OAMC Trick: Browning Ground Beef

On August 31, 2009 by Tricia

I don’t know about you, but I really struggle with all of the browning of ground meat on our cooking days. It just seems like it takes two gigantic skillets to cook most of the meat and even then it ends up all over the stove. I have often wondered if there is a better way. Well, I think I might have found one!

I tried a little experiment for this last month’s cooking day and I am happy to report that it was a SUCCESS! I placed the ground beef (in my case it was ground turkey) in a slow cooker with 1 cup of water. The water helps to “steam” the ground beef. I turned the slow cooker on high and let the ground beef cook for 6-8 hours. About halfway through I took a look and it was all clumped together so I used a spoon to break it into pieces so the middle would cook better. After 8 hours, I stuck in a meat thermometer to make sure that it had reached the desired temperature. I forgot to take a picture, but let me just say, at the end of the 8 hours I was really skeptical. It had clumped into one giant meatball with the liquid surrounding it. I didn’t want to lose all of that beef so I continued on. I used a strainer to drain the meat (catching the broth in a bowl for freezing) and then returned the meat to the slow cooker. I used my Pampered Chef Mix N Chop (it was PERFECT for this) to break up the meat.

It turned out GREAT! I stored it in the refrigerator overnight as I had cooked it the day before in case of disaster. Then, on our cooking day, I simply sauted some onion, added it to the meat, and voila! Browned ground meat! My cooking partners thought I was AMAZING! So another great use for your slow cooker and hopefully a time-saver on your cooking day. On September’s meal plan I will be inserting directions that include cooking the meat this way overnight. If you find you don’t like this method you can stick to the old way, but I highly recommend giving it a go. Here are the instructions:

1. Add raw meat to slow cooker + 1 cup of water.
2. Cook on high for 6-8 hours or until meat reaches the desired temperature.
3. Drain meat.
4. Break the meat up with chopper or spoon.
5. Use as browned ground beef in recipes.

**Additional Note: Several readers have posed the question of the “danger zone” in cooking your beef this way. I wanted to respond as I have thought through this several times and waged the idea of slow cooker cooking. I want to emphasize that it is important to use the 1 cup (or more if you think it is needed) of water when cooking your beef this way. The liquid gets “in-between” and the meat cooks in the water, thus the surface area of the meat is being penetrated with the heat of the hot water, thus not placing the meat in the “danger zone” for as long. In addition, it is important to cook the meat on HIGH, not low, when preparing it. We must always be cautious of raw meats being in the danger zone but we have cooked meats as in stews and other meats in our slow cookers for recipes for years. Always use common sense and best practices when handling meat. If you are uncomfortable cooking your meat this way, feel free to bake, boil, or brown it on the stove top instead.