Crockpot Beef Stew

This Crockpot Beef Stew is a hearty and savory slow cooked beef stew, perfect for those cold winter nights! This stew is loaded with beef, potatoes, carrots and green beans. 

Easy Crockpot Beef Stew Recipe

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.

Stew Base

• 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.
• Seasoning – Salt and pepper.

Beef Stew

• 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.
• Veggies – Potatoes, carrots, green beans.
• Garlic – Use as much or little as you like.

This simple stew recipe is a cinch to make! Once you brown the beef and make a broth, everything goes into the crockpot to finish cooking. It’s a fantastic, effortless meal!

To begin, you need to prep the meat before browning. To do this, put the cubed meat in a ziplock bag. Then sprinkle the flour over the beef, seal the bag, and shake it until all the cubes are fully coated in flour. However, if needed add more flour to the bag.

Once you’ve coated the meat in flour, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Then add the beef to the pan in batches and brown it evenly on all sides. It’s important not to crowd the pan so that the meat can brown properly.

Before putting everything in the crockpot you need to make the savory broth. Add the beef broth to the skillet and then scrape all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Next, stir in the Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, and oregano. Now, bring the mixture to a boil and then remove it from the heat.

First, add the chopped onion, garlic, potatoes, carrots, and green beans to your crockpot. Then add the browned beef along with the seasoned broth we just made. Now, stir the vegetables together with the meat so that the ingredients are evenly distributed.

With all the ingredients now in the crockpot, it’s time to start slow cooking! Put the lid on the crockpot and cook the stew on low for 8 to 10 hours or high for 5 to 6 hours. While the stew is cooking you don’t have to do a thing and can go about your day.

This step is optional. However, you can thicken the stew if you like. Just remove 1 cup of the broth from the crockpot about an hour before the stew is done and whisk it together with ¼ cup of flour. Then pour the mixture back into the crock pot and let the stew finish cooking. 

And there you have it! Ready to eat crockpot beef stew! To serve, fill your favorite bowls with the yummy stew, garnish it with some freshly chopped parsley, and serve with some homemade crusty No Knead Bread.

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 – 2½ hours.

Pressure cooker

Your Instant Pot is perfect for making beef stew. Check out my Instant Pot Beef Stew recipe for detailed instructions on how to make it.

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.

Other Delicious Beef Recipes To Try

2 hrs 15 mins

Carne Guisada

10 hrs 20 mins

The Best Crock Pot Roast

30 mins

Chili Mac and Cheese

3 hrs 45 mins

Beef Bourguignon

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4.60 from 60 votes

Crockpot Beef Stew

Prep 20 minutes

Cook 10 hours

Total 10 hours 20 minutes

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This Crockpot Beef Stew is a hearty and savory slow cooked beef stew, perfect for those cold winter nights! This stew is loaded with beef, potatoes, carrots and green beans. 

US CustomaryMetric

8

Ingredients

• ▢ 3 pounds stewing beef
• ▢ ¼ cup all-purpose flour (use a bit more if needed)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ▢ 4 cups beef broth (low sodium)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• ▢ 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon pepper (or to taste)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• ▢ 1 teaspoon cumin
• ▢ 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• ▢ 1 large onion (chopped)
• ▢ 5 cloves garlic (minced)
• ▢ 6 medium potatoes (peeled and cut into cubes)
• ▢ 2 medium carrots (peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces)
• ▢ 1 cup green beans (frozen or fresh, ends trimmed and cut in half)
• ▢ ¼ cup all-purpose flour (optional)

Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.

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 ¼ 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.

Equipment

• 6-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker

Video

Notes

1. You can use any cut of beef that you prefer, or buy pre-cut stewing beef from the store.
2. Add any veggies that you like, for example: peas, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.
3. To make this recipe gluten free, toss the beef in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Make a slurry out of another 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and a splash of water, and cook until the cause thickens if you’d like the stew to have a thicker consistency.
4. Deglaze the pan well. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the skillet well to loosen all the brown bits when you add the broth. This is the key to making a flavorful stew.
5. Whisk well. If you choose to thicken your stew, make sure to whisk the broth and flour together well before adding the mixture back into the crockpot. Not doing so will create lumps. 
6. Season at the end. Wait until the stew is ready to serve before you add more salt. Stew reduces as it cooks and also intensifies in flavor. So if you season it too much too soon you risk ending up with an over-salted dish.

Nutrition Information

Serving: 1servingCalories: 605kcal (30%)Carbohydrates: 32g (11%)Protein: 37g (74%)Fat: 36g (55%)Saturated Fat: 13g (81%)Cholesterol: 120mg (40%)Sodium: 563mg (24%)Potassium: 1563mg (45%)Fiber: 6g (25%)Sugar: 2g (2%)Vitamin A: 3175IU (64%)Vitamin C: 23.7mg (29%)Calcium: 112mg (11%)Iron: 9.9mg (55%)

© Author Joanna Cismaru

Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.