Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Published 12/19/2020
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This is the most tender and flavorful Slow Cooker Beef Stew you’ll ever have! Fall apart beef and tons of veggies make this beef stew the perfect (and healthy!) cozy comfort meal.
Ultimate Comfort Meal? Slow Cooker Beef Stew
WE’RE SERIOUS. This slow cooker beef stew recipe is everything you’ve ever dreamed of all wrapped up in a comforting cozy cold weather meal and tied with a bow.
This stew is packed with veggies, the most savory and delicious seasonings and gravy, and obviously can’t forget the hero of the show: fall apart beef!
Best Beef for Beef Stew
How do you choose the best beef for slow cooker beef stew? We love boneless chuck roast for beef stew for a couple reasons:
- It’s a tougher cut of meat than many leaner alternatives, but when slow cooked it breaks down the meat and becomes oh so tender and delicious.
- Beef chuck is a cheaper cut of meat meaning this high-end tasting beef stew is super budget-friendly!
- Pro tip: you’ll sometimes see chuck roast labeled as a chuck tender roast in grocery stories. This just means it’s a cut of the chuck roast, and it will still work well for this recipe!
Ingredients for Slow Cooker Beef Stew
We love this stew because it truly is an entire meal in a bowl (but if you’re looking for sides, we’ve got some recos below as well!). You’ll need:
Meat
- Boneless beef chuck roast, sliced into 1-inch chunks (or chuck tender roast will work, too!)
Vegetables
- Dice white onion
- Large celery stalks, cut into 1-inch chunks
- Large carrots, peeled and cut into 1.5-inch chunks
- Small russet potatoes, sliced into 1-inch chunks
- Sliced baby Bella mushrooms
- Frozen peas
Seasonings & Gravy
- Beef stew seasoning ingredients — we’ll walk you through this below!
- Dry red wine (any will do! We used a cabernet)
- Beef broth (any broth will work, but we LOVE the flavor of beef broth, especially for recipes like this)
- Worcestershire sauce
- Balsamic vinegar
- Tomato paste
- Olive oil
- herb bundle: sprigs of fresh rosemary and fresh thyme
- Minced garlic cloves
- Corn starch (this will thicken your broth a bit!)
Slow Cooker Beef Stew Seasoning
This beef stew seasoning adds so much flavor to this slow cooker beef stew recipe (we also use it in our Instant Pot beef stew recipe!). It’s salty, savory, and a little bit sweet. Here are the ingredients you need for our perfect beef stew seasoning mix:
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon white whole wheat flour
make a double or triple batch!
While you’ve got all these ingredients out already, mix up a double batch of this seasoning so you have it on hand whenever you’re making beef stew. Your future self will thank yah 😀
Slow Cooker Beef Stew Pro Tips
DON’T CUT BEEF INTO TOO LARGE OF CHUNKS
Because chuck meat is a tougher cut of meat, it relies on slow cooking to break down the meat and make it tender and flakey. If you cut the beef into chunks that are larger than 1 inch thick, you run the risk of not cooking the stew for long enough to break down the beef.
Never SKIP BROWNING THE BEEF
Browning the beef before cooking your stew in the slow cooker does require an extra dish (in this case a pan!), but it draws out the delicious flavors of the beef, which allows it to soak into every bit of this stew as it cooks down. We promise this step is 100% WORTH IT.
Don’t SKIP THE HERB BUNDLE
The herb bundle (we used fresh rosemary and fresh thyme) is a must have for this beef stew! It allows your stew to incorporate all the flavors of fresh herbs without needing to dig around in the stew to fish them out at the end.
Simply bundle tightly the fresh rosemary and thyme with baker’s twine, and place right in the slow cooker. You’ll easily be able to remove it from the beef stew right before serving.
Only Cook Low and Slow
While it may be tempting to cook this slow cooker beef stew on high for half the time like many other slow cooker recipes, we simply would NOT recommend it! Chuck meat requires longer and lower cooking time to truly break down the meat to tender perfection. 7-8 hours in your slow cooker on low is the only way to go.
Mix Corn Starch Separately
Remove 1 cup of gravy from the slow cooker to mix in your corn starch. This makes it WAY easier to dissolve the corn starch, and will leave you with a smooth thickening agent rather than clumps of corn starch throughout your beef stew if you put the corn starch right in the slow cooker with all the stew.
