Slow Cooker Beef Stew
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Everyone’s favorite cozy beef stew made in the crockpot! The meat is SO TENDER and the stew is rich, chunky + hearty!
Featured Comment
There is truly nothing more comforting than a hearty beef stew on a cold, cold night. And it’s even better when it’s been simmering low and slow in your crockpot for the last 7-8 hours.
Aside from searing your stew meat to give it that really nice caramelized flavor, this recipe requires zero babysitting (thank you, slow cooker!). All you need to prep is your crusty bread for dipping, a glass of red wine, and a side salad to round out your meal.
If you are short on time, there is a stovetop and an Instant Pot version also available.
Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pounds stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 pound baby red potatoes, quartered
- 4 carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 cups beef broth
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon caraway seeds, optional
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Equipment
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat.
- Season beef with salt and pepper, to taste. Add beef to the skillet and cook until evenly browned, about 2-3 minutes.
- Place beef, potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic into a 6-qt slow cooker. Stir in beef broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire, thyme, rosemary, paprika, caraway seeds and bay leaves until well combined; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Cover and cook on low heat for 7-8 hours or high heat for 3-4 hours.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour and 1/2 cup stew broth. Stir in flour mixture into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high heat for an additional 30 minutes, or until thickened.*
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Video
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Very tasty. I did not add flour. I added macaroni to the crockpot in the last 30 minutes of cooking.
This is now my favorite beef stew. Went by the directions and since I like spicy, I added a dash of Slap Ya Mama. Stew was excellent. Will make again soon and share this recipe with my friends. Thank you so much!!!
Thank you for the wonderful recipe. Perfectly written and perfectly delicious. Looking forward to making it again !
This recipe was amazing so good!
Does anyone know how many WW points this is per serving?
8 points (blue). I used the nutrition box printed after the recipe to calculate.
This was delicious! the only change I made was not to add the beef, stock, any of the vegetables, or use a crockpot. Instead I used fish, chips, mushy peas and the oven. |Apart from that, I wouldnt change a thing
Same! This is the best! I just replaced the entire meal with a deep fryer and added crawfish with about 2 cups of Slap Yo Mama seasoning
Great recipe…thankyou for sharing. I’ve made this a lot in the last few months. Its a clear family favourite and so easy and convenient to make! … even the fussy-eater loves it!
I made this stew last night. I made it exactly as the recipe calls for, I didn’t add this or substitute that or leave those out because then it wouldn’t be the same recipe now would it? Anyway, the stew came out absolutely delicious. I used the low & slow cooking method because I find the beef gets more tender that way. I also mixed about about a cup of the broth with the flour and it made it much easier to stir in. I’m definitely looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch today.
AMEN!!! Finally, a chef who understands that if you give a recipe 5 stars it should be based on following the recipe as it is written. Thank you!!
I’m just really upset that the directions said to mix flour and stew when I’m newbie and thought, sure, let me do it…and voila! A crockpot full of clumps.
Please author, add that you need to mix with cold water to remove all lumps, then add the flour.
Money wasted, and some tears.
Tastes great though!
you have to take the stew juice out of crock pot, mix it with the flour. Stir it well then add it back to the crock pot.
I made this stew yesterday but doubled the quantity of the recipe as I bulk freeze. Firstly I rolled the beef in the flour before frying off, I used a full celery chopped, 1 bag of frozen winter veg, 8 carrots, 2 full tubes of tomato puree, 2 good serving spoons of Worcestershire sauce, 6 beef oxo over 2 litres of water and a full bottle of a good red wine, I’m always generous with ingredients for soups stews etc, after leaving this too cool overnight and been checking on my stew this morning it looks and smells delicious. I will have to get my frozen dumplings out the freezer, can’t wait for tea tonight YAY!!!
Hi Martina, you were supposed to take out 1/2 cup(125ml) of the broth from the stew into a smaller bowl and then add the flour into the broth, whisking it together before adding to the stew. It does say this on the recipe but is easy to get mixed up, we all make mistakes! At least it still tasted great!
Hi Natalie! Thanks for replying.
Truly, I did take out the 1/2 cup stew from the pot and mixed it in a small bowl. But because the stew was hot, it made the flour clump no matter how vigorously I stirred it. I reviewed online how to thicken a stew, and I finally got to someone sharing that cold water first then mixing it with the hot will leave no clumps so I’m excited to try this again. 🙂
I was able to remove 85% of the clumps and it tasted phenomenal.
