeds four with left overs or six in the one sitting as a meal. Obviously it will go a little further served in rolls and sandwiches.

If you do use for rolls and sandwiches then keep the gravy in the fridge for sausages and mash, cottage pie etc.

A smaller or bigger piece of meat may require shorter or longer cooking times although not significantly. The best test is to plunge a fork in to feel if it is soft yet. The meat should be 71 C. It can become crumbly ,so if it does, thick slices are the way to serve.

If you leave it to go cold and then wrap it up and put it in the fridge, it is super easy to slice the next day and does not crumble at all.

So I do usually cook it the day before and reheat it back to piping hot temperature in the slow cooker with the beef gravy. I reheat the gravy in a saucepan so that it's simmering and then pour it over the sliced beef in the slow cooker. Then make sure it has got inbetween every slice, so that speeds the reheating process up. The meat must be piping hot again.

Nutrition