Slow Cooker Beef Joint {Best EVER Roast!}

A plate full of tender roast beef, made in the slow cooker. Slow Cooker Beef Joint Recipe.

4.73 from 247 votes

Slow Cooker Beef Joint {Best EVER Roast!}

This Slow Cooker Beef Joint recipe is the easiest and most delicious 'roast' dinner. Pop your meat and vegetables in to stew in the morning and then blend the gravy before serving. So tasty.

Prep Time10

Cook Time5 15

Total Time5 25

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Family Food

Servings: People

Author: Sarah Rossi

Ingredients

2 tbsp Plain flour
1 tbsp Dried or fresh thyme
1 tbsp Garlic granules
1.5 kg Beef topside joint
1 tbsp Olive oil
3 Garlic cloves Peeled and chopped or crushed
2 Onions Peeled and quartered
3 Carrots Peeled and quartered
400 ml Hot beef stock See notes
3 tbsp Cornflour For the gravy | See notes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Metric - Imperial

Instructions

Sprinkle the flour, thyme, garlic granules and salt and pepper on a chopping board. Dry the beef well with some kitchen paper, and then roll in the flour mixture to coat all over.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat, or if your slow cooker allows it, by putting the slow cooker dish onto the hob. Brown the meat on all sides until golden.
Remove the meat from the pan and set aside, add the garlic, onions and carrots to the pan and cook for about 5-10 minutes until starting to soften. If you're using your slow cooker dish, add the meat back in. If you're using a frying pan, transfer everything to your slow cooker dish. Pour in the stock, pop the lid on and cook on HIGH for 5-6 hours or LOW for 7-8 hours until the meat is tender.
When cooked, transfer the meat to a serving dish, reserving the cooking liquid.

To make the gravy:

Put the cornflour in a small bowl (don't skip this step, it's important otherwise the gravy will be lumpy!) and spoon in enough of the cooking liquid to form a smooth paste. Add this paste back to the rest of the liquid in the slow cooker (or saucepan, see below).
Now either, cook the gravy in the slow cooker: put the lid on and cook on HIGH for 30 minutes, whisking every 5 minutes or so to avoid lumps forming.
OR
Cook the gravy in a saucepan over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes until thickened. (I recommend this method as it is likely to become lumpy, it's quicker, and you won't scratch a metal slow cooker with your whisk! However, use the slow cooker if you won't have space on the hob.)
Slice the beef and serve with the gravy and vegetables.

To make without a slow cooker:

In step 3, put the browned meat and softened vegetables, along with the stock, into a lidded casserole dish and bake at 160℃/320F for 2.5-3 hours until the meat is very tender. When cooked, carefully remove the meat and vegetables, cover and set aside. Mix the cornflour with a little cold water to make a smooth paste, add back to the cooking liquid and continue as per the saucepan gravy option at step 5.

Notes

Stock: Make this up with a cube or stock pot

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

How to make slow cooker roast beef gravy: 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

To make this gluten free: Simply substitute the plain flour for gluten free flour, like cornflour (make sure you check the labels first). PLEASE NOTE this is called 'corn starch' in the US

For any surplus gravy: Store in the freezer in freezer bags. Lay flat so you save space

Nutrition