Can You Slow Cook Beef Tips? Yes, Here's How Long and How

Yes, you can slow cook beef tips, and it is one of the easiest ways to make them tender. Brown them, add onions and a few cups of broth, and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4, until a fork slides through with no resistance. Thicken the liquid at the end and you have beef tips and gravy for rice, noodles or mashed potatoes.

The one thing that changes the result is which cut your "tips" actually are. Tips cut from chuck turn soft and rich. Tips cut from lean sirloin still work in a slow cooker, but they need less time and a little more care, or they come out dry.

What are beef tips, steak tips and sirloin tips?

"Beef tips" is not one official cut. It is a name stores use for bite-sized chunks of beef, and what is in the package varies.

• Beef tips or stew meat are often cut from chuck or other hard-working muscles. They have plenty of connective tissue and fat, which is exactly what you want for slow cooking.
• Sirloin tips usually come from the sirloin tip, a lean area near the round (the back leg). Lean meat has little collagen to melt, so it gets tender up to a point and then starts drying out.
• Steak tips, especially in New England, are often flap meat or other loose-grained cuts sold for grilling. They are tender enough to cook fast and also do fine braised.

If the label does not say, ask the butcher which muscle the tips came from. Look at the meat too: white streaks of fat and silvery seams mean a forgiving cut, while uniformly deep red, very lean cubes mean you should watch the clock.

How to slow cook beef tips

This method works for any kind of tips. Adjust only the time.

1. Dry and season. Pat about 1 kg (2 lb) of tips dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Dry meat browns, wet meat steams.
2. Brown in batches. Heat a little oil in a heavy pan over medium-high heat and brown the tips on a couple of sides. Do not crowd the pan or they will sit in their own juices. This step is optional, but it adds a lot of flavor to the gravy.
3. Build the base. Soften a sliced onion in the same pan, add two cloves of garlic and a spoon of tomato paste, then pour in a splash of broth and scrape up the brown bits.
4. Into the slow cooker. Add the tips and pan contents, plus about 500 ml (2 cups) of beef broth. The meat should be partly covered, not swimming. A spoon of Worcestershire or soy sauce and a sprig of thyme are good additions.
5. Cook low and slow. Lid on. See the timing below. Avoid lifting the lid to check in the first few hours.
6. Thicken. In the last 20 to 30 minutes, stir in a slurry of 2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 3 tablespoons cold water, then cook on high until the gravy coats a spoon.
7. Taste and finish. Adjust salt, and add a little black pepper or a splash of vinegar if it tastes flat.

Mushrooms are a classic addition. Brown them in the pan after the beef so they do not turn slimy, and add them for the last hour.

How long to slow cook beef tips

These are starting points, since slow cookers run at different temperatures and smaller pieces cook faster. Test a piece about an hour before the low end of the range. Chuck tips are done when they shred easily. Lean tips are done when they are tender but still hold their shape, and that is the moment to stop, because more time only tightens them.

Beef is safe to eat well before it is tender, so this timing is about texture. Still, thaw frozen beef in the fridge before it goes into the slow cooker so it does not spend too long warming up.

Can you slow cook steak tips and sirloin tips?

Yes, with two adjustments.

Cut the time. Lean sirloin has little collagen, which is the thing that makes long cooking worthwhile. After a few hours it has gained what it can. Keep going and the fibers squeeze out moisture, giving you meat that is dry inside even though it sits in gravy.

Keep the heat gentle. Use the low setting where you can. A hard boil does more damage to lean meat than to fatty meat.

Some cooks prefer to sear sirloin or steak tips quickly in a hot pan and serve them medium-rare with a pan sauce, and that is a perfectly good choice if you want a 15-minute dinner. Slow cooking makes more sense when you want the tips soft and saucy, or when you need to be away from the kitchen all day.

A worked example: weeknight beef tips and gravy

Maria works until 5:30 and wants dinner on the table by 6:15 for herself and two teenagers. She buys 1 kg (about 2 lb) of chuck beef tips on Sunday.

• Monday, 7:20 am. She browns the tips in two batches (about 8 minutes), softens an onion in the same pan, adds garlic, tomato paste and a splash of broth, and scrapes it all into the slow cooker with 2 cups of broth and a spoon of Worcestershire. Low setting. Out the door by 7:45.
• 5:40 pm. The tips have cooked for about ten hours. Her cooker switched to warm automatically after eight, so they are tender but not falling apart. She stirs in a cornstarch slurry and turns it to high.
• 5:50 pm. She puts egg noodles on to boil.
• 6:10 pm. Gravy is thick. She tastes, adds salt and pepper, and serves.

There are leftovers for two lunches, which she portions straight into containers. Beef tips reheat well, so they are a good fit for meal prep on a budget.

Common mistakes with slow cooker beef tips

• Too much liquid. A slow cooker barely evaporates anything, so a pot full of broth gives you soup instead of gravy. Partly cover the meat.
• Wet meat in a crowded pan. Pat the tips dry and brown them in batches, or you will boil them gray.
• Lean tips on a long cook. Ten hours on low is fine for chuck and too much for sirloin. Match the time to the cut.
• Flour dumped straight in. It clumps. Mix cornstarch or flour with cold water first.
• Adding mushrooms and potatoes at the start. Mushrooms go slimy and small potatoes can turn to mush over eight hours. Larger chunks hold up better, or add them partway through.
• Underseasoning. Long cooking dulls flavor. Taste the gravy at the end, not the beginning.

If you want this style of cooking to become second nature, the habits in how to cook better apply here too: dry your meat, do not crowd the pan, and taste before you serve. For more low-effort dinners like this, see these easy comfort food recipes.

Common questions

Do you have to brown beef tips before slow cooking?

No, it is safe to skip, and the tips will still get tender. Browning adds deep, savory flavor and color to the gravy, so most people find the 10 minutes worth it. If you skip it, add a little extra seasoning such as Worcestershire, soy sauce or tomato paste.

Can you put raw beef tips in a slow cooker?

Yes. Raw, thawed beef tips go straight into the slow cooker and cook through as it heats. Avoid adding them frozen, because they take too long to warm up. Thaw them in the fridge overnight instead.

Why are my slow cooker beef tips still tough?

Usually they need more time. Chuck tips go through a tough stage before the connective tissue melts, so give them another hour and check again. If they are lean sirloin tips and dry rather than chewy, they were cooked too long, and the fix is less time next batch.

Can you cook beef tips on high in a slow cooker?

Yes. High works when you have 3 to 5 hours, and the result is still good. Low gives a little more tenderness and leaves more margin for error, so use it when the day allows.