Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Easy Slow Cooker Beef Stew — 😍❤️🍷 Comfort food at its finest with thick and tender chunks of beef, buttery soft potatoes, and mixed vegetables. The broth is rich, deep, and exquisite thanks to a mixture of beef broth, red wine, and a mixture of herbs and spices. IMPRESS your family and friends with this CLASSIC beef stew recipe! 

Slow Cooker Beef Stew Recipe

For all you meat-and-potatoes people, you’re going to absolutely be in comfort food heaven with my slow cooker beef stew. However, this isn’t just any meat and potatoes recipe.

Slow cooker beef stew has thick chunks of tender beef, buttery soft potatoes, mixed vegetables, and the stew broth is absolutely exquisite.

If one can call stew broth upscale, this stew is just that courtesy of the beef broth, red wine, Worcestershire, and soy sauces.

The stew is seasoned and perfumed with herbs and spices including garlic, onions, rosemary, thyme, and smoked paprika.

During the slow cooking process all of these flavors marry to form a rich, deep, and hearty flavor profile that will impress your family, friends, and anyone who tries this beef stew.

Ingredients in Slow Cooker Beef Stew

For this easy beef stew recipe made in your slow cooker, you’ll need the following ingredients on hand:

• Chuck roast – I use beef Chuck roast because the fat content and internal marbling create finished beef that is just so tender and juicy. Plus, it tends to be a pretty inexpensive cut of beef which is always nice since beef can get expensive in a hurry! Sometimes you can find beef that’s labeled as ‘stew meat’ and can be a mixture of Chuck roast with other cuts of meat
• All-purpose flour
• Salt
• Pepper
• Smoked paprika or regular paprika
• Olive oil
• Red wine – Look for a dry red wine such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot, Malbec, Syrah, Pinot Noir, or Tempranillo
• White onion
• Unsalted butter
• Beef broth
• Tomato paste
• Soy sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Garlic
• Beef bouillon
• Rosemary and thyme – I prefer to use fresh herbs, but dried herbs will also work
• Bay leaves
• Potatoes – I used Russet potatoes, which are a starchy potato variety. They tend to break down a bit when simmering, which in this slow cooker stew recipe, I like. If you want the potatoes to stay more intact, use a waxier potato like a Yukon Gold or a red potato. You can peel the potatoes or leave them unpeeled, your choice. Cut the potatoes on the chunkier side of bite-size. Otherwise, they tend to really break down and almost disappear after their long-simmering time in the slow cooker.
• Frozen mixed vegetables
• Corn starch
• Water
• Kitchen Bouquet, optional

Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.

How to Make Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Making beef stew in your Crock-Pot is easy by following these straightforward steps:

Step 1: Trim and cube your Chuck roast. Then, toss it in a mixture of flour, salt, pepper, and paprika. Add the Chuck roast to a large heavy skillet, browning the meat before transferring it to the slow cooker.

Step 2: Add the red wine to deglaze your skillet. Then, add half the butter, and melt it.

Step 3: Add the onions, and cook the onion for 5 minutes. Pour this over the beef in the slow cooker. Next, add the beef broth, tomato paste, soy and Worcestershire sauces, garlic, beef bouillon, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, and stir.

Step 4: Add the potatoes and vegetables. Then, dissolve the corn starch into the water, and pour the mixture into the slow cooker.

Step 5: Cover and cook on either low or high in your slow cooker. Don’t lift the lid as it cooks! Ten minutes before serving, add the remaining butter and optional Kitchen Bouquet, and enjoy.

What to Serve with Beef Stew

Classic Mashed Potatoes

The Best Soft and Fluffy Honey Dinner Rolls

House Salad

Easy Sourdough Bread

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4.89 from 9 votes

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

By Averie Sunshine

😍❤️🍷 Comfort food at its finest with thick and tender chunks of beef, buttery soft potatoes, and mixed vegetables. The broth is rich, deep, and exquisite thanks to a mixture of beef broth, red wine, and a mixture of herbs and spices. IMPRESS your family and friends with this CLASSIC beef stew recipe! 

