Ingredients
Scale
The Beef
- 2–2.5 lbs (900g–1.1kg) beef chuck roast, cut into 1½–2 inch cubes
- 2 tbsp neutral oil
- 1½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
The Vegetables and Aromatics
- 8 oz (225g) cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 large yellow onion, finely diced
- 3–4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
The Braising Liquid
- 1½ cups (360ml) beef broth
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp dried thyme (or 3 fresh sprigs)
- 2 bay leaves
The Thickener
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 3 tbsp cold water
The Sour Cream Finish
- 1 cup (240ml) full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
For Serving
- 12 oz (340g) wide egg noodles
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- Fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- Additional sour cream for dolloping
- Coarsely cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Season and sear the beef. Pat the beef cubes completely dry with paper towels. Season generously on all sides with salt and black pepper. Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Working in two to three batches — never crowding the pan — sear the beef cubes on all sides until deeply browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer each seared batch to the slow cooker.
- Cook the aromatics. Reduce the skillet to medium heat. Add the diced onion to the same skillet and cook, scraping up any browned bits, for 3 to 4 minutes until softened. Add the minced garlic and tomato paste and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the tomato paste darkens slightly.
- Deglaze. Pour a splash of beef broth into the skillet and scrape every remaining browned bit from the bottom. Pour the entire contents of the skillet — onion, garlic, tomato paste, deglazing liquid — into the slow cooker.
- Build the slow cooker. Add the sliced mushrooms to the slow cooker around and over the beef. In a small bowl or measuring jug, whisk together the remaining beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, and Dijon mustard. Pour over the beef and mushrooms. Add the thyme and bay leaves.
- Cook. Set the slow cooker to LOW and cook for 6 to 8 hours, until the beef is completely tender and falls apart when pressed gently with a spoon.
- Thicken. Thirty minutes before serving, whisk together the cornstarch and cold water until smooth. Stir the slurry into the slow cooker. Switch to HIGH and cook, uncovered, for 20 to 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened to a coating consistency. Remove and discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.
- Add the sour cream. Switch the slow cooker to KEEP WARM. In a medium bowl, whisk the room-temperature sour cream together with a ladleful (approximately ½ cup) of the warm braising liquid from the slow cooker until completely smooth — this is the tempering step. Stir the tempered sour cream mixture back into the slow cooker and combine thoroughly. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and black pepper.
- Cook the noodles. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Cook the egg noodles according to package directions until just al dente. Reserve ½ cup of pasta cooking water. Drain and immediately toss with the butter.
- Serve. Divide the buttered noodles among bowls or plates. Ladle the beef stroganoff generously over the top. Finish with a small additional dollop of sour cream, a generous scatter of fresh parsley, and coarsely cracked black pepper. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Temper the sour cream — this step is non-negotiable. Cold sour cream stirred directly into hot slow cooker liquid curdles into white granules floating in a greasy sauce. Tempering — whisking a ladleful of the warm (not boiling) liquid into the sour cream before it goes into the slow cooker — prevents this entirely. Remove the slow cooker from LOW to KEEP WARM first. Take 60 seconds for the tempering step. The smooth, creamy sauce that results is the entire point of the dish.
- Full-fat sour cream only. Low-fat and non-fat sour cream curdle more easily, produce a thinner, less satisfying sauce, and taste noticeably different in the finished dish. Full-fat is the correct ingredient. There is no adequate substitute in this application.
- Thicken before adding sour cream — not after. The cornstarch slurry goes in thirty minutes before the sour cream step. Adding cornstarch to a sour cream-containing sauce risks breaking its emulsion. The sequence matters: thicken first, then temper and add the sour cream.
- Room temperature sour cream tempers more easily. Cold sour cream from the refrigerator tempers less smoothly and is more prone to some graining at the point of contact with the warm liquid. Remove the sour cream from the refrigerator thirty minutes before cooking ends.
- Do not overcook the noodles. Wide egg noodles cooked past al dente become soft and break apart when tossed with the butter and sauce. They should retain some chew — slightly firm at the center — when drained. They will continue to cook very slightly from their own residual heat.
- Keep noodles and sauce separate until serving. If there is a timing gap between the stroganoff being ready and dinner being served, keep the noodles in a warm bowl tossed with butter and the stroganoff in the slow cooker on KEEP WARM. Combine on the plate — never combine in the pot or the noodles will absorb all the sauce and swell past their ideal texture.
- Freeze without the sour cream. Sour cream does not freeze and thaw cleanly — it separates and becomes grainy. Always freeze the beef-and-sauce portion without the sour cream and add freshly tempered sour cream when reheating from frozen.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 6–8 hours (on LOW)
- Category: Comfort Food, Dinner, Main Dish