You won’t believe how easy this is…
- In the morning, put a rock solid frozen package of grass-fed round steak into your slow cooker on high. (Preferably round steak with a bone for the minerals in the broth it will make.)
- Add a little filtered water in the bottom. (Half cup or so.)
- At this point I start a batch of my homemade buns in my beloved Bosch.
- Optional step: half-way through the day, pull the meat out and clean it up a bit. Cut off any parts you don’t want on your sandwich, then put it back into the crock-pot.
- Another optional step (I’ve done it with and without this step, it’s good either way): add onions or garlic for more nutrition and flavor.
- When the meat is falling apart (with my crock-pot on high this is about 8 hours later), pull it out with a slatted spoon (let drain well so your bun doesn’t get soggy), and put it on your homemade bun with your favorite barbecue sauce. (We used to be Sweet Baby Ray fans, but now love “Bone Suckin’ Sauce” because it has no high fructose corn syrup. More info on where to find it at the bottom of this Guinness beer recipes post. There you’ll also find a similar recipe with…you guessed it, Guinness beer.) If you’re wondering why I don’t just put the barbecue sauce right in the crock-pot, this is why: you can use your leftover beef the next day to make something else, like soup (be sure to save your bone and toss it in your soup pot the next day for good stock), beef tacos, or whatever.
- That’s it! What a great recipe for busy lives…that’s all of us!
***More crock-pot recipes or other main dish ideas.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Organic and Thrifty 05.29.09 at 3:42 am
Yum! I’m totally trying this next week!!! Thanks for the post!
Organic and Thrifty’s last blog post..10 Things You Can Do to Make Your Meals More Nutrient-Dense
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Sue E. 05.29.09 at 7:59 am
Homemade Barbeque Sauce:
I don’t measure things, but here is the outline….
Pour organic ketchup in a pan (equivalent to the amount of sauce you want).
Add maybe a teaspoon of Worchestershire sauce, vinegar, and prepared mustard. Add maybe 1/4 cup (more or less to taste) of brown sugar, molassas or honey (I have never tried maple syrup)
Bring to a boil and simmer for about an hour or so. Sorry this is vague, but I wanted to share it with you….
Thanks for the easy meal idea, Kelly!
Sue E.
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Kelly 05.29.09 at 9:27 am
Sue, that sounds easy and yummy, too. Thanks! By the way, vague is fine with me, I don’t like to measure things if I don’t have to anyway.
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Jana 05.29.09 at 9:40 am
So you can use the bones twice, cooked with the beef and again the next day with stock? I just assumed all the good stuff came out the first time. Thanks!
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Ashley 05.29.09 at 10:59 am
What kind of Worchestershire sauce do you use? The only brand I can find (Lea & Perrins) has HFCS and MSG (disguised as “natural flavorings”). Do you know of a brand without these? LOVE the blog – keep up the good work!!!
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Local Nourishment 05.29.09 at 12:12 pm
Oh, I hate to cook with Guinness! First, I almost cry when I add it to the pan because I’d rather be drinking it! But then, if I buy a whole six pack and only use one bottle to cook with, the other five bottles of extra stout call to me until they are gone, one by one.
Local Nourishment’s last blog post..Cue the music, please…
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Raine Saunders 05.29.09 at 2:09 pm
I’m stumbling this post…I love grass-fed beef – steak, hamburger, whatever. Last night we had grass-fed hamburgers on Ezekiel bread (we didn’t have buns, but the bread is delicious and healthy as well!). Thanks Kelly!
Raine Saunders’s last blog post..My Story – Why I Made a Lifestyle Switch to Traditional Foods
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Gina 05.29.09 at 5:08 pm
If you plan to make your own BBQ sauce, an AWESOME (and healthy) substitute for Worcestershire sauce is Thai fish sauce! I think for the most part you can sub it 1:1 — try a little at a time, just in case.
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Sue E. 05.29.09 at 5:27 pm
Gina,
Thanks for the healthy alternative to Worcestershire sauce. I honestly hadn’t thought of MSG in there…..bummer! Just when I thought I had gotten all this junk out of the house…..
Sue E.
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Betsy 05.30.09 at 12:25 pm
Well now you’ve got me wondering. I have the store organic Worcestershire sauce, and it has two iffy ingredients – organic caramel color and organic spices. I avoid “flavoring” even if it’s organic (I saw that in organic ketchup at the store this morning). Do you think I should be worrying about these?
Oddly enough the same brand of BBQ sauce only has the caramel color. All the spices are individually identified.
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Meredith 05.30.09 at 9:55 pm
This looks wonderful! I’m going to try it this week!
Meredith’s last blog post..Ontario Food Deals for May 29 – June 4, 2009
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Kelly 05.31.09 at 9:38 pm
Betsy, I thought that if it was organic we didn’t have to worry about MSG, but I did a quick Google search (with these words: “organic have msg”) and found that there ARE things to beware of, even if it’s organic, grrrrrrrrrrr
(Things like “autolyzed yeast extract” and “natural flavorings” as Ashley mentioned… I didn’t have time to read much, these are just some of the words that jumped out at me on the search page.)
Gina, good idea for the alternative!
Jana, yes! I often get two batches of stock from bones! Others say they have even gotten three, but not me. Even my second batch is weaker, but I do still get some gelatin.
LN, you sound like Kent, only he doesn’t have a problem at all “forcing” himself to use up the rest of the Guinness!
Raine, thanks for the stumble, ya big sweetie!
Ashley, thanks for the sweet words, too!
Meredith, let us know what you think, OK?
Sue, don’t feel bad, I’ll still find some stray box or can of something tucked way back in the pantry now and then. (It should hurt knowing I paid for it, but I love watching it sink into the trash can.)
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Rebecca K 06.04.09 at 8:27 pm
When you say “at this point you start some homemade buns” do you mean you begin soaking them at this point or do you begin soaking the night before and that is when you mix the remaining ingred in and form the buns? Do you make buns and a couple loaves of bread at the same time?
Thanks!
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jeanne 06.04.09 at 9:26 pm
I used this basic idea and made french dip sandwiches tonight. First I buttered my crockpot. Then I sliced 2 vidalia onions and 8 oz. mushrooms and placed in pot. I put my round steak on top with lots of pressed garlic and worchestershire sauce, and then added about a cup of water so I had plenty of broth. I cooked it for about seven hours on high. We had meat shredded on toasted rolls. There was plenty of broth for dipping our sandwiches and I have enough meat and broth of beef and noodles one day next week.
Yes — now I will be looking for an alternative to my worchestershire sauce — so frustrating!!!
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Kelly 06.04.09 at 11:36 pm
That sounds so good, Jeanne! Seems like I was talking to someone about worcestershire sauce recently and we were saying that fermented soy sauce and garlic would be a good start to mimic that. I don’t have any so can’t look at the ingredients to see what else would need to be there.
Rebecca, good question! I should’ve been more clear. I used sprouted flour, so I used the recipe at the post I linked to above, which just makes 8 buns, and started them in my Bosch that morning. Why I didn’t make a double batch and freeze the other buns, I’m not sure! You could make buns from the recipe at my Bosch bread making post, too, just start them the night before like you said. That post is here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2008/10/organic-soaked-homemade-bread-recipe-in.html.
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