Slow cooker garlic herb beef shanks is an easy & comforting meal. Beef shanks are a great cut of meat for the low & slow method of the crockpot. The result is tender beef that’s falling apart. You can also make this low-carb, paleo, and Whole30 compatible recipe in the Instant Pot.
Ingredients For Slow Cooker Garlic Herb Beef Shanks
- Beef Shanks
- Garlic
- Beef Broth
- Dried Herbs & Seasonings
How To Make Beef Shanks In The Crock-Pot
- Slow Cooker
- Pour the broth into the slow cooker. Season beef shanks with dried herbs, salt, pepper, garlic powder & onion powder.
- Optional Step: Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef and sear until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes on each side. You might have to do this in batches. Remove the skillet and add the beef from to the slow cooker.
- If you’re not searing the beef shanks, add the seasoned meat directly to the slow cooker.
- Add the garlic on top.
- Cook high 4-5 hours or low 8-10.
- Season beef shanks with salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic powder & onion powder.
- Turn on the Instant Pot and select sauté. Once hot add oil to the pot. Add the beef and sear until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes on each side. You might have to do this in batches. Remove the beef from the pressure cooker and set aside.
- Add the garlic and broth and de-glaze the bottom of the pressure cooker by scraping all the bits off with a wooden spoon. Add the beef shanks back into the pressure cooker.
- Close lid and seal valve. Set high pressure and cook for 35 minutes. When cooking time is complete, let the pressure naturally release the pressure for 15 minutes then manually the any pressure.
What Are Beef Shanks?
Beef shank is a cut from the forearm and upper hind legs of the a cow. The meat is one of the tougher cuts of beef which makes it perfect for the low & slow cooking method of the slow cooker. When cooked properly, beef shank is falling apart succulent meat that’s full of flavor.
What Type Of Herbs To Use
I purposely left the herb ingredients generic with by only saying 2 tablespoons dried herbs. I used dried rosemary but as always, I encourage you to use your preferred ingredients. Don’t like rosemary? Use thyme. Or basil, or parsley, or oregano, etc. Same concept goes with the garlic. I use 4 cloves of garlic. You can make this as garlicky as you like.
Searing The Meat Beforehand
For the Instant Pot, searing the meat is listed as an instruction. If you’re using a slow cooker, browning or searing the meat before adding it to the slow cooker is an optional step. Don’t ever let someone say that you have to do this.
FAQs For Slow Cooker Garlic Herb Beef Shanks Recipe
- Beef shanks are a tough cut of meat so be sure to cook your beef until it shreds easily with a fork. If your beef shank isn’t tender to that point, keep cooking it.
- Make this recipe more keto friendly by adding butter or ghee on top of the beef shanks before they cook.
- Store leftover beef shanks in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- My beef shanks were approximately 1 1/2 pounds each.
- I served my slow cooker beef shanks over over mashed potatoes.
- I used a 6-quart slow cooker (or Instant Pot).
Beef Recipes
PrintSlow Cooker Garlic Herb Beef Shanks
Slow cooker garlic herb beef shanks is an easy & comforting meal. Beef shanks are a great cut of meat for the low & slow method of the crockpot. The result is tender beef that’s falling apart. You can also make this low-carb, paleo, and Whole30 compatible recipe in the Instant Pot.
- Prep Time: 10 mintues
- Cook Time: 5 hours
- Total Time: 5 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef shanks
- 2 cups low-sodium beef bone broth
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons dried herbs
- 2 teaspoons salt (or more)
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon oil
Instructions
- Add the broth and the garlic cloves to the slow cooker. Stir to mix well.
- Season beef shanks with dried herbs, salt, pepper, garlic powder & onion powder.
- Optional Step: Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef and sear until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes on each side. You might have to do this in batches. Remove the skillet and add the beef from to the slow cooker.
- If you’re not searing the beef shanks, add the seasoned meat directly to the slow cooker.
- Cook high 4-5 hours or low 8-10.
- Season beef shanks with salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic powder & onion powder.
