Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff is the stew version of traditional Beef Stroganoff. An incredible slow cooked beef that’s fall-apart tender smothered in a creamy Stroganoff sauce with buttery garlic mushrooms, it’s made with economical stewing beef yet tastes like a million bucks!
Beef Stroganoff
You know that anything that involving the words “slow cooked” and “beef” is going to be a winner. And this one is a ripper!
It’s the slow cooked version of classic Beef Stroganoff. Besides the fact that it takes 8 hours in a slow cooker instead of 15 minutes on the stove, this stew version of Stroganoff differs from the traditional version in a few ways:
- Fall apart tender chunks of beef rather than thin strips that are just cooked so they’re juicy inside;
- Made with economical stewing beef rather than good to high quality well marbled steak (essential for a really great traditional Beef Stroganoff); and
- Deeper flavour in the sauce – owing to the long cook time. You can’t shortcut this kind of flavour!
This slow cooked beef melts in your mouth and the depth of flavour in the sauce is magnificent!
What you need for Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
Here’s what you need to make this incredible slow cooked beef dish! It’s the same ingredients as traditional Beef Stroganoff except using economical stewing beef and more sauce so the beef is submerged while slow cooking!
Use Chuck Beef or other economical stewing beef. Do not waste your money on pricier cuts like sirloin!
Best cut of beef for SLOW COOKER Beef Stroganoff
This recipe needs to be made with economical stewing cuts that need to be cooked for a long time to become tender, such as:
- chuck beef
- boneless beef ribs
- beef cheeks
- gravy beef
In contrast, traditional Beef Stroganoff, which is cooked quickly on the stove, is best made with pricier cuts suitable for cooking as steaks, such as boneless rib eye/scotch fillet and sirloin.
Just a few notes on some of the other ingredients:
- Sour Cream – this is what makes Stroganoff Sauce creamy. It’s added at the end so there’s no risk of it splitting during the slow cooking time;
- Dijon Mustard – for flavour and thickening, a traditional ingredient in Beef Stroganoff Sauce; and
- Flour – thickens the sauce. See recipe notes for gluten free option!
How to make Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
This is pretty much made just like traditional Beef Stew – entirely hands off for most of the cook time!
- Brown beef aggressively. The better the browning, the better the flavour in the sauce and on the beef!
- Sauté the onion and garlic, mix in the flour;
- Add everything into the slow cooker (or pot);
- Slow cook 8 hours on low or 5 hours on high (see recipe for stove and IP/pressure cooker);
- Sauté mushrooms in garlic and butter;
- Whisk the sour cream with some of the liquid in the slow cooker – this will ensure you don’t end up with sour cream specks in the sauce (can’t mix vigorously otherwise the beef crumbles!);
- Stir mushrooms and sour cream into sauce;
- Serve over mash, pasta, egg noodles or even rice!
Here’s what it looks like straight out of the slow cooker.
And the beef…..fall apart….. juicy…..sucked up all the flavour of that Stroganoff Sauce…
I’ve made this as a stew but it could just as easily be transformed into a chunky soup with potatoes and vegetables. That way, it would also be a meal in one, rather than preparing noodles or mash to serve it over.
I’ve popped notes in the recipe for how to make it into a soup – you just add extra liquid to make the sauce slightly thinner which also increases volume so you can add more “stuff” into it. 😇
Otherwise, if you’re sticking with the Slow Cooked Beef Stroganoff Stew as written, serve it over one of these:
- pasta or wide egg noodles (traditional);
- mashed potato (also common for Stroganoff);
- rice; or
- low carb alternatives: Creamy Cauliflower Mash or Cauliflower Rice
Enjoy! – Nagi x
PS Also, for chicken lovers – > CHICKEN Stroganoff. Because I sauce this good can smother many things.
