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!
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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
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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Lovely recipe. Reduced stock by a third and replaced with red wine… oh yeah!
Do I need to seer the meat in a pan before slow cooking? I’ve made stew a couple of times before where the raw meat went straight into the cooker. I’m new at cooking (my wife is back in school…she’s a fantastic cook but just doesn’t have the time for it right now) and have high levels of anxiety in the kitchen and want to make things easy for me but also want to do things the “right” way.
I always recommend searing the meat as it brings out more of a caramelized flavor but really, it’s up to you and your personal preferences.
Simple and quite delicious, I would make it again.
I used SAUTE function to first fry the onions a bit, then the meat. Switched to SLOW COOK. Why bother with another pan? 🙂
This stew smells way better than it tastes, but tastes great all the same!
I suggest a few tips though:
-Don’t be scared to be heavy handed on the spices and garlic. (Anyways, spices in recipes should only be used as guidelines and changed with your tastes.)
-Sear the vegetables first too, nothing beats the pan flavour, and you’re already using the pan anyways, might as well!
-If you want to add more veggies, go with other root vegetables. They tend to have a neutral flavour and won’t go completely mushy (I used one rutabaga)
-A bit of wine wouldn’t hurt it by bringing in more acidity(deglaze the pan with it!)
Also, I will now be putting smoked paprika in all my stews, thank you for opening my eyes! I honestly wish I put triple the amount in my stew…
Thanks for sharing your feedback, Jennifer!
I have a question ~ I’m making this in the morning. Which is your preference with slow cooker; high heat and faster cooking or
the low heat longer hours of cooking; I’d like to know this.
Also, cooking for kiddos, as well as adults.
What about buttered parsley noodles for the stew?
You can choose to cook on high heat or low heat. It really depends on how much time you can allot to cooking this stew. Buttered parsley noodles also sounds like an amazing addition!
I dont have a slow cooker either but I made it in the oven on low heat for 4 hours. I made a similar slowcooker recipe recently in the oven quite successfully as well. I used chuck steak, a little Vegemite (Australian yeast extract and stirred a couple of tablespoons of sour cream in at the end. Yummy.
Amazing! And I’ve made a lot of beef stew in my life!!!
I added celery just cause, but made it as written otherwise. Excellent flavour. After eating this stew I left the table feeling satisfied cause it has that hearty robustness to it.
This was SO easy and everyone loved it!
It will definitely be a regular in our house.
Thank you
Awesome!
I have made this numerous times for my family, and they love it. I make homemade dinner rolls to go with it, and that makes the meal complete for us. I have made other stew recipes and the garlic butter salmon recipe for a romantic dinner in for myself and my husband. Just as the name of your blog states, Damn Delicious!
Amazing! I loved this! Been making it a ton since I found it.
I’ve since doubled the recipe, added mushrooms, celery, bell peppers (various colours). Potatoes are 1.5 instead of double, carrots don’t double because no room. Playing with carrots Vs potatoes. The game of who should fill the pot between carrots and potatoes is still in full effect.
My favourite recipe so far. I look it up bi-weekly or so to make it. The spices amounts are perfect! Thank you for posting it.
Dave did you also double all of the spices and broth?
Where is your Sweet Potato Beef Stew Recipe. I’ve looked through all of the recipes below
and can’t find it. Please re post it. Thank you.
Sorry you had trouble finding it, here you go https://damndelicious.net/2019/02/16/sweet-potato-beef-stew/
it was fantastic stew i love it
Delicious easy to make recipe. A hit with the family.
We love hearing that!
I made this on a very cold winter day in Houston. Loved it!!
I browned my stew meat in butter instead of olive oil.
I used all the ingredients but added just a pinch of cayenne pepper and sugar. OMG!!! Soooo good!
Thank you for sharing!
Wow! This is amazing! I omitted the potatoes, added mushrooms to my chopped leftover roast, and followed everything else. Ordinarily I caramelize the onions and mushrooms but I was short on time, so didn’t. It never thickened up, but as I was serving it over broad noodles it didn’t matter. This “soup” is so flavorful! I make soup once a week for my local Bingo and this is definitely going in rotation! Thank you so much!
Glad you liked it, Lisa!
Loved it. I cut my veggies a bit smaller just because I like it better that way. Subbed a half cup of red cooking wine for a half cup of the beef broth. Used more like 5 cloves of garlic because we love garlic. I didn’t sear as I was on a rush but still turned out great
I make this ALL THE TIME. It’s so dam good. I don’t brown the meat at all first , I just throw the stuff into the crock pot and BOOM. The meat is soft and falls apart when you eat it. I buy stewing meat from stop and shop and it’s not a big deal. The seasonings are what really help give it flavor and dimension. I’ve tried other recipes with maybe like 5 ingredients and just salt , and it’s definitely not as good as this.
Well, the website’s name couldn’t be more accurate! This recipe sure was damn delicious!! While I didn’t have every ingredient (caraway, Rosemary, etc) I had the majority of the ingredients and it came out beautifully. I cooked my stew on high for 4 hours, but next time with more planning ahead I think it would be killer cooking it on low for 8 hours. I’ve never been confident cooking with red meat, I’m more of a chicken gal, but I’m trying for my fiancé! This was a definite success and he loves it.
Made your recipe while in Colorado and everyone loved it – now trying to print it and am not able to print.
My apologies. The website is undergoing a system update. The recipes will be available very soon! Thank you so much for your patience.