Crock Pot Beef Stew Recipe | Savory Nothings (2024)

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Recipe by Nora from Savory Nothings

4.76 from 245 votes

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Prep 30 minutes mins

Cook 8 hours hrs

Total 8 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

For the meat

• ▢ 2 tablespoons oil
• ▢ 1.5 pounds beef stewing meat in chunks
• ▢ 1-2 teaspoons salt or less, depending on what kind of stock you’re using
• ▢ black pepper to taste
• ▢ 2 tablespoons flour

For the gravy

• ▢ 2 large yellow onions cut into wedges
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic sliced
• ▢ 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• ▢ 4 tablespoons tomato paste
• ▢ ¼ cup red wine OR use more stock
• ▢ 2 cups beef stock
• ▢ 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• ▢ 1 tablespoon maple syrup

For the vegetables

• ▢ 3 large waxy potatoes peeled and cut into chunks
• ▢ 4 large carrots peeled, ends trimmed and cut into chunks
• ▢ 4 large celery sticks trimmed and thickly sliced
• ▢ ½ pound brown mushrooms cleaned and quartered
• ▢ ½ cup frozen peas no need to defrost

• Brown the meat: Heat the oil in a large and deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef cubes, season with salt and pepper and stir. Sprinkle the flour over the meat and stir well. Cook until the beef is browned on all sides (do not stir too much, or the beef will not brown properly). Remove to a 5-6 quart slow cooker.

• Start the gravy: Put the skillet back over medium high heat. If needed, add a little more oil. Cook the onions and garlic until starting to soften. Stir in the Italian seasoning and tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, until the herbs are fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour the red wine into the pan, scratching the browned bits off the bottom. Cook until thickened, about 1 minute. Stir in the stock, Worcestershire sauce and maple syrup. Bring to a boil (this will help the stew start cooking faster once it is in the crock), then switch off the heat.

• Transfer to the slow cooker: On top of the meat, place the potatoes, carrots, celery and mushrooms. Very carefully (!) pour the hot liquid from the skillet into the crockpot, making sure the liquid runs down all the way to the bottom and underneath the meat (stir a little if needed).

• Cook: Cook the stew on LOW for 8 hours or on HIGh for 4 hours. 10 minutes before cooking time is over, stir in the peas. Check for seasoning and adjust if needed. Either finish cooking with the lid open (if you want a thicker stew) OR closed if you want it soupier.

Cooking Tips:

If you want a thick gravy: There are a few different methods to yield a thicker gravy.

• The flouring of the meat helps a lot with thickening the gravy later on.
• If you love very thick beef stew, you can add a shredded FLOURY potato in addition to everything else.
• OR you can stir a cornstarch slurry into the stew about 10-15 minutes before cooking time is up and then cook it with the lid off for the remaining time – it’s what I do with my crockpot mediterranean chicken stew.

Cutting the vegetables: It is important to cut the veggies roughly into the same size chunks, otherwise they won’t cook evenly.

Also, do not cut them too small and do not cut them too big (I know, great advice ? )

When cut too small, they will dissolve. So you can leave them quite chunky. Just pay attention that you cut them in a way so a regular adult can eat the veggies without having to cut them up.

The great thing about stew is that it’s a rustic dish – so you can definitely get away with rustic chopping, it doesn’t have to be perfect by any means.

Browning the meat: Flouring and browning the meat before you add it to the crockpot will give you a wealth of extra flavor. It is a step you can leave out if time is very sparse – but the flavor and consistency of the stew will vastly benefit from NOT skipping this step.

Alcohol: The alcohol will evaporate as it cooks in the skillet (it would NOT evaporate as easily if cooked entirely in the crock pot). But if you’re uncomfortable using it, just use more broth.

Maple syrup: I get asked all the time why I put maple syrup in the stew, and it’s just there to add more depth to the flavor. It doesn’t make the stew sweet! But you can leave it out if you don’t want to add it.

Liquid amount: Some readers remarked that 2 cups of liquid doesn’t seem enough for a stew. But before you add more broth, please remember that the added liquid about DOUBLES in a slow cooker dish as it cooks. The stew ends up with plenty of gravy as long as you stick to the amounts given for the vegetables and the beef.

Note: An earlier version of my recipe included fresh thyme and bay leaves, but I got a lot of feedback from people who don’t keep these on hand, so I re-tested the recipe to make sure it tastes nice without them – and it does. Feel free to add a few sprigs of fresh thyme and a few bay leaves to the stew with the vegetables.