40 Slow-Cooker Beef Recipes to Switch Things Up (2024)

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Put your slow cooker to work! Our best slow-cooker beef recipes boast major flavor—think sizzling fajitas, cozy stews, rich brisket, tangy barbecue and beyond.

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Roast Beef and Gravy

One of our easiest slow-cooker recipes ever, this roast beef and gravy is richly flavored, tender and succulent. Since there’s no browning or chopping required, it’s easy to set up on a busy morning. Serve with biscuits or mashed potatoes to soak up the gravy.

Before moving ahead check this this slow-cooker carne asada recipe is perfect for the days when you’re around the house, checking off your cleaning list,or binging Netflix.

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Slow-Cooker Tater Tot Casserole

Cooking for kids? You can’t miss with this slow-cooker variation on a classic tator tot casserole. It even includes a green vegetable!

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Slow-Cooked Beef Burritos with Green Chiles

Need a great way to feed a group (or a fussy family)? Make a big batch of seasoned beef, gently shred with forks and let everyone make their own burrito or taco. Serve with your favorite taco bar toppings.

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Slow-Cooker Jerked Short Ribs

These tangy, spiced short ribs are a tempting alternative to plain barbecue ribs. In the summertime, serve with corn on the cob. During winter, opt for hot mashed potatoes.

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Sauerbraten Soup

In a rut with the same old beef recipes? Try the traditional spiced German dish sauerbraten, which makes a deletable sweet-and-sour beef seasoned with ginger, cloves, pickling spices and an unusual thickening agent: crumbled gingerbread cookies. Different but delicious!

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Slow-Cooker Chipotle Beef Carnitas

The secret to great carnitas? A balanced spice mix. This recipe makes a bigger batch of the spice blend than you’ll need for this slow-cooker beef dish. Keep the rest in the pantry and the next time you make carnitas, they’ll be seasoned in a jiffy.

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Making meatballs in the slow cooker ensures they’ll be perfectly cooked through and completely tender, with no hovering over a splattering stovetop. This is one of our most highly rated pasta recipes for its well-seasoned tomato sauce, too. Serve with your favorite pasta shape or on meatball sandwiches.

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Beef Barbecue

This saucy shredded pot roast has a secret ingredient: apricot preserves. The jam adds sweetness and thickens the rich sauce as the beef cooks low and slow. Serve on rolls with a salad or a vegetable side.

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Fabulous Fajitas

Imagine fajitas, and you might think of the dangerously hot, sizzling skillet emerging from a restaurant kitchen. It’s exciting—and delicious—but you can get all the flavor of fajitas in the slow cooker, no smoking stovetop required. Set up the meat and vegetables in the morning, and before dinner all you need to do is heat up your favorite flour or corn tortillas.

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Barbecued Beef Ribs

Perfect for a balmy summer picnic or a chilly winter weekend potluck, these barbecued ribs are slathered with a tangy homemade sauce. Tweak the spice mixture to add heat, sweetness or umami.

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Tender Beef Brisket

Brisket becomes deliciously moist and tender in the slow cooker. This recipe flavors the meat with horseradish for a bit of peppery heat that’s balanced with brown sugar. Serve the brisket with roasted or boiled potatoes and cabbage.

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Slow-Cooked Beef Enchiladas

These enchiladas aren’t the speediest slow-cooker recipe, but they’re worth the time. First, simmer seasoned beef in a slow cooker. When it’s tender, shred with forks. Fill the tortillas, top with sauce and bake into yummy, gooey enchiladas.

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Slow-Cooker Beef Tips

Sirloin tips, mushrooms and a rich sauce make this recipe fancy enough for company, but it’s easy enough for a family dinner, too. You can use stew meat if you’re on a budget or if that’s what’s in the freezer.

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French Dip

An all-time favorite hot sandwich, French dip is a cozy dinner or lunch on chilly days. Cooking the beef in the slow cooker makes it simple and imparts plenty of flavor. Serve on a crusty roll with plenty of au jus for dipping.

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Slow-Cooked Flank Steak

Don’t have a grill? Cook flank steak in the slow cooker. It’s a delicious, easy dinner that pairs well with just about anything. In the summer, keep it simple with a one-step side dish.

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Slow-Cooked Caribbean Pot Roast

The winning element of this beef slow-cooker recipe is definitely the sauce. It’s incredibly complex—slightly spicy, slightly sweet and a little bit citrusy. Everyone will be guessing at the secret ingredient.

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Traditional stuffed cabbage rolls are a labor of love that can keep a cook in the kitchen for hours. Adapted to the slow cooker, they’re quite a bit easier, though still not a toss-together-before-work dish. Save leftover cabbage from this recipe to make a quick cabbage side dish.

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Sirloin Roast with Gravy

This delicious sirloin roast is special enough to be the centerpiece of a holiday meal. Cooking it in the slow cooker frees up your oven space for side dishes and desserts.

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Tomato-Basil Steak

Made with fresh mushrooms, sweet peppers and tomatoes, this recipe tastes like summer, though you can make it year-round. Serve over rice or riced cauliflower.

