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Browning Ground Beef in Your Slow Cooker

I like making up dump meals for my slow cooker, meals that are ready to be dumped into my slow cooker, meaning I need to brown my ground beef ahead of time. I started using my slow cooker to get the job done quickly and all at once.

cookingground beef in your slow cooker

Browning Ground Beef in Your Slow Cooker

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I buy the largest package of ground beef at my Costco, bring it home and dump it in my slow cooker. Why? Because it saves so much time when I go to make a batch of  freezer slow cooker dump meals, I don’t have to dirty every frying pan in the house, I also don’t have to stand over a hot stove.

What you need:

  • ground beef
cooking ground beef in your slow cooker

How to brown ground beef in your Crock pot:

I have a large 7qt slow cooker, so I dump the whole package in. Make sure to break up your ground beef. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 8 hours.

Once it is cooked through, because I like my ground beef to be finer I’ll use my potato masher to break it up easily.

cooking ground beef in your slow cooker

I find my ground beef is a lot less greasy later on after cooking it in the slow cooker. See all that gross greasy on top?

We have a tiny little kitchen sink that is useless with the exception that my large colander fits perfectly in it. I dump all the ground beef into the colander for the grease to drain off, plus I rinse it off with warm water.

cooking ground beef in your slow cooker

After your ground beef cools, you can bag it up to freeze for cooking later, or bag it in dump meals as I do.

This is a time saver! Do this when you buy those large packages, when they go on sale and you stock up. My husband makes fun of me once in awhile when he sees all the ground beef I have stock piled in the freezer.

Some of the recipes that I use this ground beef in would be:

Slow Cooker Tater Tot Sloppy Joe Casserole
Slow Cooker Tater Tot Sloppy Joe Casserole
beef burrito skillet
beef burrito skillet