Slow Cooker Beef Heart Recipe
Have you ever tried beef heart? This slow cooker beef heart recipe is the perfect place to start! You’ll love it! After all, the heart is just another muscle.
I love using inexpensive cuts of beef. One of the best ways to keep the meat bill down is to use cheap, less popular cuts and organ meats. This slow cooker beef heart recipe makes it easy, and, it’s a naturally gluten-free recipe!
We don’t actually sell our beef hearts because heart is Gabriel’s favorite part. He sells the choice steaks and eats the heart. Is that backward, or what? But really, heart is a muscle, just like other meat. It’s not funny tasting like liver, so it’s not a big leap from using beef roast to beef heart in recipes.
Having kept the hearts from several cows last year, I was able to experiment and find our favorite ways to cook them. This recipe has withstood the test of time, and we’ve made it again and again with each beef we process. We even purchase beef hearts from our friends after they process their own!
Not surprisingly, this slow cooker beef heart recipe took the top spot. I love being able to throw ingredients into a pot and let it babysit itself until I’m ready to serve it for dinner.
Hearts tend to have quite a bit of fat on them, which you can save and render into homemade tallow. I usually freeze the fat, and save it until I’m ready to render a larger batch of tallow.
This slow cooker beef heart dish is perfectly served over a bed of rice to soak up the juices from cooking in the crockpot, and then top it with homemade sauerkraut. We like to serve with a side of salad or steamed broccoli and thyme roasted sweet potatoes.
PrintSlow Cooker Beef Heart Recipe
This slow cooker beef heart is a delicious way to use an inexpensive cut of meat.
- Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
- Cook Time: 4-6 hours
- Total Time: 5-6 hours
Ingredients
- 1 beef heart (approximately 1 pound)
- 1/4 t. pepper
- 1/2 t. salt
- 1/4 t. garlic powder
- 1/2 t. dried oregano
- 1/2 an onion, sliced
Instructions
- Prepare beef heart by trimming fat, and dicing into one inch cubes. How much time you want to take to devein is up to you. I find that once the meat is cooked, the veins are pretty much indistinguishable, so I don’t like waste much time on this part.
- Toss into slow cooker, and sprinkle with pepper, salt, garlic powder, and oregano. Stir to coat beef cubes.
- Top with slices onions.
- Cook on high for 4-6 hours.
- Serve over steamed rice, or quinoa
, or for a more low carb dish, riced cauliflower.
- Enjoy!
Don’t miss these other simple dinner recipe ideas:
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When you add the heart to the crockpot is there any sort of cooking fat/liquid you would add? Ive never used heart before so I wasn’t sure if it would excret any sort of liquid on its own, I’d hate for it to stick to my crock pot haha.
No, I didn’t add any, The juices from the heart collect in the crockpot as it cooks, and I’ve found that to be enough without getting soggy. 🙂
I recently read that in some cultures (hunter-gatherer types, I think), people used to eat the organs and discard the muscle meats, or feed them to their dogs. So they would think we were weird for eating dog food! Also, I just read a Chinese saying, “Eat the part you want to heal.” Seems like we Americans should be eating a LOT more heart! Thanks for the recipe–it sure looks easy! But I think I’ll need a BIT more than 1/2 tsp. salt. =) I use good salt and am pretty generous with it. Or is this a meat that shouldn’t be salted till afterward, to avoid affecting the texture? I’ve read such contradictory things about that.
Hi Diane! So interesting! I wonder if they preferred the more pungent flavor of the organ meats, because if you think about it, their food would probably have otherwise been pretty bland!
I tend to salt pretty lightly so that everyone can salt to their own preferences afterward. My husband and I like fairly heavy salt, but the kids not so much, so use as much salt as you prefer!
I have read that adding salt directly to raw meat can cause it to be dry, but I haven’t actually experienced that personally.
That is correct….in our culture we have gotten away from eating organ meats but they contain a lot of nutrients we don’t get from muscle meat, which only offers protein for the most part. And I have read the same thing, that you should eat the part you wish to heal in your own body. Anyway, I recently purchased beef heart and want to start eating foods with more nutrition and this recipe looks pretty good to me, will be trying it soon!
Late response… my grandmother always prepared liver and other organ dishes with grits.. today I prepared Cow Heart in a mushroom and onion brown gravy cooked tender.. my Kids Loves it… until I told them it was cow heart????
