Funky Cholent

Well, I made this for dinner today. First, if Fall had a taste, this is what it would taste like! I browned the beef, added the onions,garlic & salt. Put in CP added the rest, Including the pearl barley. I ran it on high for a couple hours and turned it down to low when I left for work. I checked it a couple of times. Please do not cook beef till tender before you add it to the cp. I did it the way I said and the meat was more then fork tender. I had it cooking from 6am till 4:30pm. My hubby liked it a lot! This stew has soo many flavors going on. You get a chunk of beef in one bite and then you get a yam. As I was making this dish, I was thinking, these items don't go together, but some how they work very well with each other.:) I served it with mixed veggies and buttered sourdough bread. I will make this again:)Thank You Very much Basg! One perfect meal for the up coming season!!

Gave it three stars only because the recommendation to use 1/2 cup of barley was off. It should be a 1/4 or less or not at all. I like barley, but doing this in the crock pot with so many starchy potatoes made this turn mushy. And, on top of that the barley absorbed a lot of the sauce/gravy. I would also step up the seasoning and probably double most of the recommendations.

This was pretty good, although I don't think my kids liked it. They SAID they liked it, but then they only ate about half of their portions and put the rest back. That's okay...more leftovers for me to enjoy!! I used beef broth instead of water for more flavor and had to leave out the sweet potato because I forgot to buy one. I also did not do the stovetop step. I browned the beef and put it in the crock pot, then sauteed the onions and garlic and added them to the crock pot with the rest of the ingredients. I cooked it on high for about 5-1/2 hours and everything was perfectly tender. Contrary to the feelings of another reviewer, I found the amount of barley to be just right. I'll probably make this again with the sweet potato, because I'm sure it adds some great flavor to the dish.

Decent but surprisingly bland even with all the ingredients. I even added a bay leaf and some thyme but it was super plain...maybe if you doubled everything but to me it wasn't worth trying again.

I am always looking for new slow cooker recipes so when I found this I thought I would give it a try. I was unfamiliar with cholent, which I have now concluded is a kind of versatile beef stew. Had I known this I probably would not have made it because my family are not big beef stew lovers. If yours is, however, it is definitely worth trying. It was the best beef stew I have tried. I did think it had a sourness to it that I didn't care for so I added a tbsp of brown sugar and 2 more tbsp of bbq (sweet) sauce. If I made it again I would use a 32oz. can (double the recipe) of brown sugar baked beans, no additional brown sugar, and 3tbsp of a sweet bbq sauce. I also added a bag of frozen corn which was a great addition. I browned the stew meat with the onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Then I added the remaining ingredients (I did omit the barley after reading another review), covered with water and cooked it on low for about 9 hours in my crockpot. I turned it up to high and removed the lid for an additional hour just to let it thicken up. Everything was tender and flavorful.

delicious!! cholent is a tricky dish to make just right and this recipe is perfect! the consistency is right on target, not too watery or too thick and the flavors all mesh together wonderfully to make this the highlight of our Saturday afternoon meal. thank you basg for the recipe!

Never heard of Cholent before I saw this recipe but it got me with the sweet potato! This was very good and I'll be making it as soon as our weather gets colder.

This was mediocre at best. I must admit, the ingredient list (the combination alone) intrigued me. This didn't taste terrible... it's just BLAND! My fiance added s&p to taste and said that seemed to do the trick. My issue with this is that it's no more than a mere pot full of "odds and ends." Everything works together, but doesn't necessarily complement each other. This reminds me of Saturday's as a kid. My mom would clean out the fridge, combine leftovers from that week and either make a soup, stew or casserole with them. Not that my memories are horrid (my mom always managed to make something good), but I'm not looking for a repeat of that. If I were, I'd do just that and wouldn't bother with a recipe. NOTE: My fiance had a difficult time fining barley at our well-stocked grocery store (I had to send him out for last night because I forgot to pick some up when grocery shopping this past weekend). Turns out, pearl barley is located in the ethnic aisle next to the Jewish / kosher items. NOTE #2: It is not necessary to cook on the stove first. Just brown your onions / garlic / meat and add to a well-greased slow cooker with everything else. Add either water or broth (I used beef broth), cover and cook on low for 11-12 hours. Served wtih slices of fresh caraway rye bread, this was filling nonetheless. Thanks for sharing your authentic, quirky recipe, Basg. At least I was able to broaden my "ethnic" horizions. :-)

I really enjoyed this. I subbed chicken for the beef and for the baked beans I subbed a can of small white beans, some BBQ sauce and brown sugar splenda. I cooked this for 2 hours on the stovetop, but didn't have time to cook for 12 hours in the slow cooker - next time I'll plan better so I can do this. I cooked the barley separately and served the stew on top of the barley. This was a differnt stew than I was used to and I will make this again.

I have made a similar version of this which I called Poverty's Cholent Delight. Instead of water, I used beef broth for taste and added A1 Steak Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce to compliment the meat. I also added some Rosemary and more Italian seasoned herbs to it so it would not have such an acidic taste from the sauces. I went heavy on the Paprika as I always do, but that's the way I like it. When the final product was finished, I had enough to feed me for a week, and I am not lying. Hence the name, Poverty's Cholent Delight.

This was very good. It was a little too "barbecue-y" for me though. Next time I will choose a spicier baked bean instead of a brown sugar baked bean.

This was very good. It was a little too "barbecue-y" for me though. Next time I will choose a spicier baked bean instead of a brown sugar baked bean.