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| Slow Cooker Stroganoff |
this and that to make it a great meal) and I think I am finally on the right track! I love Beef Stroganoff and I love my slow cooker, so if I can put the two together then you know I am going to be one HAPPY girl! The problem with the recipe is that no matter what type of beef I used I didn't like the taste. The meat was either too tough (when I used stew meat) or had a strange aftertaste when I used the cube steak. And I was not about to try an expensive cut of meat in a slow cooker recipe (defeats the purpose of a budget friendly easy meal). So I had some pork steaks in the freezer and I decided to give those a try! AMAZING!
I still have a few things I would like to "tweak" (Don't you just love "You've Got Mail"?) such as figuring out how to get the small lumps of cream cheese out of the sauce. My cream cheese is completely softened and I cut it up in small cubes before I add it to the sauce but it still is not breaking down all the way. Any suggestions?
Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff (original recipe)
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| Yummy Dinner! |
2 cans condensed golden mushroom soup (no substitutes)
1 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 (14-ounce) can beef broth
8-ounces fresh button mushrooms (I leave them whole)
salt and pepper to taste
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sour cream
1 bag egg noodles (for serving)
In the slow cooker, combine meat, soup, onion, Worcestershire sauce, beef broth, mushrooms, salt and pepper. Cook on low for 5 to 6 hours.
Stir in cream cheese and sour cream about half an hour before serving, stirring every 10 minutes or so to break up the cream cheese. THE LAST TIME I MADE THIS I CUT THE CREAM CHEESE UP INTO PIECES AND IT SEEMED TO HELP IT BREAK UP MORE.
Serve over cooked egg noodles or rice. The original recipe calls for adding the egg noodles to the crock pot after they have cooked and when I did this we did not like it. The noodles became very mushy so now I just serve the noodles with the Stroganoff over top.
If the sauce is not thick enough for you, you can add some cornstarch and water. I have not done this so I'm not sure how it would work.
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Melissa - I came across this blog entry, and noticed it asked for suggestions regarding the cream cheese not blending thoroughly with the rest of your ingredients by the time it's done. I also noted the date was about 4 years ago! I know this is pretty "late out of the gate" in that respect, but I figured better late than never, right?
ReplyDeleteI may have a solution to your problem. I have this marvelous recipe for crockpot meatball stroganoff, which is MARVELOUS, and sounds very similar to your recipe in several ways. But, the manner in which the ingredients are combined are different, and may account for the better distribution of cream cheese throughout the sauce.
I figured that just pasting the directions here would be much simpler, and shorter, as I tend to get bogged down in the details myself when I try to explain things. So, I will do that here -- just substitute your ingredients where mine differ, but use the same procedure...
• Place meatballs, sliced onion, garlic and mushrooms in slow cooker.
**Beat cream cheese, soup and beef broth and black pepper with a whisk until well blended. Pour over meatballs.** Cover and cook on High 4 to 6 hours, or on Low 8 to 10 hours.
Cook pasta as directed on package, about 20 minutes before meatballs are done. Add 1 cup of sour cream to meatball mixture, mix well....
I marked with asterisks where the difference is. I believe the last time I made that, I combined those particular ingredients in a sauce pot big enough to hold them comfortably, and blended everything together on low heat with a plastic spoon, then as it got blended better, switched to a medium sized whisk, pouring it over everything in the crock, which was already heating up. I never* add anything to a crock that is heating up for a long or especially a short run, without warming it up first. It completely sets back the heating up process by adding cold ingredients to it once it's begun. *Having said that, I must admit to one exception, and that is sour cream, but that goes in at the end anyway.
The sauce was actually the best I ever put in my mouth. Smooth, beefy, creamy, and not a trace of unblended ingredients. I think the cream cheese, being as dense as it is, just needs more time to get itself heated through and blended in, than sour cream would. And since both are going in "cold" so to speak, some of that time is being spent just coming back up to temperature, before it can begin cooking it in.
You might give that a try sometime, if you haven't already found a way around it. And, I will give yours a try as well! I have some beautiful thick pork chops in the freezer right now, that would work beautifully!
Best Regards,
Shari D.