This has been my favorite go-to recipe for over fifteen years. It's always easy and always good. You can use a crockpot or a pressure cooker. Also, there is a freeze-ahead option for your most busy times.
If you’ve seen this recipe recently on my socials, WELCOME! Thank you for taking the time to find my website.
To batch prepare this recipe for the freezer, follow the instructions on this video, or read the procedure below:
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- Put a standard sized chuck roast in a gallon sized freezer bag. You can batch prepare as many of these as you want.
- To each bag, add 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar.
- To each bag, add 2 tsp garlic powder, 2 tsp onion powder, 2 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1 Tbs salt and 1 tsp pepper.
- Lastly, add one 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes to each bag.
- Seal each bag and squish around the contents to mix.
- Label each bag “braised beef” and with the day and month you assembled it. Use within three months.
- Freeze the bags.
- The night before you want to cook your braised beef, take a bag out of the freezer and defrost on the counter overnight.
- In the morning, pour the contents of the bag into the crockpot/slowcooker. Set to low and cook for 8-12 hours.
- If you forget to take the beef out of the freezer the night before, or if you’d just prefer to use your pressure cooker defrost the beef during the day and pressure cook for 45 minutes on the stew setting.
You can serve this braised beef in so many ways! This is why it’s a favorite in my house. It’s excellent alone with just a piece of crusty French bread, it’s great with rice, couscous, polenta, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes – really any starch at all. I have even used this recipe as a starter for enchiladas, soups, and more. I’ll share those recipes, hopefully, soon.
Bottom line: You cannot go wrong with this. Please let me know how you like it!
Thanks so much,
Shannon Vavich
Easy Slowcooker/Pressure Cooker Braised Beef
This has been my favorite go-to recipe for over fifteen years. It's always easy and always good. You can use a crockpot or a pressure cooker. Also, there is a freeze-ahead option for your most busy times.
Equipment
- crockpot or pressure cooker
- gallon sized freezer bag for the freeze-ahead option
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 chuck roast you can also use top round or top bottom roast. If you do, increase the cooking time to 10 hours crockpot or 1 hour 15 minutes pressure cooker.
- 28 ounces can of crushed tomatoes
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, ground ginger, salt and black pepper. If you are very busy and you decide to make this recipe one of your regulars, you can make this spice mix ahead of time and store it in small baggies.
- Pour the olive oil in the bottom of your crockpot or pressure cooker. Place the roast in the crockpot or pressure cooker, and cover with the crushed tomatoes. Add the balsamic vinegar and the spice mix.
- Freeze Ahead Option: If you want to assemble this whole recipe in advance, just put all the ingredients into a gallon size ziploc bag. Freeze it for up to 3 months. Then just defrost and cook in crockpot or pressure cooker.
- Cooking times: Crockpot 7-8 hours on low. Pressure cooking 50 minutes on meat setting. For best results, slice or shred the meat and submerge it in the sauce for 30 minutes to an hour. Serve with couscous, polenta, rice, mashed potatoes or even just with a big piece of buttered French or sourdough bread. I've been making this recipe for over fifteen years and I'm still finding creative ways to serve it.
Video
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