Beef

Smoky Ranch Beef & Potato Crock

Name: Smoky Ranch Beef & Potato Crock
Prep time: 5 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 2 lbs Beef (pick one below); 2½ cups Water or beef broth; 1 packet Cook SLO Smoky Ranch Beef & Potato Crock; 4 cups Potatoes, diced

Creamy smoked ranch with beef, potatoes and cheese. A full meal, no sides needed.

Prep 10 min LOW 6–7 hours HIGH 3–4 hours Serves 8

Smoky Ranch Beef & Potato Crock, finished and plated — Serving suggestion

This is the beef version of Ranchstorm — the same tangy, creamy ranch idea, but with smoked paprika behind it and potatoes cooked right in.

It's the heaviest, most filling thing in this book, and it's meant to be. This is a cold-night, big-appetite, everybody-goes-back-for-seconds dinner.

Because the potatoes cook in the sauce rather than beside it, they end up carrying as much flavor as the beef does.

Why you'll love it

A complete meal, genuinely.

Beef, potatoes, cheese and sauce. Put nothing else on the table.

Smoky and creamy at once.

Smoked paprika against a ranch base is an uncommon and very good combination.

Feeds eight.

And it's filling enough that eight really means eight.

Kids demolish it.

Ranch, cheese and potatoes. There's no negotiation required.

What's already in the packet

Ranch powderCream cheese powderWhole milk powderCheddar cheese powderBeef bouillonOnionSmoked paprikaGarlicButtermilk powderBlack pepperThickener

Ranch and buttermilk on a cheddar cream base, with smoked paprika giving it the barbecue edge.

Choose your setting

Recommended

LOW · 6–7 hours

Low and slow gives collagen time to melt and flavors time to build. It is the setting this recipe was written for.

HIGH · 3–4 hours

For when you started late. It gets dinner done, but the texture is better on LOW.

Done at 190–200°F

For cubes. If you used ground beef, 160°F is the number.

You'll Need

2 lbs Beef (pick one below)
2½ cups Water or beef broth
1 packet Cook SLO Smoky Ranch Beef & Potato Crock
4 cups Potatoes, diced

Pick your beef

2 lbs

Beef stew meat

2 lbs

Chuck roast, in cubes

2 lbs

Ground beef, browned and drained

Roasts 145°F, ground beef 160°F

Add vegetables

Canned fire-roasted cornGreen beans (fresh or frozen)Diced onion (fresh or frozen)Sliced mushrooms (fresh or frozen)Bell pepper strips (fresh or frozen)Sliced carrots (fresh or frozen)Cauliflower (fresh or frozen)

Diced onion (fresh or frozen) and sliced carrots (fresh or frozen) at the start, on the bottom; bell pepper strips (fresh or frozen) at the start; mushrooms at the start to melt into the sauce, or the last two hours to keep their shape; cauliflower (fresh or frozen) in the last two hours; green beans (fresh or frozen) in the last hour; canned fire-roasted corn in the last thirty minutes.

When to add what

When	Add	Why
At the start, on the bottom	Diced onion (fresh or frozen)Sliced carrots (fresh or frozen)	Root vegetables cook slower than meat. They belong closest to the heat, and they hold the meat up out of the liquid. Cut everything an inch and a half or larger — smaller pieces disintegrate.
At the start, to soften into the sauce	Bell pepper strips (fresh or frozen)	These break down and give their flavour to the pot. Right for a gravy or a fajita, wrong if you want them to hold their shape.
At the start, or the last two hours	Sliced mushrooms (fresh or frozen)	Mushrooms are a choice. At the start they melt into the sauce and deepen it. In the last two hours they hold their shape and keep some bite.
Last two hours	Cauliflower (fresh or frozen)	Long enough to cook through, short enough to keep their shape.
Last hour	Green beans (fresh or frozen)	Any longer and green beans go grey, squash turns to water, and pineapple falls apart.
Last 30 minutes	Canned fire-roasted corn	Canned corn and hominy are already fully cooked. Thirty minutes warms them through; any longer and they go soft and lose their bite.

What each one does to the dish

Canned fire-roasted corn

Sweetness and pops of texture. Good with children, and it lifts anything creamy or spiced.

Green beans (fresh or frozen)

Colour and a bit of snap against a soft dish.

Diced onion (fresh or frozen)

Melts into the sauce and sweetens it. Worth adding even if you do not like onions, because they vanish.

Sliced mushrooms (fresh or frozen)

Depth. The single biggest flavour change you can make to a savoury pot, and it makes the sauce taste like it simmered longer.

Bell pepper strips (fresh or frozen)

Sweetness and colour. At the start they melt into the sauce; late they stay crisp.

