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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I don’t have Bay Leaves, is that ok? I’m making it now as I type this, I did add celery and green bell pepper, just because:)
Yes, of course! The additions sounds amazing.
The one thing I would change is the amount of onions. I first put a layer of onions cut in half to cover the bottom of the slow cooker then put the rest of the ingredients in, There just isn’t anything as divine as those onions!
Really love your small videos on side of major recipe. I would love to print some of these but can’t remember their titles since I find myself looking at them all in a row.
Is there a way I can retrieve them?
Yes, you can view all videos and corresponding recipes on my Youtube page!
https://www.youtube.com/c/damndeliciousblog
I just made this tonight! I have to say it was one of the tastiest meals I’ve ever made. It has such amazing flavor. I will be making this again and again.
Chungah, Tried this recipe and posted how much we loved it, but have a question: Does the stew freeze well? Will the potatoes freeze well too, or should I make them fresh and just add them to thawed stew? Really love when they cook in that gravy!!!
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself. Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Just excellent! One forced change, I had no tomato paste so substituted chili sauce, and only used 1/4 tsp of rosemary, as I am not a big fan of that. Hands down the best stew ever!! Will be making this often this winter. My grandsons loved it, as did I.
Another take: I seasoned the beef with lots of flavourings before searing – coffee, cardamom, cumin, along with onion/garlic powder. To slow cooker, I added about 4 cups of leftover brisket sauce with lots of onions, along with fresh potatoes, carrots. Cooked at higher temperature and was sceptical, but it turned out great. Soft and very flavourful.
Way to much rosemary. Put this to cook for 8 hrs and after all the excitement, all we had to eat was liquid rosemary. The rosemary will over power everything in the pot.
You can simply reduce the amount of rosemary or omit completely to adhere to your preferences.
Woooow! This is absolutely the best i have seen in 2017. Already heading to my kitchen to make one……… soo yummy!
I love this blog because when i get confused of what to eat, i just get in here and make a choice.
Some of my baby potatoes are pretty small. I’m thinking quartering them may make them really small and they’ll cook too fast. Is there a size you can suggest, such as 1 inch, 1 1/2 inch, etc?
Thanks.
1/2 – 1 inch should be fine. 🙂
Thank you, Chungah! Love your recipes!
I recently discovered your blog and love it. This is the first recipe I tried and it was excellent! I made it with half venison-half beef and skipped the caraway seeds. The meatasaurs in the house loved this and I know I’ll be making this often.
Hi, this looks amazing and I really want to trybit, but was wondering if I could substitute lamb for beef? Would that work? Or would the spices not mesh well with lamb?
I can’t give a clear answer on this without further recipe testing on our part, but if you love lamb, give it a try! And feel free to let us know how it turns out!
You were talking about the weather in LA, I thought you meant here in Louisiana because that is our weather too (95 one day and 55 the next and only one day of winter)! LOL!
Your recipe looks fantastic but your print button will not print! It only allows you to save to a PDF, or to save as a jpeg file. Do you know why your recipe will not print to a printer?
Hi Amy, I just tried printing myself to double check and it went through. When you click on “Print Recipe” and it takes you to the next page, there is a button in the top left corner “Click to Print”. By clicking that your personal printer configurations should open up and let you print the recipe. Let me know if you have further issues with it. Good luck!
Seasoning of food with herbs and spices is purely a personal thing. If you do not like the seasonings of the recipe then leave them out or substitute them with those to your liking but seasoning a stew is what brings out the flavour.
Our household loves food with different seasonings ranging from delicate herbs to full blown chili based recipes so this one is very welcome with the exception of the caraway seeds.
To the user of Bloody Mary mix, this is tomato juice, Worcester sauce with salt and pepper, almost exactly what the recipe requires.
Red wine in any stew always manages to enhance the flavour if you use a wine with body, dry wines are not so good for stews, Medoc, Shiraz, Ruby Cabernet are fine reds for starters.
Flouring the meat before searing adds a crust to it and helps seal in the meat juices and allows the wine component to permeate as well but is not essential to do.
Cheaper cuts of meat can work really well if they are cooked longer as the fibre of the meat needs more time to tenderise during cooking. Striploin or Sirloin will give a juicier taste to the stew but the advantage of slow cooking cheaper cuts of meat is not to be ignored.
A vegetable worth adding is baby leeks split down the middle and cut into 3 parts and do not forget that button mushrooms are perfect for stews!
All in all, a very good recipe and repeatable for us.
So I made this tonight, and it was good but not great. The beef did seem that be as flavorful. I cooked for 4 hours and followed recipe to a T. Any suggestions for next time? I’m also thinking that maybe I don’t have a pallet for thyme. Every time I use it I just taste perfume! Any good options?
Yes, you can omit the thyme if you are not a fan and substitute another herb (ex. oregano) that you prefer.
First time in making this and my family and friends loved it so much they want more lol…i actrually added Marmite and certainly was yumi..also having with Sour Dough Bread..will use this recipe again…
Omg. Made this tonight, even though it’s +30 here. Just wanted something quick and cheap and this was AMAZING. So much flavour. Also love that you include nutritional info and it’s actually super low cal for the crazy amount of protein you get. Meal prep mainstay. I seared the beef in a cast iron pan first and got some nice browning on there, I’d recommend it!
Just made this again tonight for 2nd time. LOVE it. Best beef stew EVER. I add Merlot the last 30 min. along with flour and broth. Gives it an even deeper flavor and all the ingredients add multiple layers. We live in DL and never too hot for this.
LOVE your recipes, Chungah!
(Love the veggie lo mein).
I’m thinking of making this, but I only have one pound of beef chunks. It’s June, and I just don’t want a lot of beef stew for the two of us. I don’t want to make a big batch, and buy more heavy beef. It gets hot toward the end of the day in So Cal, as you know! How about if I make a half batch? I have a five quart slow cooker. Would that change on the timing if it’s half batch? Thank you very much.
I totally understand – it is getting hot!
If you are halving the recipe, cooking time may have to be reduced as needed.
Making this tonight! When I asked my hubby if it was too hot for beef stew, he said, “we have air conditioning!” We are excited to have it. I bought two pounds of special black angus beef chunks and cut them into small pieces so they get tender.