The Best 25 Beef Crock Pot Recipe Out There

When it comes to preparing beef, there are plenty of ways that you can go about making a delicious meal.

There’s the obvious cooking in the oven method, but many people will attest that the best recipes are prepared in different ways.

Some will swear on the fact that pan-frying them is the best way to get the most out of your meat, whereas others will say that grilling your steak is the best method.

Some will try and steam their beef, whereas others will try and fry or air fry it.

However, whilst they are all undoubtedly able to make amazing recipes that will melt in your mouth, one of the things that many of these methods have in common with one another is that it is very easy to get it wrong.

Leaving it in the pan or grill too long, or in the fryer or steamer for a minute or so longer than you should, and you’ll end up with a steak far too tough for your liking.

However, there is a cooking method that gives you plenty of time to get the beef just right for your tastes, whilst also providing a great way of getting the juiciest stew possible, by cooking your beef in a crock pot or slow cooker.

However, there are two main issues that amateur chefs and people run into when considering making a meal with a crock pot: they take too long, and they don’t have a good recipe to cook with.

Whilst the former is a problem that you are going to have to overcome yourself, we can certainly help with the latter!

This list will show you a massive range of beef dishes that can be prepared in a crock pot or slow cooker.

1. Crock Pot Hamburger Hash

Starting off our list with a recipe idea that is both novel and delicious, we have this hamburger hash recipe.

Many people often assume that slow cookers are only good cooking tools for foods such as soups, stews, or chowders.

This recipe, with its thick creamy sauce, soft potatoes, and beautifully juicy beef, is just a sample of the variety that crock pots are capable of.

At least, when they’ve got a good recipe to follow!

Whilst this recipe is an exercise in patience, taking just over 8 hours to prepare in total, it is also a relatively low-intensity recipe to make.

No need to worry about getting every ingredient in within 30 seconds or a minute of the specified time here. You can go and prepare your meat and vegetable at your own pace.

2. Slow Cooker Bolognese

Bolognese and spaghetti are staple meals of families across the country.

With a plethora of ways to cook them as well, it’s no surprise that we start to see some standout recipe ideas for this simple dish.

The best bolognese recipes aren’t just tomato and minced thrown together.

The bolognese sauce needs to have time to sit and cook together, which is why many recipes, including this one, opt to cook the bolognese in a slow cooker.

Does this take a little longer to cook than in a saucepan? Probably. Does it also make a bolognese that is to die for? Absolutely!

3. Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli

Now for perhaps a recipe that is a little out of left-field for some people, we have an excellent broccoli and beef recipe that has been prepared in a slow cooker to perfection.

The slow cooker allows the beef and broccoli to mix well with the sauces that you are cooking theme with. Giving your beef a hit of soy sauce is a great way to add to already delicious meat.

Plus, the cornstarch gives it just enough thickness to make sure that this beef recipe isn’t just thick water, but a true saucy recipe that everyone will love.

Plus, with just 10 minutes of prep time needed on your end, it’s a very easy recipe to manage!

4. Crock Pot Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage rolls are a tricky enough recipe to get your kids to eat at the best of times.

Fortunately, a slow-cooked variant might be just what you need to get them, and yourself, to eat just a little healthier.

Stuffing cabbage rolls with delicious meat is a time-honored way of combining the nutrition of this vegetable with a delicious slice (or mince in this case) of protein.

Plus, the sauce that this recipe makes is an excellent side to have with a healthy dollop of mashed potatoes on the side, that will just absorb all the delicious goodness that has been stewing and cooking for hours.

5. Slow Cooker Ground Beef & Pasta

Not to be confused with a good old-fashioned beef bolognese pasta, this dish is easy to prepare pasta dish that serves 4 people and is a deliciously creamy dish that allows the pasta to absorb the tasty sauce, whilst also giving the beef the perfect level of chewiness that a good slow cooker recipe does best.

Not only that, but at just over 3 hours, this is also a relatively quick recipe that you can prepare in an afternoon, rather than needing to devote half of the entire day to it.

6. Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers

This novelty dish combines the bite and flavor of a good pepper, stuffed with the soft goodness that you know beef crock pot delivers!

7. Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Of course, a list of the best-slow-cooked beef recipes would hardly be complete without at least a few excellent stews in there.

This particular recipe is just such a dish, blending stewing beef with vegetable chunks that give all the recipes plenty of time to reach their perfect consistency.

