Beef stroganoff is the epitome of my personal comfort food. I have tested and tweaked and tested again and have finally come up with a no-fail, easy beef stroganoff that cooks in the slow cooker all day, therefore giving you the most tender pieces of beef.
Growing up, whenever it was snowing out, spitting cold rain, or just a downright miserable day, my dad would make some beef stroganoff. It sticks to your ribs and just warms everything right back up. When you walked into the house, the warm smell just smacked you in the face and you could just feel yourself thawing out.
There was one particular beef stroganoff that was made many many years ago that just stuck with us after so long because it was made just right. To this day we have no idea how my dad did it but we couldn't replicate it! We tried so hard and every stroganoff afterwards just fell a little short of THAT one (sorry dad).
I had been trying to, of course, get my stroganoff up to that standard and finally last year I made it for my mom and dad. Dad of course was the taster I was really banking on and anticipated his reaction. Would you believe it that he scratched out his recipe and asked for mine? He did! Proud moment in my life!
Mind you, this is not a healthy recipe any way you look at it but sometimes you just need that rib-sticking food in the cold of winter to thaw you out and set you right. My recipe is gluten-free but you can make it with regular wheat flour and use the traditional egg noodles instead of gluten-free pasta. Oh and the dry sherry is a must, you're cheating yourself if you don't use it.
Ingredients:
2 lbs beef stew meat
12-16 oz white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 yellow onion, minced
1 1/2 cups beef broth
6 tblsp dry sherry
1 tblsp worcestershire
1 tblsp dijon mustard
2 tblsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried thyme
6 tblsp All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour (or regular wheat flour)
2 bay leaves
8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
8 oz sour cream at room temperature
Salt and pepper to taste
Gluten-free pasta (or traditional egg noodles)
Instructions:
1. Place beef, mushrooms, garlic, and onion into the crock pot.
2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the beef broth, sherry, worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, parsley, and thyme. Whisk in the flour one tablespoon at a time until completely mixed. Put the 2 bay leaves into the crock pot and pour the mixture over top.
3. Stir all ingredients until coated.
4. Place the lid onto the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4.
5. 20 minutes before done, add the cream cheese to the crockpot and place the lid back on.
6. 10 minutes before done, stir the softened cream cheese into the sauce and stir in the sour cream.
7. Cook gluten-free pasta or egg noodles according to package instructions and serve stroganoff over top. Enjoy! and get seconds!