Years ago I copied a recipe from a friends crock-pot cookbook on a pickled heart… It was very tasty and very close to the pickled heart my father would make…. He would also cook the beef tongue in a pickling spice and then skin the tongue after it was cooked & slice these for sandwich meat…. I’ve since lost this recipe and have looked for years for it with no such luck… Never thought of it till I saw this post… Maybe I can find it again on the Internet… Thanks!!!
I have found a tongue recipe like that in a cookbook called Long Way On A Little
Lisa did you ever find that pickled heart recipe? I’d love for you to share it. Thanks. I’d like any recipes like that… You mentioned pickled tongue? Please share.
No liquid?
Nope. Although it won’t hurt to add it, your finished dish will be a bit more soggy if you do.
These are phenomenal! I buy these all of the time, since they are super cost efficient, yet have the taste of a nice cut piece of steak. They have a very light liver taste, which is overpowered by the nice rich buttery taste of any steak. I cook my beef hearts in pasta dishes from pasta salads, yak (lo mein), to gravy with egg noodles and in a tomato sauce. ????????
Sounds delicious! thank you for sharing. 🙂
I love beef heart. My mother used to cook it when I was a child in the 40’s/50’s and her recipe included concentrated orange juice. She sliced the meat very thinly, and called it Mock Duck – much nicer than the other Mock Duck recipes which used sausagemeat or pulses.
I use my slow cooker, thinly sliced heart with onions, carrots and slices of whole orange, oregano and thyme.
That sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
There is no added liquid in this recipe?
Disregard my question I didn’t see the other comments thank you.
Easy and delicious, moving towards hour 6 on high. The meat gets increasingly tender and the broth more flavorful. Thank you
I added 1/2 water and put it into the slow cooker…. Boy, is it smellin’ good! Thank you!!
I’ve been making beef heart roast for quite a while &my family really likes it.
Here’s the recipe:
–beef heart (No need to cut off fat or Devin! It’s just a waste of time, as it All melts away in the cooking process)
–2 Tbs. Beef bullion
–1 tsp. of each: seasoned salt, garlic powder &
onion powder.
–1/2 tsp. of pepper
Put all in crock pot. Cover with water. This will not make it soggy, but tender! Let it cook on Low for 6 hours.
**I like to add potatoes to the beef heart. ( I love stewed potatoes!)
I am trying this this tomorrow!
I may have to try this with the hearts I’ve stashed in our freezer! I didn’t know what to do with them but this seems simple.
I find all of these comments quite humorous as my father was a hunter and every winter went deer hunting. The one part of the deer I look forward to eating was the deer heart. Most of my friends thought it was gross but a sandwich of deer heart was my absolute favorite. I don’t believe my mother did much fussing to cook it, may have even just boiled it, I’ll have to ask her. We bought several pounds of beef at our local farmers market from a rancher, in the assortment of cuts was the heart. I look forward to trying out your slow cooker recipe with mushrooms added-a must!
how long do I cook it if I have 4.5 pounds of heart? is it still 4-6 hours?
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I would say six hours should be enough. As long as the internal temperature reaches 160º, you’re good.
I’ve got deer heart in crock pot now I put dales dud add water to water it down a bit. with slices of onion on top on low hummm time will tell.
I’ve done beef and deer heart this way by following this recipe. My favourite dish by far!
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I like it better at the four hour mark but I add liquid.
Yay! So glad you like it!
Making this now! I’m looking forward to talking it to church tomorrow. Thanks for an easy recipe!!
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I am making this recipe for the first time. My husband bought 1/4 beef and we got the hurt in some liver. I have never cooked either , and I’m wondering if you have some recipes for liver as well.
Sadly, I don’t. I still haven’t found one the whole family likes.
I found that replacing the oregano with cinnamon makes a much nicer taste in sandwiches. I’m not a fan of oregano except in
Tomato sauce . I’m trying adding turmeric this time for its reported healing properties and will let you know how it comes out.
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I love beef heart. Going to try this simple preparation. Thank you. Also, beef heart is the highest food and CoQ 10 ( I may not be spelling that right ) . Beef heart is good for out heart
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I am gone for most of the day, so a 6 hours on high might be difficult. How long do you cook it on low?
I’d say at least 8 hours, probably 10.
Looking forward to trying this. Do you add water to the pot?
