Quick & Delish: Crockpot Pepper Steak

One of my favorite hobbies is cooking.  I love trying new recipes and challenge myself to make a sit-down dinner most nights of the week.  I’ll share some of my favorite weeknight recipes labeled “Quick & Delish” to signify tasty weeknight meals that won’t force you to spend the entire evening in the kitchen.  The recipes I’ll share are tried & true…I’ll always include my own comments as italicized remarks within the recipe & directions.  Bon appétit!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 lbs boneless beef top sirloin steak, cut into strips 
• Note: You could probably use a lesser quality cut of meat as it crumbles when fully cooked 
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• Note: I would suggest omitting the salt as the recipe is fairly salty, even with reduced sodium soy. 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 green bell peppers, cut into strips
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• Hot cooked rice 
• Note: We prefer short grain brown rice and recommend Lundberg which can be purchased at most grocery stores.  If using short grain brown rice, note the cooking time as it can be up to an hour.

 Directions

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-low heat.  Brown steak strips in 2 batches.  Add garlic; cook and stir 2 minutes. Transfer steak strips, garlic, and pan juices to 4- to 7- quart Crock-pot slow cooker.
• Note: I prefer to brown the meat on med-high which cooks faster and really seals in the juices.  Once the pieces have a nice caramel color on one side, brown the other side, remove them from the pan and place them in the crockpot.  Add the garlic while browning the second batch.  The increased skillet temperature made it difficult to remove the pan juices once the steak and garlic were cooked.  I removed the steak pieces and added ½ c. of water to the skillet to deglaze.  The additional moisture should loosen the pan bits right up…add the liquid mixture to the crockpot.
2. Add onion, soy sauce, sugar, salt (I would suggest omitting), ginger, and black pepper to slow cooker; mix well. Cover; cook on LOW 6-8 hours or until meat is tender (up to 10 hours).  Once I added all the ingredients to the crockpot, it didn’t look like much.  I was scared to death that the meal would burn while I was at work.  It cooked for right at 10hrs and was perfect when I got home.  If you know your crockpot runs hot, I would suggest reducing the cooking time.
3. Add bell pepper strips during final hour of cooking.  Blend water and cornstarch until smooth; stir into slow cooker.  Cook, uncovered, on HIGH 15 minutes or until thickened.  Serve with Rice.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Thanks to Mary Duren for sharing this quick & delish recipe.