Last Updated on July 25, 2018 by Rohit the Great

Crock pot cooked flat iron steak makes an excellent alternative to conventional broiling, pan frying or grilling.

This guide will explain how to cook flat iron steak in a slow cooker, giving some tips on buying quality beef and recipes to try.

This is what this article looks like:

Part 1: Cooking Flat Iron Steak. What is it and how does it work you can find here.

Part 2: Buying Quality Steak & Cooking Tools. What you need to know to buy perfect steak and slow cooker.

Part 3: Pro Tips & Recipes. Little techniques to make your slow cooking a bit better with some recipes included.

Part 1: Cooking Flat Iron Steak

The idea of slow cooking is simple – get your ingredients ready, put them inside your slow cooker turning it on and then come back hours later.

Why Slow Cooking Is Great

Slow cookers cook food slowly and very gently.

This means that connective tissues (i.e. collagen) in cuts such as flat iron steak break down causing sauces to thicken and enrich whilst leaving meat juicy and tender.

It’s not just great from cooking perspective – slow cooking helps to extract gelatin, which is great for a wide spectrum of things, including healing your gut, balancing out meat intake, helping skin get healthy, protecting joints and spine discs (anyone with disc herniation here?) and improving sleep.

Slow Cooking Technique: 3 Steps

Here is what I recommend you do every time when cooking flat iron steak in a slow cooker.

1. Room Temp & Cut

If you kept your steak in the fridge, take it out and cut it into 1-inch cubes. Wait for 20 minutes till they get to room temperature.

2. Sear the Cubes

Add a tablespoon of coconut oil or ghee to skillet and heat it up until it starts gently smoking.

Meantime season the cubes with kosher salt and place them inside the skillet searing for 2 minutes. Make sure your steak cubes are actually being seared instead of boiling – that happens if you put too much at the same time.

3. Load Slow Cooker

Once you finished searing the steak, relocate it inside the slow cooker and add the ingredients from the recipe you picked (our recipes are in Part 3). Cook for the time required.

That’s pretty much it! As you can see it’s fairly straight-forward.

Let’s look at how you can buy best quality flat iron steak and cooking tools (including the actual slow cooker).

Part 2: Buying Quality Steak & Cooking Tools

We have just learned how to cook flat iron steak in a slow cooker in Part 1 and pro tips and recipes will come in Part 3.

As for now – let’s see how to buy quality flat iron steak, slow cooker and other tools you can use.

Perfect Flat Iron Steak

Would you like to enjoy a mouthwatering, delicious flat iron steak that is not only tasty, but is great for your health?

If YES, is your answer I recommend you choose organic grass-fed beef.

The tags ‘organic’ and ‘grass-fed’ mean that cows were not routinely fed growth hormones and antibiotics while being fed exclusively grains, flaked corn and other fattening feeds. Instead they were treated more humanely, ate natural grass-type feeds and had time feeding outside in their natural environment. It is obvious that these cows are healthier and better for your health. After all, you are what you eat.

So, organic grass-fed is one single change that brings the most outcomes. The rest is much less important.

Cooking Tools & Utensils

Which tools you need to cook an awesome flat iron steak in a slow cooker? Here is the answer.

Slow Cooker

There are numerous slow cookers on the market and their price ranges reflect the amount of features they carry onboard. Truth be said, I recommend you use a simple slow cooker that just fits your needs right. That means you also need to take into account its size.

Slow cooker sizes are measured in quarts. As a rule of thumb one quart feeds one person.

If you are feeding more than two people and have a busy lifestyle (and like leftovers), I recommend you get a 6-quart slow cooker. It serves 4+ people and will still have some leftovers for the following day.

After reading reviews and looking for a slow cooker I recommend you consider investing in this Hamilton Beach model. It has all the features of a regular slow cooker, but here is the cool thing – it has a probe to check for internal temperature of whatever is being cooked.

For example, you want a medium-rare flat iron steak from your slow cooker. All you need is to set the cooker at 55C / 130F and stick the probe needle inside your steak. Once it reaches the mark, slow cooker goes to ‘Warm’ setting. This is awesome feature and I highly recommend it for cooking best steak every time.

