Can you believe that this slow cooker beef stew is the first beef recipe on Ambitious Kitchen?!
Truth be told, we didn’t grow up eating a lot of beef. My mom preferred a plant forward diet, but of course, always made my brother and I plenty of comfort foods that included chicken and fish.
However, during the winter months, I remember her making a deliciously cozy, tender beef stew that was rich, savory and packed with nourishing carrots, potatoes and peas. On the side, she’d serve a honey cornbread that we’d use to soak up all of the savory broth.
My mom’s best ever beef stew was one of my favorite comfort foods and because I love to get a little nostalgic on you, I decided to make a slow cooker version for the blog.
And mmmmm hmmm hunny IT IS AMAZING. Perfect for Sunday night dinners, impressing your partner and warming up during those cold winter nights. Trust me when I say: you need it.
Ingredients in slow cooker beef stew
- Beef chuck: this beef stew recipe is best when made with lean cuts of meat that don’t contain as much fat. The longer the beef simmers and cooks, the more tender it will be thanks to the breakdown of connective tissue. You can learn more about why tougher meats are better for stews here. Tip: make sure you trim all the beef of excess fat before using!
- beef broth: you can use beef broth or beef bone broth in this recipe.
- dry red wine: my recommendations are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Shiraz. If you don’t to use red wine, you can feel free to use more beef broth.
- tomato paste: this is used to help thicken the broth and to give it a nice tang of sweetness.
- worcestershire: the wonderful addition of worcestershire gives this beef stew recipe incredible savory umami flavor.
- balsamic vinegar: helps to give the beef stew a little tang and sweetness.
- fresh herbs: both garlic and thyme are used!
- vegetables: onions, carrots, potatoes and peas are forever my favorite.
- flour: this helps to thicken the stew once it’s done. You can use regular, whole wheat or gluten free all purpose flour.
How to make easy slow cooker beef stew
- Making this slow cooker beef stew is easier than you think! First, you’ll need to trim the beef of excess fat. After that you’ll saute the beef in a skillet until seared (you don’t need to cook it all the way); browning the meat just helps to create additional flavor so please don’t skip it.
- Next add in the liquid ingredients: beef broth, dry red wine, tomato paste, worcestershire, balsamic vinegar, thyme and salt and pepper. Stir together with the beef until combined.
- Next stir in the garlic, onion, carrots and potatoes. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours. The longer it cooks, the better and more tender the stew will be.
- Once the stew is done, you’ll add in the flour and the peas and cook uncovered for another 15 minutes until the stew thickens up.
- Serve with cornbread, crackers or biscuits. Enjoy a big bowl of deliciousness.
I mean come on, how fabulous does this beef stew look? I love that it’s made in the slow cooker for ease, but that it still tastes incredibly delicious, tender and is full of flavor.
I can’t wait to hear what you think about this beef stew and if you love it as much as we do! I recommend serving it with my pumpkin cornbread muffins or my fabulous garlic bread recipe.
See how to make this slow cooker beef stew:
If you make this recipe, please leave a comment and rate the recipe below to let me know how you liked it! xo.
Mom's Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Mom's best ever slow cooker beef stew recipe cooked to perfection with dry red wine, plenty of garlic & herbs and tender carrots and potatoes. This easy beef stew recipe is just like the classic one you grew up with and makes a delicious, protein-packed dinner the whole family will love!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 pounds beef chuck, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1 inch pieces (about 2 1/2 pounds when done)
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
- 1 1/2 cups beef broth (or beef bone broth)
- 1 cup dry red wine (or sub extra beef broth)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Lots of freshly ground black pepper
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large yellow onion, cut into chunks
- 4 large carrots (or 5 medium), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch diagonal slices
- 1 pound yukon gold potatoes, diced into ½ inch cubes
- ¼ cup all purpose flour (or sub all purpose gluten free flour)
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions
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Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a large skillet and place over medium high heat. Add beef, season with salt and pepper and brown in batches, so that you give the meat room for a nice sear. This should take about 5 minute per batch of meat. Transfer to large 6 or 8-quart slow cooker.