The carrots, onion, and red potatoes, all get plenty of time to soften up and become soft to bite, while the stewing beef absorbs their flavors and becomes beautifully juicy and tender itself.

8. Crock Pot Shepherd’s Pie

Shepherd’s pie is another household staple when it comes to home-cooked meals for the family.

With its soft bed of mashed potatoes sitting comfortably on a layer of juicy, succulent minced beef.

And if you’re looking for soft and juicy beef, you know where we’re throwing that beef. Straight into the slow cooker!

With the preparation for this recipe only taking a few minutes, for dicing some of the vegetables, you can simply let the minced beef slowly cook while you prepare the best and fluffiest mashed potatoes around!

9. Crock Pot Spaghetti Casserole

The casserole (see also ‘23 Best Turkey Casseroles For A Dinner Night‘) is another recipe that many people have created variations of over the years.

However, if you want to try something that feels different to eat and sit in your mouth, you should check out this particular Italian-themed casserole dish (see also ‘53 Delicious Casserole Dishes To Try‘)!

With a simple preparation needed for the beef and spaghetti, as well as simply grating some cheese onto it, this is a recipe that can be taken care of in time at all, outside the time needed to slow cook in the crock pot.

And even then, with a cooking time of just over 4 hours, this is also a relatively quick slow cooking recipe that you can make!

10. Slow Cooker Beef Tacos

Who doesn’t love a pair of tacos for dinner or lunch?

Well, with this recipe, you’ll be just as easily making ground Mexican beef bases in your crock t as much as in your frying pan!

The trick to making the most out of your time whilst preparing this recipe is starting to cook your taco beef in the slow cooker first, before starting to chop your vegetables up.

Your meat will be in there for a while, after all, so don’t sweat over preparing the salad and seasonings before the cooking even starts!

11. Crock Pot Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

If you’re trying to get your kids away from the fast food burgers, and onto food with a little more variety, this cheeseburger and bacon soup is the perfect solution to your picky kid’s appetites!

Whilst your kid’s faces may fall when they realize what exactly you meant when you said you were preparing hamburgers for dinner, they’ll light up again once they have a spoonful of this delicious soup.

And with plenty of diced vegetables, it is a balanced meal too!

12. Slow-Cooker Drip Beef Sandwiches

What could be better than a juicy slow-cooked beef sandwich?

After you’ve tasted this recipe, you’ll be struggling to think of anything, that’s for sure!

13. Slow Cooker Taco Pasta Bake

Pasta bakes can also be cooked and prepared in slow cookers.

And with the Mexican seasoning that is included in this recipe, you have a delicious Italian and Mexican fusion in your hands and your bellies!

Add a dollop of salsa on top once you are finished, and you’ll have a new favorite dinnertime recipe!

14. Slow Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese

We have another excellent bolognese recipe for you here, and it is as saucy and smooth as it is delicious and juicy.

This is a type of bolognese that your Italian grandma would be proud of.

Finely minced and with a perfect consistency throughout the recipe, this is an authentic bolognese that will go well with just about anything, whether it is on a bed of pasta, or even Italian rice!

15. Crock Pot Pizza Casserole

With so many ways to prepare casseroles, it is unsurprising that someone would eventually try and prepare the two most popular comfort foods around, casseroles and pizza.

Fortunately, this recipe does so with both flavor and ease of cooking!

Not only is this recipe delicious to eat, but it is also incredibly easy to make.

Plus, at just 30 minutes needed to cook it, this is probably one of the fastest crock pot recipes we have covered yet. You could prepare this in less time than it would take to order a pizza for take-out!

16. Slow Cooker Meatloaf

Meatloaf is another steeple of dinner meals up and down the country.

Whilst it is often cooked in an oven, you’ll be surprised just how amazing you can get a recipe like this when it is prepared in a crock pot (see also ‘27 Easy Summer Crock Pot Recipes‘).

Don’t believe it, just check out this recipe, and see for yourself

17. Slow Cooker Lasagna

With pasta being a surprisingly popular dish to prepare in slow cookers, lasagna seems almost like it would be ridiculous not to try making this layered pasta meal in a slow cooker.

Fortunately, as this recipe shows, the results speak for themselves.

Beef that is overcooked or too dry can ruin a lasagna, so using a slow cooker is a novel, yet excellent way of avoiding this problem in your recipes.

18. Slow Cooker Tater Tot Casserole

When it comes to slow cooking, especially for children, the worst feeling you can have is when they ignore or even hate the slow-cooked food that you spent hours preparing for them.

