I love hot beef and gravy, especially over some white bread and served with mashed potatoes, like I did today. There was a little café in town that would make a wonderful version. The meat was moist with the gravy perfectly balanced in flavor. They would serve it over white bread and mashed potatoes too. They are no longer there, which is horrible because ALL their food was wonderful, so now I need to make my own 🙂 .

This is a really easy recipe and the flavor is wonderful. You don’t need to add any seasonings since the packets are packed (no pun intended…lol) with flavor…onion, garlic, pepper, salt, beef flavor and more. Obviously you can substitute the packets with other ingredients, if you prefer, but the point of this recipe is that it is very easy to throw together and then you let it cook on it’s own.

You can use beef broth instead of water if you want, but the reason I use water is because there is already a lot of flavor in the packets, and since there is enough sodium from the packets you don’t want to add any additional that is usually present in pre-packaged broths (unless you use a no salt version).

You will need:

• 3 pound piece of beef chuck roast (trim some of the fat if there is a lot)
• 1 packet of au jus gravy mix (about 1 oz)
• 1 packet brown gravy mix (about 1.6 oz)
• 1 packet onion soup/dip mix (about 1 oz)
• 4 cups water
• Cornstarch slurry (2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup water)

Steps:

1. Pat your chunk of beef with a paper towel until dry, and put it in a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker.
2. Open the three packets and pour contents into a medium sized mixing bowl.
3. Using a whisk, slowly add 2 cups of water and mix well until dissolved and no lumps, then add the other 2 cups of water and give another quick stir.
4. Pour mixture over roast, and cook on low for about 10 hours, or if you don’t have that much time you can cook it on high for 4 hours and then on low for 2-3 hours, until fork tender.
5. When the beef is tender remove it to a small pan and let it rest for 15 minutes.
6. Take a couple of paper towels, and one at a time lay it on the top of the juice in the crockpot to soak up any oil on top. Slowly pull it off and discard. Do that one more time with the second sheet.
7. In the meantime, make your slurry and make sure it’s free of lumps. Slowly pour it into the juice in the crockpot and whisk to incorporate. Put the lid on and make sure it is set to high. Cook for 30 minutes, whisking after 15 minutes.
8. Shred beef into big chunks and cover with a piece of foil or plastic wrap until ready to eat.
9. Once gravy is done, stir and it’s ready to be served over the beef. I served mine over beef that was on top of homemade white bread (you can buy Texas toast, which is a thicker white bread), and with mashed potatoes. So yummy!

Kali Orexi!