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Next add in beef broth, dry red wine, tomato paste, worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, thyme and salt and pepper. Stir together with the beef until combined, then add in garlic, onion chunks, carrots and diced potatoes. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. I prefer to cook this slow and low so that the beef become really tender and the flavors have time to meld together.
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Next, remove 1 cup of beef broth from the slow cooker and transfer to a medium bowl. Whisk in ¼ cup flour until there aren’t any lumps remaining. Add back to the slow cooker and stir to combine. Add in frozen peas and cook uncovered on HIGH for 10-15 more minutes until beef stew thickens up a bit. Serve immediately with toasted french bread, cornbread, crackers, or biscuits. Serves 6.
Recipe Notes
Feel free to use beef broth instead of red wine if that's what you prefer.
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
59 comments
Ohh god! what a delicious and mouth watering recipe.
One of my favs!
I’m always curious what size Crock-Pot people use in their recipes because half the time mine is too small. Do you know the volume? Can’t wait to try!!
hi! I have a 6 quart slow cooker that I use for everything: https://amzn.to/2ZXWjiM
This stew was amazing!! Will definitely be keeping this as a weekly meal😊😋
Perfect! So happy you enjoyed 🙂
Has anyone made this recipe in the instant pot?
I made this tonight in my 6qt instant pot (used the slow cooker function) and it was delicious! Will definitely make again.
Love it! Such a great dinner.
This is the first time I’ve ever made beef stew, and I’ll be sticking with this recipe. So good!! It’s definitely going into my fall/winter soup rotation.
I’m so glad you like it! One of my favorites in the fall/winter 🙂
If I have someone in my house that doesn’t like peas, could I substitute frozen corn instead? Or do you have any other vegetable recommendations besides peas? Thanks!
Sure! Feel free to leave them out or add some corn 🙂
I would love to try this however I do not have a slow cooker. If I do it in the oven with a Le Creuset how should I adjust my cooking time and what temperature should I cook at? Or is it better on the stove top?
I would do it on the stovetop. You can follow the recipe as indicated — just put your dutch oven over low heat and simmer covered for 5-6 hours. 🙂 I would also potentially add another 1/2 cup-1 cup of beef broth.
I made this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It was so good that I cannot wait to make it again. I left out the vinegar because I didn’t have any and it was still yummy! Make it; you won’t be disappointed.
Amazing! So glad you loved this one!
Omg!!!! This beef stew is amazing!! My whole family loved it. I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfect. Will definitely make again. Cant wait to try out more of your recipes!
So happy to hear that! I hope you find more recipes you love here too 🙂
Hi,
I can’t wait to make this delicious beef stew. I have never used balsamic vinegar. Can you please tell what brand you use. I truly appreciate your help. Not familiar with it. Thank you so much. Maria
Hi! I usually get it from Whole Foods and it looks like this. Enjoy!
Does this recipe freeze well?
Yes! I would put everything in a freezer safe container before making— then once ready to make, thaw and cook as directed. You’ll just need to leave out the flour until it’s cooked! You can also freeze the recipe after its made!
This was so amazing and comforting. Will definitely be making this again. Thanks for another fabulous recipe!
Absolutely! Glad you enjoyed!
The stew is in my slow cooker and the kitchen smells wonderful! Could you please give me some idea of the amount of a serving? I’m serving it to a diabetic grandchild and need to compute carbs.
Thanks!
About 1.5-2 cups approximately. Enjoy!
Can I make this into a freezer meal?
Absolutely! I would put everything in a freezer safe container before making— then once ready to make, thaw and cook as directed. You’ll just need to leave out the flour until it’s cooked! You can also freeze the recipe after its made!
Can I sub Almond flour by chance? Or would you recommend cornstarch if I don’t have regular flour on hand?
Cornstarch would work well. I suggest 2 tablespoons to start and then see how thick it gets. You might need more!
This was perfect until I added the flour. Next time I will leave it out. Delicious flavor.
Strange! I’m curious what happened when you added the flour that you didn’t like?
