Slow Cooker Beef Curry
This slow cooker beef curry could not be easier! Thick chunks of slow-cooked, tender beef, in a rich and thick curry sauce that is just waiting to be scooped up with some naan. Serve with this Coconut Jasmine Rice and some Homemade Naan!
How was everyone’s 4th of July celebrations?? We had so much fun. I decided to pretend that my kids are 5 years older than they are, and hosted a giant water fight. I invited a bunch of kids, bought 500 water balloons (I’m not exaggerating. The rapid-fill kind are worth every penny. They were still gone within 10 minutes) and planned relay races and water guns and everything.
The only problem is that my kids and all their friends are still at the age where when someone pelts them with a water balloon, they start screaming that someone threw a water balloon at them. Yeah, kid, that’s the point. Try explaining this logic to a 5 year old.
And then 2 hours before the party the kids tore a hole in our blow-up kiddie pool. That’s because I always let them play in it, even when the pool is empty, because watching kids play ‘pirate ship’ in an empty kiddie pool is kind of hilarious. (We have to dump the water out of the pool every time we’re done with it, otherwise Valentine (who is not quite 2) would be perpetually wet for the entire summer.)
So we had no kiddie pool, half the kids are screaming, and I had to bribe Truman with Otter Pops to get him to play relay races with me. Also, when I ended up being the only adult in a swimsuit, my entire extended family decided it was fair game to do water balloon target practice on me. I definitely got more wet than any of the kids.
Ah well. Summertime, right? It was actually really fun. I’m sure this will be a golden memory for my kids 10 years from now. Right? Right???
How to make Slow Cooker Beef Curry
Who’s ready for some slow cooking?? Every time I use my slow cooker now, I remember this lady who commented on one of my slow cooker recipes (can’t remember which one) with tons of details about how to secure your slow cooker lid if you are using it out on your deck and have large animals. I think it involved using a broom handle to lock it in place under the arms of a deck chair, or something elaborate like that. I never even thought to put my slow cooker outside! But I guess if you really want to keep your kitchen cool, that’s the way to go! Just don’t let your pooch get into it.
I love this recipe because it’s very simple. I’m not going to make you go out and buy fish sauce or lemongrass. It’s basic, but you get tons of flavor from just a few simple spices. The one that you might not have is called garam masala. It’s a blend of Indian spices, and it adds so much flavor. If you can’t find it, this would still be good with just the yellow curry powder called for. You might want to increase the amount a little bit.
The curry has a little heat but I don’t think it’s over the top spicy. My kids ate it. If you serve it with rice and/or naan, I think it’s perfect. You could also serve it with some plain yogurt, which would help to cool things off.
You’ll want to brown the meat in batches. If you throw it all in at once, it will start steaming the meat instead of searing it, which is not what you want. You want it to get nice and brown on the outside, like this:
I like to serve this beef curry with Coconut Jasmine Rice with Cilantro and this Homemade Naan. You can also buy naan in the bakery section of your grocery store. If you really want to go all out, make Strawberry Lassis too! YUM.
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One year ago: Creamy Zucchini Soup with Popcorn Garnish
Three years ago: The Best Lemon Curd
Six years ago: Breakfast Banana Split
Slow Cooker Beef Curry
Ingredients
- salt and pepper
- 2-3 tablespoons oil
- 2-3 pounds chopped stew beef or chuck roast*, chopped into chunks
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 (8-oz) can tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1-2 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon Beef Base
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 & 1/2 tablespons yellow curry powder
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- cilantro, to garnish
- red onion, chopped, to garnish
Instructions
- Heat a large, high-sided skillet (or a wide-bottomed pot), over medium high heat.
- Salt and pepper the beef chunks.
- Add about a tablespoon of oil to the pan and swirl. It should start to shimmer if the pan is hot enough.
- Add 1/3 of the seasoned meat to the pan. Place the pieces of meat so that they are not touching each other (You don’t want them to steam–see photos). Turn the pieces with tongs to brown all sides. Remove the beef to the slow cooker and repeat 2 more batches, adding more oil as necessary.
- Once all of the beef is browned and in the slow cooker, turn the heat on the pan down to medium. Add the water, tomato sauce, garlic powder, salt, beef bouillon, black pepper, curry powder, and garam masala.
- Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is bubbly and the bouillon has dissolved. It should thicken up a bit.
