Whoa. Just, WHOA. I’ve never smelled anything as lovely and drool-inducing as this Slow Cooker Beef Stew. The incredible aroma had my mouth watering for hours as the tender chunks of beef and vegetables simmered away in the flavorful gravy. I couldn’t wait to lift the lid and take a quick taste. And when I finally did? INCREDIBLE. This crockpot beef stew recipe is one you’ll definitely want to make before winter is over!
Ingredients for Beef Stew
Beef stew, in its most basic form, is really simple. It’s just chunky pieces of beef, vegetables, broth, and some herbs and spices, all cooked down until it forms a delicious cozy gravy. But I took this beef stew recipe up a few notches with some extra special ingredients that add more umami and flavor to the stew gravy. The ingredient list may look long, but I promise it’s worth it. Here’s what you’ll need for the most incredible crockpot beef stew ever:
- Beef Stew Meat – Stew meat, which is usually cubed chuck steak, tends to be a tougher cut, but it softens to an extremely tender texture when cooked low and slow (like in a slow cooker).
- All-Purpose Flour – Lightly coating the stew meat in flour and then searing it before it goes into the slow cooker increases the Maillard reaction and deepens the flavor. The flour also helps thicken the stew’s gravy.
- Vegetables – We use a hearty and flavorful mix of carrots, onions, celery, and potatoes to create a naturally flavorful gravy. The vegetables also help thicken the gravy as they break down into the broth.
- Beef Broth – Broth acts as the base for the gravy and provides a nice moist environment for the meat to cook to tender perfection. Make sure to use a broth with great flavor. We like to use Better Than Bouillon to make our broth.
- Seasonings – This is where we really take the flavor to the next level. For this recipe, we combined garlic, Dijon, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, rosemary, and thyme to make an over-the-top good gravy that is full of layered flavor and umami goodness.
How to Thicken Beef Stew
There are multiple ways to thicken a beef stew, but I prefer to allow the stew to thicken naturally as the vegetables cook and begin to break down into the broth. The stew may look a little watery when you first lift the lid, but once you begin to stir, the starches in the vegetables will begin to thicken the liquid into a gravy-like consistency.
Alternately, if you prefer a firmer vegetable, you can add them in the last hour of cooking and then use a cornstarch slurry (3 Tbsp cornstarch + 3 Tbsp water) to thicken your stew. Once the cornstarch is mixed into the broth and brought to a boil, it will thicken into a gravy. This method will result in a less flavorful gravy and a slightly glossy appearance.
What Else Can I add?
This slow cooker beef stew is pretty lush as is, but there are always options if you want to add more! Try adding 8 oz. mushrooms with the vegetables in the beginning (sliced in half) for more vegetable goodness. If you have some red wine on hand, deglaze the skillet used to brown the beef with the wine before proceeding with the gravy. Want it to look extra fancy? Sub 8 oz. pearl onions in place of the chopped onion in the recipe below.
Tips for the Best Beef Stew
- Sear the meat first. Browning the beef gives it an extra deep flavor that can’t be achieved in the moist environment of the slow cooker alone.
- Add extra umami. Adding ingredients to the broth that contain a lot of umami, like Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce, ramps up the flavor in the stew and makes the flavor extra “meaty”.
- Don’t rush it. Stew meat needs to cook low and slow for a long time in order for the tough connective tissues to break down and become tender. If your stew meat is tough, reduce the heat and cook it a little longer.
- Don’t skip the veggies. Including a variety of vegetables in your stew not only adds texture and color, but the vegetables also add a ton of extra flavor to the gravy, so you’ll get a delicious, multi-dimensional flavor in the final stew.
What To Serve with Beef Stew
This crockpot beef stew is a pretty well-rounded meal on its own, but you’ll want to sop up every drop of that deliciously thick brown gravy. I suggest serving your Slow Cooker Beef Stew with some bread on the side, like my Focaccia Rolls, or over a bowl of Creamy Polenta, warm rice, or egg noodles.
Love Beef Stew? You’ve got to try my Chicken Stew next!
Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Servings 8 1.25 cups eachIngredients
- 2 lbs. red potatoes ($2.40)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.37)
- 3 carrots ($0.44)
- 4 stalks celery ($0.44)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 1.5 lbs. beef stew meat ($11.24)
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.08)
- 2 cups beef broth ($0.27)
- 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard ($0.13)
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce ($0.06)
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.06)
- 1.5 tsp brown sugar ($0.02)
- 1.5 tsp dried rosemary ($0.15)
- 1.5 tsp dried thyme ($0.15)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and red potatoes. Slice the carrots and celery. Mince the garlic. Place the prepared vegetables in a four or five quart slow cooker.
- Place the stew meat in a bowl and sprinkle the flour, salt, and pepper over top. Toss the meat until it's evenly coated in flour.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high. Once very hot, add the cooking oil and swirl to coat the surface of the skillet. Add the stew meat and cook, without stirring, until browned on the bottom. Stir and then allow the beef to brown on a second side. Transfer the meat to the slow cooker.
- Turn the heat under the skillet down to medium-low. Add the broth, Dijon, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, rosemary, and thyme to the skillet. Stir and cook over medium-low until all the browned bits have dissolved off the bottom of the skillet.
- Pour the broth over the ingredients in the slow cooker and everything a good stir.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for four hours or low for eight hours.
- After cooking the meat and vegetables should both be tender. Stir the stew well to allow the potatoes to slightly break down and thicken the gravy. Taste the stew and adjust the salt or other seasonings to your liking. Serve hot!
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How to Make Slow Cooker Beef Stew – Step by Step Photos
Prepare the vegetables for the stew first. You’ll need to dice 2 lbs. red potatoes and one yellow onion, slice 4 stalks of celery and 3 carrots, and mince 4 cloves of garlic.
Place all of your chopped vegetables in a 4 or 5-quart slow cooker or crockpot.
Place 1.5 lbs. stew meat (beef chuck) in a bowl. Sprinkle 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour, ¼ tsp salt, and ¼ tsp pepper over the meat. Toss the beef until it’s evenly coated in flour, salt, and pepper.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high. When it’s very hot, add 2 Tbsp cooking oil and swirl to coat the surface of the skillet. Add the stew meat and let it cook until browned on the bottom, then stir and allow it to brown on the second side again. Do not stir often, or the beef will not have a chance to brown. Transfer the beef to the slow cooker.
Reduce the heat under the skillet to medium-low and add 2 cups beef broth, 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard, 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1.5 tsp brown sugar, 1.5 tsp dried rosemary, and 1.5 tsp thyme. Heat and stir the ingredients until all of the browned bits are dissolved off the bottom of the skillet.
Pour the broth over the ingredients in the slow cooker. It’s okay if the broth does not fully cover the ingredients in the slow cooker at this point.
Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for four hours or low for eight hours.
After four hours on high (or eight hours on low) the stew should look a little like this. The meat and vegetables should both be tender. The gravy may look a little thin at this point, but don’t worry…
Give the stew a good stir and the potatoes will break down a bit and thicken the gravy into a nice rich consistency. Depending on the type of broth used, you may want to taste the stew and add salt to your liking (I did not add any).
Serve the Slow Cooker Beef Stew as is or spooned over a bowl of hot rice or pasta. THIS will keep you warm and full on cold winter days!
Loved it! My picky eater son couldn’t get enough of it for leftovers!
If you freeze it..would freeze before or after it is cooked?
I would freeze this after cooking. It will thicken quite a bit upon refrigeration and freezing, but as long as that’s not a problem for you, it’s great.
This was even better than the Chuckwagon Stew recipe I’ve been using since 1970 from the Better Homes and Gardens Meat cookbook .
The only change I made was not to serve over rice or pasta since there were potatoes already in the stew. I removed all the meat and vegetables to a big dish and covered to keep warm. Then I added a roux of flour and water to the liquids, covered for about another 5 minutes and voila! gravy.
This is definitely a keeper!
Fantastic recipe. I have made it twice and it is very tasty. Can I make it a bit Irish by adding Guinness beer?
I haven’t tried that, but it sounds like it would be delicious!
