Slow Cooker Saucy Miso Beef Bowls

There is nothing better than a slow cooker meal that the whole family will love, and this one could not be easier. Set aside five minutes in the morning to mix up a simple sauce of pantry staple ingredients and add it to your slow cooker with a chuck roast. By dinnertime, you’ll have a tender, saucy pot of beef that you’ll shred and add to a bowl with rice and cucumber. It’s perfect for busy parents or anyone who just wants a filling meal with minimal effort. That’s all of us, right!?

Watch Me Make Slow Cooker Beef Bowls

Table of Contents

Ingredients and Substitutions
How to Make It
Storing
Tips
Reasons to Love It
Miso Beef Bowls Recipe

Slow Cooker Beef Bowl Ingredients and Substitutions

Chuck Roast

I’m not gonna lie, chuck roast a big hunk of meat. If you can’t find chuck roast, round roast or sirloin tip roast work great, too. Cut it into large chunks before adding to your slow cooker. There’s no need to brown the meat or do anything else to it beforehand.

Beef Broth

I recommend using beef broth instead of beef stock because it’s lighter and more flavorful. Stock will make the sauce too gelatinous.

Soy Sauce

I use low sodium soy sauce to ensure the meat doesn’t get too salty. You can use Tamari as a gluten-free alternative.

White Miso

White Miso paste is a fermented Japanese soybean paste that’s fairly mild with a unique savory, umami flavor. It is becoming much more common and easy to find—I get mine at Trader Joe’s!

Rice Wine Vinegar

Rice wine vinegar is my go-to for meals with Asian flavors like this one. It’s milder and less acidic than most other vinegars. You could use wine wine vinegar, Champagne vinegar, sherry vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or lime juice instead, but rice wine vinegar will meld the best with the other flavors.

Sesame Oil

Sesame oil gives the sauce a subtle nuttiness, especially if you use toasted sesame oil, which I recommend for sauces. You could use olive oil in a pinch, but the sauce won’t have that same sesame flavor.

Brown Sugar

For the perfect sweet-savory balance that is typical of many Asian-style sauces, I add a tablespoon of brown sugar. You can use light or dark brown sugar.

Garlic and Ginger

Freshly grate fresh garlic and ginger with a microplane.

Toppings

I serve my slow cooker miso beef very simply with white rice, thinly sliced cucumber, green onion, and sesame seeds. You can serve yours with brown rice and, if you have more time, roasted broccoli instead of raw cucumber.

Storing and Reheating Slow Cooker Beef Bowls

Store the shredded miso beef in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, sauce and all. The oil will solidify when it gets cold in the fridge, so just scoop some of the solidified fat into the bowl you’re reheating the beef in for it to turn sauce-like again. Microwave the beef for 1 to 1.5 minutes in the microwave and serve with white rice and more freshly sliced cucumbers and toppings of choice.

Tips for Making the Best Slow Cooker Beef Bowls

• Make the sauce and add everything to the slow cooker so it’s ready by dinnertime. 
• Setting your slow cooker to low (instead of high) allows the beef to cook gently and become super moist and tender. However, if you don’t have that much time before you want to eat dinner, you can set it to high and cook it for half the time.
• While there are more common substitutes for many of the ingredients, the sauce will taste the best and most distinctly Asian in character if you use the intended ingredients (sesame oil vs olive oil). 
• You can shred the beef directly in the slow cooker with two forks. It will be tender and should shred apart very easily. Stir the shredded beef around in the sauce so it can soak up even more flavor. When you’re ready for dinner, shred the beef first and leave it on warm to soak up the flavors while you prep the rice and toppings.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Everyone loves a slow cooker meal. It makes dinner unbelievably easy, especially when making the sauce takes five minutes and putting the toppings together and shredding the beef takes another five. We all have 10 minutes to spare to make a delicious meal.
• Aside from maybe the chuck roast and miso, you probably already have all the other ingredients on hand. If you don’t, you’ll definitely find uses for it in other recipes, like my Teriyaki Salmon Bowls and my Miso Honey Chicken Spring Roll Bowls.
• If you loved my Mississippi Pot Roast, you’ll love this super simple slow cooker beef recipe with even fewer ingredients and totally different flavors.
• Depending on how many people you’re feeding, this recipe will likely give you leftovers for at least another meal or two throughout the week.
• The toppings can be whatever you want them to be or whatever you need to use up in the fridge.

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