Crock Pot Beef with Brown Rice

Crock Pot Beef - made September 22, 2012 from BS Recipes

This is another recipe I found on pinterest and it was originally Beef and Broccoli.  Um, yeah, sounds good but hold the broccoli.  Which I did.  In addition, I also modified the original recipe by doubling the amount of beef and adding a ton of cornstarch to thicken the sauce.  I like using my crockpot since it requires very little cooking effort on my part but I don't like how everything comes out so soupy.  So I took matters into my own hands and just kept adding cornstarch and letting it simmer for the last hour, uncovered, to help thicken it up some more.  If you are going to add broccoli (my mom was horrified that I didn't), add it in the last 30 minutes of cooking.

My laugh-at-myself moment with this recipe was when I went to Costco to buy the "boneless beef chuck roast".  Now, I know very little about different cuts of meat so I always try to get exactly what the recipe calls for.  I was stymied when all the meat packs at Costco read "beef top roast", "chuck pot roast" and a couple of other variations but nothing that exactly said "beef chuck roast".  So I went with whichever one had the smallest amount of beef since I wasn't cooking for an army.  I think it was the chuck pot roast.  Which worked out fine.  I only cooked this for about 4-5 hours and by then the beef was very tender and, thanks to a slew of cornstarch, the sauce had thickened up nicely.  I served it with some brown rice and it was delicious.

2 pounds boneless beef chuck roast, sliced into thin strips
1 cup beef consomme (I used one beef boullion cube dissolved in 1 cup of hot water)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup to 1/3 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons sauce from the crock pot after being cooked
Hot cooked rice

1. Place beef in a crock pot.
2. In a small bowl, combine consomme, soy sauce, brown sugar, oil, and garlic. Pour over beef. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
3. In a cup, stir cornstarch and sauce form the crock pot until smooth. Add to crock pot. Stir well to combine.
4. Cover and cook an additional 30 minutes on high (the sauce has to boil for it to thicken).5. Serve over hot cooked rice.