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Spicy Beef Vegetable Stew

This quick recipe makes a one-bowl meal packed with protein, vegetables and sauce. If you like a bit of carbs with your meal, serve with a roll or cornbread.

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Beef ‘n’ Bean Torta

Nobody will guess that this stacked torta came from your slow cooker! The recipe does call for lining the slow cooker in foil and layering meat and tortillas, so make sure to factor in a bit of extra prep time. Once cooked, it’s a perfect dinner for a busy weeknight.

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Thai Coconut Beef

This Thai-inspired beef recipe tastes just as good as takeout. The sweet, spicy, rich sauce is packed with flavorful ingredients, but you won’t need to visit a specialty grocery store to make it.

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Spice-Braised Pot Roast

A true dump dinner, this slow-cooker recipe doesn’t require any separate pan to brown or sear before cooking: Just pop everything right into the slow cooker. To ensure that there’s still plenty of flavor, the meat is cooked in a deliciously complex sauce. The ingredient list is long, but the good news is that you can stir the sauce together the night before and pour it into the slow cooker in the morning.

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Hungarian Goulash

Classic Hungarian goulash is vibrantly spiced with paprika and caraway seeds. Dredging the beef in spiced flour makes it easier to brown and thickens the sauce. Serve this slow-cooker beef recipe with egg noodles for a traditional presentation.

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Slow-Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (or any ole’ day) properly with homemade corned beef. The richly flavored meat cooks in the slow cooker in one day. Serve with your favorite St. Patrick’s Day foods, like boiled potatoes and roasted cabbage.

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Slow-Cooker Short Ribs

These top-rated short ribs become meltingly tender after a long slow-cooker session. Because the sauce is thickened with cornstarch, it’s also a gluten-free slow-cooker recipe.

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Farm-Style BBQ Ribs

Before adding the sauce to the slow cooker, give it a quick boil on the stovetop, which will thicken it up. Feel free to adjust the spices in the sauce to your liking, adding or reducing sweetness or heat.

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Zesty Orange Beef

Capture the flavors of your favorite Chinese restaurant in your slow cooker. The beef cooks all day long. Before it’s time to eat, make a quick batch of rice to serve with it.

If you loved this recipe, you need to try our Test Kitchen’s favorite slow-cooker Korean beef rice next.

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Texas Stew

A southwestern twist on classic beef stew, this Texas stew features spiced pinto beans, corn and hominy. If you don’t like the latter, swap in a can of green beans.

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Meat Loaf with Chili Sauce

A slightly spiced tomato sauce caps this rich, tender meat loaf. Like many ground beef slow-cooker recipes, it cooks up quickly, in three to four hours.

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Slow Cooker Boeuf Bourguignon

Beef burgundy is a classic French recipe that’s both fancy and comforting at once. This recipe translates the traditional process to a simple slow-cooker method.

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Creamy Celery Beef Stroganoff

This easy-to-make beef dinner recipe delivers a surprisingly rich and complex flavor after a day of slow cooking. Stirring in sour cream at the very end ensures a thick, silky-smooth sauce.

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Slow-Cooker Pizza

Combining the flavors of pizza with the comfort of a casserole, this dish is a crowd-pleaser that’s perfect for any occasion. A potluck? Check. Dinner with fussy kids? Check. You can substitute some or all of the pepperoni with sausage and add chopped peppers or other favorite toppings.

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Beef Osso Buco

A traditional Italian holiday recipe, osso buco is incredibly rich. This recipe adds a sprinkle of parsley-citrus gremolata to brighten up the flavors. Serve with polenta for a traditional (and gluten-free) presentation, or with creamy mashed potatoes.

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Easy Ropa Vieja Stew

Ropa vieja (or “old clothes”) is named for the way a tough cut of beef breaks down into tender, shreddable slices after cooking a long time in a spicy sauce. The traditional Cuban dish might not have the most appetizing name, but this beef slow-cooker recipe is absolutely delicious.

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Sweet-and-Sour Beef Stew

Want a twist on classic beef stew? Try this recipe. Surprising ingredients such as canned pineapple add sweetness to the beef (much as the more traditional carrots do), as well as a bright acidity that makes the stew feel zippy rather than heavy.

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Slow-Cooker Salsa Roast

This spiced beef roast makes a versatile starting point for a variety of dinners. Serve on soft tortillas for taco night, or make spiced sandwiches. You can also spoon over mashed potatoes or riced cauliflower for more of a formal feel.

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Slow-Cooked Chunky Chili

No beef recipe round-up would be complete without a chili recipe! This one is quick to put together, and the long cook time makes for a well-balanced broth. Freeze leftovers in individual portions for speedy dinners or lunches.

A former senior digital editor at Taste of Home, Kelsey now writes articles and novels from her home in Chicago. Since 2010, she’s followed a gluten-free diet, and especially enjoys the challenge of baking sourdough bread and pizza dough. As a contributing writer for Taste of Home, she covers a broad range of topics but with a special emphasis on gluten-free cooking and baking. Outside of her gluten-free experiments in the kitchen, Kelsey is also the author of the thriller novel “Girl in the Rearview Mirror.”