- Turn on the Instant Pot and select sauté. Once hot add oil to the pot. Add the beef shanks and sear until lightly browned, 2-3 minutes on each side. You may have to do this in batches. Remove the beef from the pressure cooker and set aside.
- Turn off the pressure cooker. Add the garlic and broth and de-glaze the bottom of the pressure cooker by scraping all the bits off with a wooden spoon. Add the beef shanks back into the pressure cooker.
- Close lid and seal valve. Set high pressure and cook for 35 minutes. When cooking time is complete, let the pressure naturally release the pressure for 15 minutes then manually any pressure.
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21 thoughts on “Slow Cooker Garlic Herb Beef Shanks”
This was spectacular. With about a 1/2 hour to go, I added 2 bunches of asparagus. They came out incredibly soft and well cooked and with the flavor of the “stew.” I also used cornstarch to turn everything in the crockpot after the meat and veggies were removed into the best gravy I’ve ever had. This is a 10 star meal, out of 5…
I went the slow cooker route. It was delicious – never had meat so tender. For the braising liquid I used 1 1/2 cups of beef bone broth with 1/2 cup of merlot. I served it over buttered egg noodles instead of mashed potatoes…
I picked these up by accident and never had Beef shanks before. Found your recipe and gave it a try. Now because of your recipe, we have them regularly! I paired them with mashed potatoes and seasoned green beans. They were so tender and absolutely delicious! Love love love!!
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Beef shanks are not the easiest thing to find. At our BJ’s wholesale club, they had one package, 3.15 lbs. at $4.49 a pound, $14.14 for the package. They were nowhere near as trimmed as the ones shown. Given the weight of the bones and the amount of fat, this was not a good value meal for us. Overall taste as ok, but not fantastic. Enough meat for two dinner portions, another small dinner portion and then a super small lunch portion I had today. My shanks came off the bone during cooking, so no pretty plate as shown here. My husband’s mashed potatoes were great! I used about 12 garlic cloves and increased the broth to 3 cups due to the bigger size of the shanks. I am not sure why one would use lower sodium broth and then add salt! I didn’t I will use the leftover broth when I make some soup. This recipe was very easy to make, but given the cost, I would not make it again.
If I have 3 lbs of shanks, do I still do the same amount of broth and seasoning in the IP? Or should I increase them?
I made this once before using 2 lbs of shanks and we were impressed! They were good!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Definitely use the same amount of broth. For the seasonings, personally I think it’s heavily seasoned for 2 pounds so I would also use the same amount of seasonings. Having said that, if it looks like it might not be enough, I would add an extra 1/2 teaspoon of the seasonings.
Thank you!
This is an excellent recipe. The meat came out tender and delicious.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I’m confused the recipe says Italian but the instructions have rosemary. Which one is it?
I’m confused on time for IP? 45 mins total time?
Thank you. This was so good and easy to make in the Instant pot.
This was excellent! I was afraid of all the Italian seasoning, but it was perfect! I did the crock-pot; next time I will do the Instant-pot! Looking forward to following you and your recipes!
It does seem like a ton of seasoning but I’m sure that’ll just turn into yumminess… did you do high or low in your slow cooker? I’m doing one hour high and then switching to low I think… every good crockpot recipe I’ve ever seen calls for low and slow (hence slow cooking) but I don’t have the time to do the entire thing low or else I would. Hope it turns out okay!
I am using the slow cooker feature on my instant pot. Valve open and normal or medium heat for 6 hours. Do you see any problem with that? Thanks
Yes I think the meat will be under-cooked. The slow cooker method on the IP heats completely differently than a normal slow cooker. IP slow cooker medium heat is equivalent to low heat in a normal slow cooker so you will need to cook it for 8-10 hours rather than 6. If you use the high heat setting you still still need to add an additional 20 minutes of cook time for every hour.
Ive always been slightly intimidated by this cut, but your recipe makes this look pretty easy- cant wait to try this! Thanks FSCQ!
I went the instant pot route and can’t tell you how flavorful it was after such a short time under pressure. Thank you! I’ll make this again and again.