- Pour the mixture over the beef in the slow cooker.
- Add the chopped onion and stir it all together. Cook on low heat for 6-7 hours, until the beef is fork tender
- Garnish with chopped cilantro and hot rice!
- I love to serve this curry with lots of cilantro, Coconut Jasmine Rice and Homemade Naan! It's the best combo! You could even throw in a Strawberry Lassi to sip with it, if you wanted to get really fancy!
Notes
Nutrition
More slow cooker recipes you will love!
Traditional Tejano Carne Guisada (Braised Beef for Tacos) << I based today’s recipe off of this one. It’s a Texas classic and SOOO good!
Slow Cooker Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce <<one of the top recipes on my site!
Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala << my favorite, classic Indian dish, made in the slow cooker! You will love it.
More slow cooker curry recipes you will love!
Slow Cooker Thai Red Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk from Boulder Locavore
Slow Cooker Thai Beef Curry from Foolproof Living
Crock Pot Beef Curry from Wine and Glue
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How much curry paste and what kind of the paste do you recommend? I have all the pastes to use. Ty. Love your recipes
Hello Lynne! This recipe uses yellow curry powder; curry pastes have very different heat levels and flavor profiles, so I don’t recommend substituting them in this recipe. If you’ve got red curry paste, try my Thai Red Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes or Easy Thai Peanut Sauce. Enjoy!
Lovely beef curry recipe and using a slow cooker made for an easy family meal ready after kids sports practices. I cook a lot of curry chicken but have never used beef and this was so tasty. Based of previous comments, I eliminated salting the beef when searing and did not add the 1/2 t salt. We found 2T of beef base was plenty of salt/flavor and adding additional salt would have ruined it. Thank you for a tasty recipe.
After making this, I realized that I don’t cook with curry enough! I used stew meat. It was amazing. I used regular rice and made your Naan recipe. A fantastic dinner!
Oh lord. This recipe hit the spot tonight. The house smelled amazing and the flavor of this recipe was so delicious. I wish I had purchased naan to soak up the sauce. Next time.
Your recipes are awesome, this one a miss. It’s a salt bomb. I used half the salt and less beef base, the result is dry salty beef with a hint of curry. Not good.
Such a bummer Ty! Sorry it wasn’t a hit. I’ve updated the recipe to be a little more clear. I’ve made Better Than Bouillon a required ingredient (it’s all I use). It is way less salty than your average bouillon cube. I’ve also updated the notes on the type of beef used, I’ve learned since posting this that buying stew beef can be kind of a crapshoot, random bits and pieces that butchers throw in. It’s always a safer bet to buy your own cut so you know what you are getting. Chuck roast is my favorite!
Exellent so Easy recipe my kids enjoyed the food thank you
2 tablespoons of Better than Bouillon, what about liquid? Doesn’t see to be enough liquid to correspond to the bouillon. For one cup of water a teaspoon of Better than Bouillon. I am confused. Unless you are trying to infuse the dish with a lot of beef flavor? Advice would be appreciated.
Hi Nicole, that’s exactly right! Just getting all that beefy goodness in there. You can add less if you prefer!
In India, “curry” refers to any dish simmered in a spiced sauce. The end result can be “wet” (still in the sauce, or “dry” (all the liquid has evaporated). It is loosely analogous to “stew”. So curry doesn’t have to be just chicken! It can be any animal protein (lamb, mutton, pork–for the Christians, beef–for the Muslims and Christians, chicken, or fish). It can also be entirely vegetarian, like lentils, okra, cauliflower, or curried potatoes.
My husband and I enjoyed this dish immensely! Love garam masala and curry..
But I have a couple a comments about the recipe, and thought you might enjoy the little tweak I added.. There was not enough liquid. I kept having to add more water/broth, probably
ended up adding a whole cup at least. I added 1/2 cup of heavy cream at the end, which put the flavor profile over the top! Really delicious even reheated the next day. I added some peas as well. Next time, I’ll use a better cut of beef- the meat turned out a little dry. I made this on the stovetop, since it was only for 2 of us, and I didn’t want to drag out my 6 qt. crock pot. I will make it with your naan recipe next time! Love your blog and your recipes!
