Best Ever Beef Stew
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A cozy, classic beef stew with tender beef, carrots, mushrooms + potatoes. Everyone will love this, especially on those chilly nights!
Featured Comment
We just got back from Los Angeles. You know, from their perfect always-sunny-70-degree weather. Wait, why did we leave California again? No, but really, it was a solid 20 degrees outside and a rude awakening back to Chicago reality, and Cartman refused to walk as usual. But that’s okay. Because I came home to the best beef stew ever.
Wonderfully aromatic, super cozy, and filled with so many goodies – tender chunks of steak, mushrooms, potatoes, and carrots. All good things here, stewing in that perfectly hearty, rich gravy. I poured the rest of the red wine I used for this recipe into a very large wine glass, warmed up some dinner rolls, and forgot just how cold it is outside.
tips and tricks for success
- Prep ahead of time. Save time by prepping and dicing the meat and vegetables ahead of time (minus the potatoes as they will brown if chopped too early).
- Sear the meat. Browning the beef first is key here. That dark crust on the sirloin steak will create such richer, deeper flavors in your stew (plus, the browned bits at the bottom of the pot are all lovely bits here, adding so much flavor).
- Choose a wine you will drink. A dry red wine (cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir or merlot) is great here – it does not have to be anything fancy or overpriced. Just something you don’t mind sipping on since you will have an open bottle.
- Use good-quality stock. The better quality your stock, the better your stew. Many brands love to pack in the salt so always opt for unsalted or a lower-sodium variety.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
what to serve with beef stew
- How to Make Perfect Mashed Potatoes
- Slow Cooker Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
- Easy Skillet Dinner Rolls
- Honey Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
- Italian Chopped Salad
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Best Ever Beef Stew: Frequently Asked Questions
Mushrooms can be omitted completely if it’s not your thing. Eggplant or zucchini can be substituted, if desired, as it can absorb all the good flavors and mimic the texture of mushrooms.
Chicken, beef, or vegetable stock can be used for red wine as a non-alcoholic substitute. Stock will be less acidic and more mild in flavor than red wine.
Absolutely! But because dried herbs are often more potent/concentrated than fresh herbs, you need less when using dry. The correct ratio is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon dried herbs.
Yes! You can absolutely make beef stew in the slow cooker or Instant Pot.
Beef stew is very much freezer-friendly. You can freeze the leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop over low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through.
Best Ever Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 2 pounds top sirloin steak, diced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium sweet onion, diced
- 2 large carrots, peeled and diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, halved
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- ½ cup dry red wine
- 2 ½ cups beef stock
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 large russet potato, peeled and cut in 1/2-inch chunks
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Equipment
Instructions
- Season steak with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Working in batches, add steak to the stockpot and cook, stirring occasionally, until evenly browned, about 6-8 minutes; set aside.
- Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add garlic and mushrooms, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and browned, about 3-4 minutes.
- Whisk in flour and tomato paste until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
- Stir in wine, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the stockpot.
- Stir in beef stock, thyme, bay leaves and steak. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until beef is very tender, about 30 minutes.
- Stir in potato; simmer until potatoes are just tender and stew has thickened, about 20 minutes. Remove and discard thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Stir in parsley; season with salt and pepper, to taste.*
- Serve immediately.
Video
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Loved your clam chowder! I never knew it could be so easy. So when searching for a beef stew recipe I chose yours! So Yummy!
Just wondering what other part of beef can I use that gets tender for stew. The sirloin felt a little tough. But was still great.
Blade beef also good.
After following recipe for browning meat, throw everything in the crockpot. I do not precook veggies. They break down too much. Cook on low for 6-8 hrs. I use chuck roast. So much more tender.
Chuck roast – cube it and dust in flour, salt and pepper then brown. Even without browning it will be tender. The browning will give the stew more depth of flavor.
Could you please specify how to simmer with the lid open or closed?
This was the first time I have made stew and I am new to cooking. It cooked well and was very tasty!
I didn’t realize I was supposed to take the steak out of the stock pot after browning it, so I left it in. I used sirloin tip steak. I skipped the wine and instead added 2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce in step 6, after reducing heat. I simmered for about 20 minutes after reducing heat and then transferred it all to my slow cooker and added the potatoes. Put my slow cooker on low while we were out for 2 hours. I was afraid the potatoes would turn to mush and/or the meat would be too tough or the gravy would all evaporate. When we got home, I was happy to see that the gravy was still quite watery and the potatoes had not turned to mush. The potatoes and carrots were perfectly cooked. I added the parsley and salt to taste. It was very good! The gravy did seem a bit thin for a stew, it was more like a hearty soup broth. It also could have had more potatoes, in my opinion. The steak was almost perfect, just a bit chewy (but maybe that is to be expected with the sirloin tip steak?) It was very flavorful and my son and I had fun learning how to make stew!
How would I make the gravy thicker and the steak a bit more tender for next time? Would more flour make the gravy thicker?
I might try another reviewer’s suggestion of using chuck roast and putting everything in the slow cooker on low for 6- 8 hours after step one. I would also like to try using a wine next time, maybe a Cabernet-Shiraz, as that is my favorite wine.
