Best Ever Beef Stew
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A cozy classic beef stew with tender beef, carrots, mushrooms, and potatoes. The best kind of comfort food especially on those chilly nights!
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Why you’ll love this beef stew
- Classic comfort food. This is the type of stew that is just wonderfully aromatic, super cozy, and filled with so many goodies – tender chunks of steak, mushrooms, potatoes, and carrots. It’s all good things here stewing in a perfectly hearty, rich, savory gravy that just sticks to your ribs.
- Avoids all-day simmering. Top sirloin is already naturally tender, allowing for a faster-cooking beef stew with juicy, tender meat, allowing you to skip that traditional 3-hour simmer.
- Budget-friendly. Beef stew takes tough, affordable cuts of meat (ex. top sirloin) and stretches the recipe with plenty of root vegetables to feed a big family, and maybe even leave leftovers to freeze for later.
What is beef stew?
Beef stew is made by slow simmering chunks of meat and root vegetables until the meat is melt-in-your-mouth tender and the stew is thickened into a gravy-like consistency.
Key Ingredients
- Beef: top sirloin is ideal here for a fast-cooking stew rather than an all-day simmer
- Vegetables: classic choices include onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, and russet potatoes
- Liquid: beef stock combined with red wine and tomato paste for extra depth
- Thickener: all-purpose flour for a smooth, gravy-like consistency
- Aromatics: garlic, thyme (dried or fresh), and bay leaves
How to make beef stew
- Sear the steak. Season the diced top sirloin steak with salt and pepper, then brown the steak in a single layer in a hot Dutch oven over medium high heat; set aside.
- Sauté the aromatics. Reduce the heat to medium, then stir in the onion, carrots, and celery until tender. Then stir in the garlic and mushrooms until browned.
- Add the flour. Add the flour and tomato paste, stirring constantly until lightly browned.
- Deglaze the pot. Stir in the red wine, lifting up the caramelized brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pot.
- Simmer. Stir in the beef stock, thyme sprigs, bay leaves, and seared steak chunks. Lower the heat and simmer until the beef is tender, about 30 minutes. Then stir in the potatoes until softened and tender, and the stew has thickened, about 20 minutes.
- Serve. Remove and discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Then stir in the parsley, salt, and pepper, and serve warm.
Storing, reheating, and freezing beef stew
Storage
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Reheat
Gently reheat on the stovetop over low heat, adding a splash of water or stock, if needed. Stir occasionally until warmed through completely.
Freeze
Let cool completely; portion the stew into plastic freezer bags in individual servings, squeezing out any excess air before sealing. Lay the bags flat in a single layer in the freezer (this will help them freeze quickly). Label, date, and freeze up to 3 months.
Reheat (from frozen)
To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge and gently reheat over low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Add a splash of water or stock, if needed.
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
Best Ever Beef Stew: Frequently Asked Questions
Skip the pre-packaged stew meat as it contains a random mix of leftover scraps with uneven fat and muscle. Use top sirloin instead, dicing into uniform chunks for consistent even cooking throughout.
Mushrooms can be omitted completely, or eggplant and zucchini can be substituted instead as they 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. But stock will be less acidic and more mild in flavor than red wine.
Yes! You can make beef stew both in the slow cooker or Instant Pot.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Beef stew is very much freezer-friendly. You can freeze the leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and gently reheat on the stovetop over low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through.
Best Ever Beef Stew
Video
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
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.
Equipment
Notes
- 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).
- Avoid “stew meat”. Stew meat is often times a random mix of lean scraps that turn out dry and rubbery.
- 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 beef 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!
- Freeze in individual portions. This will allow for easy serving and thawing, perfect for a quick lunch or fast dinner. Always leave a little bit of space at the top of your container or freezer bag as the liquid will expand as it freezes, squeezing out the extra air to prevent freezer burn.
Did you make this recipe?
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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!
This is not your mother’s beef stew! Oh my, so delicious. I followed the recipe to exactly except I rough-cut the vegetables as opposed to dicing them. As someone who grew up on starchy, gravy-based beef stew, I was thrilled to find a more interesting and flavorful stew. So comforting on a cold winter night.
Thanks so much Chungah! I’ve been looking for a great beef stew recipe and this one looks delish. I loved beef stew growing up but haven’t made it in years. Can’t wait to try out your recipe!
I give this recipe a big massive five stars . My family and I really love this dish. I transfer this recipe into the slow cooker after I’ve finished all the steps on your recipe so that I don’t have to look after the beef stew
This was as comfort as she made it sound! Very Yummy. I changed just a bit. I cooked with the meat in the entire time and I added spinach. A little chili powder as well. Very Very palatable. TY!
Excellent, I used some frozen Roma tomatoes instead of paste cause I was out, I also tossed in some frozen peas towards the end. Baked some hearth bread and had a feast! Thanks
Haven’t made this yet, but I was wondering if I could use peas instead of mushrooms? If so, do you think they would need to be fresh or could I use frozen? I’m trying to decide between this recipe or the instant pot beef stew recipe you have on your blog. Thank you for your help!
The great thing about stews is you can chuck in anything you want,,,,I have used both frozen and fresh veges….Frozen stuff, just put it in about 15 min before serving as they don’t take as long to cook.
My beautiful wife made a Vegetarian Gluten-free version of this recipe and it was damn delicious. We substituted “beyond meat” burgers for the steak. We thawed the burgers, added an egg and rolled them into little meatballs and browned them in a large pot with some olive oil and removed them when they were done. We then followed the rest of the recipe substituting some corn starch instead of four and used McCormicks “all vegetable” beef bullion instead of beef broth. The meatballs were added back in towards the end of recipe to absorb the flavors. What resulted was an awesome non-beef beef stew. I told my wife the only problem with the recipe was that she didn’t make a double batch!
I made this for my boyfriend. It was so good. The perfect comforting meal on a cold rainey night. It’s the first meal I have made for him, and he loved it.
It was SO good! My family loved it (even my picky daughters)! My 6 year old even wrote me a note to tell me how much she liked it.
Great recipe! I made it in the instant pot and it came out great. Love damn delicious
how long did you cook in instant pot? and did you do anything significantly different? thanks!
Andrea, can you please explain how you adapted the recipe for the IP?
Amazing taste!!!
Thank you
Delicious! This is a keeper we all loved it. I followed your directions and it was amazing! Thank you!
Delicious! I follow this recipe right to the tee and it was out of this world.
This was TASTY!