If you are looking for a rich tasting, thick comfort food dish for colder days, this Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon recipe if for you! This dish comes with amazing flavors and aromas that will fill up your house and have everyone asking, what’s for dinner! It has all of my favorites in it, red wine, large bites of beef and potato, and a thick rich sauce.
I love, love, love cooking this recipe. I always feel like I am harnessing my inner Julia Child when making it. Although I don’t follow her recipe exactly, the thoughtfulness, care and just absolute love that goes into this dish every-time I make it makes me feel like Julia is watching over me.
With most of my recipes, I enjoy adding my own unique taste to it. For this one, I decided to add a secret ingredient-CHOCOLATE! I mean what goes better with a deep red wine, I was so ecstatic with the end result.
First thing you will need to do is get 8 slices of bacon, chop them up and throw them in a large frying pan. Once they are cooked using medium heat, I take a slotted spoon and put the bacon into the crock-pot. Take the 3 pounds of boneless beef chuck and cut them into 1-inch pieces.
Take a paper towel and dry each piece of meat and then just prior to adding them to the frying pan with the left-over bacon grease. Gently, take a pinch of flour, salt and pepper, mix them together and dust the mixture onto the meat. Once finished, add the beef to the frying pan and sear 2 minutes on each side. Once the meat is browned on each side, take the slotted spoon and/or tongs and add the meat to the crock-pot.
Once the meat is in the crock-pot, add one large onion, cut in large chunks, carrots, garlic, thyme and mushrooms. Then head back to the frying pan, add the red wine (I used a Cabernet Sauvignon) and tomato paste. Stir well, cooking until the sauce is simmering and then reduce the heat. Slowly whisk in the beef broth and soy sauce.
Then add a whole disk of Chipotle Chili flavored Mexican Chocolate (I used Taza Brand) to the sauce. Special note: This does not make the dish spicy, it adds a hint of smokiness and a rich deepness to the sauce. Once this has melted and has been whisked, it will thicken. When your sauce has slightly thickened, you can add the savory sauce to the crock-pot with your other ingredients.
Depending on how long you want to cook it for, turn on low for 8 hours or high for 4. Either way, halfway through cooking in the slow cooker, you have one more step. Take a cup of the juices from the crock-pot,Β and add the 1/4 cup of flour, whisk and throw it back in the crock-pot. This will thicken all of the juices that came out of the meat during the cooking process.
This might not be your typical crock-pot recipe where you throw in ingredients and then walk away and forget about it. This is more of a weekender recipe or a dish you might want to make on a special occasion or to show off your culinary skills. π
Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon
- Total Time: 8 hours 20 mins
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
Curl up with this amazing dish on a cold winters night and enjoy big tender chunks of meat with a stick-to-ribs sauce.
Ingredients
- 8 Slices of bacon
- 3 Pounds of boneless beef chuck
- 1 Pound of baby potatoes
- 1 Large Onion
- 5 Carrots
- 3 Garlic cloves
- 8 oz. of mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons of thyme
- 2 Cups of beef broth
- 1 Tablespoon of soy sauce
- 1/2 Cup of tomato paste
- 1/4 Cup of flour
- 3 Cups of red wine
- 1 Mexican hot chocolate disk
- 1 cup fresh chopped parsley (for garnish)
Instructions
- In a large frying pan cook bacon on medium heat until crispy, add bacon to crock-pot leaving juices in pan.
- Cut Beef into 1 -inch chunks and Dry Beef with paper towel
- Add salt, pepper and flour mixture to beef and sear on each side in bacon juices for 2 minutes, transfer beef to crock-pot leaving juices in the frying pan
- Add chopped carrots (in chunks), onion (in fourths), whole potatoes, garlic, mushrooms, and thyme to crock-pot and turn on low
- In the frying pan, add red wine, allowing it to simmer and then reduce heat
- Slowly whisk in beef broth, tomato paste and soy sauce
- Add Mexican hot chocolate disk to sauce and whisk
- Cook until slightly thickened (about 5 minutes) transfer to crock-pot
- -6 hours later grab 1 cup of sauce from the crock pot and add 1/4 cup of flour and whisk
- Add mixture back to crock-pot
- Stir and cook for remaining time.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 8 hours
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: French American
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