Big Batch: Slow Cooked Beef Stroganoff

A big pot of slow-cooked beef stroganoff is one of those childhood dinners like my mum’s rissoles that I still go weak at the knees for. Stew AND pasta. Talk about comfort food. I’m kind of having a moment with this one. I’ve made it for dinner three times this past month and it’s already on my meal planner for next week! A total classic. We’re talking melt-in-your-mouth slow-cooked beef, oodles of mushrooms, a creamy sour cream, and paprika sauce, served over a super-cozy bowl of egg noodles. Pour a glass of wine and enjoy!

My big batch recipes generally feed 6-8 serves. The idea is that one batch will feed 3-4 people 2 nights dinner making them great for time-poor people, batch cooks, or like me, cooking for shift workers.

Three reasons why you will fall in love with this easy beef stroganoff recipe with sour cream

It’s comforting with a capital “C”. Because who doesn’t love a big bowl of pasta drenched in a creamy sauce after a long day? 

One pot is all that’s needed to cook this simple beef stroganoff. Personally, I  just love any recipe where there’s a little prep, a couple of hours in a French or Dutch oven, and you end up with a delicious slow-cooked dinner that lasts for a few days. 

It’s a total classic. An oldie but a goodie you might say. Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel when you’re looking for a good dinner and an old fashioned beef stroganoff recipe is basically a family-friendly winner of meal.

What you need to get started

• Chuck steak is the cut of meat best (and most readily available) for beef stroganoff in my opinion. Although you could also use any other slow-cook beef cuts. The two that I most use with my slow cooking are chuck steak and beef cheeks, however, you could use gravy beef as well.
  
  
  
• Vegetables – button mushrooms (sliced), brown onion (sliced)
  
  
  
• Pantry staples – Dijon mustard, tomato paste, beef stock, plain flour, olive oil.
  
  
  
• Sea salt flakes & pepper (for seasoning)
  
  
  
• Hungarian paprika – an essential for a stroganoff. Don’t substitute this one. Different paprika’s have wildly different characteristics, and Hungarian paprika gives the stroganoff part of it’s unique flavour.
  
  
  
• Porcini powder – This stuff is how you take a good beef stroganoff sauce into a freakin GREAT beef stroganoff sauce! Add a little porcini powder to stews and soups when you’re looking for a good, rich, mushroomy flavour. While it’s not traditionally Hungarian, I just love the depth of flavour it brings to dish.
  
  
  
• Black garlic – I love this stuff. Get on board, I use it whenever I can. Like the porcini powder, it’s a flavour bomb!
  
  
  
• Sour cream

The details

1. Preheat the oven to 150°c.
   
   
   
2. In a cast-iron casserole, place the olive oil and onions. Saute on low heat until onions are translucent.
   
   
   
3. While the onions are cooking, place the diced beef in a bowl and coat in the flour.
   
   
   
4. Add the beef to the onions, and seal the beef pieces.
   
   
   
5. Add all the remaining ingredients except sour cream. Stir to the beef broth combine and bring to a simmer on top of the stove.
   
   
   
6. Pop the casserole into the oven and cook for 3 hours.
   
   
   
7. Remove from oven. In a bowl pop the sour cream and a ladle full of the stroganoff sauce. Stir to fully incorporate the sour cream into the sauce and then add to the casserole and give a good stir to fully mix the sour cream mixture into the stroganoff.
   
   
   
8. Pop back into the oven and cook for a further 30 minutes or until the beef is falling apart.
   
   
   
9. Remove from the oven. Season with salt & pepper, and serve.

Equipment

A 28cm French oven is my go-to when making this recipe for beef stroganoff. It’s my favourite slow-cooking vessel. A large French oven like a 28cm can easily cook a meal big enough to feed 6-8 adults, which for our little family of three, means either we have enough to freeze a night’s dinner for another time or there’s dinner already cooked for a second night. Woohoo! 

You could also use a traditional slow cooker, instant pot, or pressure cooker. As a general rule, you will get a much more gravy-like consistency with a French (or Dutch) oven as the sauce reduces while simmering away in the oven. As a slow cooker cooks on a lower temperature, the sauce is less likely to reduce into a gravy. You would also most likely have to adjust both the stock quantity and cooking time.

Ok, let’s serve up this homemade stroganoff

How about a side of creamy mashed potato? Or take it up a notch (and add an Irish twist) with a side of colcannon?

Steamed rice, or even cauliflower rice works really well too. If I have enough for a couple of days, we might have it egg noodles on night one, mash on night two and rice on night three!

I always love a side of steamed vegetables, because as a mum I always try to sneak veggies in wherever I can!

My favourite way to serve this easy stroganoff recipe is with homemade black pepper pappardelle. To make a black pepper pappardelle, follow this recipe to make pasta dough. After feeding the dough through the pasta machine a few times, lay the pasta sheet on a table and generously grind black pepper all over. Fold dough in half and continue to feed through the pasta roller, adjusting the pasta width working from a 0 up to as thin as you would like. For pappardelle, I usually get up to about a 6 or 7. When your pasta is at your desired width, slice it into 2cm wide strips. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until aldente. Strain and fold cooked pasta through beef stroganoff. Finish with chives and a little extra sour cream on top.

Can I freeze slow-cooked beef stroganoff?

Can it be frozen? Yes!!! Save some for another day! When freezing beef stroganoff, I leave out the sour cream until reheating. Then in a separate bowl, add a little stew sauce to the sour cream. Mix well. Then incorporate it into the beef stroganoff.

Love slow-cooking? Here are a few more of my slow-cooked recipes…

• Persian lentil and sweet potato soup
• Beef & red wine ragu
• Slow-cooked Mexican shredded beef cheeks
• An Irishman’s Wife’s Irish Stew

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