Our crockpot beef tips and gravy are the ultimate comfort food! Tender beef tips cooked in a rich, savory gravy make the perfect meal, especially served over rice, mashed potatoes, or egg noodles! Just 15 minutes of hands on time.
Beef tips and gravy don’t have to be complicated. Our easy recipe has just 15 minutes of hands on time!
Tender beef, a savory gravy, and a pile of mashed potatoes…heaven.
It’s cozy season and we’re here with the beef tips and gravy in a crock pot…Nothing is more cozy than that!
Tender, melt in your mouth chunks of beef, a rich, savory gravy, and it just cooks itself in the crockpot while you go live your life? The perfect dinner, I’m sure of it.
Whether you serve these crockpot beef tips and gravy over mashed potatoes, rice, or egg noodles, this is pure comfort food that warms you up, feeds your soul, and keeps bellies happy.
We usually serve these over our Instant Pot mashed potatoes, but they’re also perfect over our Amish egg noodles!
However you serve these up, be sure to have plenty. My family always goes back for seconds.
What We Love About This Recipe:
- The slow cooker does most of the work. Browning the beef takes a few minutes, and then you can walk away while it cooks.
- The beef turns out so tender. Low and slow gives the beef time to turn tender and soak up all that savory flavor.
- That gravy! It’s rich, smooth, and made for spooning over mashed potatoes, noodles, or rice.
- Leftovers reheat beautifully. This is one of those meals that may taste even better the next day.
Ingredient Notes:
Beef – We’re keeping it easy and using a pack of stew meat. You could also cube up a chuck roast yourself.
Beef Broth – This will be the base of our gravy.
French Onion Soup – We keep cans of this condensed soup in our pantry and use it in crockpot recipes like this. It’s one of the key ingredients in our French Dip too!
Cornstarch – This will help to thicken up the sauce to make a gravy.
Worcestershire Sauce – This is a secret weapon when it comes to adding big flavor!
Browning Sauce – This one is optional, but recommended! Browning sauce adds a rich, deep flavor and color to your dishes. A little bit goes a long way!
Dry Beef Gravy Mix – You’ll need one packet of gravy mix. This is often just called brown gravy mix, though that can be a little more generic. If you can find a packet that has real beef flavor in it, even better!
What is Browning Sauce?
Browning Sauce is a deeply colored sauce that adds rich flavor and a deep color to stews, gravies, and more.
We use it to add a boost of color to foods, by stirring a little into gravies or by lightly brushing it over meat. Using too much can add a bitter flavor to your recipe, so you want to go lightly.
The browning sauce isn’t strictly necessary in this recipe and you can leave it out if preferred. We love how the color of the gravy matches the rich, deep flavor though!
How To Make Crockpot Beef Tips and Gravy:
Season the beef with kosher salt and add it to a hot, oiled skillet. Brown it on all sides but don’t cook it through completely.
In a small bowl add the broth, onion soup, cornstarch, Worcestershire, browning sauce, dry gravy mix, and garlic powder. Whisk all that together.
My Favorite Skillet!
Cast iron skillets are my favorite! They heat so evenly, get piping hot for searing, and nothing is better than bacon fried in a cast iron skillet.
Add the browned beef to a crockpot and pour the gravy mixture over the top. Stir in the bay leaf.
Cook on low for 5-6 hours, remove the bay leaf, and stir in the browning sauce. Serve it up hot!
Crockpot Recommendation!
In the market for a new slow cooker? We love this 7 quart Crockpot. It’s simple to use, cooks evenly, and is very budget friendly. Plus, it has a 4 1/2 star rating with over 5,000 reviews on Amazon!
Karly’s Tips
Don’t crowd the skillet. Brown the beef in batches if needed. A crowded skillet traps moisture and prevents a good sear.
Cook for tenderness, not just the clock. Slow cookers vary, and so do cuts of beef. Start checking around 5 hours, but keep cooking if the beef is still tough.
Stick with low heat. I recommend cooking this recipe on low. Tougher cuts of beef benefit from the longer, gentler cook time.
Wait to add more salt. The soup, broth, gravy mix, and Worcestershire sauce all contribute salt. Taste the finished gravy before adding more.
Why Are My Beef Tips Tough?
If your beef tips are still tough, the most likely answer is that they haven’t cooked long enough.
Stew meat and chuck roast contain connective tissue that needs time to break down. It sounds backward, but tough beef from the slow cooker often needs to keep cooking. Cover the slow cooker and check it again in 30 to 45 minutes.
Cutting the beef into similar-sized pieces also helps everything become tender at roughly the same time.
How to Adjust the Gravy
The cornstarch goes into the gravy mixture before cooking, so the liquid should thicken as the beef cooks.
If the gravy is too thin: Make sure the cornstarch was fully whisked into the liquid and give the gravy a good stir. It may thicken a bit more as it sits.
If the gravy is too thick: Stir in a small splash of warm beef broth until it reaches the consistency you like.
Keep in mind that the gravy will continue to thicken as it cools and again after refrigeration.
Storage and Reheating
Refrigerator: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days.
Freezer: Let the beef and gravy cool completely, then transfer them to a freezer-safe container or bag. Freeze for up to 3 months and thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
Reheating: Reheat gently on the stovetop or in the microwave until hot. The gravy will thicken in the refrigerator, so stir in a splash of beef broth if needed.
Crockpot Beef Tips and Gravy
Ingredients
- 3 pounds stew beef or cubed chuck roast
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 ½ cups beef broth
- 10.5 ounces canned French onion soup
- 1 teaspoon browning sauce
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 packet dry beef gravy mix
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Season the beef on all sides with the salt.
- Heat a large skillet over high heat and add the oil. Once the oil is hot, add the beef in a single layer, working in batches if necessary, and brown on all sides, about 3-5 minutes. There's no need to cook the beef through.
- Transfer the beef to a 6 quart slow cooker.
- Whisk together the beef broth, onion soup, cornstarch, Worcestershire sauce, dry gravy mix, and garlic powder. Pour over the beef.
- Add the bay leaf and cover the crockpot.
- Cook on low for 5-6 hours or until beef is tender and gravy has thickened.
- Remove bay leaf, add the browning sauce, stir and taste, and season with additional salt and pepper, if desired.
- Serve over mashed potatoes, rice, or egg noodles.
Brittany says
Incredibly flavorful and so easy to make! Highly recommend this recipe!
Karly Campbell says
Thanks, Brittany! <3
Megan says
Is 1 serving a cup?
Karly says
We didn’t measure by volume, just divided into 8 portions.
Jodi schafer says
Thank you for this recipe today! I’ve been torturing my husband with vegan meals and he’s a neat and potatoes guy. The smell as it was cooking was so wonderful and I served it over baked potatoes. It was delicious!To say he was a happy guy is an understatement. The timing was perfect!
Karly says
So glad he enjoyed his dinner! 🙂
Dianna says
The recipe says to remove bay leaf AND browning sauce…. how can you remove browning sauce that was stirred in the gravy at the beginning?
Karly says
Oh that was a typo! It was supposed to say ‘add’ browning sauce, not ‘and’ browning sauce. The browning sauce gets stirred in at the end. 🙂