How Many Does this Beef Stew Serve?
This slow cooker beef stew serves 8! Which means you can serve a batch for a larger group, or have oh so delicious leftovers throughout the week.
How do You Make Beef Stew Gravy?
The beef stew gravy is made right in your slow cooker as this beef stew cooks, so there’s no need to make the gravy separately for this recipe!
What to Serve with Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Serve this deliciously savory beef stew with something starchy (what better to soak up that yummy broth with!). We recommend any of the following:
- Biscuits or slices of bread
- Cornbread
- Mashed potatoes (or mashed sweet taters!)
- Cauliflower mashed potatoes for a lower carb option
How to Store Beef Stew
Store this stew in an air-tight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
To Freeze: let cool completely before transferring into an air-tight container, making sure to remove as much air as possible. Place into the freezer for up to 3 months.
How to Reheat Beef Stew
We love to reheat this crock pot beef stew just as it was cooked — low and slow!
In the Oven: Allow the beef stew come to room temperature (about 30 minutes) before placing in an oven-safe dish with a lid. Reheat at 350°F for 45 minutes, or until reheated thoroughly.
On the Stovetop: Allow the beef stew to come to room temperature before placing in a stock pot and reheating over low / medium heat on the stovetop.
In the Microwave: We don’t loveee this method, but if time is of the essence, reheat your beef stew on low / reheat in the microwave until reheated thoroughly.
reheating tip!!
As your beef stew sits in the fridge, it will thicken. When reheating, add a little beef broth in order to thin things out a bit to get that delicious broth in every bite, even when it’s leftovers.
Slow Cooker Beef Stew Recipe
Ingredients
- 1.5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 – 3 lbs. boneless beef chuck roast, sliced into 1-inch chunks (or chuck tender roast)
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon white whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup dry red wine
- 5 cups beef broth, separated
- 1.5 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- herb bundle: 5 sprigs of fresh rosemary and 5 sprigs fresh thyme, tied together with baker’s twine
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 medium white onion, diced
- 2 large celery stalks, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1.5-inch chunks
- 3 small russet potatoes, sliced into 1-inch chunks
- 8 oz. sliced baby Bella mushrooms
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 2.5 tablespoons corn starch
Instructions
- First, begin by prepping your chuck roast. Cut the beef into 1 to 1.5-inch bite-sized pieces and then place into a large bowl.
- Next, mix together your beef stew seasoning by placing rosemary, pepper, thyme, onion powder, paprika, garlic powder, brown sugar, salt, and white whole wheat flour into a small bowl. Mix to combine and then sprinkle on top of beef chunks and toss to coat the beef.
- Then, heat a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add olive oil. When the olive oil is fragrant, add half of the beef chunks to the skillet. Brown beef chunks for 1.5-2 minutes, flip, and brown for another 1.5-2 minutes. Then, remove the first batch of beef chunks and repeat with the remaining half. Once browned, remove all beef from the skillet and set aside.
- Next, deglaze the skillet by pouring 1/4 cup of the beef broth into the skillet and scrape the skillet with a spatula to free all the brown bits from the pan. Pour the broth and brown bits into the slow cooker.
- Next, add the red wine, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic, and tomato paste into the slow cooker and whisk it all together until the tomato paste has dissolved into the broth.
- Place the beef and the rest of the ingredients (except for the frozen peas and corn starch) into the slow cooker and cover.
- Cook on low for 7-8 hours.
- After the potatoes are fully cooked and the beef is tender uncover the slow cooker and discard the herb stems.
- Then, remove 1 cup of broth from the slow cooker and add the corn starch to the broth. Whisk until the corn starch dissolves.
- Add the peas and the corn starch mixture back into the slow cooker, mix and cover the slow cooker for another 5-10 minutes to thicken and soften the peas.
- Serve and enjoy!
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Made this for my boyfriend (who likes things VERY well seasoned, I mean who doesn’t but he is extremely particular) and his kiddos (ages 8 and 12 who are VERY picky) and everyone scarfed it down! They were drinking the broth out of the bowls at the end too. I tried to fit 4.3 pounds of meat because thats what I had and unfortunately the mushrooms couldn’t fit.. next time I’ll be sure to do a little less beef so I can fit it all in! Love this one!! And delicious for leftovers!!
This is an excellent recipe. So flavorful.
Gonna make this for Christmas dinner!!! So excited!!!