Watch how to make it
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Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients
- 1.75kg/ 3.5lb beef chuck or other stewing beef , cut in 4cm / 1.5” cube (Note 1)
- 1.5 tsp each salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp oil
- 20g/ 1 tbsp butter , unsalted
- 1 large onion , halved then sliced into 1 cm / 2/5" slices
- 4 garlic cloves , minced
- 4 tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 7 tbsp flour , plain / all purpose
- 1 litre / 1 quart beef stock/broth , reduced salt
- 1 1/2 cups sour cream , full fat best
Garlic Butter Mushrooms:
- 3tbsp/ 45g butter , unsalted
- 700g / 1.2lb mushrooms , sliced into 0.5cm thick slices
- 3 garlic cloves , finely minced
- 1/2 tsp salt and pepper
Serving:
- Pasta, wide egg noodles, mashed potato
- Chives for garnish
Instructions
- Pat beef dry then sprinkle with all the salt and pepper.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large heavy based pot or skillet* over high heat.
- Add beef in a single layer (not squished) and brown aggressively all over - 4 minutes or so. Remove and repeat with rest of beef, adding more oil as needed.
- Let the pot cool down a bit then return to stove. Melt half the butter, then cook garlic and onion for 3 minutes until softened.
- Sprinkle the flour across the surface, then stir. Add the mustard, and stir - it will look gluey, that's ok, it will dissolve.
- Add the beef stock and stir well, scraping the bottom of the pot, and bring to simmer. Cook using chosen method below.
SLOW COOKING - choose method:
- Slow cooker: Transfer all liquid into slow cooker. Add beef, then slow cook 8 hours on LOW or 5 hours on HIGH.
- Stove: Add beef into pot. Cover with lid and adjust heat to low/medium low so the it's simmering gently. Simmer 2 hrs (check at 1.5 hrs) until beef beef falls apart easily.
- Instant pot: SKIP FLOUR, follow Note 5 Gluten Free option. 40 minutes on high, same method as slow cooker.
- Other pressure cookers: 40 minutes on high, same method as slow cooker.
GARLIC BUTTER MUSHROOMS:
- Melt half the butter in a large skillet over high heat. Add half the mushrooms and cook until almost golden (~3 minutes). Add half the garlic, salt and pepper, cook until golden. Remove, repeat with remaining butter, mushrooms and garlic.
FINISHING STEW:
- Mix sour cream with 1.5 cups of liquid from slow cooker (Note 2), then gently stir into stew - careful, the beef is delicate!
- Gently stir in mushrooms.
- Serve over noodles, pasta or mashed potato, sprinkled with chives!
Recipe Notes:
- Chuck
- Boneless beef ribs*
- Gravy beef or other beef labelled as "stewing beef"
- Beef cheeks**
** If 200g/7oz or less, cook whole so it looks like this beef cheeks recipe but with Stroganoff Sauce. Chopped cheeks twist and skew once slow cooked - looks better to serve whole (or at most, halved). Other beef cuts ok to use - great for slow cooking but not as juicy all the way through as there are more lean patches:
- Brisket
- Blade roast
Nutrition Information:
Stew Fever!
For fellow lovers of slow cooked goodness, rich sauces and fall apart meat…
Life of Dozer
Furniture shopping with Dozer – he certainly made himself at home!! 🤣
Can you use red wine instead of beef stock?
Started cooking this early on Saturday morning as we were having 2 people over and I couldn´t be bothered slaving over the cooker when they were here, made them help me with chopping the mushrooms later on though and they all made fun out of me saying it was way too much, but I took no notice of them and just told them to wait and see. They all had seconds with fresh tiger bread to dip in, and the day after my friend took the left overs home for her mum and dad, got amazing compliments, thanks to you 🙂 x
When cooking in a slow cooker on step 5 i skipped the flour but still put the mustard in the beef broth, is that ok?
Hi Natalie, the flour will help it thicken, I would add a little water to it then add to the beef 🙂 N x
Hi, this is my 2nd, comment.
Defrosted leftover beef strog’ today, wanted to make a pie(I’m in NZ & we love meatpies)
Its pouring rain so wanted to have a nice meal ready for my Mr when he got home.
Sadly I had no butter, lard or shortning, looked at some pastry recipies using olive oil but most had negative comments.
Searched thru deepfreezer and found 2 broken frozen puff pastry sheets.
Then searched on pinterest for a recipie… Nothing really suited what i needed.
So put defrosted strog’ into pot on stove, mixed a little cornflour in a few tbsp water and skimmed a big spoon of strog’ gravy into water/cornflour before gently stirring into strog’
Once thickened took off stove.
