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This Slow Cooker Ground Beef is an easy make ahead recipe for 6 pounds of ground beef. You can store it for use in all kinds of other recipes! Tacos, pasta, sandwiches, and just about anything else!
Making ground beef in the crock pot is an easy way to get a head start on dinner prep!
Stock Your Freezer with Crock Pot Ground Beef!
We are all about keeping weeknight dinners simple and sometimes that means getting a major head start on dinner prep. preparing ingredients in advance for the week ahead. This can be useful if you plan out your meals.
Some foods, like ground beef, can be made ahead and used in a huge variety of other recipes. That’s the plan here!
This crockpot ground beef makes 6 pounds of meat that you can store ahead of time for tacos, sandwiches, pasta, salad, and so much more! We only add salt & pepper to this to keep it accessible for other recipes and then we divide it up and pop it in freezer bags.
These reusable freezer safe bags are a favorite in my house. Dishwasher safe, easy to open and close, and BPA free!
You may be familiar with my crockpot shredded chicken, which is another excellent meal prep recipe. You can have lots of protein ready to go for meals well in advance with these easy slow cooker recipes!
♥ What We Love About This Recipe:
- Simple – It’s just three ingredients. Ground beef, salt, and pepper. This is intended for use in a wide variety of other recipes so we’re keeping it as plain as possible with that in mind!
- Quantity – You can easily make 6+ meals with this beef, depending on how you portion it out and plan to use it. I love making a big batch of something to save time later!
- Flavor: You’d think this would be bland and boring since there isn’t much in the way of seasoning, but the beef actually tastes very…beefy. It’s a hearty, rich, savory flavor thanks to slow cooking all day. It’s tastier than ground beef that’s been cooked on the stove.
Ingredient Notes:
Ground Beef – We normally go for 90/10 beef, but you can use any variety you like and drain off as much fat as you’d like after cooking.
Salt & Pepper – We’re basically going for a blank slate here and keeping the seasoning very simple so that you can use this beef in a variety of recipes.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Crockpot Recommendation!
In the market for a new slow cooker? We love this 7 quart Crockpot. It’s simple to use, cooks evenly, and is very budget friendly. Plus, it has a 4 1/2 star rating with over 5,000 reviews on Amazon!
Variations:
This is really meant to be a very simple make ahead recipe that doesn’t have a lot of seasoning or other ingredients added so that it can be used in a wide variety of different recipes!
If you’re sure you know what you’ll be using it all for you could prepare it ahead of time with that in mind. For example, if you plan on eating a lot of ground beef tacos you could cook this with some taco seasoning.
Other ways to modify would be to add in a few veggies like chopped onion and minced garlic, or some diced bell pepper.
Step by Step Instructions:
Add the ground beef, salt, and pepper to a 6 quart or larger slow cooker. Set to low, cover and cook, breaking the meat up every couple of hours.
Continue cooking and stirring the meat until it’s browned all the way through. In our crockpot this takes about 8 hours.
Drain off as much of the fat as you’d like and portion out the meat however you’d like. For our family of four, we normally make 7 bags of beef, which is just under a pound of beef each.
Helpful Tip!
Storage & Freezing:
To store all this make ahead ground beef I’d recommend portioning it out into different freezer bags. These reusable freezer bags are a favorite, but Ziploc bags work great too.
We like to drain the fat and let the meat cool just a bit before transferring to the bags. This collapsible colander makes it easy.
Portion the meat out into bags based on how much beef you normally cook for a meal. For us, we do about 7 bags, which is just under a pound of beef each.
The crockpot ground beef can be frozen for up to a few months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, or in the microwave, before reheating for use in other recipes. Alternately, just dump it into a skillet and rewarm it on the stove – only takes a few minutes and you can season it easily that way.
This slow cooker ground beef can also be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container or bag for about 3 to 4 days before it’ll need to be used or frozen!
Ground Beef Recipes:
There is no way I could possibly list all the great ways you could use this make ahead ground beef! Tacos, pasta, chili, soups, and so much more. Pretty much anything you’d need cooked ground beef for.
Try this ground beef with some of these favorite recipes:
- Loose Meat Sandwiches
- Beefaroni
- Fried Tacos
- Air Fryer Nachos
- Ground Beef Enchiladas
- Big Mac Salad
- Taco Pasta Salad
- Chili Sloppy Joes
- Chili Mac
- BBQ Ground Beef Casserole
More Favorite Crockpot Recipes!
- Crockpot Ranch Pork Chops
- Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings
- Crockpot Ribs
- Crockpot Ham
- Crockpot Hashbrown Casserole
Or you can see all of our slow cooker recipes here!
Crockpot Ground Beef
Ingredients
- 6 pounds ground beef 90% lean preferred
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cracked pepper
Instructions
- Add the ground beef, salt, and pepper to a 6 quart or larger slow cooker.
- Set heat to low, cover, and cook for 1 hour. Use a wooden spoon to begin crumbling the meat.
- Continue cooking for around 8 hours, stirring every 2 hours to help crumble the meat, until the meat is cooked through. Every slow cooker cooks differently and you may need more or less time.
- Drain the fat, if desired, before using or freezing.
- Portion the meat out into freezer bags and freeze until ready to use.
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