THIS is the way to make a show stopping Sunday roast without any of the hassle… put your beef in the slow cooker!
This Slow Cooker Joint of Beef cooks long and low for mouthwatering results, while also leaving you time to get on with your day. A double, delicious win for your family dinner (any day of the week).
There’s something about the ritual of sitting down together for a Sunday roast that never fails to warm my cockles, but how often do any of us get the chance to do it these days?
Life is so busy and chaotic, and a Sunday dinner can be time consuming and a lot of effort!
THIS is the way around that. This easy Slow Cooker Roast Beef has all the flavour and tradition of a classic Sunday lunch, without any of the faff of fanfare.
Of course, it’s not exactly a ‘roast’ in the way it’s cooked, but it is by the way we associate eating a joint of beef. It also really shouldn’t only be served up on a Sunday – any day of the week will work for this easy, no-fuss roast beef recipe.
Why you’ll love this Slow Cooker Beef Joint recipe
⭐️ Topside beef is great value
⭐️ Hardly any prep needed
⭐️ Magically creates rich gravy as it cooks
Making a Slow Cooker Joint of Beef
A joint of beef in the slow cooker takes between 5-7 hours, depending on your setting. All you have to do is season your joint, seal it in a pan (this is optional, see below for the Maillard reaction information), then add your ingredients to the slow cooker pan, turn on and leave. Then it’s a matter of making your quick gravy towards the end.
Serve it with some hearty sides, such as Roast Potatoes, Cauliflower Cheese or Yorkshire Puddings. Any vegetables, creamy mashed potatoes or Colcannon would also work.
Often if I do a midweek roast, I won’t do all the trimmings. Instead, I’ll just do some simple cooked vegetables and mash or sautéed potatoes.
Why use a slow cooker to cook a joint of beef?
Saves electricity: These devices are so energy efficient compared to ovens or hobs, using only about 1.3kWh for 8 hours cooking time. The Energy Saving Trust say they use about the same amount of electricity as a standard light bulb.
Depth of flavour: Cooking a joint of meat long and slow creates a delicious depth of flavour.
Convenience: There is just something so lifesaving about being able to put everything in and know a meal is going to be ready later, when time might be tighter. Yes it requires a bit of thinking ahead, but the rewards are great.
More room in the oven: If you are making this as part of a bigger roast dinner, using a slow cooker means you’ve got plenty of room left in the oven for everything else (especially pudding!)
Slow Cooker Roast Beef Ingredients
- Beef – Topside joint
- Plain flour
- Dried or fresh thyme
- Garlic powder
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Olive oil
- Garlic cloves
- Large onions
- Large carrots
- Beef consommé soup – See alternatives below
- Beef stock pot – Double if using cubes
- Cornflour
How to make Slow Cooker Roast Beef
1. Dry the beef with kitchen roll and coat in flour, thyme, garlic powder and salt and pepper. Fry the joint until brown, remove and fry the vegetables for 5 minutes.
2. Add everything to the slow cooker pan, along with the consommé and stock, and cook for 5 hours on LOW or 7 hours on HIGH. Thicken the gravy with cornflour at the end.
Substitutions
- Beef consommé – This comes from clarified broth or stock and is a fantastic shortcut to getting rich beef gravy. You can buy it in the supermarkets (and it has a long shelf life so you can have some in the cupboard for when you need it), but if you can’t find it, you can use condensed beef stock, normal beef stock or red wine instead.
Leftover Roast Beef
Leftover slow cooker beef makes the BEST sandwiches! For maximum flavour, reheat the meat in your leftover gravy to keep it moist. Serve in sliced bread or bread rolls (OR adapt this Philly Cheesesteak sandwich). It should stay fresh for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
I often serve beef leftovers with orzo pasta because it’s super quick to cook and soaks up the gravy beautifully.
For any surplus gravy (there will be plenty), freeze it to save for another day’s delicious beef gravy. Store in freezer bags so you can keep them flat to save space.
For leftover beef, it freezes fine in the gravy for another day’s feasting. Defrost thoroughly before reheating in the microwave or oven.
