The Secret To Tender, Slow Cooker Beef Tips Is A Splash Of Ginger Ale

Slow cooker beef tips are always a chef's kiss. Not only does the meat get to stew in its own juices and seasonings for as long as 10 hours, filling your house with delicious smells in the process, but you also get to go about your day while your dinner cooks itself for you. Plus, when your beef is ready to eat, it will be nice and tender due to all of the time the liquid has spent breaking down the fibers in the meat.

If you want the most succulent beef possible, try adding ginger ale into the mix. There are quite a few reasons why incorporating this ingredient is a good idea. For one, its carbonation and acidity work to soften the meat as it cooks, just like many other types of soda. Plus, ginger contains zingibain, an enzyme that disintegrates connective tissue. Ginger's tenderizing properties wear off when heated, so if you want the full effect here, you may want to use the soda as a marinade before cooking the meat. Either way, incorporating this ingredient will also give your beef a boost of sweet, spicy flavor, without much extra effort.

There are two ways to add ginger ale to slow cooker beef tips: mixing it in a marinade or dumping it in the slow cooker to simmer. Some ginger ales have more actual ginger than others, so if you want to reap its benefits, look at the ingredient list before purchasing. If you want this process to be as easy as possible and don't want to deal with a marinade, you can still use the soda's carbonation, acidity, and flavor by going with the latter option.

You'll only need two cups of ginger ale at most, so buying just two cans or one larger bottle should do the trick. Before you pour your soda into the slow cooker, mix it in a bowl with any other ingredients you're using for flavor — or just stir them in the appliance before you add the beef. Your mixture can include onion soup mix, gravy mix, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and mushrooms if you're going for a classic pot roast flavor, or soy sauce, garlic, sugar, red pepper flakes, and carrots if you want to mimic a Mongolian beef dish. Keep in mind that since most soda contains sugar, your meal will have a slightly sweet touch, so feel free to omit some of the sugar from elsewhere in your recipe if you'd like. Then, sit back, relax, and let the ginger ale work its tenderizing magic on your beef tips.