Slow-Cooker: American Chop Suey with Ground Beef

American chop suey, I heard this name somewhere in a local Chinese restaurant where they serve tomato and vegetable starch-thickened sauce with chicken or seafood over the fried noodles or rice. Then my friend sent me this recipe via email with a subject – American Chop Suey (Macaroni and beef slow cooker recipe). Reading just the subject line actually caught my attention as I already got ground beef in the refrigerator and I was planning to make  ground beef for a dinner. Although, I just made few changes from the original recipe and added extra ingredients in it. 

Slow cooker recipes are perfect for someone who have busy work schedules or have busy schedules at home so what I do is; I put all the ingredients in the slow cooker in the afternoon or in early evening and by the time my dinner is ready when I want to serve. In the spare time I take care of my kids and can do other work commitments which I finish off by that time.

This American chop suey is an easy one bowl dinner idea to prepare on any busy weekend or weekday. The ground beef mix slowly cooks, then the cooked macaroni is added just before serving time. It’s really simple recipe and your kids will definitely like this recipe too. I guess this is one of the easiest ground beef recipe I made till date additionally this recipe was a hit in my family. Nevertheless, let’s start cooking this amazing recipe –

This recipe can serve up to 6 servings

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 4 hours

Total: 4 hours 20 minutes

Ingredients –

• 1 ½ lb. lean ground beef
• 3-4 medium clove of garlic, minced
• 3 Tbsp.  steak sauce
• 1 ½ cup elbow macaroni (cooked)
• 1 can(s) (16 oz.) tomatoes, chopped
• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion chopped
• ½ cup of water
• 1 cup of tomato juice
• 1 tsp. salt and pepper (or to taste)
• ½ tsp. paprika (optional)
• ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese, optional

Method –

1. In a non-stick skillet, brown the ground beef with onion and green pepper. Until beef is slightly cooked.
2. Now drain the mixture and transfer it to your slow cooker/Crock Pot. Add all seasonings, cheese, tomato paste, and tomatoes and all other ingredients; stir to combine. Cover and cook on low settings for 4 hours on high settings or for 7-8 hours on low settings.
3. At the end, stir in hot cooked macaroni 10 minutes before serving. 

Source: http://www.justapinch.com

I hope you will like this recipe. I am trying to get back to my slow cooker recipe again as it is easy and simple thing when it comes to hectic schedules. There is no rocket science in slow cooker recipes just mix the right ingredients and let it cook. This slow cooker also gave me an idea to cook an Indian delicacy called Biryani which is a slow cooking recipe too. I was planning to cook biryani in slow cooker if my idea is successfully implemented I will definitely share that recipe too. Till then keep cooking wonderful recipes and imagine your spatula is a magic wand that you use while cooking!

Love

Sylvia