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Best Ever Slow Cooker Beef Stew is the absolute perfect comforting beef stew. A thick and rich sauce filled with hearty and chunky potatoes, carrots, onions, and peas with the most amazing tender melt in your mouth beef!

There is nothing better to warm you up than a hearty bowl of beef stew, round it out with one of these amazing roll recipes Perfect Soft and Buttery Rolls or Copycat Texas Roadhouse Rolls and Cinnamon Honey Butter, for the perfect cozy meal.

Best Ever Slow Cooker Beef Stew areal view in the slow cooker.

Best Ever Slow Cooker Beef Stew

I absolutely love a delicious beef stew when the cold weather starts to hit.  The requirements for the best beef stew are right in this meal. A thick and rich sauce, big chunky tender hearty veggies, and melt in your mouth beef. This stew has amazing flavor. Your loved ones will love everything about this stew and they will agree it’s the Best!

It doesn’t take much prep and comes together so quickly and easily. The flavor is so savory, comforting and satisfying. It’s like a hug in a meal.

Best Ever Slow Cooker Beef Stew Ingredients:

Simple ingredients make this quick throw together for a wonderful family meal.

  • Beef Chuck: Cut the beef into the same sized chunks for even cooking.
  • Carrots: Use large carrots and cut them up instead of baby carrots. They bring more flavor.
  • Baby Potatoes: If you can’t find baby potatoes, cutting up golden or yellow potatoes will also work.
  • Garlic: Fresh Garlic will bring more depth to the recipe than jarred garlic.
  • Beef Broth: You can use beef bouillon dissolved in 3 cups hot water as well.
  • Tomato Paste: Adds a nice richness to the broth.
  • Worcestershire Sauce: Helps bring out that nice meaty flavor.
  • Italian Seasoning: It’s the perfect combination of spices for this tasty dish.
  • Salt & Pepper: Add to taste.
  • Flour: Makes the broth nice and rich and thick
  • Peas: Brings color and nice brightness to the stew.

How do you make the Best Beef Stew?

  1. Sear: Start by pan searing the beef before it goes in. This helps to seal the flavor into the beef while it cooks. Cut your veggies nice and hearty and throw it all into the slow cooker with the beef broth, tomato paste and seasonings.
  2. Cook: Let the beef and veggies cook on low for a good 8-10 hours. This ensures the beef and the vegetables to be nice and tender. The beef just melts in your mouth.
  3. Thicken: About an hour before serving the stew, you whisk flour with the stew broth. This will help the sauce to thicken up and be nice and hearty and rich.

Best Ever Slow Cooker Beef Stew close up.

Perfect Beef for the Perfect Stew

  1. Why Chuck roast: The tough cut of a chuck roast which comes from the shoulder area has connective tissue called collagen that breaks down during cooking.  The long slow cooking time allows that to break down leaving you with fork tender melt in your mouth beef. It also has exceptional flavor.
  2. Other Cuts: Can’t find Chuck roast? Try bottom round roast, Chuck Steak, Bottom Eye Roast, or a Pot Roast.
  3. Avoid: Kind of weird but you should avoid any cuts that start out tender, they will turn out tough and chewy. Also avoid those pre-cut packages of stew meat. They usually consist of leftovers that don’t cook consistently and can also turn out chewy.
  4. Trim and Cut: If you feel like your roast is well- marbled you can trim off any excess fat. Be sure to cut the beef into the same sized pieces, about 2 inch cubes work best.

Best Ever Slow Cooker Beef Stew in a slow cooker.

Storing the Best Ever Beef Stew

  • Storage: Cool the stew to room temperature before sealing in an airtight container. Store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
  • Freezing: To freeze place the cooled Beef Stew in an airtight container or freezer ziploc bag. Freeze for up to 3 months.

Best Ever Slow Cooker Beef Stew in a white bowl.

More Hearty Slow Cooker Beef Recipes:

There’s just something homey and hearty about a slow cooker meal with beef.

