Slow cooked mince in a rich gravy, topped with chunky slices of crispy potatoes. It's hearty, filling comfort food at it's British best.
This recipe includes instructions on how to cook up a whole batch of hot pots. Freeze them and on busy week nights you'll have quick and easy, tasty meals to feed your family.
Traditionally a Lancashire Hot Pot is made with lamb but this is a budget recipe so I'm using a much cheaper alternative - mince.
Ingredients and Tools:
2kg Beef Mince £5.96
2.5kg Potatoes £1.20
1kg Onions 50p
1kg Carrots 49p
1 Bulb Garlic 16p
Cornflour 5p
4 Beef Stock Cubes 12p
Gravy Granules 10p
Served with:
Frozen Peas 62p
Sweetcorn 85p
Total = £10.07
Makes 18 servings = 56p per serving
Food purchased from Aldi
Brown the mince.
I love my stainless steel skillet. With it's heavy bottom it cooks beautifully evenly. It's stainless steel so I can be as tough as I like with a steel spatula. If I burn anything (kids happen lol) I can take a tough scourer to it. The sides on this one are nice and high so I can easily brown enough mince for a big batch cook.
I always get the full fat mince. It's not only significantly cheaper but it also adds to the flavour of the gravy. You can use the fat to fry the onions so you don't need any extra fat. What's the point in paying for the fat to be removed from your meat only to pay again for more fat to cook it with?
Spoon the mince into the slow cooker reserving the fat.
I was given a food processor a few months ago. It's a huge time saver for batch cooking. Now I just need to peel and roughly chop my veggies, add them to the food processor and whizz.
Dice the onions and fry them in the leftover fat.
Mince the garlic.
Add this to the onions and fry.
Add them to the slow cooker once soft. Add 4 stock cubes.
Slice the carrots.
Add them to the slow cooker.
I honestly don't know how I used to manage without a slow cooker. I would spend a whole day watching and stirring, how did I have the time?? Add two kids into the mix and there's no way that's happening. I love how it combines the flavours and turns the cheapest cuts of meat into beautifully tender delights that fall apart in the mouth.
Add a sprinkling of cornflour to thicken up the gravy.
And some gravy granules for some extra flavour.
Slice the potatoes and par boil them.
If potatoes are frozen raw they are typically exposed to the air for too long and have a tendency to turn black and mushy when defrosted. To prevent this from happening I'm par boiling the potatoes. This means I'm boiling them for about 15 minutes, just enough to partly cook them. Not only does this help them to freeze better, they will take less time to cook in the oven making it easier to achieve gorgeously golden crispy potatoes.
Cook the mince mixture in the slow cooker on low for about 6 hours.
Divide the cooked mince onto oven proof dishes.
Layer the par boiled potatoes on top.
Cover with clingfilm and allow to cool completely before freezing.
Cook in the oven at about 180 degrees / gas mark 4 for about an hour.
Just look at that lovely rich gravy bubbling up between the crispy golden potatoes!
I'll definitely be cooking this recipe again but I think next time I'll add a bottle of Worcestershire sauce and a good handful of rosemary or thyme, maybe both.
Leave me a comment if you've tried this recipe I'd love to know what you think of it.
Or pin this image for later.
Here's some more batch cook beef mince recipes:
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