I had the same issue so I just kept adding more broth until I got the clumps out. I ended up adding a little over a cup before I finally stirred the mixture back in.
I find using cornstarch works so much better for me than flour. No lumps. Thanks!!!
Or make a roux, the person who coated the beef with the flour- also works well. Flour tastes better if you cook it beyond the heat of boiling
I loved this recipe and make it often. I’m going away and wont have access to my crockpot. How long should I cook this on a stove and how high should the flame be?
Amazing! Definitely adding this one to my rotation. I didn’t have the time to prep in the morning, so I threw everything in the ceramic pot the night before, took it out of the fridge when I woke up, then plugged it in when I left for work. Delicious and very simple/easy to make. I omitted the caraway seeds because truthfully, I don’t know what they are or where to get them. I don’t like altering recipes too much from the original because that’s just creating a completely different recipe, but the only thing I did differently was dump the rest of the broth container in because I didn’t have use for the rest of it after this recipe, and added a few extra splashes of Worcestershire sauce in to make it more savoury after the extra broth watered it down a bit.
Can someone tell me gluten free alternative for the flour? Would corn or potato starch do?
Can I freeze this? How long does it keep in the fridge?
Thanks
I mix a little bit of cornstarch, maybe a teaspoon, with a tablespoon of water, and add that to the gravy. You can always add more if you like your gravy thicker. I find it’s easier to remove the meat and veggies to the serving dish, cover and keep warm, and do the gravy is a separate saucepan. More dishes, but easier to control the thickness and eliminates that last 30 minutes.
Would tapioca starch or arrowroot powder work the same as the cornstarch?
I added about 1 Tablespoon of Arrowroot flour to some broth and then poured it back into the pot. Keep readjusting if you’d like it thicker. Worked out really well for me – no clumps either!
I used about 1/8 cup oat flour and it worked perfect! Be sure to mix with the broth first before mixing into the crock pot.
Xanthum gum is a great thickener. It is gluten free, lower in carbs than flour, corn/potato starch & arrowroot.
I followed this recipe to the letter and it’s excellent !! However, its flavor is to the sweet side and it’s missing that “zinger” that should put this dish over the top. We’re trying to figure out what the “kick” is that this recipe needs. My wife has suggested that we use some Brandy, I’m not sure, but it needs something.
Try red wine. It makes the stew smell heavenly. I never tried Brandy but if I had some here I would.
Try a little paprika
great recipe!
i added a bit of hot sauce for a kick; used my electric mixer to blend a few chunks of the potato into the gravy to add thickness
A teaspoon or so of cider vinegar if you don’t use alcohol or some red wine. My personal favourite is to add a tin of Guinness or whatever ale you like the taste of. Yummy!
trying it next week, but iam gona use a pork tenderloin, not cut up, i think it will be good
This is my go-to recipe for stew. Friends and husband LOVE it!
This is one damn delicious beef stew! Doubled the thyme and Rosemary…THE perfect stew!
This recipe made an excellent stew. I did add Kitchen Bouquet for a darker and richer gravy. Also used celery leaves and additional seasoning salt. I cooked it on high for 4 and a half hours. Made thickener from cornstarch. The meat was tender and delicious. The veggies were not mushy. This stew will be a hit with family and friends. I will try your other recipes since this one was sooo good.
Made this last night, delicious! As other’s did, I replaced a 1/2 cup of the broth with red wine. Thickened the broth at the end with a little milk and Kentucky Seasoned flour. Came out great and seasoned perfectly.
Dam tasty, as the name implies! Both my husband and I had two bowls! Excellent and super easy to put together. Thanks for this simple and tasty recipe! Printing this out to make over, and over, and over…
Left out the tomato paste, garlic and paprika. Seared the meat with the thyme and rosemary, added sage and parsley, season salt, and garlic powder and did it in the cast iron skillet. Hands down one of the best stews I’ve ever had
Made this last night. It was amazing. The only change I made was to add 1/3 red wine to the pan I browned the beef in to deglaze and added stock, seasoning, tomato paste etc and before adding to the slow cooker. Also added peas and green beans the last 30 minutes of cooking. Will definitely be making this again!