Very tasty!!!!! I used more potatoes as I only had a little more than 2 pounds of beef and added extra carrots and roughly the same in celery. Since this ended up making the stew thick, I omitted the GF flour and it turned out delicious. This smells soooooo good while cooking. I think the balsamic vinegar and black pepper add a lot of flavor in this dish. It’s also go the next day!!! It’s a keeper for sure. Thank you for sharing!!
Perfect! So glad you loved this one!
Really loved this version, especially adding in those peas! I didnt do the slow cooker instead using my pressure cooker since I was a bit pressed on time.
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
Loved this recipe, thank you! I made it for my husband and I for Easter, and we could not have been happier with the results. Ended up eating it a bit earlier than 7 hours on low but was perfectly juicy. Will definitely make again!
Perfect! So glad you both enjoyed 🙂
If you are not sure how much pepper to use, do not use “lots of freshly ground black pepper”. It ruins the meal and you can barely eat it but then you want to eat it because you knew it would have been delicious if you didn’t add all that pepper.
Lots doesn’t mean an excessive amount, which is sounds like what could have happened here. I’m not sure how much you could have added to make it inedible, but perhaps skip it next time?
Easy to use in my multi-cooker, where I can sear the meat. And then switch to slow cooking.
I use the Crock-Pot 5n1 multi-cooker.
Perfect! Glad that worked out well 🙂
I think I found this recipe on Pinterest originally but couldn’t latch onto it when I tried to find it just now. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that this is THE BEST beef casserole recipe that I have made in my entire life ! Thank you so much for sharing it – I am not a good casserole maker, my mother made something similar when I was young but it didn’t have the yummy ingredients that yours has. I am 70 next week so I’ve been cooking a good few years and it’s sad to think I haven’t mastered a good casserole up until now! Thanks again from a New Zealand cook. x
Amazing! So happy you found this recipe and happy early birthday!
This recipe is wonderful! I’ve never used a chuck roast, cut up, for beef stew. What a wonderful idea! This recipe restored my faith in beef stew! I didn’t have fresh thyme, so I used dry, only a tiny amount because I’m not a thyme fan. I used more beef broth than wine. I followed everything else. My husband and i loved it.
Thank you for sharing this.
I made this about a month ago. Going to make again this week, even though we are having a heat wave! The crock pot doesn’t heat up the kitchen!
Perfect! So happy to hear that, Pattie 🙂
I don’t do well with tomatoes. Can I leave out the tomato paste? Or ideas for a substitution? Thanks!
Hmm the tomato paste helps to thicken plus give it flavor so I can’t say I would recommend leaving it out. Perhaps you could try bbq sauce + a little more flour?
This was amazing!!
Sadly my slow cooker was too small for me to add potatoes so I omitted them and used mashed to serve. I coated the beef pieces in flour before I browned them at the start and found I didn’t need to add any flour at the end 😊
I also didn’t have any beef stock so used chicken stock, I imagine beef stock would be tastier in the end but found a pleasing result using what I had. Will definitely make it again and again
I’m glad those little adjustments worked out well! Delicious with a side of mashed potatoes 🙂
Just curious if you think I could double this and it would fit in a 6qt slow cooker?? Thanks!
I don’t think it would all fit if you doubled the recipe — sorry!
Wow, this recipe is a keeper!! We hosted some friends for dinner last night, and I wanted to make some hearty comfort food to celebrate the first week of fall. I followed this recipe exactly, and it was SO delicious!! I paired the dish with corn bread muffins. Our friends raved about how good it was and even asked for the recipe. We will definitely be making this again this fall and winter. Thank you!
Perfect! So happy this one was a hit 🙂
Hi Monique! I have this saved for the end of this week for dinner and I can’t wait to try it! But I would actually love to use gnocchi instead of potatoes. Have you tried this before? I’m wondering what adjustments I’ll need to make. Thanks so much!
Hmmm great question. If you decide to use gnocchi, you’ll need to leave out until the stew is completely done, then the last 10 minutes of cooking stir in the gnocchi and allow it to simmer.
I know this is not orthodox cooking wisdom but I never fry my beef cubes before making stew and I find my stew is still delicious. It saves time, pans and significantly decreases the oil. Otherwise made as is. Great!
Husband says, “Damn good stew!”