Delicious stew! A pot of comfort food that is perfect for rainy season. I highly recommend adding dumplings to it:
Dumplings (makes 8-10)
1.5 cups flour
2 tsp. Baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 Tbs shortening
3/4 cups milk
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Cut in shortening, stir in milk. Roll 8-10 balls. Drop in soup. Cook 15 min with lid on.
Ugh I feel badly to give a negative review, but the beef was super tough and the potatoes were so undercooked. I followed the recipe to the T. It was watery too. I was excited to try a new recipe, but if you’ve never made stew before I would not follow this recipe. I’m going to stick with a crock pot recipe which seems to tenderize all ingredients.
did you remove the steak like it says in step 1? I would think the steak you can not cook lng or it will be tough. usually i use beef stew but you have to cook for a couple hours to get tender. i have not tried this recipe but it does make me nervous about the steak being tough
When I read the recipe, I wondered about both those things. Sirloin is too lean to cook long, and I like the potatoes well cooked!
This was amazing! Easy and my family loved it! Will be my go-to stew from now on!
Love this recipe so much. Would it be a crazy idea to use chicken instead of beef? If I did that, what would I have to change about the recipe?
You’d probably want to use chicken stock instead of beef stock, and white wine instead of red. No idea how that would turn out.
The wife said the flavor was amazing.
Adding this one to the menu rotation.
Followed recipes with tweaks
Sliced mushrooms thinly as my people find thick mushrooms texture similar to gristle.
Used Better than bouillon for beef stock
Used arm roast, cheaper, needed 2hrs to cook
I swapped out some of the water for the better than bullion mix with a lager like yuengling or a guiness( when it’s colder weather guiness seems to taste better with stew!)
This stew was delicious! I used the same ingredients and decided to cook it for a half hour in my InstantPot which made the prep time quicker but the flavor was still awesome.
My son asked me to make him some beef stew, I found this recipe and it turned out great! As I started cooking he would come and smell and say, “mmmm that smells great”. When he tried it he said he could almost cry of how delicious it was. I followed it to a T. Thank you for this amazing recipe! My husband loved it as did I. I also felt that it was easy to follow. Cant wait to try out more recipes from you ☺️
Great! Left out the mushroom and added more of the veggies than instructed (Will even add more next time since meat kinda overpowered everything) Still loved it though!
One question though, is after browning the beef (used stewed beef) there was quite a lot of meat liquid left over in the pot. Should this be drained or kept in the pot and add the veggies to it to cook? (Or did I cook the meat wrong and there shouldnt be any juices at all? New to cooking but enjoying the new hobby!)
Steven – usually when browning beef, if you do it in small batches, there isn’t juices left. If you do it in a large batch all at once, cook it until the juices are gone and the beef develops a crust. I’m guessing (total guess) that you didn’t brown the beef long enough and it goes more of a grey-brown instead of a deep brown. You want to go for the deep deep brown. Hope that helps!
This was very delicious! Made it on a snow day and it hit the spot after shoveling the driveway. I skipped the mushrooms, as I don’t care for them. This will be a winter staple in my house!!
AMEN @Liz!! I’m like when the F am i supposed to add the steak back in?!!!!!! Lol! That’s what happens when you buy a bottle of dry red wine for a beef stew recipe and wind up drinking the rest…. Lolol
Step #6 says to add the steak back in…
Trying to make this for my dad. At what point do I add back the beef (after setting aside)?
Step 6
Switched out the flour with cornstarch to make it gluten free! Forgot the bay leaves at the store and made it without – it was still super good plus added a little extra garlic and onion bc I love em! So good I have some waiting in the fridge that I can’t wait to eat tomorrow LOL!
This really is the best beef stew! The broth is so flavorful. It’s easy to prep the ingredients ahead of time and put it all together pretty quickly.
This literally is THE best beef stew I can remember since
I was a kid. We did use stew beef (chuck) and leave it going – total comfort. Also needed to add more stock.
You added steak to #6, yes!
I just wanted to make a suggestion that at the end of item 1, you just say, set beef (or steak) aside. Also in items 6 and 7, I would add whether it’s covered or uncovered.
I’m just suggesting what I’ve seen for the past 50 years in recipes.
Just trying to help make the recipe easy to understand.
Cheers!
The taste was overall very good. I had to add more salt and pepper to taste. Also, the potatoes took much longer to cook through. I also added peas and corn.
It was amazing; thank you so much! Will have to double it to have extra, next time.
After following recipe for browning meat, throw everything in the crockpot. I do not precook veggies. They break down too much. Cook on low for 6-8 hrs. I use chuck roast. So much more tender.
What. Can you use to substitute or the dry red wine?
I never use wine. I just add more stock.
AJ, not sure if you can drink wine but if so, if you tried it with a full-bodied red wine (I used a red blend sold in those little bottles), you wouldn’t want it any other way. The second time making it, I used 1 cup of wine and it was even richer tasting. And I keep it covered while cooking.
Would I do anything different (besides cooking time of course) if I made it in a crock pot? Thanks!