Slow-cooker Mongolian roast beef

This slow-cooker Mongolian roast beef is a new twist on the popular Mongolian beef stir fry. Instead of stir-frying the meat, this recipe calls for an entire beef joint to be slow-cooked in a delicious gravy flavoured with garlic, ginger and soy sauce. Once cooked, the meat is sliced and served on a bed of fluffy white rice with steamed vegetables on the side, covered with lashings of the amazing gravy.

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A new twist on roast beef

One of my favourite dishes to order when having a Chinese takeaway is a Mongolian beef stir fry. I love the way the sticky sweet/tangy sauce coats each piece of beef so beautifully. But I got to thinking. Why should Chinese beef dishes be confined to stir-fries? Why not cook an entire beef joint in the same sauce?

So I tried it. And I’m so glad I did. The result was amazing.

I popped a beef joint into the slow cooker with a few sliced onions, mixed up the stock and poured it over the beef and left it for a few hours. The meat turned out so tender that you could cut it with a fork and the knife sliced through it like a knife through butter. Because the beef joint had been slow-cooked for a few hours in the gravy, it was full of the delicious flavours that you expect in a dish of Mongolian beef. All I had to do was thicken the gravy with a little cornflour before serving.

I served slices of the beef on a bed of white rice, covered in the gravy with steamed vegetables on the side, but there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t serve this as a traditional beef roast with all the trimmings. Just imagine Yorkshire puddings covered in this amazing sauce – YUM!

Why I think you’ll love this recipe

I think you’ll love this slow-cooker Mongolian roast beef for so many reasons.

• First and foremost, even if I say it myself, it tastes amazing.
• The slow-cooker doesn’t heat up your kitchen, so even if you’re in the middle of a heatwave (as we currently are in the UK) you can still treat the family to a delicious roast beef dinner.
• Because the meat is cooked with the sauce in a slow-cooker you can just leave it and forget about it until it’s time to eat. There’s no standing over a hot stove stir-frying meat and vegetables.
• Roast beef can be quite dry if it’s not cooked properly, but with this recipe, the meat turns out juicy and succulent every single time.
• You can slice the leftover beef, cover it with the gravy and freeze it for an instant Mongolian beef stir fry for those nights when you don’t feel like cooking.

So let’s see how to do it.

What you will need

Equipment

You will need a slow-cooker. I have this one and it has settings for low, medium and high. It doesn’t have a timer however so if you want to go out and leave the slow-cooker unattended, you may prefer one with a timer so it can switch itself off.

You will also need a frying pan for searing the beef and a pair of tongs to help you hold the beef in place as it browns.

Ingredients

**You can get the complete recipe for making this slow-cooker Mongolian roast beef on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**

This recipe will serve 4 people.

Beef – I used thick rib, but you can use flank, silverside, brisket, chuck roast or even topside. Don’t use something like fillet or rump steak – these cuts are not suited to a slow-cooker. I used a small cut of beef (650 grams or just under one and a half pounds)

Onions – these should be cut into large chunks and separated into petals.

Cornflour – this is used to coat the beef, and also to thicken the gravy.

Garlic – you can use either fresh cloves of garlic or ready minced garlic from a jar.

Ginger – if you have fresh ginger you can grate it finely, otherwise ginger powder is fine. If you are using ginger powder, be careful not to add too much because it can be quite strong.

Stock – you can use either beef or vegetable stock. If you don’t have stock you can make your own with a stock cube dissolved in boiling water.

Brown sugar – for sweetness.

Vinegar – to balance out the sugar and provide a slight tang.

Soy sauce – soy sauce can be quite salty, so because there is quite a lot of soy sauce in this Mongolian beef, I would recommend a low sodium soy sauce. I used dark soy sauce.

Chilli – this is optional. I used a small amount of dried chilli flakes, but you could substitute with either sriracha sauce or cayenne pepper. If you want a spicy dish add more chilli – if you want a milder flavour you can leave it out altogether.

Sunflower oil – for browning the meat.

What to do

The actual cooking time will vary depending on the size, as well as the cut of meat you are using. My small piece of thick-rib was cooked on a low setting and it was ready after 4 and a half hours.

The meat will be cooked when you can insert a fork into the beef with no resistance.

Consult your slow-cooker manual for the recommended cooking time for your own particular size and cut of beef.

Thicken the sauce

Once the meat has cooked, pour all the cooking liquid into a saucepan and bring it to the boil.

Make a slurry with 1 tablespoon of cornflour/cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of water.

Drizzle it slowly into the cooking liquid until it thickens, stirring continuously. You may not need all the cornflour mixture.

Slice the meat, arrange it on a bed of white rice and pour on the sauce. Serve any remaining sauce on the side.

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Other recipes

If you enjoyed this Mongolian beef, you may like to try some of my other slow-cooker recipes:

• Slow-cooker beef topside with horseradish
• Slow-cooker beef Trinchado – a spicy South African peri-peri flavoured dish
• Slow-cooker oxtail stew
• Slow-cooker beef and kidney stew
• Slow-cooker Irish lamb stew with barley
• Slow-cooker lamb shanks in red wine gravy

The recipe

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