Top tips for Slow Cooker Roast Beef
Dry the beef
Make sure you dry your topside of beef as much as possible with kitchen roll before rolling it in the flour mixture. A drier piece of meat will brown better and quicker.
Sealing the meat
With many of my recipes I tend to skip the browning meat part if I’m using the slow cooker, but for this I do try to do the extra step.
Frying a little before putting it into the slow cooker creates something called the Maillard reaction, which brings about a depth of flavour. That said, it’s not the end of the world if you miss this step. You’ll still end up with a tasty roast.
How to make slow cooker roast beef gravy
It’s so easy. Remove the beef when it’s almost ready and as many whole carrots as you can from the slow cooker. Mix the cornflour with a little of the cooking liquid until it makes a paste (or a ‘slurry’). Then put it back into the gravy, stir through and cook for a little longer.
FAQ
The Morphy Richards Sear & Stew Slow Cooker is my all-time favourite and works really well for this recipe because you can use it for initial browning on the hob (saving on washing up!) and it’s really light.
For induction hobs, I recommend the Lakeland Digital 6.5l Slow Cooker instead.
Yes you can. Simply substitute the plain flour for gluten free flour, like cornflour (make sure you check the labels first).
My other slow cooker joints that work really well for time and hassle-saving are my Slow Cooker Ham, Slow Cooker Lamb Shoulder and Slow Cooker Chicken.
You might want to cook this for as low and long as possible to get your meat as tender as you can, which might involve cooking it overnight if you want it ready for lunchtime.
It will take 7 hours on the lowest setting, so the best thing to do is to invest in this inexpensive smart plug (it’s my favourite) that allows you to set a timer to switch your slow cooker on at a particular time during the night. Don’t forget to press the ‘on’ switch!
I used a can of beef consommé instead of water as it makes the gravy richer, but if you’d rather, you can use a little water with a stock cube.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Slow Cooker Beef Joint {with Rich Gravy}
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg Beef topside joint
- 2 tbsp Plain flour
- 1 tbsp Dried or fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp Garlic powder
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 3 Cloves garlic Peeled and chopped/crushed.
- 2 Large onions Peeled and cut into chunks.
- 3 Large carrots Peeled and chopped into chunks.
- 400 g Beef consommé soup See notes.
- 1 Beef stock pot
- 3 tbsp Cornflour
Instructions
- Sprinkle your flour, thyme, garlic powder and salt and pepper onto a chopping board. Dry off your topside well with some kitchen paper, and then roll all over in the flour mixture.
- Heat your oil in a large frying pan, or if your slow cooker allows it, by putting the cooking dish onto the hob. Brown off the flour coated meat on all sides.
- Remove the meat from the pan and add the garlic, onions and carrots and brown for 5 minutes until starting to soften. If you're using your slow cooker pan, add the meat back in. If you're using a frying pan, transfer everything to your slow cooker pan.
- Pour in the tin of beef consommé and add a beef stock pot.
- Cook on HIGH for 5 hours or LOW for 7 hours.
- When cooked, remove the meat to a pan, along with the whole cooked carrots and onions (as many as you can fish out!)
To make the gravy:
- Remove a small amount of the liquid from the pan and stir in the cornflour until it dissolves. Add a small amount at first and stir in, keep adding until you get a thick paste.
- Add this 'slurry' back into the pan and stir. You can leave this in your slow cooker on HIGH for about 30 minutes, or if your pan is able to go on the hob, pop onto the hob to bubble for 10 minutes until thick.
Helen layton says
Hi , could you cook this in a Casserole dish in the oven? Thanks Helen
Sarah Barnes says
Yes, I should think so, just make sure you cook it long and slow!
george parkinson says
Thanks Helen, tried this Sat 19th it was just meltingly delicious
Gemma says
This looks great, going to try today. Just wondered how long think a small piece of beef would need, its 600g ( just 2 of us today!) thanks – u seem to be a slow cooker expert!
Paul McNicholas says
Idiot proof and delicious. The gravy is lovely. Will be a regular, go to recipe!
