Kitchen notes · a little help before you start
Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef
Sweet soy sauce makes thin slices of beef especially inviting, with ginger and garlic giving the glaze a savory edge. Green onions brighten the finish. Spoon up the warm beef with some of its glossy sauce and enjoy a simple dinner with plenty of flavor.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 180 min
- Total
- 190 min
- Original yield
- Serves 5
- Ingredients
- 9 listed
Make it part of your week
Recipe categories & planning details
- Meal type
- Main course
- Cuisine
- Asian
- Cooking method
- Slow cooker
- Preparation & total time
- Prep: 15 minutes or less · Total: over 60 minutes
A few quick notes
1. Coat before the cooker
Toss the sliced steak with cornstarch in a bowl until evenly coated before transferring it to the slow cooker.
2. Stir the sauce around
Add sesame oil and sauce ingredients, then stir to coat the beef before covering for the slow-cooking stage.
3. Green onion comes last
Keep green onions out of the first mixture and stir them in only after slow cooking, just before serving.
Get to know the ingredients
Across-the-grain slices
The flank steak is thinly sliced against the grain before coating. Keep that preparation when cutting the beef for the cooker.
Toasted sesame oil
The toasted sesame oil flavors the sauce directly in the slow cooker; there is no separate frying stage in these directions.
Half-inch green onions
Cut green onions into half-inch pieces for the final stir, leaving the garlic and ginger to flavor the earlier cooking mixture.
Let’s make it
Choose your servings, then check things off as you go.
Original recipe: Serves 5. Original quantities shown.
Check ingredients as you prepare them. These checks stay on this page.
How to make it
0 of 5 steps completeMake room for Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef
Review ingredients in your pantry before anything is added. Meal plans use your household size; grocery-only additions use the servings selected above.
The last little job
Stir and serve
Stir the prepared green onions through the cooked beef, coating them with the sauce, then serve while the mixture is warm.
A little more help as you go
Low setting option
Cook the coated beef and sauce ingredients together, covered, for four to five hours on low.
High setting option
For the high setting, the directions give two to three hours before the final green onion stir and serving.
A few questions you might have
Does the beef need browning first?
The directions put the cornstarch-coated slices directly into the slow cooker and stir the sauce ingredients around them before cooking.
Is a separate cornstarch slurry needed?
Cornstarch coats the steak at the beginning. The directions do not add another slurry during the finishing stage.
When does the brown sugar go in?
Add it with sesame oil, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and water, then stir to coat the beef before covering.
Which soy sauce is specified?
The ingredient list calls for low-sodium soy sauce, which joins the water and other sauce ingredients in the cooker.
Do I add water after cooking?
The listed water goes into the slow cooker with soy sauce and the other sauce ingredients before the covered cooking stage.
Storage & reheating safety
For cooked, perishable leftovers, refrigerate within 2 hours (1 hour above 90°F), using shallow containers for prompt cooling. Keep the refrigerator at 40°F or below, use refrigerated leftovers within 3–4 days, and reheat hot leftovers to 165°F, checked with a food thermometer. Follow any shorter package limit.
These are general safety limits, not a tested storage or freezing recommendation for this particular dish. USDA leftovers guidance · Safe cooking temperatures
Recipe source: dinneratthezoo.com. Ingredient names and quantities may be adapted for the pantry.
Preparation notes follow the recipe shown here.
