Beef Stew + Slow-Cooker = 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, beefy flavors that a low and slow cook draw out of the humblest 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 trialed-and-errored our way into what we can finally say is the best ever slow cooker beef stew recipe!
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 ingredients are a study in tradition—all you’ll need is:
- Chuck roast
- Celery
- Carrots
- Onion
- Garlic
- Red wine
- Beef stock
- Bay leaf
- Mushrooms
- Green beans
- Russet potatoes
How to Make Beef Stew in a Slow-Cooker
When trying this recipe in the slow-cooker, the hardest flavor to achieve was that richness that is developed when beef is slowly braised in red wine. The red wine reduces to a sticky glaze, leaving extremely tender meat that is so soaked with flavor it practically melts in your mouth. This flavor is key to a good beef stew and finally we nailed it! How’d we do it? 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 winey goodness into the Crock-Pot along with the broth and get cooking! 8 hours on low, or 4 hours on high.
- Add the larger vegetables—the carrots, potatoes and green beans—when the stew has about an hour left to go.
- Dig in!
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
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!