Crockpot Beef Stew is a hearty and savory slow cooker beef stew, perfect for those cold winter nights! This stew is loaded with beef, potatoes, carrots and green beans.
What’s not to love about beef stew. Tender, fall-apart chunks of beef loaded with potatoes, carrots and the most flavorful gravy there is. Totally delicious and a true comfort dish. Beef stew is perfect for slow cooking, giving the beef enough time to get super tender and melt in your mouth delicious.
I learned this recipe from my mother and the beauty of it is that it really is versatile. I like to make this dish in the crockpot now that I’ve turned this recipe into my own little creation as it ensures that our beautiful stew will cook low and slow.
This is a perfect recipe for winter, giving you a comforting beef stew loaded with flavor and providing you with lots of leftovers but don’t let that stop you from making it on a particularly rainy day during the spring or summer! So get ready to curl up with a big comforting bowl, it’s exactly what the doctor ordered after a long day.
Ingredients
- Beef – Cut into 1 inch cubes with the fat trimmed, I’ll include a section below detailing what kind of cuts you can use below.
- Flour – You have to dredge the beef through flour to brown it in a skillet, an important step flavor wise!
- Olive oil – To brown up our beef in the skillet.
- Liquids – Low sodium beef broth and Worcestershire sauce add tons of flavor and some needed liquid to this stew.
- Tomato paste – This will give a rich flavor bomb to the dish and will cook down low and slow better than say diced tomatoes.
- Spices – Cumin, smoked paprika, dried oregano.
- Veggies – Potatoes, carrots, green beans.
- Garlic – Use as much or little as you like.
- Seasoning – Salt and pepper.
How To Make Crockpot Beef Stew
- Prep the beef: Place the beef in a ziploc bag and add the flour over the beef. Close the ziploc bag and shake until each piece of beef is fully covered in flour. Add more flour if needed.
- Brown the beef: Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef to the skillet and brown on all sides. You will have to do this in a couple batches since you don’t want to crowd the meat.
- Assemble the stew: Add the broth to the skillet and scrape up all the brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, salt, pepper, paprika, cumin and oregano to the skillet and stir everything together, bring to a boil and remove from heat.
- Incorporate the veggies: Add the chopped onion, garlic, potatoes, carrots and green beans to your crockpot. Add beef and the broth we made earlier. Stir everything together.
- Cook the stew: Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or high for 5 to 6 hours. If you prefer your stew a bit thicker, one hour before the stew is finished, take 1/4 cup of flour and whisk it together with some of the sauce from the crockpot, about a cup or so. Then pour this mixture back in the crockpot, stir and let it cook for the remainder of the time.
- Finish the stew: Garnish with freshly chopped parsley before serving.
What Is The Best Cut Of Beef
Usually you can find stewing beef in your grocery store, and it comes already cut into cubes. You want the tough, lean cuts. However, they have collagen which breaks down over long cooking resulting in fork tender meat. Moreover, look for chuck roast, top round, rump roast, chuck shoulder or eye round roast.
How Else Can I Make Beef Stew?
Oven
You can definitely make this stew super easily in the oven! Follow the directions just as above but pop the ingredients in a dutch oven instead and cook at 350 F degrees for 2 – 2 1/2 hours.
Pressure cooker
You’ll want to follow the directions outlined above, including browning and sautéing right in the pressure cooker on its saute setting. Assemble the ingredients in the pot, make sure to scrape the brown bits from the inner pot once the broth is added! Cook on high pressure for 35 minutes and allow the pressure to release naturally before serving!
Other Ingredients You Can Use
There’s lot’s you can incorporate into this stew! It’s a blank canvas for whatever you’d like to use up in your pantry or fridge, so feel free to have some fun with it.
Veggies
- Cauliflower
- Peas
- Broccoli
- Zucchini
- Celery
Meat
- Lamb
- Pork
- Chicken
- Turkey
Using other proteins may effect the cooking time so just keep that in mind when incorporating other meats into your stew.
Storing Leftovers
Allow the stew to come to room temperature but don’t leave it out, unrefrigerated for more than two hours. Store it in airtight containers in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.
Freezing
You can freeze this stew for up to 6 months. Simply transfer it to airtight containers or resealable freezer bags and pop them in the freezer. Just allow to thaw overnight in the fridge and warm back up to temperature over the stove when ready to eat.
More Must Try Recipes:
- One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese
- Mexican Pork Stew
- Easy Chicken Enchilada Casserole
- Chicken And Dumplings
- Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Ranch Pork Chops And Potatoes Sheet Pan Dinner
- Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf
- Easy Pot Roast
- Carne Guisada
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Crockpot Beef Stew
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 pound beef fat trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes, I used sirloin tip roast
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour use a bit more if needed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 cups beef broth or chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 3 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 onion chopped
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 6 medium potatoes peeled and cut into cubes
- 2 medium carrots peeled and cut into slices
- 1 cup green beans frozen or fresh, ends trimmed and cut in half
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour optional
Instructions
- Place the beef in a ziploc bag and add the flour over the beef. Close the ziploc bag and shake until each piece of beef is fully covered in flour. Add more flour if needed.
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef to the skillet and brown on all sides. You will have to do this in a couple batches since you don’t want to crowd the meat.
- Add the broth to the skillet and scrape up all the brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, salt, pepper, paprika, cumin and oregano to the skillet and stir everything together, bring to a boil and remove from heat.
- Add the chopped onion, garlic, potatoes, carrots and green beans to your crockpot. Add beef and the broth we made earlier. Stir everything together.
- Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or high for 5 to 6 hours.
- If you prefer your stew a bit thicker, one hour before the stew is finished, take 1/4 cup of flour and whisk it together with some of the sauce from the crockpot, about a cup or so. Then pour this mixture back in the crockpot, stir and let it cook for the remainder of the time.
- Garnish with freshly chopped parsley before serving.
Recipe Notes
- You can use any cut of beef that you prefer, or buy pre-cut stewing beef from the store.
- You can use pork or chicken if you don’t want to use beef.
- Add any veggies that you like, for example: peas, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.
- To make this recipe gluten free, toss the beef in 2 tbsp of corn starch. Make a slurry out of another 2 tbsp of cornstarch and a splash of water, and cook until the cause thickens if you’d like the stew to have a thicker consistency.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
Oh by the way I am making your roasted Cornish hens tonite looks soooo yummy, will let you know! 😊
Sounds good, looking forward to hear how you liked them. 🙂
Hi jo, iam new to your site and plan on making your crockpot stew. Question, won’t the veggies get to mushy in 8 hours?
No, they’ll be perfectly cooked and tender, not mushy!
This recipe was excellent. The only thing I did differently was to add in a teaspoon of thyme and only use three cups of beef broth instead of four.
The recipie was easy to follow. I added mushrooms and celery. The beef was pretty good but the soup tasted bland to me. Maybe because I used regular paprika instead of smoked paprika or didn’t use enough salt. I will make again but with a few tweaks.
Jo, have you tried this in an instant pot? What adjustments would I need to make? How long to cook? Etc. It looks delicious!! Thank you so much!
Give this recipe a try! https://cravinghomecooked.com/instant-pot-beef-stew/
I really liked the mix of spices. Turned out really nice.
We loved this recipe so much & I didn’t change anything. I stirred the pot a few times while it was cooking. Will definitely make this many more times.
Nice n great meal… Thanks for the recipe
Loved this. Didn’t have smoked paprika but used regular. Very flavourful stew. Floured and browned my meat first. Cooked 6 hours but that was too long for my taste.