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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
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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Perfect Beef for the Perfect Stew
- 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.
- Other Cuts: Can’t find Chuck roast? Try bottom round roast, Chuck Steak, Bottom Eye Roast, or a Pot Roast.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
More Hearty Slow Cooker Beef Recipes:
There’s just something homey and hearty about a slow cooker meal with beef.
- Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon
- Slow Cooker Beef Tips
- Slow Cooker Korean Beef
- Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli
- Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef
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Best Ever Slow Cooker Beef Stew
Ingredients
- 3 pounds boneless beef chuck cut to 1 inch cubes
- 5 medium carrots sliced
- 1 pound baby potatoes
- 1 small white onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 cups beef broth
- ½ cup tomato paste
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 cups frozen peas
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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My family and I loved this recipe. At first, I was not sure about adding the tomato paste and flour; however, these ingredients made it delicious. I also left out the peas since my boys do not care for them. We added some Texas Pete to make it spicy. I will definitely make beef stew this way again. Thanks for sharing!
Wow!….this now this was sooooo good!!!…and I don’t like chuck!…I’m making this again….soooo delicious and flavorful….I think I now like chuck !
It came out great I added a little Paprika and a drop of red wine to add to the flavour. Can’t fault the result. Will definitely make this again I cooked for 6 hours just simmering . 5 stars
I just made this and it came out great. I liked one of the other suggestions to add some red wine and will do that next time. Slow Cookers are the best for stews and chilis! I liked your condiments and spices in this stew. A couple of minor changes:
– I made about half your recipe with about 1.5 pounds of stew beef. An earlier question asked if a 4-quart crock pot would be sufficient for your full recipe, and I don’t think so. About half of the ingredients took mine to almost full, so I think for a full recipe you’d want a bigger crock pot.
– I usually don’t put peas in beef stew so I replaced them at the beginning with 3 stalks of chopped celery.
– Rather than baby potatoes, I peeled 2 russet potatoes and chopped them into chunks
– I still added about 3 cups of beef broth even though I was making half your recipe. I just like that much extra gravy with stew, more to sop up a roll or biscuit!
– I also used a small 6 oz can of tomato paste rather than tomato sauce. I find that in a lot of these recipes for stews & casseroles etc, tomato paste & tomato sauce can be almost interchangeable. The paste actually helps make the initial gravy a little bit thicker, although I still used the flour & water thickener near the end. If I were to use tomato sauce, even though I halved the recipe, I think I’d still use a full 8 oz can of sauce because I don’t mind the stew having a little more tomato in it. Will definitely use this recipe again!
Stew is in the crockpot now! I just want to point out that in the part, “How to make the best beef stew” it still states to use tomato paste. I was confused when I initially read the recipe since it stated to uses tomato sauce in the actual recipe. I had to search the comments to find if anyone else had written about this. I saw that you answered the comment and confirmed that we’re supposed to use tomato sauce, but this still hasn’t been changed in the long text.
Looking forward to dinner tonight!
awesome. loved it. tsk
Can I substitute veal cubes for beef?
Yes, that will work. It may have a different taste though.
Could I cook the meat the night before and stick it in the fridge so I can drop it in the crock pot first thing in the morning?
Yes, that is a great idea!
was great lots of flavor. i put extra vegetables cuz i love my veggies and added celery.
meat was tender.
Still not sure about tomato sauce, do you mean tomato ketchup or purée
Hi Penelope!
You can find tomato sauce in a can at your local grocer. It is typically near tomato chunks or diced tomatoes. Thanks for following along.
In the UK it is probably tomato puree.
How do I adapt this for Instant Pot?
I have not made it in an instant pot just yet. If you try it, let me know how it goes! XOXO
Delicious! I subbed 2 envelopes (1.2 oz each) of classic beef gravy mix for the flour during the last hour. Also subbed about 1/3 cup red wine for about that amount of broth at the beginning. This was delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi!
Thanks for following along with me! I am so glad that you liked it! Great idea on the substitution! xoxo
very good but next time don’t put it in the freezer
My granddaughter has to have everything gluten-free. Can I leave out the flour in making this stew or is there a substitute for flour that I could use as a thickener. I tried cornstarch in a chicken stew recipe and it changed the flavor, was thinner, and I didn’t like it. I
Try a little potato starch a a substitute for the flour.
I guess I’m an old-fashioned guy, cause I’ve always cooked stew in a stew pot. But I gave this a try, and Alyssa, it’s great. Although instead of diced, or tomato paste, i used 2 cans of stewed tomato. Again, cheers for the great dish!
That is great to hear! I am so glad that you tried it in the instant pot! Way to go! I am glad you liked it too. Thanks so much for sharing! XOXO
I don’t have a slow cooker. Could I bake it? What temperature and for how long?
Yes, of course! You are welcome to adapt or change any of my recipes to make your own. Thanks so much for following along with me! XOXO