Hi Christine! So glad you enjoyed the curry! I’m not surprised you needed more liquid on the stovetop, liquid evaporates much faster on the stove! Great idea adding the cream. Sounds delicious. Thanks so much for sharing your tweaks!
Bummer! I thought about adding cream and totally forgot. I was too hungry when it was ready I think and I just dug in. Next time!
This was so delicious and easy! I will be making again but definitely without any added salt. I use Better than Bouillon and it still came out way too salty. I plugged the ingredients into MyFitnessPal and the sodium content of this recipe is really super high. I didn’t use any garnish (onion or cilantro) on top and it is still super tasty. Served with brown rice and steamed broccoli.
This looks so good. I have most of the ingredients that go into garam masala, but no actual garam masala. Can i just put together a mix of all the spices that are in garam masala? Thoughts? And i ran out of better than bouillon and just have beef broth – okay if i just throw in 1/3 cup of that? Thanks for your help!
Hi Kristen! great question! Yes I would just look up a recipe for homemade garam masala and mix up what you’ve got! It will work great! And yes totally if you have beef broth use that! Enjoy the curry!
Excellent recipe! Thanks for putting it out there. I made this for the second time today. As the first go-round was too salty for my taste, I omitted the salt in browning, as well as the 1/2 teaspoon, relying on the lesser brand beef bouillon for the sodium content. I paired it with homemade naan and jasmine rice. Delicious!
Now my question: Do you have nutritional info for this? Particularly, calories per serving size (is it 1 cup?)
Thanks! :)
Thank you so much for your feedback Julie! Glad you liked the recipe. I don’t provide nutritional info for my recipes, but you can plug it into an online calculator!
Could you tell me what tomatoe sauce is? Is it tomatoe paste?
Hi Merry! In the US, if you go to the canned tomato aisle, you will find both tomato sauce and tomato paste. tomato sauce is usually sold in 8 ounce cans or 15 ounce cans. tomato paste is usually in small 6 ounce cans. Tomato paste is much more concentrated.
This was delicious! Made it with your coconut jasmine rice and some store bought naan. Cooked it on the stove top for 2.5 hours. I noticed after I poured my rice in that I used basmati instead of jasmine but I cooked it an extra 5 min and it turned out perfect. After reading some comments on it being too salty I only did 1 tablespoon of the better than bouillon and I ended up adding a little more salt at the end so I think other readers should make sure it is the bouillon you recommend 👍🏻
Hi Stephanie, I’m so glad you enjoyed the curry! Yes, using a poor quality bouillon is the reason many were having salt issues. Better than Bouillon really is…better than bouillon, haha! I bet this was so good with basmati. Yum. Thanks so much for your review!!
I have to tell you that I have been following you for a long time, a couple of years now (we’ve had 3 babies 🤣) and I have never been disappointed.
THIS recipe has become a family favorite and is requested frequently. I love that the spice can be adjusted, serve this with the homemade Naan and Greek yogurt… Girl we eat this for DAYS. And when hubby is not having a good run of it (combat wounded vet) and gets SUPER finicky, I can get him to eat this. LOVE this recipe!!!
I’m so happy to hear that Caitlin!! Thank you so much for commenting! So happy to hear that you are loving the recipes. I love this curry and am glad that it cheers up your husband sometimes! Tell him thank you for his service!
This looks and smells good; glad I tried it before I served it for dinner tonight, the salt is over the top, I did not add any so must be from the base and I did not use the full amount, so disappointed and it’s going in the garbage, will try again using a different beef broth
Hi Debbie, did you use the Better than Bouillon brand? I’m so sorry it didn’t work out. I use it in all my cooking and have never found it to be overly salty.
Just tried this recipe today, and it is so yummy! I used a 600mil jar of passata, instead of tomato sauce, just simmered it down for a few minutes before adding to the slow cooker as per the recipe. To save time I sliced, rather than chopped onions. A real winner!
Hey Pippa! I’m so glad you liked it! I just had to google passata, sounds delicious. I’ve never seen that in stores here in the US, but I’ve also never looked, I’m going to try to find some now! It sounds good. Thanks for your tips and review!
Hello, i am looking forward to making this recipe!
Could I use a tin of canned tomatoes instead of tomato sauce?
Also if I use a beef stock cube, instead of beef bouillon is this dissolved in 1 cup of water, or just the cube itself?
Thanks!