I made this last night for company and was very disappointed. Reading the ingredients it sounded delicious, but when made we found it kind of tasteless. There was no one or two outstanding flavors. I agreed with the people who urged sauteeing the onions (and celery) to add to the flavor, but I followed the recipe exactly for the first time. In reflection I agreed with the idea of adding beer or wine to kick up the flavor. I also found the balance of meat to vegetables was out of proportion — there should be more meat and less vegetables and potatoes. I wish I had tried it for just us before making it for guests.
Would this freeze well?
It should freeze pretty well. :)
Hi, whenever I make this or a similar recipe, every time I add the dijon mustard it forms little lumps. After I add all the liquids and spices together (worcestershire, etc.) I end up with a broth that has a lot of grainy particles floating in it. Any way to prevent this and get everything incorporated properly?
It was grainy even after cooking? It should emulsify together as it cooks.
I whisked the liquid mixture before adding it to the crock pot to make sure everything was well combined.
I never leave reviews, but this one deserves it. I’ve made tons of different beef stews over the years, including just winging it (but I cook all the time and have quite a few recipes of my own). This is definitely the best I’ve had. Sometimes I use fresh rosemary from my garden; sometimes I use russet potatoes because I always have them on hand. Either way, it’s always perfect. My whole family loves it.
I have to make this gluten free. Cpuld I use corn starch instead of all purpose flour? How much corn starch would I use?
Cornstarch and flour have slightly different properties, so it probably won’t turn out exactly the same. I haven’t tested it with cornstarch to know exactly how that substitution would affect the results, though.
Would this work if I substitute the potatoes for sweet potatoes?
I think the flavors would be great together, although I think sweet potatoes may tend to break down a bit more than white potatoes, so I’m not sure how they’ll hold up texture-wise.
Hi! Would this be relatively the same instructions for an instant pot?
I’ve done this with the crock pot and it’s my all time favorite recipe but since then have upgraded to instant pot
Yes, most slow cooker recipes translate very easily to the Instant Pot because they’re both moist cooking methods. So you should be able to get very similar results with the IP. :)
This is probably a dumb question but would you use your instructions for your instant pot stew for this? I like the ingredients a little better in this one but we don’t have enough time to let it slow cook. We love your recipes!! :)
Yes, you sure can! :) MY IP stew recipe was based on this recipe, so they should work about the same.
Hi, do you think this stew would also work if the beef was substituted with lamb instead? Lamb is often cheaper to buy where I live.
Yes, that would probably work fine. :)
Thank you, can confirm it worked wonderfully :) the flavours in the sauce are just incredible! I added a little bit of red wine also which mixed in very well.
I make this recipe on a weekly basis, it’s a huge hit in our family. I don’t follow the recipe exactly, and tend to estimate the amounts but it’s pretty much cool-proof. We try and extend it out a few nights so I increase the amounts. Eg. Nearly a whole celery, 6 carrots, 8 potatos… perfect every time.
This did not turn out like a stew. I had to add more liquids after the 4 hours. This will end up as a soup. And I followed the recipe to a T
This recipe is great! I do cook the onions in my cast iron pan with the garlic first to give them a bit of colour. I never add onions to the slow cooker without cooking them first, I find it gives them an odd flavour, but that’s a personal preference. Once I remove the onion and garlic, I then add the beef. I find this prevents the garlic from burning. Also, I have a tiny slow cooker (3.5Q?), and I just add less carrots, potatoes and celery by about half. I add about the same amount of beef, maybe a bit less. And I keep the sauce the same. Doing this fills my slow cooker almost completely but it turns out great.
The secret to this recipe is definitely browning the beef first and using the sauce to deglaze the pan. If you skip this step you’d have a pretty regular beef stew, but taking the extra time makes it really incredible!
This is a really good recipe, and even better with the modifications suggested by a few reviewers:
1) Cook on low for 8 hours – when I cooked on high for 4 hours, the meat wasn’t fork-tender, so I turned I added another 4 hours on low and was really happy with the meat.
2) Scale back on the potatoes a little unless you’re a potato lover.
3) Next time I will use a cup of dark beer or red wine in place of the beef broth. (I realized this may not make it ‘budget’ for some, but I’m cool with the $3 bottle of wine from Aldi!)