Rolled, pulled and stretched defrosted puff pastry on floured tray, Then brushed with egg wash on both sidess, I
had to patch some pieces together so did not look pretty.
Then shaped pastry to the bottom and sides, had to use broken bits to fill in the corners (really making do with limited supplies and dont want to go shopping in bad weather)
Spooned in the stog’ which defrosted wonderfully, meat is now totally shredded so perfect for a pie.
Used last little bits of puff pastry to cover, egg wash helped patch the gaps as i stretched and pinched the edges together.
Backed at yr temp 300f ( just over 200c in nz)
And turned it off after 30mins as its still at least 3 hours before dinnertime.
So thanks again for a great recipie.
Thought this idea might be interesting for you all as i didnt find much else like it.
I made this to exactly as per recipe. Delicious! The tenderness of the meat was commented on by family. I served over pasta with steamed green beans. Once the prep was done, very easy set and forget meal, that has everyone drooling with the cooking aroma before dinner. Served on top of pasta with steamed beans on the side. Yummy! Thank you 🙂
I, what if I don’t have beef stock? What can I use?
Hi Susana, beef stock or broth is fine here – you could even make it up using beef stock powder 🙂 N x
Very nice. I added some extra beef powdered stock at the end as it needed more salt. I also added some chopped zucchini in the last 10 or so minutes of cooking for additional veggies. Lovely flavours. Thanks so much
This was fantastic and the leftovers were even better the nex day. Made it in the oven as didn’t have time for slow cooker. For my family I cut mustard to 2 tbs. A family keeper
Second time making this as we loved it also had issue with flour but it’s in the slow cooker so I am hoping some lumps dissolve 🤤 can’t wait to eat it
I also had problems with lumpy flour. Did they end up dissolving during the slow cook?
Whoops thought I rated!
Currently in progress in my slow cooker- i haven’t even added in the garlic mushrooms or sour cream yet and the flavour is delish! Your wonderful recipes never let me down Nagi. Just wanted to say thanks 🙂
Just wanted to add, what’s the best way to reheat to avoid the sauce splitting from the sour cream? I don’t have a food thermometer, so would stove top be best and to do it gently until hot but not reaching a boil?
Thank you so much for your recipes Nagi! I just love them! If I will be using the slow cooker, when do I add the sour cream with the liquid please?
Made this last night and had it with a wild rice blend and it was SO delicious. My husband who before dinner claimed he was “not very hungry” went back for seconds. 🙂 The kids who don’t like mushrooms ate the mushrooms. I made it in the slow cooker and the house smelled so good at the end of the day. This one is definitely a keeper!
Thank you for a great recipie, it was easy to follow and results were liked by the familu, one of which hates mushrooms so after adding the sour cream i put a portion aside before adding the mushrooms.
Served with a dollop of sourcream and a sprinkle of home grown spring onions and parsly.
So excited to eat it i forgot to take a picture.
I normally read the recipie and take notes of quantites of ingredients in the order of steps and advice so steps ( like sprinkling the flour )to refer to as i cook
Wow…..this is, again, heavenly. Together with green beans and pommes duchesse it became another favorite of out family.
I just had a go at this as it looks great. I did have an issue however when adding the flour to onions and mustard. It formed a big ball and when adding the stock the flour didn’t dissolve. I have big chunks of flour floating around in the mixture. I think next time I will dissolve the flour in some of the stock before adding to the pan. Hopefully it will taste ok! Thanks for the recipe.
I had the same problem Matt, i ended up using a whisk and working the lumps out but was time consuming
Hi Matt – I’m sorry you had a problem with the flour! I have added a specific direction to sprinkle the flour across the surface, rather than in one pile. If you do that, it will then coat things more easily and therefore dissolve more easily. Flour first, then mustard. Also, during the slow cooking phase any flour lumps will dissolve 🙂 N xx
Made this for my family and everyone loved it. My son and his girlfriend are moving back to South Korea to spend time with her family for a few years. She loves food, so I have all your recipes laid out for the next month to try while they are living with us. Want to make the most of our time together… and food is always key! Grateful to have found your recipes! thank you! 😊