Slow Cooker Pepper Steak (Printable)

Tender beef strips with bell peppers slow-cooked in a savory-sweet sauce for an easy weeknight dinner.

# What You'll Need:

→ Meat

01 - 1.5 lbs flank steak or sirloin, thinly sliced into strips

→ Produce

02 - 2 bell peppers (one red, one green), cored and sliced
03 - 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
04 - 3 cloves garlic, minced

→ Sauce

05 - 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
06 - 1/3 cup beef broth
07 - 2 tablespoons brown sugar
08 - 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
09 - 2 tablespoons cornstarch
10 - 2 tablespoons cold water

→ Seasonings

11 - 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
12 - 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
13 - 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

→ Serving & Garnish

14 - Cooked white rice, for serving
15 - Sliced green onions, for garnish

# Directions:

01 - Arrange the sliced beef strips, bell peppers, onion, and minced garlic evenly in the bottom of the slow cooker.
02 - In a mixing bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, beef broth, brown sugar, diced tomatoes with their juice, ground black pepper, and red pepper flakes if using. Pour the sauce evenly over the meat and vegetables.
03 - Gently stir everything to combine. Cover the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 6 hours, or until the beef is fork-tender and the peppers have softened.
04 - During the final 30 minutes of cooking, whisk the cornstarch and cold water together in a small bowl to form a slurry. Stir the slurry into the slow cooker, replace the lid, and allow the sauce to thicken.
05 - Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning with salt as needed. Ladle the pepper steak over bowls of cooked white rice and garnish with sliced green onions if desired.

# Expert Advice:

01 -
  • The sauce does all the heavy lifting with just pantry staples you probably already have.
  • It turns cheap cuts of beef into something so tender it practically falls apart on your fork.
  • Cleanup is almost nothing since everything cooks in one pot.
02 -
  • Slice the beef against the grain or you will end up chewing on rubbery strips no matter how long they cook.
  • Adding the cornstarch slurry too early will cause the sauce to break down and get watery again so patience in those last thirty minutes is everything.
03 -
  • Freeze the steak for twenty minutes before slicing and the knife will glide through cleanly instead of tearing the meat into jagged pieces.
  • If your slow cooker runs hot check the beef at five hours because overcooked strips become dry and stringy no matter how much sauce surrounds them.

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