Excellent way to cook beef heart. I grew up eating organ meats as my father was a butcher. I was exposed to a lot of different meats and this recipe rates as one of my favorites for beef heart.
How much water do you use?
You shouldn’t need any. I don’t add water when cooking beef roasts or whole chickens in the slow cooker. I haven’t tried slow cooking beef heart, but definitely intend to.
Why won’t you answer the question about whether or not to add water and how much?
how much water
Another recipe I read used a cup of beef broth/stock per heart, approx 1.5 pounds, which is kinda small for a beef heart. I would likely stick to that same measurement of a cup per heart provided it’s been somewhat prepped and rough cut for cooking with the onions. Speaking of which I would usually put those onions on the bottom and layer the heart over the top.
I have never tried heart until last night. Used this recipe, and couldn’t have been more impressed with the flavor and texture. I cooked it for 5 hours on high. I followed the recipe exactly, and it came out awesome! We will definitely make this again!
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That’s great! Thanks for sharing.
HI! I am trying out new recipes and I noticed this one. I am new to using a slow cooker, so my question is this doesn’t call for any liquid? Thank you
What is going on here? Beef cubes are not mentioned in the list of ingredients.’Stir to coat the cubes’ suggests some liquid is involved – what liquid? None is mentioned.
‘Top with slices onions’: top with sliced onions?
…. First step is to slice heart into cubes… The cubes will be moist enough for the spices to stick. And top with sliced onions could possibly be anymore self explanatory.
Hate to come off as rude but it’s like you spent more time commenting than actually reading the very concise recipe.
An ideas of what I can do with all the fat and silver skin I trimmed off the heart?
Render the fat into lard and freeze the silver skin as bonus connective tissue to throw into your next batch of bone broth or meat stock
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simmer till soft and add bird seed. shape to fit your feeder. or you can just shape and freeze, the birds seem to love the scraps of meat. if you don’t like feeding birds, it is always a lovely treat cut up and cooked to add to your dog or barn cats food. i am sure they appreciate it, in the winter, just as much as the birds.
Hello,
Do you add any water to the recipe or oil to the heart? I started cooking with the crackpot and had things burn at the bottom at times, and worry that maybe it is self-explanatory here.
why would you trim the fat?
mine, i didn’t trim the fat. My first time cooking beef heart. I learned a lot from this website. Thanks! once mine is done, i’ll share it to this website. I’m just now boiling 2 beef hearts with salt, garlic, while peppercorns and ginger, to remove bad taste, and to removed the bad smell, i don’t like the smell. When tender already, i’m planning to sauté with onion and garlic, and put some seasoning. and veggie like green or red pepper, carrots and a can of green peas. i’ll see how things work.
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Is this dry? I haven’t made heart in years but I always heard you had to be careful to not dry it out
In my experience, no. I’ve had some older hearts that were difficult to get tender, but never had one get dry.
in the 40 years that i have been preparing and trying different recipes for beef heart, this has to be the best. if not to say the easiest.(if i can keep my husband from lifting the lid to take a sniff). i love to modify recipes, sometimes with success, other times i get the response “can’t you leave well enough alone”. i want to try adding baby bella mushrooms. what do you think? should they go in at the start or later on? can’t wait to experiment! i do like the peas and quinoa. thanks for a great recipe. and yes you can teach an old dog new tricks!
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Now that I’ve looked into other recipes, it seems that beef heart should be treated like a cut of steak more than stew meat. I will definitely not be making this again.
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Followed instructions exactly. Meat dried out , burnt and stuck to bottom of non stick slow cooker. I will try this again with the following changes. Put onions on bottom and top, add some red wine, cook on medium and stir and check each hour.
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A liver recipe the whole family will love
Liver slivers
1 pound beef liver, semi frozen makes slicing easier. Slice into small strips size if your little finger
Dredge in flour .Mean while cook 12 oz. Of curly egg noodles as pkg directs
In skillet melt 1 stick butter, sauté a large chopped onion just until tender and translucent.
With slotted spoon remove onion keep warm
Brown liver , med high heat just til water beads up on meat ,turn ,do not over cook,remove with slotted spoon to onions. Drain noodles. In same skillet ,you may need to add more butter. Fry noodles unti crispy and golden on edges. This is why curly noodles are best. When crispy add to meat and onions, salt generously and pepper. Enjoy ! The whole family will love it.