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This Slow Cooker Poor Man s Pepper Steak is a cheap, filling dinner that many Midwestern families grew up eating. It takes a small amount of beef and stretches it out with lots of peppers and a thick, shiny brown gravy that soaks into rice or mashed potatoes so well. Cooking it low and slow turns cheap steak into meat so soft it falls apart, and the peppers get so tender they almost melt right into the sauce. It’s an easy, no-fuss meal that tastes like it cooked on the stove all day, but really it just needs a little prep and then it cooks mostly on its own — perfect for a busy weeknight.
Serve this pepper steak spooned over hot white rice, brown rice, or buttered egg noodles, since they soak up all that tasty gravy. Mashed potatoes work great too, especially if you like a thicker base for the sauce. A simple side of steamed or roasted veggies, like green beans, broccoli, or carrots, adds some color and freshness to the plate. If you want to keep things really old-school and budget-friendly, serve it with a slice of buttered white bread or a warm dinner roll to soak up any extra sauce.
This budget-friendly slow cooker pepper steak turns cheap cuts of beef into a fork-tender dinner with barely any effort. Just four simple ingredients cook low and slow into juicy meat, soft peppers, and rich brown gravy. It’s a hearty, old-fashioned comfort meal that’s perfect for busy weeknights and easy on your wallet too.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1½ pounds cheap beef steak (like round steak or chuck steak), sliced into strips about ½-inch thick
- 2 large bell peppers (1 green and 1 red), seeds removed and cut into thin strips
- 2 cans (10.5 ounces each) condensed cream of mushroom soup
- 1 packet (1 ounce) dry onion soup mix
slow cooker pepper steak: Directions
- Layer the peppers first. Spread the sliced bell peppers in one even layer across the bottom of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker. This gives the meat a soft bed to sit on and lets the peppers slowly break down until they almost melt into the sauce.
- Add the beef. Lay the beef strips on top of the peppers, spreading them out as much as you can so every piece has room to cook evenly and turn nice and tender.
- Mix the sauce. In a medium bowl, whisk the condensed cream of mushroom soup together with the dry onion soup mix until it’s smooth. It will look thick and pasty at first — that’s exactly what you want, since it turns into a rich, glossy gravy once it cooks.
- Pour it over everything. Spoon the soup mixture evenly over the beef and peppers, using a spatula to scrape out every last bit from the bowl. Don’t add any extra water — the meat and peppers will let out enough liquid on their own to thin the sauce into a nice spoonable gravy.
- Cover and cook. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours, or on HIGH for 3½ to 4 hours. The dish is ready when the beef feels very tender and the peppers are so soft they’re almost dissolving into the brown sauce.
- Stir it together. Once cooking is done, gently stir everything in the pot so the beef, peppers, and gravy all mix together. Taste it, and if you’d like, add a small pinch of salt and some fresh black pepper — but go easy, since the onion soup mix already adds a good amount of salt.
- Serve hot. Spoon the pepper steak over rice, mashed potatoes, or egg noodles, making sure to add plenty of the peppers and shiny brown gravy on top of each plate.
