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
- 20 g/ 1 tbsp butter , unsalted
- 1 large onion , halved then sliced into 1 cm / 2/5″ slices
- 4 garlic cloves , minced
- 7 tbsp flour , plain / all purpose
- 4 tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 litre / 1 quart beef stock/broth , reduced salt
- 1 1/2 cups sour cream , full fat best
Garlic Butter Mushrooms:
- 3 tbsp/ 45 g butter , unsalted
- 700 g / 1.2 lb 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
- Season beef – Pat beef dry then sprinkle with all the salt and pepper.
- Brown beef – 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.
- Sauté aromatics – 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.
- Add flour – Sprinkle the flour across the surface, then stir. Add the mustard, and stir – it will look gluey, that's ok, it will dissolve.
- Add stock – While stirring, pour in about half the beef stock then mix so the flour mixture dissolves into the liquid. It will thicken quite quickly into a gravy-like consistency .Switch to a whisk if needed, to make it lump free. Then add remaining stock, 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!! 🤣
Just made this for the second time, and even my 2 year old loved it! I did change one step slightly – I dumped the onions and garlic in the crock pot before adding the butter/flour/mustard to the skillet, so that I could use a gravy whisk to make the sauce smooth. It was a big hit and turned out well both times I made it, so we’ll definitely be adding this one to our meal rotation!
That’s a great tip Robyn! Enjoy!! N x
I struggled a bit with this recipe. My flour also turned lumpy but after 8 hours of slow cooking on low, the lumps disappeared. I scaled the recipe to serve 4 and the liquid, after 8 hours, was much thicker than the youtube version. I was hoping for a slightly thicker liquid but it was also very rich.
Might re-visit this recipe in a few months time and try again. It was a subtle stroganoff flavour and the family enjoyed it.
Thank you for all your recipes – can’t wait to buy your recipe book later this year.
I don’t know how I went so wrong but this just didn’t work for me. Like some others, I had extremely lumpy sauce, and after first whisking like a maniac, then using a sieve, I finally had to blend the sauce smooth after removing the onions. It took me over an hour to get this into the slow cooker. 8 hours later, the sauce is very runny, more sauce than substance. The taste was fine but I’ve rated this low because of the time and palaver vs making a traditional strog. If I try this again I would make the mustard sauce separately from the onion garlic so that it is easier to remove the lumps. This is a rare fail for me as your recipes are normally great and so glad your back on deck after your cookbook gap.
Wow, just simply amazing! Our fussy 2 yr old and 7 yr old are actually eating this as I speak. I am surprised at how few ingredients this recipe required to produce such a balanced flavour. Mine wasn’t as sauce but that’s likely due to me getting sidetracked before turning off the s.cooker. This will become a regular family recipe in our house. Thank you for providing a recipe our fussy kids eat x
Woo hoo that’s great Loren!! Enjoy! N x
Hey Nagi, thanks again for the stellar recipe. Just flagging that the instructions are different on when to add the mustard. I used the set of instructions directly under your photos so I added the mustard with the flour and onion mix but the recipe sheet further down doesn’t ask for that. I’m just wondering if the extra stirring after adding the mustard to the onions and flour mix and then adding the stock slowly may have been the difference in the recipe working for some of us and not for others who say their attempt ended up lumpy? Thanks again
Killer recipe! I made a double recipe because I was cooking for six people and they all LOVED it!
Woo hoo!! That’s amazing Kelli!! N x
Hi Nagi, great recipe idea, just wondering if you purposely omitted using tomato paste
I’ve never used tomato paste in either of my stroganoff recipes – the mustard adds flavour enough! N x
I have been a silent fan of recipetineats for some time. We cooked this today, and couldn’t let it go unacknowledged. A-MAZ-ZING! Thank you. We added some pumpkin to the meat and some thyme to the mushrooms (from the garden of course) . Going to make this with been cheeks for family dinner next week.
Beef cheeks are one of my fave meats – delicious!! N x
Hi, I’m about to make this today, I’m so excited. This might be a silly question…. But how long do I put the ‘finishing stew’ in the slow cooker for, last 30 mins or so? Thank you.
After you slow cook the mixture for 8 hours on low or 5 hours on high, you just add in the sour cream/liquid mixture and mushrooms, stir gently and serve! N x
Nagi, I recommend your blog to everyone who wants to cook with some great recipes. Every recipe of yours I use I know it’s tried and true.
This has been my go to Strog recipe for the last 2yrs. I’m not sure what has changed since the recipe was last updated but this time it was a dudder.
Too much liquid and the flour ended up all gluggy. I ended up having to get my stick blender to get rid of the flour lumps before adding it and the meat all to the multicooker.
What changed? 😨
Let me look into that Ellie and I’ll get back to you – maybe something got accidentally changed! N x
Please update method!
I added the onions and garlic and then added the flour, then proceeded to add the Dijon as per recipe, put the slow cooker on and the flour has turned lumpy! Just chucked it out. This is the first tin eats recipe that hasn’t worked for me
Yet another winner! Rated the best strog my son has eaten. 🙂 I haven’t had a fail yet with any of Nagi’s recipes. Thank you!! (Head pats for Dozer)
Thanks Maggie!! I am so happy your son loved it! N x
Nagi I’ve made this so many times without any issues however today the flour just wouldn’t dissolve, so I have a lumpy sauce. Any way to fix it please? PS… LOVE all your recipes!!!
Remove the meat and mushrooms then strain out the lumps – it’s a bit fiddly!! N x
This was a great recipe to follow – very clear descriptions, and it was very tasty. Will make it again!
Thanks for the recipe! It’s overall really simple however I had quite a lot of trouble at the step where we add the flour, mustard and beef stock to the onions. It couldn’t quite dissolve even after bringing the liquid to the boil and I had lots of clumpy cooked dough. How do I avoid getting clumps the next time? Thanks!
This is the absolute best beef stroganoff ever! And I’ve tried dozens of stroganoff recipes from all over the internet. It makes use of an inexpensive cut of meat that I often buy on sale, it offers multiple cooking methods (and they all work beautifully, but the slow cooker way is my favorite), and the sauce turns out PERFECTLY. Our house is fairly split on whether it should be eaten with noodles or mashed potato, but I personally prefer it with some warm crusty bread and a handful of fresh dill. Seriously, add the dill, the flavor transformation is insane. Recipe Tin continues to be the world’s best food blog, Nagi never lets me down!
Great tip Sara!! ANd I am glad that you’ve had such success with this recipe!! N x
Nagi , I am making this dish today but not eating till tomorrow do you still add mushroom and sour cream today or is it best to leave till tomorrow.
You can add them today and reheat gently as per the recipe notes Kym! N x
I bought large, cut up chunks of stew meat and then saw that they will cook too fast. What do I do, can I just lessen the slow cooker time?
Yes Diane you won’t need to cook it as long and you might need to reduce the liquid separately after the beef is finished. N x
I am just missing when to add mustard? Or am I just not seeing it?
Step 5 of the recipe says “Sprinkle the flour across the surface, then stir. Add the mustard, and stir – it will look gluey, that’s ok, it will dissolve.” If you click the recipe button at the top of the page it jumps you straight to the written recipe! N x
I bought 900g of meat for 2 people – do I need to half all the over ingredients?
Can I cut the chuck into strips instead of chunks to make it look more traditional? This sounds wonderful. I plan to make it for guests this weekend.
If you cut the meat into smaller strips Pam then it will fall apart after slow cooking. If you want a more traditional looking stroganoff then do my classic version instead of the slow cooked one. https://discountspot.info/beef-stroganoff/%3C/a%3E N x