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This Slow Cooker beef and noodles recipe is cozy, filling, and easy enough for busy days. The beef cooks until tender in rich gravy, then the egg noodles cook right in the Slow Cooker. You’re going to love how comforting it is with hardly any hands-on work.
Why You’ll Love It
- No browning needed — add the raw beef right to the Slow Cooker.
- Rich, beefy gravy — brown gravy mix, beef broth, cream of mushroom soup, and Worcestershire sauce do the work.
- One-pot noodles — the egg noodles cook directly in the gravy at the end.
- Feeds a crowd — it serves six comfortably with an easy vegetable or salad on the side.
Ingredient Notes
Use beef chuck roast if you can. It needs the long, gentle cooking time and gets soft and shreddy without drying out. Pre-cut stew meat will work in a pinch, but chuck has more of that pot-roast tenderness. I buy a roast and cube it myself into roughly 1 1/2-inch pieces. Roughly is the key word. Nobody is measuring beef cubes with a ruler in my kitchen.
For the broth, low-sodium beef broth is helpful because the gravy packet and canned soup already bring salt to the party. You can always add salt later; taking it out is another matter altogether. I learned that lesson with a ham glaze, and it still gets mentioned if anyone is feeling brave.
Cream of mushroom soup makes the gravy creamy and rich. If mushroom pieces bother somebody at your table, the soup mostly disappears into the sauce anyway. My daughter claims she “doesn’t do mushrooms,” yet she has eaten this repeatedly. I have chosen not to investigate too closely.
Wide dried egg noodles are what you want. Not frozen noodles, not little curly pasta, not whatever half-box is hiding behind the cereal. Wide egg noodles soften quickly and hold onto the gravy beautifully.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 to 3 pounds beef chuck roast, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes—mine are never all exactly the same size
- 1 packet (0.87 ounce) brown gravy mix
- 2 cups low-sodium beef broth
- 1 can (10.5 ounces) cream of mushroom soup
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, the regular kind from the little paper-wrapped bottle
- 12 ounces wide dried egg noodles
- Salt and black pepper, to taste, if it needs it at the end
- Up to 1/2 cup additional hot water or beef broth, only if the noodles need more liquid
Instructions
Place the cubed beef in the bottom of a 5- to 7-quart Slow Cooker, spreading it out as evenly as you reasonably can. It does not have to look like a magazine photograph. Mine usually looks like I dropped a bag of meat in there—which is essentially what happened.
Sprinkle the entire packet of brown gravy mix right over the raw beef. Don’t stir it around yet. Just dump it on top and let it sit there looking a little questionable. It will all become gravy later, I promise.
In a medium bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the beef broth, cream of mushroom soup, and Worcestershire sauce until mostly smooth. “Mostly” is plenty good. A few little soup lumps are not a personal failure.
Pour the broth mixture over the beef and gravy mix, making sure most of the meat is covered with liquid. If a few corners of beef are peeking up, don’t fuss with it too much—they will cook just fine once everything gets going.
Cover the Slow Cooker and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 4 to 5 hours, until the beef is very tender and pulls apart easily with a fork. Try not to keep lifting the lid. Every time you do, you lose heat and add time, and then you’ll be standing there wondering why dinner is not dinner yet. Ask me how I know.
About 30 minutes before serving, taste the gravy and add salt and black pepper if you think it needs it. Go easy with the salt at first because the gravy mix can be fairly salty. I usually add pepper and leave the salt alone, but every brand is a little different.
Use a fork to gently break up the larger pieces of beef, leaving some bite-sized chunks. You want it saucy and rustic, not completely shredded into beef confetti. Although if it shreds more than you meant it to, nobody is going to complain.
Stir the dry egg noodles directly into the beef and gravy, pressing them down so they are mostly covered. If the noodles are sticking way up out of the liquid, add hot water or extra beef broth a little at a time, up to 1/2 cup total, until they are mostly submerged.
Cover the slow cooker again and cook on HIGH for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring once about halfway through, until the noodles are tender but not mushy. Keep an eye on them toward the end; slow cookers all run differently, like old station wagons. Mine runs hot, and some barely seem awake.
