Slow Cooker Korean Beef

Slow Cooker Korean Beef - made May 20, 2017 from The Recipe Critic

I’m still making simple meals in my two-quart slow cooker and this was another easy one. You cut the flank steak into strips, toss it with cornstarch in a Ziploc bag, mix the sauce ingredients together in the slow cooker, add the meat, turn cooker to the high setting and leave it alone for a few hours until meat is tender.

Usually when I make anything in my crock pot, I end up with something soupy and/or watery. I was pleasantly surprised with this one that the sauce was actually thick rather than watery. I suspect tossing the meat with cornstarch and having that be part of the cooking process from the beginning was the main reason this sauce didn’t get watery.

I was also surprised that the flank steak got tender fairly quickly. I’m not familiar with the different cuts of meat and had thought it would take longer to tenderize, like stew meat. But I think I overcooked this in the sense that the beef was really, really tender. As in fork-tender and could cut with a fork. Not a bad thing but next time I probably wouldn’t bother to cut the strips very thin or small. I didn’t have any green onions to chop up and garnish this with or the dish would have looked prettier but overall, this is a tasty, easy meal.

1 1/2 pounds flank steak
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup beef broth
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
sesame seeds and chopped green onion, for garnish

1. Cut flank steak into thin strips. In a ziploc bag, add flank steak pieces and cornstarch. Shake to coat.
2. Add the sesame oil, minced garlic, soy sauce, beef broth, brown sugar, onion and red pepper flakes to the slow cooker. Stir. Add coated flank steak and stir again until coated in the sauce.
3. Cook on high for 2-3 hours or on low for 4-5 hours until steak is cooked throughout and tender. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onions.