First, I’m going to give the recipe so you can easily jump to top of page for ingredients and instructions and then add helpful photos. TIP: Rather than putting raw ingredients into the slow cooker, I highly suggest following first two steps thoroughly for best flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil

• 4 pounds boneless beef

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 sweet yellow onion , thinly sliced

• 8 ounces crimini mushrooms , sliced

• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• 2 cups beef stock

• 1 Tbsp spicy brown mustard

• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire

• 1 teaspoon dried green herb blend (thyme, rosemary, oregano, marjoram, etc)

• 1 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika

• 1/2 cup sour cream

• 16 ounces egg noodles, cooked about a minute or two less than done

Instructions:

• With high heat and tablespoon of oil in skillet, brown beef on all sides. Move the beef from skillet into the crockpot pot (or Dutch oven pot, if you’ll finish the cooking process in the oven instead of slow cooker crockpot.)

• Add thinly sliced sweet yellow onion into the skillet with a tablespoon of butter and a generous sprinkle of salt. Cook on low-medium until onions become translucent and quite blond. This step can take about 30 minutes, so it is a great time to tend to another task and just stir onions occasionally.

• Once onions are ready, add a few cloves of finely chopped garlic and mushrooms to the skillet. Cook until the liquid from mushrooms has released.

• In a small bowl (I used a 4 cup glass) mix together the 2 cups beef stock, 1 Tbsp mustard, 1 Tbsp Worcestershire, herbs, paprika, & pepper. Add this mix to the skillet of onions, garlic, & mushrooms. Stir thoroughly.

• Pour this full skillet over the beef in the slow cooker crockpot.

• Set timer for 6-8 hours and walk away. (-or- Cover pot and roast in the oven for 2-3 hours, until beef is easy to shred.)

• Near end of beef cooking time, boil egg noodles according to package directions (about 7 minutes.) Drain.

• Using two forks, easily shred the tender beef into bite size pieces. Stir in the sour cream. Add your cooked noodles. Serve and Enjoy!

Well, is this a recipe you’ll try at home, too?

I’m not promoting this recipe as a “one pot meal,” like the ones where authors suggest putting a bunch of raw ingredients into the slow cooker. I truly, truly believe this dish is infinitely elevated if you take the moment to pre-brown all sides of the beef. Likewise, using that same skillet, cooking the onions over low-medium heat for an extended period of time really brings out a sweetness in the onions that you wouldn’t get if added to slow cooker raw.

Rather than standing over onions in the skillet for half an hour, I simply just tend to other tasks in the room and only stir them every 5-7 minutes. (I’ll unload the dishwasher, or catch up on email, or just anything else I can do while loosely keeping an eye on the onions.)

Let me know if you have questions! I’m also always interested in hearing about ways you make adjustments for your particular taste preferences. I hope you find this as a great base to make it your own. The meat is so tender! The sauce is so rich and flavorful.

(Using a red wine, like a Malbec, in addition to or instead of beef stock yields great results, too!)

Later Gators & Afterwhile Crocodiles! Your Friend, —AmberHH