I have to say, this has become one of my favorite things to eat. I also have to say that I may not a great cook, but this seems to me to be just a great combination of different flavors and textures. And heck, it just smells so good when it’s cooking. I guess this is just one of my comfort foods.
It’s also a bit of a long story. And as most long stories do, this one too begins with Hamburger Helper.
I used to make Hamburger Helper. For my kids, of course. Yeah, that’s it, for my kids. Who are now grown, which frankly feels really odd to say. But good to say as well. Anyways, Hamburger Helper is quick and easy to make and tastes pretty good. Mostly not a huge fan but I have to say I do like the beef stroganoff variety. And in a way, that’s what started me on “this cooking thing” in some ways. I also like to make things from scratch, so I figured I’d just look up some recipes and see what happened. In a way that’s a topic for another post, but the short version is that after a good bit of looking and not being thrilled I sat down one day and said, “heck with this, let me make the real version.” So that started off an entirely different round of recipe searching.
Looks like I’ve said “in a way” two or three times in my long story, so perhaps it’s time to get down to business.
One of the “secrets” to my beef stroganoff is to get better beef than you might think to get. You can find stew beef in any supermarket, and that’d be fine. Or you can go to a meat market and they’ll sell you chuck roast and tell you it’ll be great. But what I’d recommend is a chuck tender. It’s a lot less like stringy stew and a lot more like steak and to me it makes a big difference. It’s not really all that easy to find, at least not where I’m from, but it’s worth finding a butcher who knows what you’re talking about and won’t try to talk you into something else. And once you find a place that’ll steer you right on this they’ll probably steer you right on other things as well. In case you have trouble finding chuck tender it goes by many names: chuck eye, mock tender, chuck fillet, chuck filet, Scotch tender.
I’ve changed the recipe I started out with quite substantially. It’s got cream cheese and sour cream, which I added to extra tanginess. Which is funny because I took the sour cream out of one of my chicken recipes because I didn’t like the extra tanginess. I also added onion soup mix to pump things up, but then I got tired of packaged mixes and now make my own from scratch. Not at all difficult, and as always, it just feels good to know what’s going into your food.
It’s also pretty easy to make. Toss everything in the crockpot except the cream cheese and sour cream, then come back when it’s ready, toss in the dairy stuff, then pour over noodles. Slightly more detailed instructions below. Makes four servings, freezes nicely.
Beef Stroganoff
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 5 hr
Servings: 4
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds cubed beef stew meat (chuck tender)
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed golden mushroom soup
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup dried onion flakes
2 tablespoons beef bouillon powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon parsley flakes
1/8 teaspoon celery seed
1/8 teaspoon paprika
4 ounces cream cheese
8 ounce container sour cream
Directions:
- take stew beef out of refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the ingredients
- spray slow cooker with vegetable oil spray, then preheat on low
- chop onion
- combine the soup, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and spices in a medium size mixing bowl
- put stew beef in slow cooker, then stir in the soup/spice mixture
- cook on Low setting for 5 hours
- after 4 hours take sour cream and cream cheese out of refrigerator to warm slightly
- stir in cream cheese and sour cream just before serving
- Serve over egg noodles.
Starting point for this recipe: Allrecipes.com
List of alternate chuck tender names came from The Cook's Thesaurus, which I find to be pretty darn useful at times.
