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!
I added fresh mushrooms and red, orange and yellow bell peppers. Also a can of corn. Turned out absolutely amazing :)! Thank you for the recipe
3 hrs on high and no where’s near being done! Should have put it on low for 10 hrs. Grrrr
A lot of cooking happens in that last hour. Also, try not to open it up while it’s cooking because that can slow the cooking down considerably.
Can I put this on low instead of high? 10 hrs?
I would guess that should be okay, although I haven’t tested it.
I’ve now made this twice. My husband loves it, he who hates cooked vegetables. :) I ended up adding more Worcestershire and a plug of red wine, but that’s just to our taste – this is a great recipe and is definitely drool worthy without the red wine!
Megan
The red wine is a good idea. In Britain we used to have a celebrity chef called Keith Floyd who was famous for always having a glass of red wine in hand whilst cooking. He would often put a whole bottle in a pot of stew and his recipes always worked very well!
Although my stew is still currently cooking the aroma is amazing! After making your Dragon Noodles recipe, which was one of the cheapest and most delicious meals I have ever made, I look forward to the stew and many more of your recipes. Thanks!
I would love for you to check out my new blog Beth! I’m a huge fan :D
thehungryactress.com
Great job! I can’t wait to see what else you create! :)
LOVED! I let mine cook for 4 hours in the evening on high then all night on low. My apartment smelled amazing. I will definitely be sharing this recipe and making again.
Any suggestions on a substitute for soy sauce? I’m out, and supposedly there is snow and ice on the way….and I’m not driving in that….
Hmm, I think I’m stumped on that one! The only things I can think of are probably things you don’t just keep stocked in your house, like Bragg’s amino acids. :(
I’d love to make this recipe and while I am very enthusiastic about garlic, my father-in-law very much isn’t. I’m wondering how one might rate the garlic flavor overall. I guess I could scale the garlic back a bit if it really is pretty garlicy. Thoughts?
I’d scale it back by half if he’s not a garlic lover.
You could also use roasted garlic which gives a much milder flavor. I do this often in recipes because the sharpness of raw garlic is too much for me.
I’m looking for a recipe I can make ahead of time, freeze, and then pop in the slow cooker before I leave for work in the morning and have it cook on low for about 8-9 hrs. Is there a way I can modify this recipe so I can do that?
Also, if I would be cooking it all day, would I have to brown the meat beforehand? If so, could I do that and then freeze everything?
Thanks for the info! I’m a newbie, but this looks delicious!
This one would be difficult to assemble/freeze/cook later because you definitely need to brown the meat first. Browning the meat changes the flavor and makes it much more deep and complex. So, you’d have to do that step, cool it down, then freeze it… which just seems too complex for its own good. :P
Delicious! I sometimes bash people for add-ins on recipes, but because I added more veggies I did add a can of whole tomatoes into the mix. The taste of the worcestshire, soy, brown sugar still came through. My favorite beef stew now!
Beth, this looks amazing! I have a 4 quart slow cooker, how would you recommend I change the recipe to fit? Thanks!
I think if you cut back on the veggies just a bit you can probably fit it in your slow cooker. There really isn’t much added liquid to cut back on, most of it comes out of the meat and veggies. The vegetables really take up the most space.
Tastiest stew I’ve ever made! Hubby said it was”absolutely wonderful” so no higher praise…
I too would have liked more gravy in the leftovers, but I just heated them up in a saucepan and added a bit of beef broth. I also appreciated the level of detail in your instructions — much clearer than most online (or even book) recipes.
Ah I’m just about to turn the slow cooker on for this to cook but i had no rosemary so have gone with oregano instead. Can’t wait to try it!
How did it come out with the oregano? I’m not a big fan of rosemary so I’m not sure if I could leave it out or use oregano.
sorry for silly question, but the ingredient list says ” ½ sleeve celery $0.65 “. do you mean 1/2 of a stalk or 1/2 of a bunch of celery? the celery at my local grocery store sells the celery packaged in a clear plastic “sleeve” and is usually priced around $1. i’ll admit that 1/2 of a bunch sounds like too much, but you never know….
Yes, I meant a half bunch. Sorry about the confusion! :) I used about 4 stalks or so. They cook down quite a bit.
Wow Kimberly really? A $1.00? I do believe it you must live where it grows. We can’t get them at that price here for a long time. Great price! I live in west Texas where we only grow onions, cantaloupes and watermelons and we still don’t get a good price lol. But I love this recipe Beth it’s a must to make it looks very tasty. Thanks.