The Best Slow Cooker Beef Stew, A Match Made in Dinnertime Heaven
Beef stew is a dish that just begs for an hours-long simmer. There may be nothing more comforting and homey than the deeply meaty flavors that a low and slow cook draws out of beef stew ingredients. And making hearty, chunky beef stew in a slow-cooker? Well, that’s not a shortcut or a “hack” so much as a genius move, a natural fit for a recipe that demands time. With a serious hankering for old-fashioned beef stew in our hearts, and ease in the kitchen in our minds, we’ve tested our way into what we can say is the best ever slow cooker beef stew recipe!
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Ingredients For Making The Ultimate Slow-Cooker Beef Stew
For this super easy homemade beef stew recipe, we’re breaking out the trusty old Crock-Pot and that, friends, is the only thing that’s non-traditional about our recipe. Aside from that, this beef stew is classic classic classic. Our beef stew in slow cooker ingredients are a study in tradition–beef and tasty vegetables in a red wine broth.
Chuck roast
Salt
Celery, carrots & onion
Garlic
Red wine & beef Stock
Bay leaf & black Pepper
Italian seasoning & beef bouillon
Mushrooms, green beans & russet potatoes
How to Make Beef Stew in a Slow-Cooker
When testing this recipe in the slow-cooker, the hardest flavor to achieve was the richness that develops in a slow cooked red wine beef stew. The red wine reduces to a sticky glaze, leaving extremely tender meat that is so soaked with flavor it melts in your mouth. This flavor is key to a good beef stew and we figured out how to recreate it in the slow cooker! How to thicken slow cooker beef stew? We reduced the wine with the meat drippings along with onions, celery, and carrots. Once the sauce thickened we stirred it into the broth giving the whole dish that heady, wine-braised flavor. That little extra step at the start of this recipe is the key to its gorgeous, classic taste. Pretty smart right?
Brown the chuck roast cubes in a skillet. Pop it into your slow-cooker.
Time for that red wine trick! Sauté the chopped onions, celery and carrots in the fat left in the pan from browning the beef, then glug the red wine into the pan and let the whole lovely thing reduce by about half.
Pour all of that saucy goodness into the slow-cooker along with the broth and get cooking! Can you cook beef stew on high in slow cooker? Sure can! This slow cooker beef stew takes 4 hours on high, or 8 hours on low.
Add the larger vegetables—the carrots, potatoes and green beans—when the stew has about an hour and twenty left to go.
Dig in!
A Few More Notes For Making The Best Beef Stew In A Slow Cooker
Slow cookers generally take a lot of guesswork out of cooking, but there’s a few questions that might come up. Like:
Can you overcook beef stew in a slow cooker? Yes, you can overcook the beef. You’re looking for fork-tender meat, not dry and tough. You can always use the machine's warming setting if needed to avoid overcooking the meat.
Can you put frozen stewing beef in a slow cooker? Generally this is not recommended, because the meat won’t thaw quickly enough. Your safest bet is to properly thaw the meat from frozen before starting this recipe.
Can you reheat beef stew in a slow cooker? This is also another place where best practices advise reheating the stew on the stovetop or in the microwave and then using the slow cooker's warming setting to hold it at temperature.
Do you add water to beef stew in a slow cooker? Our recipe calls for 4 cups of beef stock. If you need to thin your stew, and we don’t think that you will, start with a half cup of water, adding more if needed.
What to serve with slow cooker beef stew? Classic bread and butter is our nostalgic answer, but Homemade Cornbread, Garlic Bread, or Spoon Bread would be great too. Looking for the ultimate in comfort? Make a side of Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes or Green Bean Casserole, we don’t think you’ll disappoint anyone with these alongside a hearty bowl of cozy beef stew.
Tools You’ll Need:
More Slow-Cooker Recipes To Try
Do you ever go through a phase where you sort of forget about Crock-Pots? And then you remember them and they feel like magic all over again? Here are four of our favorite magical slow-cooker recipes:
Homemade Beef Stew In Every Bowl!
We’re pretty excited about this one. Well, we’re always excited to share our recipes, but we’re just a little extra proud of how we made this work. Try this super easy slow-cooker beef stew recipe, and let us know how you like it, OK? Share a photo and tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see your stuff! Happy eating!
