When you are looking for something to make dinner time easier, nothing is quite as handy as the slow cooker. I love wrapping up my busy days with a dinner that was made in the morning and just needs a few finishing touches before meal time. This Slow Cooker Beef and Noodle recipe is warm and filling, total comfort food. Our whole family enjoyed this recipe! If you are looking for a lighter stovetop version, try this Beef and Noodles recipe.
How to Make Crock Pot Beef and Noodles
Why Cook on Low
Very often, slow cooker recipes will give you a range of how long to cook the recipe if you cook on high and how long to cook it on low. With this recipe it would be 4 hours on high and 8 to 10 hours on low. (You will need additional time after that for the noodles.) While that will work, I would like to suggest that with chuck roast recipes, they are much more tender when cooked on low. Traditionally they were braised over a low flame for hours. The beauty of the slow cooker is being able to do that long low cooking while walking away from it, leaving your beef incredibly tender. Note that the range is 8 to 10 hours. While it only needs 8 hours, it will be fine if you need to leave it for 10. The key here is not to let your slow cooker temperature lower by flipping to the “keep warm” setting before putting in the noodles, so set it for a longer time if necessary.
What Beef to Use
For this recipe we are using a chuck roast. It is very well marbled, which means that it falls apart after low cooking. It is a perfect, affordable, cut for a recipe like this.
Replacing the Wine
This recipe calls for a little bit of red wine. It adds a nice depth of flavor. If your family doesn’t drink red wine regularly, you can buy a four pack of small bottles. That way you are not opening an entire bottle just for this recipe. If your family does not ever cook with alcohol, you can replace the wine with additional beef stock. I do not recommend just leaving the liquid out, as it is necessary for cooking the noodles.
Using Other Noodles
This recipe calls for 16 ounces of frozen egg noodles. If your family does not like egg noodles, you could use 2 cups of dry noodles – much in the way we do with my Crockpot Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup. Cook on high as written, but check the doneness of the noodles after 30 minutes rather than waiting 45 minutes.
A Note on Salt
Beef stock varies greatly in it’s salt content. This recipe is seasoned on the low end. You will likely need to taste it and season it with more salt and pepper at the end of cooking.
What to Serve with Slow Cooker Beef and Noodles
This dish is very hearty, making it perfect for smaller portions with a sides of vegetables.
Honey Glazed CarrotsParmesan Roasted BroccoliKale Salad
If you make this Crock Pot Beef and Noodles, leave me a comment and let me know what you think! I love hearing from you.
