Tender Slow Cooker Beef Tips are so tender you don’t even need a knife to eat them. Serve these beef tips and gravy over mashed potatoes, creamy polenta or egg noodles. One of our most favorite comfort food dinner recipes ever!
Why You’ll Love Our Slow Cooker Beef Tips
Not only are we excited to share this Slow Cooker Beef Tips recipe with you, we have lots of helpful tips and details to make this recipe look and taste it’s best!
However, if you’re ready to dive right into making this amazing comfort food dinner recipe, scroll down to the recipe card or click the “jump to recipe” button above the first photo.
- Make Ahead Meal: Because most of the work is done in your slow cooker, these beef tips can be prepped the morning of or even a day in advance.
- Versatile: You can add vegetables to this recipe, like carrots, peas or mushrooms. Serve it over noodles, mashed potatoes, polenta or with crispy french fries.
- Feeds A Crowd: This recipe will feed about 8 people, maybe even more depending on the sides that you’re serving.
- Tender and Comforting: The beef in this slow cooker recipe turns out so tender, you don’t need a knife to cut it. A hearty brown gravy with red wine is perfect for sopping up with crusty bread.
How To Make
A lot of recipes that we have seen call for adding the beef right to your slow cooker without searing first. We’re going to ask you to take the extra step and not only brown the beef first, but to dredge it in flour and then sear the beef.
The flavor that these steps add to these beef tips is really what takes this recipe over the top. You’ll most likely have to sear the beef in batches but this process only takes about 15 minutes, even quicker if you use two skillets.
- Dredge the Beef: Season the beef tips with salt, pepper and garlic powder and then dredge the in flour, tapping off the excess.
- Sear the Beef: Add olive oil to a large skillet (or two large skillets if you want a faster prep time) and sear the beef for a couple of minutes until browned on both sides. The beef won’t be cooked through at this step, just nicely seared.
- Add Ingredients to Slow Cooker: Add the seared beef with juices, beef broth whisked with a brown gravy packet and a pack of dry onion soup mix to the slow cooker along with a bay leaf. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 3-4.
What To Serve With Beef Tips and Gravy
I’m telling you guys, you’ll be eating this tender beef right out of the crock pot. So comforting and satisfying, this is a dinner recipe that you’ll be making on the regular.
- Creamy Mashed Potatoes
- Red Skin Mashed Potatoes
- Spicy Mushroom Rice
- Parmesan Bacon Orzo
- Potatoes Romanoff
- Crispy Baked Steak Fries
Variations
We love that fact that this recipe is just beef. Just the meat. That way you can add whatever vegetable sides you like, or just leave it as is for your meat and potatoes lovers.
But if you’d like to add a little more to these beef tips, we’ve got some ideas for you.
- Mushrooms: Brown or white, cleaned and cut into quarters.
- Carrots: Cut into large pieces, much like the size in this Beef Stew recipe.
- Pearl Onions: Frozen or fresh.
- Peas: Frozen peas are suggested.
- Potatoes: Cut into wedges or fourths. Cut about the same size as the carrots.
- Fresh Herbs: Rosemary, thyme, chives, dill.
What Type Of Beef Works Best For Beef Tips?
Beef tips are typically found in the butcher section at your local grocery store. If you have a local butcher that you love, even better. Beef tips are typically cut from a London Broil or a top sirloin, so if you can’t find it cut up already just grab the whole steak and cut it yourself.
We actually prefer buying the whole steak and cubing the beef tips ourselves so that we can control the size of the pieces of beef.
Do I Have To Use Wine In This Recipe?
While we love the flavor that red wine adds to these Slow Cooker Beef Tips, you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.
The red wine is also used to deglaze the skillet to get all those lovely bits off the bottom, but you can use beef broth to do that, or just skip that step.
Store and Reheat
Store leftover beef tips in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. After that, it’s best to transfer the beef to the freezer.
You can freeze the beef for up to 6 months, gravy and all. Defrost and warm in the microwave, on the stove top or in a low oven until warmed through.
Looking For More Slow Cooker Dinners?
- Crock Pot Ham
- Slow Cooker Ribs
- Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
- Crock Pot Smothered Pork Chops
- Crock Pot Sausage and Peppers
Slow Cooker Beef Tips
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeSlow Cooker Beef Tips turn out super tender and satisfying, with just minutes of prep! Serve over mashed potatoes for an easy dinner recipe that everyone is sure to love!
Ingredients
- 4 pounds beef tips or stew meat (or use a whole Top Round or London Broil and cut into cubes yourself)
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- Fresh black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups of flour for dredging the beef
- Olive oil
- 1/2 cup dry red wine
- 3 1/2 cups beef broth
- .87 ounce packet powdered beef gravy
- 1 packet (1 ounce) of dried onion soup mix
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Season the beef with the garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add the flour to a shallow plate and dredge the beef tips, tapping off the excess.
- Spray a 6-8 quart slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray.
- Add enough oil to coat the bottom of a large skillet and set over medium-high heat. Sear the beef on both sides until browned and then place in the slow cooker. Don’t add too many to the skillet at the same time or the beef won’t sear properly, you can also use two large skillets to make this step go faster. Repeat with the remaining beef, adding more oil if needed and then add to the slow cooker.
- Drain the drippings from the skillet. Deglaze the skillet with the red wine, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom. Let the wine reduce slightly and then pour into the slow cooker with the beef.
- Pour the beef broth into the slow cooker. Sprinkle in the powdered gravy and onion soup mix and stir. Add the bay leaf on top and then cover and set on low for 7-8 hours and on high for 4 hours. Stir the beef once or twice in between the cooking time so that the gravy doesn’t stick to the sides or bottom of your slow cooker.
- Check a piece of beef to see if it’s fork tender. If you like a thicker gravy, take the lid off the slow cooker let the gravy thicken as it cools for 30 minutes. Alternately, you can mix together a tablespoon of cornstarch with a tablespoon of water and stir it into the slow cooker. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes to thicken.
- Serve over mashed potatoes, egg noodles or creamy polenta.
Recipe Notes
Store: Store leftover beef tips in a container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Reheat: Reheat the beef tips in the microwave or on the stove top with a splash of beef broth if needed to loosen up the gravy.
Freeze: These beef tips freeze wonderfully. Freeze in a container or freezer bag for up to 4 months. Defrost and warm on the stove top or in the microwave.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: American