Sliced carrots (fresh or frozen)

Sweetness and colour. Cut thick or they disappear over a long cook.

Cauliflower (fresh or frozen)

Like broccoli but milder, and it soaks up more of the sauce.

All optional. The recipe works with none of them.

Two ways to do this

If you're home

Follow the timing table above and add things when they're due.

About an hour is all you need

If you're out all day

Put in at the start as normal: diced onion (fresh or frozen), sliced carrots (fresh or frozen), bell pepper strips (fresh or frozen) and sliced mushrooms (fresh or frozen). These need the full cook anyway.

Add cauliflower (fresh or frozen), green beans (fresh or frozen) and canned fire-roasted corn when you walk in the door. Forty-five minutes to an hour on low is enough for all of it, and it will taste better than if it had cooked all day.

If you would rather not touch it at all, put everything in at the start and use frozen where you can. It will be softer than the timing above intends and the greens will lose their colour, but it will taste good and dinner is ready when you walk in.

Frozen is the better choice for a long day. Already cut, holds its shape better than fresh over eight or nine hours, and goes in straight from the bag with no thawing. Frozen diced onion and pepper strips remove the only real prep this recipe has.

Before anything goes in the pot

1
Brown the ground meat first
Only if you are using the ground beef option. Cubes go in raw.
2
Deglaze the pan and pour it in
This is the step almost everyone skips, and it wastes half the benefit of browning. Most of the flavour you just made is stuck to the pan. Pour a cup of the recipe's water into the hot empty pan, scrape everything loose with a wooden spoon while it bubbles, and pour that into the crock pot. Count it toward the total liquid.
3
Whisk the packet into the water before it goes in
Do not sprinkle dry powder onto liquid in the pot. Put the 2½ cups in a jug, add the packet, whisk until there are no lumps, then pour it over. Cheese and cream powders dissolve properly this way and the sauce comes out smooth instead of grainy.

These happen outside the crock pot, before it's switched on.

Tonight's Plan

1
Brown the beef and pour off the fat.
Only if you are using ground beef. Cubes go in raw.
2
Put the potatoes and onion in, then the beef on top.
Potatoes underneath so they cook through.
3
Set a reminder if you are adding late vegetables.
The table above says when each one goes in. Most are in the last forty-five minutes, so one reminder covers them.
4
Pour in the whisked liquid and put the lid on.
Seven to eight hours on LOW. Cheddar powder settles and scorches, so whisking it into the water first is not optional.

When about 30 minutes are left

Creamy upgrade

Stir gently so the potatoes hold together.

Gently — they're soft by now.

Leave the lid off 10 minutes, then serve in bowls.

It thickens as it sits.

Stirring

Stir once at the halfway point

Cheese and cream powders settle against the hot crock wall and scorch into a brown ring. That ring then breaks up into the sauce and makes it grainy. One stir at the halfway point prevents it, and one is all you need — every lift of the lid costs about twenty minutes.

Swaps and add-ins

Add corn and green beans.

Last hour. Turns it into a full country-style dinner.

Add bacon.

Half a pound, cooked and crumbled, stirred in at the end.

Make it cheesier.

A cup of shredded cheddar at the end on top of the packet's cheese.

Use ground beef.

Browned first. It makes a looser, more casserole-like version.

Tips for success

Cut the potatoes evenly. Inch chunks. Uneven sizes means some are mush and some are raw.
Stir the packet in properly. Cheese and ranch powder are both prone to clumping.
This one doesn't need a side. It's a complete meal. Anything extra is decoration.
Drop in a liner before anything else. Smooth it against the sides and fold the edges over the rim. When you're done, lift it out and throw it away — the crock never needs scrubbing.

Finish it right

Crumbled bacon and sliced green onion.

Loaded-potato style. Crunch and sharpness against all that creamy.

A dash of hot sauce.

The vinegar cuts through the richness. It won't read as spicy.

Extra shredded cheddar, on top.

Melting into a hot bowl.

Serve it over

In bowls with cornbreadWith a crisp green saladWith crusty breadOn its own

Tomorrow night

Loaded potato soup.

Thin with broth, mash some potatoes, top with cheese.

Beef and potato casserole.

In a dish with extra cheddar, baked 25 minutes.

Breakfast skillet.

Fried crisp with an egg on top.

Stuffed baked potatoes.

Split, fill, broil with cheese.

Keeping it

Fridge

Airtight, up to 4 days.

Freezer

Not ideal. Potatoes go grainy after freezing.

Reheating

Low with a splash of milk or broth. It sets very firm cold.

Questions people ask

Recipe card