Hi Lucy! Canned tomatoes would taste good but it probably won’t thicken the sauce as much. And I haven’t tried this recipe with a beef stock cube, I would dissolve it in the liquid called for in the recipe. (1/3 cup water)
Hi! I am new to your website and VERY excited to try this beef curry recipe on Saturday. I have a question, have you ever put vegetables into this dish? If so, do you have any suggestions? Thanks!
Hi Derek! No I haven’t tried this recipe with vegetables added in, but you could totally do that! I would add them about half way through the cook time so you don’t end up with mushy veggies. But that’s just me, lots of people cook veggies in the slow cooker all day and love it. It’s totally up to you!
Hi, I’m doing this today :) Does the sauce need to cover all the meat when you pour it over it in the slow cooker?
Hey Audrey! No, it doesn’t cover the meat completely, it’s enough to coat it though :) Enjoy!
Am I doing this right? 2 Tbl of Better than Beef is 3480 mg of salt in the recipe? I followed exactly and the mix tastes incredibly salty. Did you mean 2 tsp? My sauce is a dark brown from the bouillon.
Hey abby! How did the recipe turn out? I do indeed use 2 tablespoons. I use the same amount for this Tejano Beef recipe (same liquid and beef amounts) and I’ve made that dozens of times. I’m actually making this recipe this week, I will take extra note to see if it’s too salty! Thanks for the comment!
Do you think I could make this in the instant pot, follow the conversion rules of 25-20 minutes on high pressure? I wanted to make this for dinner tonight and am running out of time to let it cook for 6-7 hours.
Hey Amy! I think so! I would just look up in your IP manual how long to cook the amount of beef you are using. Make sure it’s chopped into pieces. It should work great, but I haven’t tried it. Let me know how it goes!
HI Karen,
made this in the IP last night. OMG SOOOO good. I cooked it at high pressure for 25 minutes. I can not wait to make this recipe again.
Oh perfect! I’m so glad it turned out Amy! Thank you for leaving a comment with IP instructions, that will help out other readers wondering the same thing!
Thanks for this recipe! I made it tonight, and though the curry flavor was really good, it came out incredibly salty. I made this exactly as written. Any ideas on how to cut the salt?
Hey PK! I’m so sorry it turned out salty, that’s the worst. There is only a half teaspoon salt called for, which isn’t much. Did you over salt the beef chunks in the second step? They just need a light sprinkle. The only other thing that might make it overly salty is the brand of bouillon used. Did you use Better Than Bouillon Beef Base as recommended? It’s not as salty as some brands. If you used powder, 2 tablespoons would probably be too much.
Made this dish this week and we loved it. I did use “cheap” steak and it turned out very tender. I had new potatoes from the garden so we served it over the potatoes. Great meal. Had enough left over for some beef bun sandwiches the next day. Will be making this again.
Ooh, this would be so delicious over garden fresh potatoes! And I love the idea of sandwiches the next day, too. Great ideas Glenda! Thanks for sharing your tips! I love getting comments from you.
This beef curry is crazy good!!! It tasted like real takeout with a quarter of the cost! I made it with the coconut Jasmine rice and even my pickest eater ate it! Next time I’m doubling it so I can get have leftovers!
I made the beef curry dish with coconut jasmine rice. My husband does not like curry but I took a chance and he LOVED this dish! We don’t have a slow cooker so I used the stove top and it worked out beautifully! Thank you!
I’m so happy to hear this Eva! It’s always awesome when you can find a dish that you both like. I’m so glad the stove top method worked well for you. Thanks for the comment!
This recipe sounds really good …… I have beef shank in the freezer ….Do you think it would work in this dish …….
Hey Debra! Yes I think it would work great! Beef shanks are a good choice for slow cooking. Just chop it into chunks first and sear as the recipe indicates. Let me know how it turns out!
Hi, I hope you loved visiting Australia! As it’s winter here now I can’t wait to make this it sounds delish. I just wanted to clarify about the can of tomato sauce. That’s what we call ketchup so is it something different, passatta maybe? Thanks!
Oh my gosh Ann, it was so fun!! I’m in love with Australia! And yes I noticed about the tomato sauce/ketchup! So funny. I think you could just use tomato sauce, the kind that you have. It’s about the same consistency as our tomato sauce. Let me know how it goes! (ps, I have no idea what passatta is??)