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!
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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!
hello Beth! Could I substitute the red meat with fish or seafood?
No, unfortunately seafood won’t work with this recipe. It is far too delicate to stand up to the slow cooker (and I’m not sure if the flavors would blend well).
I’m about to have this for dinner, yum. For those who found it took longer than advertised to cook: my crockpot was very full when I started this, and that can increase cooking time.
Kind of new to cooking, was wondering what the difference between this and a pot roast was…? Thanks for any input :)
This is more saucy, but not quite as much as a soup. :) (and the meat is in smaller pieces)
Stew beef was $7/lb! I couldn’t believe it. Ugh. I decided to grab a corned beef brisket and cube it, just to see what would happen because it’s $5/lb. I know it’s different and saltier, but I thought it might be worth a try.
Well…. I had to wrestle with the brisket for a VERY long time to get it cut up. It was so nasty. Is it a bad idea to cut a raw brisket or are my knives the ones to blame?
If I have to go with a brisket again, I think I’ll just cook that in the slower cooker with the onions, all the liquids, and seasonings, then dice it after 4 hours and cook with the veggies on the stove.
It smells delicious though!
And speaking of meat prices, I noticed that spiral cut hams are already fairly cheap per pound, and I know they will get even cheaper in the next few weeks. It’s already $1.60/lb at Aldi. I’m planning on using the bones to make my favorite ham stock (made with leek, onion, cinnamon, cloves, and coriander–it smells like Christmas!). But do you have any ideas how I can stretch the meat across more meals?
Hmm, I haven’t ever made anything with spiral ham, but that’s a good idea for this year! I love ham!
Ham and pineapple pizza?
Rather than corned beef brisket, you might want to go with a chuck roast and cut it up. Actually, I prefer it to stew meat, which loses a lot of its moisture and fat in the cutting process. The beauty of crockpots is that they are MADE for cheaper cuts of meat!
This was really good and super easy to throw together. It wasn’t a big change for what I usually do, but it was enough of one to make the old dish seem new and exciting. I’ll be throwing this in my recipe book for later.
My one mistake was that I used WAY too little salt, but this is a problem that I have more often than not. I’m always afraid to overdo it on the salt and end up having to add a ton later.
We can’t do flour. Could we sub cornstarch for the 1/4c of flour?
That will help thicken the stew, but it will give a different flavor. Instead of coating the beef with it, mix it into the broth mixture after you dissolve the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.
You might want to try potato flour. Browns nicely and gives a good flavor.
I don’t have a slow cooker…how would you alter this? Leave it on the stove, or put in the oven at what temp?
You can either simmer on low on the stove top, or if you have a Dutch oven, you can cook it in the oven on about 300 degrees. I don’t know the times needed to cook with those methods, though. In general, you want it to cook for a long time at a low temp.
My Husband is a great fan of yours & wants to trt out every recipe. He has cooked 4 of them already. The beef stew was yummy. He cooked it himself. I am not a fan of Rosemary & thyme. But it looked just like the picture. Everything was good about it. He also made the spinach & feta cheese in pastry & the egg noodle with the beef stir fry. I am going to try making the fish with teriyaki sauce & spicy mayonnaise & serve it with coconut rice & also the pasta with bacon & spinach. We Love your blog.
Made this tonight using mushrooms instead of the beef–they were on sale for 3/$5/8oz and I’m a vegetarian. Added a little more soy sauce to “meat it up.” One sprig of fresh rosemary gave it ample rosemary flavor. I threw in a few extra cloves of garlic because… well, garlic. It took about four and a half hours on high for the vegetables to become tender. I left it on warm for another two hours. Perfect.
Can I substitute a roast for the stew meat?
Yep, just cut it up into smaller pieces.
I made this for dinner tonight and it was awesome! The only change I made was scooping some of the veggies out in the last thirty minutes and pureeing them a bit with my immersion blender before putting them back in. It thickened the stew up perfectly. I also made some cornbread to go along with it. I’ll be adding this to my list of go-to recipes!
It looks like my rating didn’t show up so I wanted to make sure it did. :)
I am a huge fan, make things from your website all the time. I am wondering if anyone else found that this took way longer than 4 hours on high. It’s been 6 hours and my veggies are still hard. I’m not sure if it’s my crock pot or if I added more veggies than the recipe called for (I am not a big “measurer”) and tend to always add more than the recipe calls for. Long story short we had Taco Bell for dinner and plan on having this tomorrow. I will probably put it on low for the day and hopefully everything will be cooked through. It smells wonderful even if it’s not done yet!
Same thing happened to me! I ate it after 5 hours on high, but it really should have gone for another hour. To be fair, it really was better the next day so no loss there :D
The recipe is probably timed for just the amount of vegetables, so if you add more, you have to adjust. Also, you’ll notice that in her photos the size of the vegetables is pretty uniform. It’s important to chop vegetables to the same size so they’ll cook at the same rate. Another thing people do all the time is to keep taking the lid off the crockpot. Don’t! You’ll lose moisture AND heat. If you see it bubbling, it’s working.
Hmm, my first thought is that your slow cooker might be a bit off. Any vegetable should be soft after four hours on high in a slow cooker. That’s a lot of heat and a long time! :)
This was excellent! Made it this afternoon for the family while we were out and about and when we came home, the house smelled delicious! There’s a minor typo in the recipe – you should mention the garlic needs to be diced. I almost threw in whole garlic :)
Oh, thank you!!
Anyone have any input on whether or not it is safe to do all the searing and sauce-making the night before, and then store all the pre-crock pot stuff in the insert in the fridge overnight?
Basically, I’d like the early morning step to be limited to sticking the insert back in the crock pot and turning it on–cooking for low on 8 hours instead of high for 4…
I think that will work, but I would only suggest doing so if you cook on high. It will just take too long for all of those cold ingredients to come up to a safe temperature on low. If you have a programmable slow cooker, you can do the first two hours on high and then have it turn down to low for the remainder. If you don’t, it might even be okay cooking on high for 8 hours. Everything will be very soft, but I’m sure it would taste divine!
I’ve been considering purchasing a slow cooker, and this recipe might be the final argument in favor of doing so. One of the things I would love is say, leaving the ingredients ready in the morning before I go to work, and have the slow cooker start four hours before my arrival, so the meal would be ready just as I got home. But I’m a little concerned about leaving the ingredients sitting during the day. Do you think it would damage the consistency?
From a food safety standpoint, you really shouldn’t leave the ingredients in the pot without it turned on for that long. I would turn it on before you leave, but turn it on low. 8 hours on low is about the same as 4 hours on high, so that should work well. :)
I’ve been told that things generally taste better when cooked for 8 hours – is that not necessarily so?
I’m cooking this for my fiance tonight and, to make things easier, have already prepared the vegetables. I’m afraid that they’ll get a little soggy by then (will probably start cooking in 5 hours or so). I assume it would be ok to go ahead and start cooking on low? I’m just afraid of messing this up as she’s really excited about this stew.
Thanks!
I don’t think it will be a huge taste difference if you cook on high for four hours or low for eight. I’m looking at the time stamp on the comment and assuming you already cooked it? (Sorry, I was out of town yesterday and couldn’t moderate comments until today). How did it turn out?