My easy Slow Cooker Beef Osso Bucco comes with a thick, savory tomato sauce and chunks of tender, slow-cooked vegetables! Treat yourself and your guests to elegant Italian comfort food at its best, without any stress and little prep work!
This Slow Cooker Beef Osso Bucco is hands down the tastiest meal I have ever cooked in a slow-cooker. Honestly, it totally blows my mind.
Solal and Meriam (my friend visiting us in Sydney) gave this Italian comfort food classic rave reviews and were super excited to have some twice in a row for dinner last week.
The savory tomato sauce is probably what we liked best about this Slow Cooker Beef Osso Bucco. It's made of balsamic vinegar, tomato paste and tomato sauce, along with a few fresh basil leaves and some garlic cloves.
Everything tastes better with garlic and basil in my book! The flavors of this Beef Osso Bucco are so comforting and round... you're going to love this easy yet elegant Italian beef dish!
Serve my Slow Cooker Beef Osso Bucco with mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower and you'll go straight to heaven, I'm telling you!
Before you run off to the kitchen to make this slow-cooked Italian Beef Osso Bucco, a word about the cut of meat:
Beef shank is a cheap cut of meat that can be a bit tough when not cooked properly. Thanks to the slow cooking method, however, the beef is very tender and delicious.
All in all, this Classic Italian Beef Osso Bucco recipe is very budget-friendly: the only 'pricey' ingredient is balsamic vinegar but you only use ¼ cup.
I love the fact that you can feed your family an outstanding Italian dinner for so little money and effort. This Slow Cooker Beef Osso Bucco is also a perfectly easy, yet impressive dish to serve at a dinner party.
If you tried this Slow Cooker Beef Osso Bucco, don’t forget to rate the recipe below and let me know how it went in the comments – I love hearing from you! You can also follow me on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook for more deliciousness and behind-the-scenes!
Slow-Cooker Beef Osso Bucco
My easy Slow Cooker Beef Osso Bucco comes with a thick, savory tomato sauce and chunks of tender, slow-cooked vegetables! Treat yourself and your guests to elegant Italian comfort food at its best, without any stress and little prep work!
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 pieces beef osso buco also called beef shanks
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 small carrots sliced
- 6 garlic cloves cut in half and germ removed
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- 6 oz tomato paste 1 can
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- ½ cup fresh basil leaves
Instructions
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Heat olive oil in a non-stick skillet on high heat. Brown each piece of meat on both sides and transfer to crock-pot. Season with salt and pepper.
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In the same skillet, add carrots and garlic, and cook for about 1 minutes. Transfer to a crock-pot.
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In a bowl, combine balsamic vinegar, tomato paste, tomato sauce and basil leaves. Pour over meat in crock-pot.
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Cook on low for 6 hours and serve with mashed potatoes and a green salad.
Sherry Blair
Just wanted to let you know I found this recipe on Yummly and have made it twice---both times it turned out GREAT and my husband loved it! Tonight, he actually came into the kitchen to get seconds! 🙂 Since I am just cooking for the two of us, this recipe makes a second meal for us to enjoy too. Thanks for sharing this.
marie
Thanks for letting me know Sherry, you made my day 🙂
May
Can you make it in the pressure cooker instead?
Marie
I don't own a pressure cooker myself so I'm not sure how you should adjust the recipe for it. Sorry I can't help you more May.
Michelle
I made it in an instant pot. 40 mins on high pressure. Added some beef broth for liquid as I saw in other pressure cooker recipes. Turned out delicious!
Josie
Do you mean tomato sauce like ketchup or passata?
Marie
Passata! 🙂
Nina
Whoops I thought you meant ketchup.... I’ve made it twice with ketchup and it’s delicious 😂
Marie
Haha I'm glad it still turned out! Can I ask where you're from? I think it's a US/UK/Australian English difference thing
Arleen Sharp
In Australia tomato sauce means a sauce similar to ketchup not passata.
peter
Do you add any water, in the slow cooker? I'm "baching" for a month and am no cook but thought I could try this out. I had an idea that meat in the slow cooker had to be covered by liquid for duration of the cooking, but maybe I'm wrong about that?
Marie
You don't need to add water no. The liquid here is the tomato sauce and the balsamic vinegar 🙂
40A.
I can literally smell it through the screen! The sauce looks so thick and savory! Delish!
Kate
I tried this recipe last night. It was delicious, a definite winner. Thanks so much
Marie
So happy to hear Kate, thank you!
Ann
Lovely taste. Very tender. But needs more stock in recipe
Chris
I'm making this for the first time today and it already smells amazing. Fresh basil from the garden and good quality passata and balsamic made for a tasty sauce. Can't wait till it's ready!
Marie
Hope you loved it Chris!
Nadine
Iv made this twice. Today I added extra veggies (eggplant & zucchini) because I had them in the fridge. It's restaurant quality. My whole family loves it. Thank you for the great recipe
Marie
Love the addition of veggies! I'm so glad it got the thumbs up from your family. Thanks for sharing Nadine 🙂
Deb
Yum! And so easy. I used beef cuts and also added celery. Thank you.
Ashley
Delicious! This is so simple to make and the result is so tasty.
Miss E
Thank you so much for sharing this delicious recipe. So easy to make! I don't think I'll ever make stew any other way from now on.
Peter Doyle
Thanks for clarifying that. Nearly made the same mistake. (Australia)
Glenn
Just tried your recipe, flavor is great but I noticed 2.5>3 hrs into it cooking it looked like there was not enough liquid as it was stating to get pasty. I added 1 cup of a full bodied red wine & it was even better! Additionally, in the beginning I added a sprig of rosemary... highly suggest you add both to your recipe.
Alicia Bongers
Would you serve this as is? or on mashed potato or pasta?
Marie
Definitely over mashed potatoes and with a green salad on the side 🙂
Lisa
does it matter if I forgot to fry it and put it straight in the sauce to slow cook for hours
Marie
I like to sear the beef a bit for more flavor but it's ok if you forgot, it'll still be good.
Jessica Hassler
Any idea what four shanks translates to in weight?
Marie
I would say around 1/2 lb (225 grams) or so per shank
Elisabeth
I have seen this at a different website and i tried it. It didn't turn out nice so I was anxious for this but it turned out splendid.
Thank you for a very good dinner!!
PS. I had added basil from our garden and it went very well.
Marie
I'm glad you gave this recipe a second chance and it turned out great the second time around! thanks for sharing Elisabeth 🙂
Tami
I made your recipe tonight, and it absolutely delicious! I used grass fed, pasture finished beef Osso Buco. Fall off the bone, no knife necessary! And the sauce is lovely! I did add chopped onion to the recipe. I will be making this again!
Marie
Super glad to hear it was a success Tami, thanks for sharing!
Aaron
Fantastic easy recipe with a full bodied sauce. Done it a few times now either in slow cooker or braised in oven. Thanks for sharing this great recipe.
Marie
Thank you Aaron 🙂 It's great to know it works well in the oven too!
Alecia
Could you substitute something for the basil as my basil dies in winter and I don’t want to go to the shops😛
Marie
Basil adds a really nice touch but if you really can't use it then parsley would be nice too (but not the same)