The Washington Costco Deli Braised Beef is a Slam Dunk

The Costco Deli is one of those places where you can go and find a multitude of “heat and eat” offerings. The main cooler is right next to the rotisserie chickens just to the right, and there are a multitude of things on display, all heat and heat from mac and cheese, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, something they call ravioli lasagna. (It's pretty good.) Sometimes you'll find stuffed Green Peppers. Most of the time you'll find their homemade chili and their homemade chicken soup. Another cooler will have gigantic shepherds' pies and chicken pot pies. 

Here's what I found. 

A week ago, I saw something in the deli department I hadn't seen before. Braised beef and mashed potatoes. I love mashed potatoes and I'm always up for a change in my protein, so braised beef sounded like a deal. I picked it up took it home, tried it. It was awesome. So, I decided to do it again. 

OK, now you have it, you're home. It's in a plastic container. 1/2 of the container has Yukon gold mashed potatoes with some butter. The other half has the braised beef with some braising liquid. You Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, Take the plastic lid off, put it on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven. 

Come back in 60 minutes. 

About 30 minutes in, it starts to smell pretty good. At 60 minutes you take it out of the oven, and this is what it looks like.  

Uncovered at 60 minutes at 375, you'll notice that the potatoes have a tendency to caramelize a little bit on top. That's actually a good thing. The meat has a tendency to caramelize on top as well, but that makes it just a tiny bit tougher. It's still fork tender though. 

The flavor? It reminds me a little bit of beef stew, but without carrots and celery. The braising liquid also has a mushroom and onion component to it and also a red wine flavor. If you look at the list of ingredients. It's not very romantic but at least you know what you're putting in your body. 

This heat and eat meal has only one thing missing and that's a vegetable. For me, it would probably be green beans. 

Worth doing it again?

If I were to do this again. (Wait a minute.) When I do this again, I will probably put foil over the meat component just to keep it from the additional browning, but I'll still leave the potatoes uncovered because I like that caramelization. 

In my Culinary universe, you just can't beat meat and potatoes, and the braised beef and potatoes from Costco's deli hit the spot.