Instant-Read Thermometer

Guesswork is the worst thing you can employ to cook steaks. A quality meat probe eliminates all of it and helps you get mouthwatering results. It is especially necessary for large cuts of beef.

Ideally use the probe that is integrated with the slow cooker (like in this Hamilton Beach). If you already have a cooker, get this one instead – you can use it for grilling and stove top cooking as well.

Blow Torch or Stove Top Skillet

As we saw, the best way to get the flavor rolling is to quickly sear the steak’s surface using high heat. A powerful blow torch is ideal for this type thing (avoid crème brulee models as they are not powerful enough), because it requires little time and no clean up afterwards.

Alternatively you can use a thick-walled skillet. It will concentrate enough heat to quickly sear the steak’s surface. I recommend using forged aluminum or cast iron skillets.

That’s pretty much all you need for slow cooking flat iron steaks.

And now I invite you to learn pro tips and try some recipes in Part 3.

Part 3: Pro Tips & Recipes

We have just looked at slow cooking equipment in Part 2 and actually got an idea of what slow cooking is all about in Part 1.

Right now check out these tips.

Tips #1: Substitute

If you don’t own a crock pot you can still enjoy meals cooked in this way.

Create these wonderful dishes using an oven proof dish and cooking at very low temperatures. Generally, set your oven temperature for 250 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for the same amount of time mentioned in the crock pot recipe.

Tip #2: Avoid the Fat

Sometimes flat iron steak can be quite fatty. You might want to get rid of excess fat for some reasons. The best way to do it is refrigerating the already cooked meal in the fridge for a couple of hours. The fat will then solidify on the surface and will become easy to remove with a spoon.

Tip #3: No Evaporation

When preparing a flat iron steak in a crock pot or slow cooker you need to remember that the cooker never brings liquids up to a boiling point.

This means that you need to think carefully about how you wish to thicken your sauces.

Connective tissues will dissolve and thicken the sauce slightly during cooking but if additional thickening is required it will need to be done before cooking in the crock pot or immediately prior to serving the meal.

Tip #4: Thicken Up

This tip follows from the one before it. If you noticed your dish is very watery and you are nearly done cooking, switch the cooker to HOT setting and take the lid off. Higher temperature will help with evaporating excess water and thicken up your sauce.

Flat Iron Steak Slow Cooking Recipes

Recipe #1: Simple Steak with Gravy

If you are a less than confident, cook this simple recipe for Steak with Gravy – it will help you produce delicious tender flat iron steaks every time. It is also perfect for Mums and dads who are busy but still want to prepare home cooked food for the family.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs of flat iron steak
• 1 ounce package of onion soup mix
• 10 ounce can of cream of mushroom soup
• ¼ cup of water
• Salt and pepper

Directions

• Cut the steak into portion sized pieces and place in crock pot
• Mix the soup mixes and the water together well and add to the crock pot
• Cover and cook on the low setting for 6 – 8 hours (or high setting for 3-4 hours)

This simple slow cook flat iron steak recipe really does take almost no time to prepare and, when served with fresh green vegetables, makes an excellent healthy meal.

Recipe #2: Honey and Barbecue Sauce Flat Iron Steak

Flat iron steak crock pot recipes are not just for Mums and Dads looking for a quick way to prepare a healthy family meal.

The crock pot is also perfect for preparing more unusual meals more suited to a dinner party.

This recipe is perfect as it can be prepared well in advance and needs the minimum of time and attention meaning you can focus on being a good host or hostess.

Ingredients

• 3 lbs of flat iron steak cut into 8 ounce portions
• 1 large can chopped tomatoes
• 1 can favourite barbecue sauce
• ½ jar honey
• Three large cloves garlic, sliced

Directions

• Combine all of the ingredients in a crock pot bowl or in an oven proof casserole
• Cover and cook in the crock pot for 3-4 hours on ‘high’ or in the oven at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for the same time
• Once cooked, remove the meat and thicken the sauce using your favorite thickener OR bring the heat up to increase the speed of liquid evaporation

Serve with creamy mashed sweet potatoes and seasonal vegetables for a dinner party main course to be remembered!

Recipes borrowed from RecipesThatCrock – highly recommended for anyone into slow cooking.