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Best Ever Slow Cooker Beef Stew

4.94 from 16 votes
By: Alyssa Rivers
Best Ever Slow Cooker Beef Stew is the absolute perfect comforting beef stew. A thick and rich sauce filled with hearty and chunky potatoes, carrots, onions, and peas with the most amazing tender melt in your mouth beef!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 8 hours
Total Time: 8 hours 15 minutes
Servings: 6 Servings

Ingredients 

Instructions 

  • Salt and pepper the beef and add to the skillet and sear on each side for 2-3 minutes. Transfer beef to the slow cooker. Add carrots, potatoes, onion, and garlic.
  • Add the beef broth, tomato sauce, worcestershire, italian seasoning, and salt and pepper. Cook on low for 8-10 hours and high for 6-8 until beef and veggies are tender.
  • An hour before serving, take out 1 cup of the beef stew and whisk with 1/4 cup flour. Stir into the stew along with the frozen peas.
  • Let the stew thicken and then serve with fresh chopped parsley on top.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 573kcalCarbohydrates: 34gProtein: 51gFat: 27gSaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 156mgSodium: 808mgPotassium: 1550mgFiber: 7gSugar: 8gVitamin A: 8994IUVitamin C: 41mgCalcium: 110mgIron: 7mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dinner, Main Course, Side Dish, Soup
Cuisine: American
Tried this recipe?Mention @alyssa_therecipecritic or tag #therecipecritic!

 

 

 

About Alyssa Rivers

Alyssa Rivers is the author of 'The Tried and True Cookbook', a professional food photographer and experienced recipe-developer. Having a passion for cooking, her tried and true recipes have been featured on Good Morning America, Today Food, Buzzfeed and more.

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Recipe Rating




55 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Great recipe. Have tried 3 or 4 different beef stew recipes. My search is over. This recipe hits all th check boxes.Perfect. Followed it exactly except for adding a few parsnips.

  2. Hey there!

    I just bought a slowcooker and your recipe is the first I want to try ?

    What do you mean by tomato sauce? Ketchup or something else? Like tomato paste?

    1. That is awesome! Thanks so much for following along with me! Yes, it is tomato sauce. You will find it by the pasta in a can. Hope that helps! XOXO

  3. Is it tomato paste or tomato sauce in this recipe? I’m with a previous comment that it has paste in one place and sauce in another.

  4. I had a question about the recipe. It reads “Cook on low for 8-10 hours AND high for 6-8 until beef and veggies are tender.” Is that a total of 14-18 hours? Or do you cook for 8-10 hours on low OR 6-8 hours on high? Looking forward to trying this recipe over the weekend. Thank you!

    1. Kemi, I wondered the same, but she posted the total cook time as 8 hours and 15 minutes, so likely she meant “or” on high for 6-8. Didn’t see a reply to you, so I thought i’d write.

  5. 5 stars
    Today is the second time I have made this stew! I followed the recipe to the letter and my husband loved it. Today I am adding biscuits for the last 45 minutes as that is how his mother used to make it. Fingers crossed they turn out just as good as the stew! Thank you so much for sharing!

    1. YAY!! I love that this is your second time making the stew! The biscuits idea is perfect! Thanks for sharing! XOXO

  6. This stew went together easy, looked amazing but for me it was not the “comfort, best ever stew” it doesn’t taste like any stew I’ve ever had….I think it was the Italian seasoning that I didn’t like in it. The meat was very tender!!

  7. Hi, do you have any recommendations about what brand/model slow cooker is best to invests in ? Thank you 🙂

  8. So about what size crock pot do you need for this recipe? I have a 4 quart. Should I just cut the recipe in half?

  9. Your recipes sound just amazing g can’t wait to try the cheesy bacon ranch potatoes or the beef stew both in the slow cooker

    1. Thank you SO much! I really appreciate it! You will love this stew and the bacon ranch potatoes! You can have them both together:)!!

  10. I’m wondering, On the recipe you have 1/2 tomato sauce, however in your article you say tomato paste, which one is it? Thank you. : )

    1. Have you tried to use the copy and then print from the clipboard. I use this method all the time. Works for me.

    1. Yes, you can make it over the stove mixing all the ingredients together and stirring occasionally. I am sure it would be great in the pressure cooker too. I just don’t know how long it would need to cook for-maybe half the time as the slow cooker?!? I am not sure. Let me know which way you choose to make it! I look forward to hearing from you! Happy cooking! XOXO

    2. 5 stars
      My great grandma always made hers in the oven. 9×13 covered pan, 250 degr for 6-8 hours until meat is tender.