Tedious Cooker Beef Stew

Slow Cooker Beef Stew, with tender bites of beef and vegetables in a rich broth, is the best condolement food. This like shooting fish in a barrel beef stew recipe is perfect for a weeknight or Sunday dinner.

beef stew in a slow cooker with a wooden spoon

One of my favorite ways to make dinner for my family is to use my ho-hum cooker. I've shared many slow cooker recipes, and even a guide with my best tips for how to utilise a wearisome cooker, because information technology's then convenient to go the prep work of cooking done early in the day. When you make this slow cooker beef stew, you'll have a hot meal ready to serve in the evening when you are fix to eat dinner.

This hearty crock pot beefiness stew is one of our favorite meals to bask at the end of a long day. The best role is that the flavors actually develop and blend together equally the stew simmers in the slow cooker all mean solar day. The broth is incredibly rich and the vegetables get tender and flavorful.

close up of beef stew in a white bowl

When you're craving cozy comfort nutrient, I hope y'all'll give this beef stew a attempt. It'due south both delicious and like shooting fish in a barrel to make. I love to serve information technology with some crusty bread, dinner rolls or Biscuits, with a well-baked Greenish Salad or Italian Salad on the side.

You lot will as well enjoy Dull Cooker Pot Roast and Italian Beefiness which are favorite tedious cooker dinner recipes. If you prefer an Instant Pot version of this beef stew recipe, try my Instant Pot Beef Stew.

Slow Cooker Beefiness Stew Ingredients

  • Onion and Garlic: These aromatic ingredients add a delicious base layer of flavor. You tin can chop the onions into smaller pieces or larger slices, depending on your preference.
  • Celery, Carrots and Potatoes: These are classic beef stew vegetables. I like to apply Yukon gold potatoes because of their rich flavor and creamy texture. Other potatoes, such as baby potatoes or red potatoes volition as well work.
  • Tomato Paste: The love apple paste both adds richness and helps to thicken the broth. It won't make your beefiness stew sense of taste like tomato sauce.
  • Worcestershire Sauce: Worcestershire sauce adds depth of flavor, but if you don't have any on manus or don't care for it you can leave information technology out.
  • Flour and Olive Oil: You will brown the beef and sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil before adding the ingredients to the slow cooker. Coating the beef with flour creates a flavorful chaff on the meat every bit it browns in the skillet. The flour also thickens the broth as the stew simmers in the slow cooker.
  • Seasonings: The seasonings for this beefiness stew include Italian seasoning, dried thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper.
  • Beef Broth: I recommend using a low sodium beef goop and so that y'all can control the amount of salt in your finished dish. You can always add more than common salt, to gustation, after the stew cooks, merely you can't have it away.
  • Boneless Chuck Roast: This is the cutting of beef that I recommend for the best beef stew. Read more than beneath most what kind of meat is best for beef stew.

What Kind of Meat to Use in Beef Stew

I recommend using a boneless chuck roast to make beef stew. Yous can also use beefiness stew meat, simply the stew meat that you lot buy pre-cut at the grocery store is often lower quality and less tender than buying a larger cut of beefiness and cutting it into smaller pieces yourself.

Wait for a boneless beef chuck roast that is about ii pounds total. A niggling chip of fat marbled throughout the meat will add flavor, but you should cut off any excess fat when you cube the meat.

beef stew with potatoes and carrots in a slow cooker

How to Make Slow Cooker Beef Stew

  1. Glaze the chunks of beef in flour, salt and pepper. You can do this by shaking the beef, flour, salt and pepper together in a large cipher-top handbag, or by stirring them together in a large bowl.
  2. Dark-brown the beef. Before adding the beef to the boring cooker, it is important to first chocolate-brown it in a skillet on the stove. This step creates a flavorful crust on the pieces of beef and sears in the juices of the meat. Later on you sear the beef cubes, put them in the bottom of your slow cooker.
  3. Sauté the onion and garlic. Since yous have a skillet hot and ready, yous'll take a few minutes to sauté the onion and garlic in the beefiness drippings. Yous are adding delicious layers of flavor to your stew.
  4. Deglaze the pan. This is simply a fancy way of saying cascade in a little broth and scrape up the flavorful browned $.25 from the bottom of the pan. Then you'll transfer the contents of the skillet to your tiresome cooker.
  5. Add together remaining ingredients to the deadening cooker. Everything else can be added to the crock pot at present, including the rest of the beef broth.
  6. Slow cook on low for 7 to 8 hours or high for iii½ to 4 hours.
  7. Sense of taste and adjust seasonings. I ever add less salt to begin with because you can easily add more afterward your tedious cooker beef stew finishes cooking.
  8. Serve and enjoy!

