When I turn to stroganoff as a dinner choice, ninety percent of the time it’s going to be a quick skillet version that utilizes ground beef. And there’s nothing wrong with that option! It’s quick, it’s delicious, it’s comforting. But stroganoff that uses falling apart fork-tender pot roast beef instead? Well, that’s really something special. But that doesn’t mean it’s in any way difficult — thanks to the magic of the slow cooker, this Pot Roast Beef Stroganoff is every bit as easy as the quick stovetop version.

This is one of those situations where the slow cooker does pretty much all the work for you. You should definitely sear your beef first, because nothing else replicates that kind of flavor, but once it’s nice and brown, you just add it to the crockpot along with some sliced onions and mushrooms and garlic. The beef cooks in the sauce, more or less. You add beef broth, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and a bit of thyme and set it to cook for four hours on high or eight on low.

Once that cooking time is up, you’ll remove the beef and shred it up, and then add it back to the slow cooker along with some cooked egg noodles and sour cream. Stir it all together and you’ve got Beef Stroganoff!

But not just any Beef Stroganoff, Beef Stroganoff with all the flavor of pot roast that’s been braised low and slow until it’s impossibly juicy and tender. That’s the kind of flavor that twenty minutes on the stovetop just can’t give you, but that doesn’t mean there’s any extra effort on your part to get it.