David Rock says
Simmering away in the slow cooker as I type. Didn’t have consomme so I have used a high quality belgian beer and some beef stock. Smells fantastic and just a little bit of beer left over for me!!!
Kelly says
What can I use if I have no beef consommé please?
Sarah Barnes says
Beef stock will be okay too. Enjoy.
Tara says
1 or 2 stock cubes if no consommé? Thank you
Lisa says
The best beef we have ever cooked!! The whole family loved it, so tender, fantastic recepie… thank you x
Fiona says
Absolutely fabulous recipe. Cooked this evening – a real crowd pleaser. The gravy was utterly divine. Served with roasties, parsnips, Yorkshire pudd and veg. Will definitely make again. Melt in the mouth beef. Thank you
Emma Summers says
Cooking as we speak ready for our New Year’s Day dinner.
Thank you for all of your fabulous recipes
Marian says
Cooked this last week, husband said it was the best slow cooked beef he had ever eaten, even the next day, was lovely & tender perfect on sandwich’s, cooking it again tomorrow 😁 fantastic recipe, I’ve tried a few over the years & this is THE BEST x
Michelle says
Delicious sarah so easy to make!
Connah says
Heavily rotated in our family! Beautiful beefy flavours. We serve with potatoes or rice. We love this!
Julie says
So glad I found this recipe. We do all our Sunday beef roasts in the slow cooker now. A real winner with the family.
My mom is gluten free unfortunately the beef consommé isn’t gluten free so trying to find an alternative to this for her to try. Trying other recipes out this week. Thank you x x
Salford says
For the beef in gravy did you slice the beef uncooked or cooked ?? Please
Sarah Barnes says
Cooked!
Heidi says
I’m cooking this today but am unsure of one thing, I’ve bought topside and it has netting and a layer of fat on there. Looking at it it looks easy enough to remove. I haven’t and just followed the recipe regardless. Should I have removed the netting and fat first?
Sarah Dowley says
Love this! I have a tiny oven and this frees up the oven space for all the trimmings. I’ve made over a dozen times and it’s never failed. My kids prefer this slow cooked type meat to a traditional roast. I usually use brisket.
Emma Lockett says
The easiest, most tastiest beef dish! A real winner in our house and family and friends love it too! We personally prefer it made with beef stock rather than the consommé but that’s just our opinion!
Sarah says
Cooked this the other evening…absolutely delicious! The beef was lovely and juicy, the veg was tasty and the gravy was something else. I used the beef consommé in mine and served with dauphinoise potatoes…a great recipe and so easy.
Kelly says
My husband and I absolutely love this recipe! I struggle with roasts usually, being disabled, and I love how easy this one is! We’ve had it twice now and are looking forward to having it again soon. Also pleasantly surprised to easily find the beef consommè in Tesco!
Kim Motte says
Absolutely delicious! So easy and minimal fuss and the beef cooked beautifully!
The consommé was a total surprise hit for gravy. Being gluten intolerant, I don’t have gravy and don’t like the GF stuff.
This was absolutely delicious and all the tasty bits left in the gravy.
Won’t cook a beef joint any other way from now on!
Esther says
Absolutely gorgeous!
Marie Devlin says
Really lovely
Ended up with to much left over
Can it be freezed
Sarah Rossi says
Yes it freezes really well in the gravy!
Monique says
Hi Sarah, love this recipe tastes amazing, however
Sometimes only two of us and buying a large joint to expensive if I had one about 700-800g how ling would it need in slow cooker, never sure how to do timmings in slow cookers- Thank yoy so much, just ore ordered your one pot meals, bring on September 😁
Carol says
Made this evening…needed to have dinner early so switched on slow cooker on high at 10.30am and was ready at 4pm. Rested it for a while with tinfoil on.
Used a top rib roast from the butchers. Absolutely delicious….the benefits of carving a beef joint with guaranteed tenderness.
Will definitely make again.
Yves says
BEST topside i have done yet. i have not been able to master topside and this recipe was amazing thanks so much.