Recipe Tips

  • Don't skip the step of browning the beef in a skillet before adding it to the slow cooker. It takes merely a few minutes and it adds so much flavor to the finished dish.
  • I notice that Yukon gold potatoes or baby potatoes piece of work best in this recipe because they concord their shape while cooking. Russet potatoes don't work equally well because they tend to fall apart more easily.
  • If desired, you can supercede 1 cup of the beef broth with dry scarlet vino. In footstep 5 of the recipe, instead of using 1/two loving cup of beef goop to deglaze the pan, add together one cup of scarlet wine to the pan and scrape upward any browned bits. Then reduce the amount of beef broth that you add to the ho-hum cooker to 3 cups.
  • If y'all like peas in your beefiness stew, feel free to stir in some frozen peas after the stew is fully cooked.

How to Thicken Beef Stew

To thicken beef stew, this recipe uses flour and tomato paste. The broth will thicken as the stew ho-hum cooks, and it will continue to thicken every bit the stew cools. I find this stew to exist thick and hearty equally is, but if you lot prefer a thicker gravy, you lot can stir a mixture of two tablespoons cornstarch and ii tablespoons water into the stew at the end of the cook time. So go on cooking on high for twenty-30 minutes.

Storage & Reheating

Beef stew can be stored in an closed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can also freeze the stew, although the potatoes may break downwards a bit when frozen and reheated. To freeze, permit the stew cool and and then store in an closed container in the freezer for up to three months. Thaw frozen stew overnight in the refrigerator or on low power in the microwave before reheating.

To reheat beef stew, simmer information technology in a pot, covered, over medium oestrus on the stove until it is heated through. You lot can also reheat beef stew in the microwave. Stir the stew occasionally as information technology reheats to aid information technology heat evenly.

beef stew with potatoes and carrots in a white bowl with a spoon

More than Easy Dull Cooker Recipes

  • Slow Cooker Chili
  • Crockpot Craven Noodle Soup
  • Crockpot Lasagna
  • Crockpot Beef Stroganoff
  • Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
  • Wearisome Cooker Chicken Thighs
  • Wearisome Cooker Pork Chops

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Class Principal Course, Dull Cooker

Cuisine American

Keyword beef stew, beef stew recipe, slow cooker beefiness stew

Prep Fourth dimension 35 mins

Melt Time 4 hrs

Total Time 4 hrs 35 mins

Servings 8 servings

Calories 333 kcal

Prevent your screen from going dark

Slow Cooker Beef Stew, with tender bites of beef and vegetables in a rich broth, is a family favorite. Enjoy this beef stew recipe on a weeknight or for Sunday dinner.

  • 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
  • one teaspoon Kosher salt
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 pounds boneless chuck roast (cut into 1-inch cubes and trimmed of backlog fat)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
  • one xanthous onion (chopped)
  • four cloves garlic (minced)
  • three ribs celery (chopped)
  • 4 medium carrots (cut into ¼-inch rounds)
  • 1 ½ pounds Yukon gold potatoes (about four medium, cut into ane-inch pieces)
  • iii tablespoons tomato paste
  • ane tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 bay foliage
  • 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • four cups depression sodium beef broth
  • Place flour, salt and pepper in a large nothing-superlative bag. Add the cubes of beefiness, seal the purse, and milkshake to coat the meat with the flour mixture. (Alternatively, you tin identify the beef, flour, salt and pepper in a large bowl and stir to glaze the beef.)

  • Heat 1 ½ tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the pieces of beef in a single layer in the pan (dark-brown the beef in 2 batches if necessary). Let the beefiness dark-brown on the first side for nigh four minutes, then flip and brown the other side. Stir in any remaining flour from the bag and so transfer the beef to the wearisome cooker.

  • Add the remaining ½ tablespoon olive oil and the onion to the pan. Cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3-4 minutes.

  • Add together the garlic and melt, stirring, for xxx seconds.

  • Cascade well-nigh ½ cup of the beef broth into the pan and scrape up whatever browned $.25 from the bottom of the pan. Transfer the contents of the pan to the wearisome cooker.

  • Add together the remaining ingredients, including the residual of the broth, to the dull cooker. Stir gently to combine.

  • Cover and cook on low for 7-viii hours or high for 3 ½-four hours, until the vegetables and meat are tender and cooked through.

  • Remove and discard the bay foliage. Sense of taste and season with salt and pepper equally needed. Serve.

  • To reheat beef stew, simmer it in a pot, covered, on the stove until information technology is heated through. Yous tin can too reheat beefiness stew in the microwave. Stir the stew occasionally as information technology reheats to help information technology oestrus evenly.

Serving: one.5 cups | Calories: 333 kcal | Carbohydrates: twenty yard | Protein: 27 thousand | Fatty: 17 grand | Saturated Fatty: 6 thousand | Cholesterol: 78 mg | Sodium: 713 mg | Potassium: 1208 mg | Fiber: 4 chiliad | Sugar: 3 yard | Vitamin A: 5269 IU | Vitamin C: 15 mg | Calcium: 78 mg | Atomic number 26: 6 mg

Nutrition information is an estimate.

Save Recipe

This site contains affiliate links. If yous make a purchase through these links, I may receive a pocket-size committee, at no extra toll to you. Thank you for supporting Kristine's Kitchen!