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
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Excellent base receipe. Added double of each seasoning except salt
Definitely will make again
I have tried several crock pot recipes for stew and this one, by far, is simply the best! The blend of flavors and seasonings is just perfect. This is the go-to recipe for a cold or rainy day stew!! Thank you!
This was delicious! Thank you.
Very yummy, thank you for the recipe.
I made this today and it is AMAZING. I used 2 cups of beef stock and a cup of Pepsi max (trying what Marisa said but didn’t have any coke) and I used sweet paprika instead of smoked. Holy balls. I made it for tomorrow night’s dinner but it may not last that long!! It’s SO good.
This recipe (with my adaptions) is definitely a keeper.
“holy Balls” thanks for the laugh
I love this recipe. It is my absolute favorite! I follow all the instructions, except that I use 2 cups of the beef broth and 1 cup of zero sugar coca cola. A big hit in my house.
This is hands down THE BEST beef stew my husband and I have ever had! I only cook the beef on the pan to get the very outer layer cooked and leave the rest raw. I also added 2 diced celery ribs and use whole wheat flour. You need to opt for the low for 8 hours option to really bring the flavor out, and the beef is so tender it melts in your mouth at the first bite. Absolutely fantastic flavor! This is in the recipe rotation now.
I’ve made this many times…..so good!
Whole family loved this! Delish.
I get my meat from the butcher in a plastic bag. I use this bag to add 2 tbsp of flour, salt and pepper as a shake-and-bake style to coat the beef before browning. Allows you to skip the thickening stage at the end. I also like to add mushrooms.
I’ve got this cooking in my slow cookers right now, the big slow cooker is one with meat, and the small slow cooker is a smaller vegetarian version for my 10yr old who is vegetarian by choice. I doubled the stock, tomato paste and herbs as we like more sauce and mushrooms as well. Didnt peel the veg, and added more potato and carrot to bulk it up. I didnt salt and pepper the meat before searing, as the stock has enough salt, i just ground some pepper in to taste. I may add some peas in towards the end too.
Cant wait to try it out
I would add step 2.5) after removing the beef, fry up the garlic and onions for a minute or 2, add the spices, tomato paste, and Worcestershire sauce and deglaze with the beef broth (red wine optional) for a few more minutes. Then dump it all into the slow cooker.
Yesssss, my thoughts exactly. I think her other stew recipe for the pressure cooker includes wine, so I was looking for it in this one lol.
Hello! I am so excited to try your recipe. However, I would like to add frozen sweet peas. Could you kindly tell me when I should put those in? Should I put them in with the rest of the fresh vegetables or wait 20 minutes before the stew is done its 8 hour cooking? Thank you in advance!
-Jacquelyn
peas are so delicate and only need to be heated, I would throw them in maybe at the last hour 🙂
I doubled up on the spices, added 4 tbsp of the worchester sauce, 4 tbsp of tomato paste and used gravy thickener in the end. Amazing flavour!!!
Can you use white wine instead of red wine?
Sure, use white wine instead of red. It will do the same work on the fry pan, still add some acid to help break down some tissues, it’ll only be a slightly different flavour, but it should still be good.
Amazing. Make this all the time
Beef broth can make or break a recipe in my opinion so I wanna know what brand you use? Thanks!
I consistently find Target’s Good and Gather brand broth to be the best. I’m a frequent soup and stew maker and I use their vegetable, chicken and beef.
I prefer Better Than Bouillon Organic Roasted Beef or Roasted Beef Base.
Excellent & easy recipe! Husband could not stop raving about it. Only modification, I added diced jalapeños when adding everything else in the crockpot. We like a little kick. This will be added into our regular rotation.
I made this amazing stew. Followed the recipe w/one small change. It calls for tomato paste, I didn’t have any so used speghetti sauce. Came out ‘damn delicious’!
I made this today which worked out perfect with our midwest snowstorm! I followed the recipe almost exactly, but added one extra cup of broth (so 4 total), used yellow potatoes and didn’t have bay leaves. Also added frozen peas at the end.
I used the slow cooker function of my 6qt. Instant Pot and this was cooked perfectly in 3.5 hours on high. At the 3 hour mark I made the flour mixture. It’s great because you can sear the meat on the sear setting and use the same pot.
Nothing seemed over or under cooked, the meat is perfectly soft. A really great recipe!
I just threw everything in my Crock but only used beef bouillon, pepper, and a pinch of sugar. I felt lazy and didn’t brown meat before hand. I added celery stalks too. I’m 100% certain it will also taste delicious.
Do you peel the potatoes or leave skin on and quarter?
You can do either based on preference.