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 8 hours hours

Total Time: 8 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings: 10 servings

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Equipment

• 1 Large Bowl
• 1 Large, Heavy-Bottomed Skillet
• 1 Slow Cooker

Ingredients  

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• ▢ 2 to 3 pounds chuck roast, trimmed and cubed into bite-sized pieces
• ▢ 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon pepper
• ▢ ½ teaspoon smoked paprika or regular paprika
• ▢ 4 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ ½ cup dry red wine*
• ▢ 1 medium white onion, diced small
• ▢ 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• ▢ 7 to 8 cups beef broth
• ▢ 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• ▢ 1 tablespoon soy sauce, I use lite or reduced sodium
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• ▢ 5 cloves garlic, finely minced, or to taste
• ▢ 1 teaspoon beef bouillon
• ▢ 1 sprig fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried
• ▢ 1 sprig fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
• ▢ 2 or 3 bay leaves
• ▢ 2 large Russet potatoes**, diced in chunky bite-sized pieces
• ▢ 2 ½ cups frozen mixed vegetables
• ▢ ¼ cup corn starch
• ▢ ¼ cold water
• ▢ 2 to 3 drop Kitchen Bouquet, optional

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Instructions 

• Cut the beef into bite-sized pieces, trimming any large pieces of fat hanging from it, but leave any fat that is marbled into the beef alone because it adds flavor to the stew.
• To a large bowl, add the flour, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and stir to combine.
• Toss the meat in this dry ingredients mixture until it is evenly coated.
• To a large, heavy-bottomed skillet, add the oil, and add some of the beef, and cook over medium-high heat to sear it. Flip intermittently and as needed so that all sides of the beef cubes are evenly seared and browned. Tip – Do not overcrowd the beef or it will steam and not sear, so do your browning in batches. As the meat is done, set it aside into your slow cooker and continue the process until it's all browned and in the slow cooker.
• Add the red wine to your skillet to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Note – It will bubble up vigorously and steam, so use caution when you add it. If you are not using wine, use 1/2 cup of beef broth instead.
• Scape and stir the wine until the meat juices and bits are loosened from the bottom of the pan.
• Add the onion, half the butter (reserve the remaining 2 tablespoons for step 10), and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are becoming translucent; stir frequently.
• Add the onions and cooking liquid to the slow cooker.
• Add the beef broth (start with 7 cups and see how it looks), tomato paste, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, beef bouillon, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, and stir to combine.
• Add the potatoes, mixed vegetables (they can be unthawed or straight from the freezer), and stir to combine; set aside.
• To a small bowl, add the corn starch, cold water, and stir to combine until a slurry is formed.
• Add the slurry to the slow cooker and whisk it into the ingredients in the slow cooker.
• Cover it with the lid and cook on low for about 8 hours. Although you can cook on high for 4 hours, low and slow is my preference and the meat becomes more tender the longer it cooks.
• 10 minutes before serving, remove the whole sprigs of rosemary and thyme if you used fresh, remove the bay leaves, optionally add a few drops of Kitchen Bouquet (adds a rich brown color and a slight bit of flavor), add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, cover again with the lid, allow the butter to melt, and then stir to combine.
• Beef stew is done when the beef is tender and pierces very easily with a fork (has an internal temp of 165F although I don't take the temperature), and the potatoes and vegetables are fork tender. Tip – It's very hard to overcook the beef, but you can overcook the vegetables to the point of mush, although this is not very likely.
• Taste the stew and if necessary, add a bit more salt or pepper, and stir to combine. Note – If you prefer a brothier stew and not quite as thick, in the second half of the cooking process (after about 4 to 6 hours cooking on low heat) add the additional 1 cup of broth (8 cups total rather than 7).
• Optionally serve with freshly grated Parmesan and crusty bread or dinner rolls. Stew will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 1 week and in the freezer for up to 4 months.

Notes

*Dry red wines such as Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec. Syrah, Pinot Noir, Tempranillo are all good options.

**I used Russet potatoes which are a starchy potato. They tend to break down a bit when simmering because, which in this slow cooker stew recipe, I like. If you want the potatoes to stay more intact, use a waxier potato like a Yukon Gold or a red potato.  You can peel the potatoes or leave them unpeeled, your choice. Tip: Cut the potatoes on the chunkier side of bite-size because otherwise they tend to really break down and almost disappear after their long simmering time in the slow cooker. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 637kcal, Carbohydrates: 28g, Protein: 53g, Fat: 34g, Saturated Fat: 14g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 18g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 125mg, Sodium: 5606mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 3g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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