Slow Cooker Beef Ragu

Slow cooked to perfect fall-apart tender perfection and loaded with hearty flavors, this slow cooker beef ragu is incredible over warm pappardelle pasta and a comfort food favorite!

Welcome to comfort food city! We’re in the thick of that time of year when you need easy comfort food and you need it NOW.

Enter, the most gloriously rustic (and stupid-easy) beef ragu draped over tender pappardelle noodles with lots of fresh parsley and Parm cheese grated on top.

This is one of those recipes where you set it and forget about it for a good long period of time thanks to the slow cooker. We love letting this ragu bubble away in the slow cooker all day and daydreaming about how epic dinner is going to be later.

And oh my, is it ever. We’ve got the most luxuriously tender beef swimming in a rich red wine sauce, a little tender vegetable goodness for some body, and no shortage of comforting flavors.

This Beef Ragu features…

• Fall-apart tender beef chuck roast
• A rich and flavorful veggie beef ragu sauce
• Tender pappardelle pasta for serving with ragu

Making the Beef Ragu

(scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe)

Ingredients You Will Need

• Beef chuck
• Olive oil
• Sweet onion
• Carrot
• Celery
• Garlic
• Red wine
• Tomato paste
• Beef broth
• Crushed tomatoes
• Bay leaf
• Thyme

Choosing Your Beef

We recommend using a boneless beef chuck roast or rump roast for this ragu. Both these cuts of beef are excellent for slow cooking because the beef becomes very tender and flavorful the longer it cooks.

To prep your beef for cooking, trim any exterior fat off of the beef and cut the beef into 2-inch cubes. We like to cut the beef down into these smaller pieces so every inch of the beef can get braised in the flavorful red wine beef sauce.

Tips for Perfect Beef Ragu

1. Sear beef before slow cooking – this step is essential as it forms a seasoned crust on the beef and makes for a very flavorful base to the ragu sauce.
2. Finely cut vegetables – ideally, you want the onion, carrots, and celery in very small pieces for this recipe. They’re only here to add a little extra body and aromatic flavor to the sauce.
3. Deglaze pan with red wine – once the beef and vegetables are seared, deglaze the pan with red wine and use a spoon to scrape up the browned bits. You want all this flavor in your sauce!
4. Slow cook ragu on high or low – depending on how much time you have, you can choose to either cook your ragu on high 4-5 hours or on low 7-8 hours. As always with slow cooking, make sure you occasionally take a look at it to make sure everything is cooking as it should.
5. Pull beef apart with forks – once the ragu is done cooking, remove the beef chunks from the slow cooker with a slotted spoon and use two forks to pull the meat apart into bite-sized pieces. If your meat is not easily pulling apart during this step, return it to the slow cooker and let it cook for longer.
6. Serve ragu over pappardelle pasta – we find that these long wide noodles are best suited for holding a hearty sauce like this ragu.

Recipe Variations

Try these ideas for a different twist on this recipe.

• Add different vegetables – try adding mushrooms or sweet pepper for extra veggie additions.
• Skip the alcohol – use additional beef broth in place of the red wine for an alcohol-free ragu.

Storing and Freezing Beef Ragu

This ragu stores well in refrigerator up to 6 days. You can reheat individual servings 2-3 minutes in the microwave or heat larger quantities in a pot on the stovetop until the ragu registers 165F.

To freeze ragu, allow to cool completely then transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze up to 2 months. Allow ragu to thaw in refrigerator, then reheat on stovetop or in microwave.

This is one of those dinners that you’ll quickly find yourself adding to the regular rotation! Really hard to argue with the cozy flavors we’ve got heavily abundant here AND the fact the slow cooker is taking care of business for you.

Instant dinner hit, you wait and see.

Save this recipe using the ‘save to recipe box’ button below. If you make it, please let us know! Leave a comment + star rating below, or take a photo and tag it on Instagram with #wholeandheavenlyoven.

More hearty beef recipes to try next!

• Skillet Balsamic Glazed Steak and Mushrooms
• Chipotle Butternut Squash Beef Stew
• Instant Pot Barbacoa Beef Tacos