The best way to keep both parties happy is to start cooking their favorite dishes in the slow cooker.

Thankfully, we don’t need to wait for the results. This slow-cooked tater tot recipe is a recipe that will go down a treat with the young ones.

19. Hamburger Stew

Yes, technically, this isn’t a hamburger recipe in the traditional sense. But by that logic, New York pizza isn’t technically pizza, and we rightfully love that.

The same goes for this ground beef dish, combining classic stew ingredients and cooking methods with beef patty meat that is juicy when cooked just right.

If you want a stew that is both tasty to eat, and easy on your wallet, this is a recipe that you should give a go.

20. Mississippi Pot Roast

Time for something a little out of left field!

Whilst this recipe is widely prepared in and around Mississippi, hence the name, not nearly enough people eat this outside of the state.

And it’s a real shame too, especially when prepared right in a crock pot!

With the softness of beef in a stew, coupled with the extra heat from the pepperoncini, you have a meal that you won’t forget anytime soon.

21. Crock Pot Poor Man’s Stew

Many often want to try and cook a more complicated recipe, but they simply don’t have the budget to find and cook all the ingredients.

Fortunately, there are a few recipes out there that can accommodate a chef on a budget, and this particular stew is one of them.

Keeping the ingredients simple, the spices dry, and the beef as cheap as possible is a great way for making sure that you can stretch your money as far out as possible, whilst still making a quality meal.

22. Crock Pot Pinto Beans

Beans and slow cookers have a long and delicious history of going together, from soups to chowders to chilies.

So, it’s time to give them the recognition they deserve with this recipe!

The ingredients for this recipe are pretty simple, too, so there’s no excuse to not try this amazing stew that is both hearty and healthy.

23. Slow Cooker Meatballs

We’ve given plenty of love to bolognese on this list, so now it’s time to show some love for that other Italian favorite meat dish, the meatball!

This recipe makes deliciously soft and juicy meatballs that are great to eat however you want, from with traditional spaghetti, to even making a meatball sub with them! Say goodbye, Subway!

24. Slow Cooker Chinese Pie

Chinese dishes often get left out in the conversation of crock pot recipes.

So let’s remedy that with a delicious Chinese pie recipe!

… Okay, so it’s technically more French Canadian than traditional Chinese.

Still, this adaptation of classic shepherd’s pie has enough influences from across the ocean to warrant this name. And, of course, it’s delicious!

25. Spaghetti & Meatballs

Time for another take on the classic Italian combination of spaghetti and meatballs, together this time!

With its easy-to-make marinara sauce, and a learning curve that is a lot more gentle than other recipes, this is a great slow cooker recipe for newcomers to sink their teeth into trying for the first time.

26. Crock Pot Vegetable Beef Soup

This particular vegetable and beef stew recipe lean a little more on the vegetable side than on the beef side of this dish.

Still, the flavors of the beef diffuse throughout the stew, giving everything a delicious meaty flavor as you bite into it.

27. Slow Cooker Stuffed Pepper

Stuffed peppers are a recipe that is only improved in the slow cooker. And with the right stuffing, these peppers are a great late summer snack to have handy, wherever you go!

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is The Difference Between A Crock Pot And A Slow Cooker?

You have seen in this article that we have used the terms ‘crock pot’ and ‘slow cooker’ interchangeably in this list.

From this, it should hopefully be clear that they are the same type of cooking implement.

The reason that some recipes refer to crock pots instead of slow cookers is that one of the most famous brands of slow cookers, crock pots, became very popular in the 1970s, and became a household name for this type of product.

How Long Does Beef Take To Cook In A Crock Pot?

This will vary depending on the type of beef that you are cooking in a crock pot.

When you are slow-cooking beef, you are effectively applying heat and energy to the connective tissues of a piece of heat, the part that often makes them tough to tear or cut up, as well as chewing.

Slow cooking breaks down these tissues to create a texture that is soft and juicy, whilst thoroughly cooking the beef.

As such, your cooking tie depends largely on what state the beef is in when you place it in the crock pot.

Minced beef, because it has already been chopped or minced into fine pieces before being slow cooked, will take relatively less time to cook in a slow cooker, around 2 and a half to 3 hours.

Diced or stewing beef, meanwhile, contains a lot more of the connective tissue, meaning that it will take longer to cook, which can be anywhere from 6 to 9 hours long.

Final Thoughts

And there you have it! Have fun picking just one of these recipes to try tonight!