Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Ragu

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Ragu served with pasta, a complete dinner meal for your family. Jam-packed with rich Italian flavours, this dish is the best comfort food no matter the season. The beef is so tender it simply melts in your mouth, and the sauce is so flavourful. 

It’s that time of the year again when the start putting the slow cookers to good use again. That I love using my crock pot, it’s surely an understatement. It’s not even a fancy one, it’s basic, but it does a great job, which is more than I first expected when I purchased it.

The fact that it takes the pressure off of having to fuss over dinner when time is short is absolutely priceless. You set everything on, then let the magic happen while you get on with your day. And finding some delicious beef ragu ready for you when you get home is just amazing.

WHAT IS ITALIAN RAGU

Ragu is a delicious Italian meat-based sauce that uses minced beef usually, but then again we can get creative here. It’s pretty similar to what we know as bolognese sauce, although I hear Italians are quite confused by the term. I suppose lots of recipes that we take as Italian are actually the westernised version of the classic Italian dishes.

But anyway, ragu is a rich and nutritious sauce, the perfect accompaniament to any pasta, and cooking it in the slow cooker means that the beef gets to simply melt. My kind of food, really!

HOW TO MAKE shredded BEEF RAGU IN THE SLOW COOKER

The secret to a flavourful ragu sauce is using a good beef steak like beef chuck. It cooks beautifully in the tomato and veggie sauce, and falls apart when cooked slowly for a few good hours. You don’t even need to use forks to shred it!!!

• season the beef chuck with salt and pepper, and fry on both sides until brown

The beef is not cooked through at this stage, but browning it adds flavour and richness to the sauce, so I highly recommend it. It’s not compulsory, if you don’t have time, using raw meat is ok, but it does deepen the flavours.

• remove the meat from the pan and transfer it to the slow cooker
• in the same pan, fry the onions until golden, then add the garlic, chopped carrots and celery

The onions will soak up the beef bits and flavour released by the beef, adding extra flavours, hence why l like frying them in the same pan

• add the canned chopped tomatoes, beef broth, and simmer for 2-3 minutes
• transfer everything to the slow cooker, add bay leaves, and leave to cook on high for 5-6 hours, and on low for 8-10 hours

Can l cook the beef ragu on the stove top?

Absolutely! If you don’t want to cook it in a crock pot, you can still get a super tender beef ragu, and still cooked slowly. The difference will be that we’ll need a lot more beef stock than we do for the slow cooker.

A crock pot keeps all the steam inside, which means the meat gets cooked mainly in its own juices. On the stove top, however, we need to keep adding broth gradually until the beef is tender.

Start with 2 cups of broth, and leave to cook on a medium heat with the lid on. I don’t think you need more than 5 cups of broth for this recipe, but depending on the type of beef steak use, you might need more or less. All the others steps are the same as cooking it in a slow cooker.

You can also cut up the beef steak into chunks, you you want to sleeo up the cooking time, it might reduce it, although probably not by too much.

For more slow cooker beef recipes, check out my Slow Cooker Hungarian Beef Goulash. Or my Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff, they are both family-favourite recipes.

If you’ve liked my SLOW COOKER SHREDDED BEEG RAGU or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I’m getting up to.

5 from 1 vote

Print

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Ragu

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

6 hrs

Total Time

6 hrs 10 mins

 

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Ragu served with pasta, a complete dinner meal for your family. Jam-packed with rich Italian flavours, this dish is the best comfort food no matter the season.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: beef chuck recipes

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 310 kcal

Author: Daniela Anderson

Ingredients

• 1 lb beef chuck steak (about 500 g)
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery sticks
• 1 large onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1/4 tsp salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp grated parmesan
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Season the steak with salt and pepper.

2. Heat up the oil in a pan over a medium heat, and brown the steak on both sides for 3-4 minutes.

3. Remove from the pan and transfer it to the slow cooker.

4. Peel and chop the onion, garlic, carrots and celery sticks.

5. In the same pan, fry the onions until soft adding more oil if necessary.

6. Add the chopped garlic, carrots and celery, give it a good stir, then add the canned tomatoes and beef broth.

7. Transfer everything to the slow cooker and leave to cook on high for 5-6 hours or on low for 8-10 hours until the beef is tender and the sauce has thicken.

8. Use 2 forks to shred the beef if there are big chunks, although at this stage the beef is very tender and fall apart easily.

9. Add the parmesan, season to taste, and garnish with chopped parsely.

10. Serve with any pasta of your choice.

Nutrition Facts

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Ragu

Amount Per Serving

Calories 310 Calories from Fat 180

% Daily Value*

Fat 20g31%

Saturated Fat 10g50%

Cholesterol 71mg24%

Sodium 505mg21%

Potassium 535mg15%

Carbohydrates 7g2%

Fiber 2g8%

Sugar 3g3%

Protein 25g50%

Vitamin A 5224IU104%

Vitamin C 5mg6%

Calcium 68mg7%

Iron 2mg11%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.