Give everything one final stir, taste for seasoning again, and serve hot in wide bowls with plenty of gravy spooned over the top. Bread is not required, technically, but it is awfully useful for swiping the last of that gravy from the bowl.
Variations
My oldest daughter likes to stir in about 1/2 cup of sour cream once the noodles are finished. It makes the gravy tangier and extra creamy, and she thinks it is an improvement. I think the original is perfect, then I eat her version and change my mind. You can also use 4 ounces of softened cream cheese instead; let it melt into the hot beef and noodles before serving.
If you want vegetables tucked in there, add sliced mushrooms or baby carrots over the beef before the gravy mix goes on. Frozen peas can be stirred in during the last 10 minutes while the noodles cook. I tried broccoli once. It was not terrible, but it made the whole thing taste like a casserole somebody brought to a work lunch in a crockpot lined with aluminum foil. Not the mood I was after.
For a stronger, deeper beef flavor, replace 1/2 cup of the broth with dry red wine. That is lovely on a cold night, though I don’t always have red wine open. Usually because I drank it while watching one of those house-hunting shows where everyone wants “an open concept” and a $900,000 kitchen. Lordy.
If you want thicker gravy, leave the lid off for the final 10 to 15 minutes after the noodles are done, stirring now and then. Or stir in a slurry of 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons cold water and let it cook until thickened.
Storage & Reheating
Cool leftovers and get them into shallow containers within two hours, then refrigerate them for 3 to 4 days. The noodles will keep soaking up gravy overnight, so the leftovers are thicker the next day—almost like a beef-and-noodle casserole, though not in a bad way.
To reheat, add a splash of beef broth or water and warm it gently on the stovetop or in the microwave until steaming hot all the way through. I cover it in the microwave because gravy has a real talent for decorating the inside walls. One time I ignored that advice and spent twenty minutes scraping little brown freckles off the turntable.
You can freeze it for up to 3 months, though the noodles will be softer after thawing. Still perfectly edible, just not quite as pretty. We are not running a restaurant here.
Final Notes
Serve this with buttered corn, green beans, or a simple salad if you are trying to bring some color to the table. Sometimes I put it over mashed potatoes too, which is gloriously excessive and exactly what a gray evening calls for. Other nights, it’s just bowls of beef and noodles, spoons clinking, everybody eating before the conversation starts up again.
The funny thing is, I used to think meals like this were somehow “cheating.” Too easy. Too brown. Too much help from the pantry. Now I think getting a warm dinner on the table when life is noisy and people are tired is its own kind of accomplishment.
And if there’s enough left for lunch later—well. That would be nice. It almost never happens.
Slow Cooker Amish Beef and Noodles
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 to 3 pounds beef chuck roast Cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 packet (0.87 ounce) brown gravy mix
- 2 cups low-sodium beef broth
- 1 can (10.5 ounces) cream of mushroom soup
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce Use regular Worcestershire sauce
- salt and black pepper To taste, if needed at the end
- 12 ounces wide dried egg noodles
- up to 1/2 cup hot water or beef broth Use only if the noodles need more liquid
Instructions
- Place the cubed beef in the bottom of a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker, spreading it out evenly.
- Sprinkle the entire packet of brown gravy mix over the raw beef without stirring.
- In a medium bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the beef broth, cream of mushroom soup, and Worcestershire sauce until mostly smooth.
- Pour the broth mixture over the beef and gravy mix, making sure most of the meat is covered with liquid.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 4 to 5 hours, until the beef is very tender and pulls apart easily with a fork.
- About 30 minutes before serving, taste the gravy and add salt and black pepper if needed, going easy on the salt.
- Use a fork to gently break up the larger pieces of beef, leaving some bite-sized chunks.
- Stir the dry egg noodles directly into the beef and gravy, pressing them down so they are mostly covered; add hot water or extra beef broth a little at a time, up to 1/2 cup total, if needed.
- Cover the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until the noodles are tender but not mushy.
- Give everything a final stir, taste for seasoning again, and serve hot in wide bowls with plenty of gravy spooned over the top.