dinner Archives - Sprinkle of Country

After years of cooking and playing with different recipes today I finally found a slow cooker shredded beef recipe I will continue to use for a long time! I have tried numerous different tricks and ingredients along the way to help make roasts tender and pull apart easily. Most of these attempts yielded little success. Today though after a lot of research I found out I wasn’t over cooking or leaving out the right ingredients I was just under cooking my roasts. This was causing them to turn out tougher than I wanted. I wish I would have known it was something so simple a long time ago!

Without running to the store this morning I wanted to make a flavorful shredded beef for beef and noodles as well as french dip sandwiches this week. While raiding the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator I discovered I didn’t have any onions or vegetables which I would usually use to cook with a roast. It was time to improvise!

Preparation

Start with preparing your beef broth with adding in 1/2 of the spices including the onion powder, garlic powder, seasoned salt and pepper.

Continue with slicing the beef roast into 1/2 pound sections. Then heat up a large frying pan on medium heat. Pour the olive oil into the heated frying pan. Add in the remaining 1/2 of the spices to the oil. Sear both sides of all 1/2 pound sections of the roast.

Cooking

Then placed your seared beef sections in a crock pot with the beef broth mixture. Place your slow cooker on low and forget about it for at least 8-10 hours!

When checking your roast to see if it is done gently pull apart the meat with two forks. If it pulls apart easily it is ready, if it doesn’t cook it longer!

This slow cooker shredded beef is perfect for beef and noodles, BBQ shredded beef, or french dip sandwiches. If you make a large roast like I did and have a smaller family you are cooking for, you could even do all 3 recipes with one roast! This roast also pairs great with our perfect mashed potatoes.

The best homemade french dip sandwiches!

Ingredients

1 2-3lb Beef Chuck Roast

2-3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

4 Cups Beef Broth

2 Teaspoons Onion Powder

1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

1 Teaspoon Seasoned Salt

1 Teaspoon Pepper

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef

The perfect shredded beef recipe to use for beef and noodles or french dip sandwiches.

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Prep Time 30 mins

Cook Time 9 hrs

Total Time 9 hrs 30 mins

Servings 10 servings

Calories 190 kcal

Equipment

Medium or Large Slow Cooker

Ingredients

2-3 lb Beef Chuck Roast
4 Cups Beef Broth
2-3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Teaspoons Onion Powder Split In 2
1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder Split In 2
1 Teaspoon Seasoned Salt Split In 2
1 Teaspoon Pepper Split In 2

Instructions

Begin with pouring the beef broth and 1/2 of all of the spices including the onion powder, garlic powder, seasoned salt and pepper into your slow cooker. Stir to mix together.
Cut roast into approx 1/2 lb sections.
Heat a frying pan, pour in olive oil and remaining 1/2 of onion powder, garlic powder, seasoned salt and pepper.
Sear all beef sections on both sides. Place sections into the slow cooker and cover with beef broth.
Cover slow cooker, and place on low for 8-10 hours.
Check beef tenderness by trying to pull beef apart with 2 forks. If it pulls part easily your roast is ready! Remove all sections and pull beef apart with forks. If it does not pull apart easily cook longer on low.
Enjoy your slow cooker shredded beef!

Notes

Calories are calculated by a third party website and are based on ingredients used.

A wonderful classic casserole perfect for dinner or meal prep!

Homemade mac and cheese has always been a staple in our home! I can remember being excited when I found out this was dinner when I was younger! Pizza was about the only other thing that topped any mac and cheese night! With so many different ways to make home made mac and cheese you almost can’t go wrong as long as it isn’t tasteless or too dry. As I have grown up I started adjusting the recipe for the mac and cheese my mom always made when I was growing up, the first time I ever had cheeseburger mac and cheese was a recipe from the back of the Velveeta box— from that time I was hooked.

I started adjusting recipes and figuring out the right ratios to make my very own homemade cheeseburger mac and cheese. This recipe was the end result and was perfect for meal prepping my lunches this week! I even had a couple servings left to take to my Grandpa!

I start with preheating my oven to 350. Then begin with browning and draining the hamburger before placing it aside. I then boiled water to cook the noodles per the box instructions. While the noodles are cooking, I combined the milk, the cubed melting cheese, ketchup, mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I did warm up the cheese mix slightly in the microwave on medium power for a minute at a time to melt the cheese stirring in between. This made the cheese easier to mix with the noodles later down the road.

Once the noodles are done, drain them in a colander. Then combine them with the browned hamburger and cheese sauce mix. Mix well covering all the noodles.

spreading noodles evenly through the pan

Once I’ve evened our the mixture in a 9×13 pan I cover the mixture with the the Colby Jack Shredded Cheese.

The casserole only needs to cook about 20-25 minutes just long enough to melt and brown the top cheese layer. Before it’s ready to enjoy or package in meal prepping containers! If you don’t have any meal prep containers I use these and have had great luck with them!

If you are struggling with meal prepping check out my post on how to keep up with your weekly meal prep!

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

2 cups elbow noodles

12 oz easy melt cheese (Velveta like)

1 Cup Milk

1/4 Cup Ketchup

2 teaspoons mustard

1 teaspoons onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 Cup Colby Jack Shredded Cheese